Page "Tribe of Benjamin" Paragraph 14

The years in which these events took place is subject to academic dispute.

According to textual scholars, the biblical text describing the battle and the events surrounding it is considerably late in date, originating close to the time that they postulate as the date of the deuteronomist's compilation of Judges from its source material, and possibly has several exaggerations of both numbers and of modes of warfare, and additionally, the inhospitality which triggered the Battle is reminiscent of the Torah's account of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Many Biblical scholars concluded that the account was a piece of political spin, which had been intended to disguise atrocities carried out by the tribe of Judah against Benjamin, probably in the time of King David as an act of revenge or spite by David against the associates of King Saul, by casting them further back in time, and adding a more justifiable motive ; more recently, scholars have suggested that it is more likely for the narrative to be based on a kernel of truth, particularly since it accounts for the stark contrast in the biblical narrative between the character of the tribe before the incident, and its character afterward.