The Bible's First Kings: Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon

by Avraham Faust, Zev I. Farber

Saul, David, and Solomon are dominant figures in the Hebrew Bible, rulers of an expanding Israelite polity before it dissolved into two separate kingdoms. Saul's paranoid jealousy, David's killing the Philistine champion Goliath with a slingshot, and Solomon's meeting the Queen of Sheba are familiar stories to many people, but what is the truth behind the texts? While scholars long believed these three monarchs to have been historical personalities, over the past three decades many have questioned the historicity of this United Monarchy, some doubting even the existence of its founding fathers. This book robustly argues that the Israelite kingdom of the Bible was a real mini-empire, and that Saul, David, and Solomon were kings of consequence – even if the biblical stories reimagine their lives to glorify and vilify them. Combining fresh archaeological evidence with astute readings of key texts, the authors offer a compelling reconstruction of this fascinating ancient polity which, though it lasted less than a hundred years, has bequeathed a remarkable religious and cultural legacy to the western world. Written in a clear and engaging style, this book will be of interest to scholars and general audiences alike.

464 pages, Hardcover

Published April 17, 2025

Reviews

[Hans Kristensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presents a compelling and accessible case that Saul, David, and Solomon were real historical figures and that the broad contours of the biblical story about them are historically accurate. It stands in deliberate contrast to much of the modern critical movement, arguing for the existence of a united monarchy and pushing back against Finkelstein’s low chronology. One of its greatest strengths is its masterful use of archaeology, with careful explanations of developments in every region of the Levant across different time periods, all brought together into a coherent historical picture. The background material provided throughout the book also enriches the biblical narratives, helping the reader to understand the stories in a deeper way.

At the same time, there are points where the authors rely too heavily on critical historical studies of the Bible and fail to engage with strong defenses of the historicity of certain passages. For example, they dismiss the David and Goliath account without interacting with Moshe Garsiel’s excellent defense of the narrative, which is particularly surprising given that Faust and Garsiel are colleagues at the same university. The book also includes numerous sidebars and boxed sections on tangential but interesting topics; while often informative, these sometimes disrupt the flow of the main text and would have been better incorporated directly into it.

All this being said, this is an impressive and powerfully argued work that defends the historicity of Israel’s first kings with clarity and conviction. It is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the intersection of the Bible and history, and I recommend it highly.