This classic work of Old Testament scholarship appears in English translation for the first time. Published originally in 1926, Rost's Die Überlieferung von der Thronnachfolge Davids is fundamental to the study of Samuel and Kings. He argues that the earliest materials in these books were originally independent stories. Sometime early in Solomon's reign an unknown author (who probably moved in court circles) took them up and joined them into the beginning of his own history of the Davidic succession to make a larger continuous narrative with the purpose of justifying the new king's accession to the throne. The story of the ark, the account of the Ammonite war, Nathan's prophecy con-cerning David's dynasty, and, above all, the succession story or "court history" are singled out by Rost for thorough examination, with questions of style, theme, and religious viewpoint dominating the discussion. There emerges a richly coloured picture of originally separate stories, of different authors with their own individual talents and temperaments, and of distinctive theological outlooks reflecting the diversity of the writers' lives and times.

The thesis is brilliantly argued and has sustained a remarkable measure of agreement over many decades, though criticism has grown in recent years. It remains mandatory reading for the study of Samuel and Kings, Hebrew narrative art, and history writing in ancient Israel.

Leonhard Rost was born in 1896. He taught in the Universities of Berlin and Greifswald as well as Erlangen, where he was Professor of Old Testament Theology from 1956 to 1966, and was the author of several books and many articles on biblical subjects. He died in 1979.