Bonus Background:
Read / Watch / Listen List.

1. READ: My Jewish Learning – “Judah & Israel: A Divided Monarchy”

Accessible intro to the split, geography, and political story from the traditional perspective.

2. LISTEN: “The Biblical Kingdom of Israel” (Ep. 442) The Ancients (History Hit)

1‑hour conversation with archaeologist Felicity Cobbing on Saul, David, Solomon, the emergence of the kingdom, and what archaeology says about the “united” vs. divided monarchies.

3. READ: TheTorah.com – “Did Israel Always Have Twelve Tribes?”

Quick scholarly essay on tribal identity and why “twelve tribes” is more complex and contested than it appears.

4. WATCH: “The Origins of Ancient Israel”

Prof. J. P. Dessel (podcast + YouTube)
Discusses ethnogenesis, the Merneptah and Tel Dan inscriptions, and how “Israel” emerges and later divides; excellent for framing the pre-monarchy context.

5. READ: “The Divided Monarchy“

Prof. Beth Alpert Nakhai (Bible Odyssey) offers a concise and clear overview with maps and chronology of the two kingdoms period.

6. READ: Development of the Hebrew Bible Canon

Wikipedia overview: Quick reference on how the canon formed and what it includes / excludes.

7. WATCH: “Israel” in the Hebrew Bible and the “History of Israel”

Tel Aviv University Lecture Series – Academic lecture that clarifies what “Israel” means in different periods, then explains the shift from united kingdom to two states and the problems this creates for reconstructing history.

8. READ: “Jeroboam: A Sinner or a Social Leader and Religious Reformer?”

1. Jacob L. Wright, Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins (2023) Oxford University Press

Wright argues that the trauma of Israel and Judah’s destruction drove the creation of the Bible as a survival project and shows how competing narrative traditions—north and south—were woven into scripture and how exile created the conditions for a unified textual community.

2. J. Maxwell Miller & John H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (2nd ed.) (2006) Westminster John Knox Press

Standard historical survey of both kingdoms across 200+ years of coexistence. Traces territorial disputes, religious tensions, economic pressures, and the roles of prophets and kings on both sides.

3. Israel Finkelstein, The Forgotten Kingdom: The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel (2013) Tel Aviv University Press

Reclaims the Northern Kingdom’s story and shows how Judahite writers downplayed its power and wealth. Finkelstein, one of the world’s leading archaeologists of ancient Israel, uses excavations at Samaria, Megiddo, and other sites to demonstrate that Israel was often larger, wealthier, and more influential than Judah. Essential for understanding the archaeological evidence behind the biblical bias.

4. Ilana Pardes, Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach, Harvard University Press

Prof. Pardes Reveals suppressed northern and female voices in biblical narrative, especially in Kings, and shows how the Bible is “profoundly layered” with counter-traditions and how Judahite editors marginalized dissenting narratives. A groundbreaking literary-feminist analysis for recovering erased perspectives.

5. Alex Israel, Kings: Torn in Two (1 Kings 1–11) (2021) Maggid Books

Rabbinic-inflected literary reading of how Rehoboam’s tax folly split the kingdom. Israel uses midrashic and close-reading methods to extract ethical and political lessons about leadership folly, collective listening, and the ripple effects of unjust policy.

6. Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (2001) Free Press

Groundbreaking collaboration that uses field archaeology to challenge the biblical account of a “United Monarchy” under David and Solomon. Traces how the split between Israel and Judah shaped competing narratives and eventually the formation of the Hebrew Bible itself.

7. Yochi Brandes, The Secret Book of Kings (2008) St. Martin’s Press