Did any of the judges rule together in the Book of Judges?

Answer 1

A:Biblical scholars look carefully at the biblical history to answer questions such as this. Carol A. Redmount (The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Bitter lives) says that from an anthropological perspective the period of the judges is much too long, and the Egyptians had firm control of Palestine during much of this period. Jo Ann Hackett (ibid, "There Was No King in Israel": The Era of the Judges) says the systematic way the judges' stories are laid out in the Book of Judges suggests that the editor took stories from the premonarchic era in Israel's history, mostly stories of war heroes, and superimposed upon them a formulaic beginning and ending. In other words, even the author and editors of the Book of Judges were unclear as to exactly what the history of the period was.

The framework of the stories presents the judges as succeeding one another, although the order of the stories seems to be based on a south-to-north, then east geographical model. The first five judges are identified according to their home regions in approximate south-north order: Judah, Benjamin, Dan (possibly), Ephraim, and Manasseh. Then come the minor judges, who were probably introduced into the narrative secondarily, but geographical patterning may have determined the exact point of insertion for Tola and Jair. Thus, with or without the mention of Tola and Jair, there is a south-to-north and then eastward progression of the judges, from Othniel to Jephthah. The last three judges before Samson do not follow any geographical scheme, unless it is a reverse, north-south, element in the last four judges listed.

Thus we have a formulaic progression, from tribe to tribe more or less in geographic progression, of the named judges who succeeded each other. There may be doubts as to whether all these judges really existed, but there is no suggestion they ruled together.