JU-INTRO-9: Take A Guess! Was Judges Written During The Era Of Saul, David Or Solomon?

For those who are into archaeology, you might find it interesting to know the book of Judges happened right around the time civilization was transitioning from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. 

This was also when one of Israel’s most ferocious enemies took root inside the land of Canaan.

They were nicknamed the “Sea Peoples”.

Have any idea who I might be talking about?

I’m referring to the Philistines.

When we come to Samson’s story, we’ll see the Philistines had been well entrenched in the land and raising hell against Israel for quite some time by then.

And since they lived right next to the Philistines, the tribes of Dan and Judah bore the brunt of the Philistines’ aggression.

Okay, so let’s answer the $64,000 question.

When exactly was the book of Judges written?

Well, let’s first nail down some obvious points.

First, it had to have been penned AFTER everything contained in the book of Judges occurred.

Second, check out these closing words from the last chapter of the book of Judges.

“In those days Israel had no king;
everyone did as they saw fit.”
-Judges 21:25

From that one verse alone, we know the author was obviously aware of when Saul became Israel’s first king.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to make the observation that during the time of Judges Israel had no king.

And this leads us to a time frame of around 1025 B.C. or later.

However, it’s possible to narrow down things even more.

The author of Judges also informs us the city of Gezer was occupied by the Canaanites when Judges was written.

Combine this detail with the fact that when King Solomon assumed his throne, Israel had already seized back control of Gezer from the Philistines.

Therefore, the best conclusion we can come to is the book of Judges was written shortly after David became king BUT when he was ONLY king over Judah.

In other words, BEFORE he became king over all of Israel, a rulership which would have covered the 10 northern tribes all who were dominated by Ephraim.

To conclude, this would lead us to a timeframe of around 990-995 B.C.

This is great news because this means Judges was written soon after the events contained in Judges occurred…

Which means all of the information and events we’re about to study can be trusted to be true and reliable history.

Over and out.