Bethel, Dark Woods, and Taboo: 1 Kings 13 as a Cautionary Tale Koog P. Hong Associate Professor of the Old Testament, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Korea khong@yonsei.ac.kr Abstract 1 Kings 13 in its present form features key traits of the cautionary tale. Through a comparison with Little Red Riding Hood, it is argued that many of the enigmatic features of 1 Kings 13 dissolve when read as a cautionary tale. On the surface, this tale functions as a didactic tale that warns against the naïve trust of a stranger on the road. On a deeper level, it inevitably colors Bethel as a dangerous and unruly place that doomed the protagonist to a tragic death. Keywords 1 Kings 13 – Little Red Riding Hood – cautionary tale – taboo – demonization Introduction 1 Kings 13 presents a strange tale that is one of a kind in biblical literature.1 Although there are similar prophetic tales that share some elements with 1 1 Traditionally, scholars have considered this tale to be a legend. See the discussion in B.O. Long, I Kings: With an Introduction to Historical Literature (fotl, 9; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984), p. 150. One also sees a tendency among earlier scholars to use midrash interchangeably with legend, but often without precisely defining it. See, e.g., J. Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bücher des alten Testaments (Berlin: de Gruyter, 4th edn, 1963), p. 277, who defined it “eine Legende im Stil des Midrasch.” Although the tale evidently assumes the form of a legend, it remains unclear as to who shouldered the responsibility of preserving it and for what purpose. This question is particularly relevant Biblical Interpretation 31 (2023) 292–310 Published with license by Koninklijke Brill nv | doi:10.1163/15685152-20221718 © Koog P. Hong, 2022 | ISSN: 0927-2569 (pri nt) 1568-5152 (online)