Most scholars, Francolino Gonçalves included, consider that the authorship
of the Hezekiah narrative belongs to the Book of Kings. In my 2004 book, Jerusalem’s Rise to Sovereignty, I argued that the provenance of the Hezekiah narrative belongs to the Book of Isaiah. In my lecture, I will rehearse my reasons
for that decision, which I was not the first to make. The impact of the suggestion
had at the time not quite made its way into Deuteronomistic History studies,
which generally speaking presented the narrative as part of Deuteronomistic History’s discourse on benei Israel’s history from creation to exile, without regarding
its possible intrusion into that story. In Isaiah studies, it had only recently been
more widely accepted that the narrative might have belonged primarily to the
Book of Isaiah where it plays a central role in structuring the Book as a whole.
The lecture will discuss recent views on the narrative’s provenance and function
within its larger contexts.