Editing Rehoboam (section)

== Historicity ==

Extrabiblical evidence for a stable monarchy in Judah during Rehoboam’s reign is scarce, with minimal interest from [[Shoshenq I]] and little indication of significant political or economic activity in the region.<ref>{{cite book
 | last       = Frevel
 | first      = Christian
 | title      = History of Ancient Israel
 | publisher  = SBL Press
 | year       = 2023
 | isbn       = 978-1-62837-514-5
 | url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=Yvy6EAAAQBAJ
 | page       = 230
 | quote      = Thus, the extrabiblical evidence for a stable monarchy in Judah at the end of the tenth century BCE remains quite thin. In addition, the Egyptian pharaoh, Shoshenq I (946/45-924 BCE), seems to have taken little interest in the hill country of Judah during his campaign…, probably because it was more or less politically and economically meaningless. Nothing outside the Hebrew Bible points to consolidation measures, trade, construction measures, border conflicts, and so on. As a result, this means that a post-Solomonic Judean monarchy at the time of Rehoboam is barely historically comprehensible.
}}</ref> The similar names of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, along with historical inconsistencies and narrative elements, suggest that their biblical portrayal may be a constructed retrojection.<ref>{{cite book
 | last       = Frevel
 | first      = Christian
 | title      = History of Ancient Israel
 | publisher  = SBL Press
 | year       = 2023
 | isbn       = 978-1-62837-514-5
 | url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=Yvy6EAAAQBAJ
 | pages      = 240-241
 | quote      = The similarity of the names Jeroboam and Rehoboam (i.e., ‘the people's contender’ and ‘the people's enlarger’ respectively), as well as the fact that there is a second king Jeroboam II (787-747 BCE) for whom much of what is biblically told about Jeroboam I is more plausible, must be noted. The fact that there were such retrojections of names and rulers is shown by the mention of Ben-Hadad instead of Hadadezer (ca. 875-845 BCE) in 1 Kgs 20 next to Ahab and perhaps even the mention of Ben-Hadad in 1 Kgs 15:18, 20... Rehoboam's elevation to king in Shechem and not in Jerusalem does not fit into a strong preceding reign of Solomon. Jeroboam's flight to the Egyptian royal court can hardly be considered historical considering that it is tied to Solomon's construction activities on the one hand and the oracle of the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh on the other (1 Kgs 11:40; 12:2-3). Furthermore, it is interspersed with echoes of the exodus narrative and set within the context of the ‘division of the kingdom.’ All this suggests that the pairing of Jeroboam/Rehoboam is a construct.
}}</ref>