Social Contracts: The Formation of Political Sovereignty
The creation of political sovereignty in ancient Israel arose through alliances of kinship networks under a king, and this was facilitated by tribal elders and by a single charismatic leader, Samuel. The chapter shows how the elders of Israel prevailed in their argument for a king “like all the nations” by entering into social contracts between kinship groups, rather than by invoking a preexisting divine law that provides for the possibility of monarchy. The subsequent history of kingship eventually gave rise to a utopian law that provides for a strangely modern-looking constitutional monarch (Deut 17:14–20), but there is no evidence in the books of Samuel that the legal framework of Deuteronomy helped to shape the origins of political sovereignty in ancient Israel and Judah.