Big Ideas · 30 · Conclusions
Defeat plus division made the Bible
Defeat was necessary but not sufficient. The Bible also needed two rival kingdoms, Israel and Judah, and a vision that they could be one people.
Unity forged from rivalry and ruin.
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Judean court scribes imagined a 'United Monarchy.' Northern scribes, after their kingdom fell, wrote counter-narratives of a people that existed long before kings. When Judah fell too, the two were joined and expanded into the Bible's grand narrative.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 465–466
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