Meanwhile in Judah

Meanwhile in Judah
1 Kings 14:21-15:24

A couple of weeks ago a student asked me with some anxiety whether there was any evidence that any of the events in the Old Testament actually happened. Were there any records from surrounding peoples that people such as Abraham or Moses or Joshua or David even existed? I had to tell him that the answer to that second question is “No.” I don’t myself think that this is very worrying, any more than that it is worrying that Roman records make no mention of the execution of someone called Jesus from Nazareth. Israel was an undeveloped people that had no means of leaving records of its own until much later, and it was a small-fry people that the big powers of the day had little reason to refer to...