Chapter 1 addresses five topics preliminary to the exegetical portions of this study: Kings’ compositional history, genre (especially in light of comparisons to Greek historiography), and rhetorical purpose, as well as a canonical approach to Kings and an agrarian reading strategy applied to Kings. As opposed to either factual history or fictional story, this volume argues that Kings is best described as a scripture directed at its readers’ theological imaginations. Such an observation suggests the validity of approaching the book from a canonical frame of reference, where its origins, shaping, and reception are understood to sit within a single field of compositional activity. Finally, Chapter 1 describes an agrarian hermeneutic as one reading strategy especially compatible with a canonical approach to the Bible at large.

The conclusion summarizes this volume’s primary scholarly contributions according to three, key subjects: a canonical approach to Kings and the application of an agrarian hermeneutic (Chapters 1 and 2), exegetical examination of the Elijah narratives (Chapters 2, 3, and 4), and the relationship between the Elijah narratives and the book of Kings as a whole (Chapters 4 and 5). The author concludes by pointing readers toward new insights that the study may generate with respect to the New Testament’s typological extension of concepts central to the book of Kings.

This volume begins by introducing the reader to a leading question at the heart of contemporary Kings research: does hope characterize the biblical book in question, or only despair? Within this frame of reference, the introduction serves as an entry point to the scholarly debates surrounding Kings’ compositional history and genre, as well as the canonical approach and agrarian hermeneutic by which the exegetical portions of the present study proceed. Such an approach provides readers with a fresh perspective on the kerygmatic contribution that the Elijah narratives (1 Kings 17–2 Kings 2) make to the overall text. Placed in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, these prophetic stories portray Yhwh’s life-restoring power under circumstances that pre-enact the removal of the Davidic monarchy and Solomonic temple – precisely the situation in which the book of Kings resolves (2 Kings 25). The Elijah narratives therefore declare that Yhwh maintains his interest in Israel’s life and land even under such conditions; in so doing, they contribute to a “life typology” in Kings that signals hope for David’s (and thus Israel’s) future in the open-ended aftermath of destruction.