Scholar’s Comments

Philip R. Davies:
“[T]here are no literary criteria for believing David to be more historical than Joshua, Joshua more historical than Abraham, and Abraham more historical than Adam.”

Thomas L. Thompson:
“The existence of the Bible’s ‘United Monarchy’ during the tenth-century is…impossible.”

GöSta Ahlström:
“[W]ithout the corroboration of external source material, the picture that can be presented from an examination of Judges, Samuel and 1 Kings…will be no more than a discussion of what could have been possible.”