Editing Pekah (section)

=== C. Lederer and H. J. Cook: a rival reign in Gilead ===
In 1887, Carl Lederer proposed that the existence of two apparently contradictory sets of text for Pekah could be explained if there really were two systems in use for reckoning the reign of Pekah, and these were the consequence of a rivalry between Pekah and Menahem. The rivalry began when Menahem slew Shallum, putting an end to Shallum's one-month reign ({{bibleverse|2|Kings|15:13-14|NIV}}).<ref>Lederer, ''biblische Zeitrechnung'' 135ff.</ref> This assumption accounted for all the chronological texts that related four kings of Judah (Uzziah through Hezekiah) to three kings of Israel (Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah), but it apparently was largely ignored by the scholarly community. Then in 1954, H. J. Cook added new considerations to support Lederer's thesis, beyond just the pragmatic.<ref name=Cook/> Cook maintained that although the Scriptures did not explicitly state the existence of two rival kingdoms in the north in the latter half of the eighth century BC, their existence could be inferred from passages of the book of Hosea that was written about the time of Pekah and Menahem.{{sfn|Cook, pp. 132–134}} Cook showed that although "Ephraim" is sometimes used in Scripture to designate all of the northern kingdom, in various passages of Hosea such as Hosea 5:5, "Israel" and "Ephraim" are not synonymous but refer to separate entities. Cook's thesis in this regard was strengthened when Rodger Young pointed out that the Hebrew of Hosea 5:5 has a ''vav'' before Israel and then another ''vav'' before Ephraim, which is the Hebrew method of expressing "both... and," implying a distinction in this passage between Israel and Ephraim. All translations which have rendered this in some sense as "Israel, even Ephraim" are therefore incorrect (the Holman Study Bible renders the verse correctly, as did the ancient Septuagint).<ref>Rodger C. Young, "When Was Samaria Captured? The Need for Precision in Biblical Chronologies" ''Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society'' 47 (2004) 581–582, n. 11.[http://home.swbell.net/rcyoung8/samaria.pdf]{{Dead link|date=May 2020|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Others who have accepted the Lederer/Cook explanation of the two methods of dating for the time of Pekah are [[Edwin R. Thiele|Thiele]] in his second edition of ''Mysterious Numbers'' and later,<ref>Thiele, ''Mysterious Numbers'' 120, 129–130.</ref> Leslie McFall,<ref>Leslie McFall, “A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles,” ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' 148 (1991) 31</ref> [[Francis Andersen]] and [[David Noel Freedman]] in their commentary on Hosea in the [[Anchor Bible Series]],<ref>Francis Andersen and David Noel Freedman, ''Hosea: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary'', Anchor Bible 24 (Garden City NY: Doubleday 1980) 393.</ref> [[T. C. Mitchell]], in the ''Cambridge Ancient History'',<ref>T. C. Mitchell, "Israel and Judah until the Revolt of Jehu" 445–446.</ref> and Jack Finegan in his ''Handbook of Biblical Chronology''.<ref>Jack Finegan, ''Handbook of Biblical Chronology'' (rev. ed.; Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson, 1998), 246.</ref>