Doren Snoek
Subverting History in the Hebrew Bible: Solomon’s Rise to the Throne
28 Oct 2026 | 13.00–14.00 | Buchanan 216
In his Brown Bag Talk, Doren Snoek examined the contrasting accounts of Solomon’s succession in Samuel–Kings and Chronicles through literary analysis and cultural memory studies. He began by highlighting the differences between the two narratives: while Samuel–Kings portrays David as old and weakened, Solomon’s succession as contested, and his consolidation of power as marked by political intrigue and violence, Chronicles presents David as an authoritative ruler overseeing a peaceful and uncontested transition supported by a united people.
Snoek then situated his argument within previous scholarship, which has largely understood Chronicles in relation to Samuel–Kings: as a commentary on the earlier narrative (Williamson), a theological framework for historical circumstances (Japhet), or an attempt to correct earlier impressions (Klein). He questioned the underlying assumption that Chronicles primarily reframes a history already familiar to its readers. Instead, he proposed that Chronicles repeatedly subverts the narratological assumptions of Samuel–Kings and argued for considering its independent narrative significance.
To develop this argument, Snoek turned to cultural memory studies, drawing particularly on Jan Assmann’s concept of social memory and Astrid Erll’s distinction between the production and reception of memory. He explained that texts carry the potential to shape collective memory, but that their actual significance depends on how they are circulated, accessed, mediated and interpreted. Building on this theoretical framework, he considered the material conditions under which the narratives of Solomon’s rise to the throne were transmitted and received. He highlighted how the use of scrolls made cross-referencing difficult and how readers may not necessarily have had access to both accounts. He therefore suggested that Chronicles could have functioned either as a reinterpretation of a familiar narrative or as an independent account shaping perceptions of the past. Snoek also discussed how the transition from scrolls to books and the translation of biblical texts into Greek affected practices of textual comparison and harmonization.
In conclusion, Snoek argued that Chronicles should not be understood solely as a secondary rewriting of Samuel–Kings. Rather, he emphasized its independent narrative significance and its potential to shape cultural memory in ways that depended on the material conditions and practices of its reception.
