Norma Franklin, “The Story of Naboth’s Vineyard and the Ancient Winery in Jezreel” (5.13.17), thetorah.com. Accessed 3.4.26.
Evidence from Assyrian texts show that at the same time that Naboth is pictured as tending his grapes (Omride period), Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria is described as having provided 10,000 wineskins at an inaugural party at his new palace in Calah, where he wined and dined 70,000 guests. Although we don’t have textual evidence of quite such lavish entertaining in ancient Israel, wine also flowed freely at the Israelite capital, Samaria. Archaeologists have recovered over one hundred wine dockets (receipts for taxes paid in wine), in the form of ostraca (inscribed pottery sherds), that testify to wine having been brought in to the capital.
Furthermore, between the ninth and sixth centuries B.C.E., wine was also listed among basic military supplies. Jezreel in the Iron Age was a military center, probably the main mustering station for Ahab’s chariot force, and he would have used his own vineyard to provision the army.
Strangely, the biblical narrative relates that Ahab wished to purchase the vineyard in order to turn it into a vegetable garden but this makes no sense when we know the importance of viticulture at that time and likely points to it having been a later addition to the narrative.
The Amateur Exegete 
Hmm, an immature and powerful leader who makes a decision that seems irrational and doesn’t make sense. And because of that Norma Franklin casts doubt on the history?
Ben are you Jewish?
Joel Grassi
Commonwealthbronx.org
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I am not Jewish.
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If I recall, there’s a great piece on “Is That in the Bible?“, “Jezebel and the murder of Naboth” discussing some of the other problems (e.g. internal contradictions and chronological difficulties) in the story of Naboth’s Vineyard and Jezebel’s apparent role in the murder.
Keep in mind that the portrayal of certain leaders in Kings as “immature” probably reflects the viewpoints of its authors who were motivated by a interest in portraying certain rulers in Judah as “good, wise, pious” followers of the Yahwistic tradition and others (including virtually the entire list of Northern kings) as “wicked, idolatrous” individuals who departed from what was supposed to be the faith of the patriarchs.
The books of 1 and 2 Kings are generally closer to the annals of the Ancient Near-East (interested in proclaiming the deeds of monarchs and denigrating rivals) than what we would call a “history” (the investigation of motives and possibilities to reach a conclusion). The literary embellishments found in various stories are an indication that they cannot necessarily be taken at face-value.
I’ve heard that there is independent confirmation that a King Ahab of Israel existed based on an inscription (mentioning the troops he contributed to a coalition arrayed against the Assyrians at the Battle of Qarqar in 853 B.C.), but this does not prove the historicity of every account related to him. (As an analogy, the possibility that Gilgamesh of Uruk existed does not entail that he and Enkidu slew the monster Humbaba or literally sought immortality as told in the Epic of Gilgamesh).
And what’s odd is that the Bible is largely silent on the Battle of Qarqar in spite of the fact that this seems to be one of the few reasons to accept the existence on Ahab in the first place.
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