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The present thesis arose on the one hand from the fact that in recent years no major works have appeared on the Book of Judges, yet on the other hand a number of studies have been published on the more general theme of ancient/biblical historiography which would radically challenge the conclusion of the last major contribution on the Book of Judges by W. Richter. Thus a fresh appraisal of the narratives of the Book of Judges in the light of recent developments seemed indicated. In Part One we examined recent trends in biblical scholarship which we deemed to be directly relevant to form critical studies. In particular the nature of biblical historiography and the dating of the biblical narratives were considered. These two aspects were shown to be especially crucial for the investigation of the tradition's intention and Sitz im Leben. If the tradition can no longer be assumed to reflect historical recollections, its intention and setting must be sought from the ideological framework of its author(s). This inevitably means that extra-biblical evidence is fundamental to shed light on the texts. The dating of a tradition is paramount for any proper understanding of it. Part Two of the thesis contains the analysis of the framework and individual pericopes of the Gideon-Abimelech narratives in the light of the conclusions reached in Part One. Thus, for instance, the antimonarchic viewpoint reflected in some of the texts is hardly conceivable to have originated at a time when the monarchy was still fully in operation, but rather it came about at a time when there was no hope or possibility anymore of restoring it, i.e. the post-exilic period should be the most likely setting for such an attitude to arise, especially if it is depicted against the idealized picture of united Israel theocratically governed. Again and again it could be shown that the texts - in particular their intention and setting - could be more satisfactorily explained by reference to comparative extra-biblical material than the "traditional" form critical method and its search for clues from within the traditions themselves and their implied "historicity". With reference to the question of any contribution of form criticism to the current debate on the late dating of biblical historiography we had to conclude that its contribution is indeed minimal, as its methodology does not go beyond the text itself and therefore illuminate it adequately. Rather, form criticism should take into account the recent contributions on the late dating ranging from extra-biblical evidence to literary studies. The thesis concludes that on the basis of the evidence available - especially that of comparative ancient historiography and extra-biblical evidence - it is more appropriate to assign a post-exilic date to the narratives in the Book of Judges. It is hoped that further research with this new perspective in mind will be fruitful to understand these traditions more adequately.