Whew… Actually, I would recommend against “King Jesus,” because it’s so clearly a load of hogwash. At very least, read it with a very skeptical mind.
I’ve heard good things about Bart Ehrman’s “How Jesus Became God.” However, the ideas in this book are controversial, so you end up taking your chances either way.
A book that someone here on the SDMB recommended – and which I read and both enjoyed and admired – was “Who Wrote The Bible” by Richard Elliott Friedman.
The works of Mark Smith are pretty thorough and easy to read.
Sage Rat has good recommendations. While it’s not the most up-to-date (1999 I think) I would also recommend the Oxford History of the Biblical World. It’s a hefty read, but it has a good deal of information in it from about a dozen or so different people focusing on different aspects of the ancient Levant, edited by Michael Coogan.
Coogan and Smith also have a book called Stories from Ancient Canaan that I considered an interesting read two or so years ago.
Well so, I found the Zakkur Stele (PDF), which the write-up on casually mentions that Elijah anointed Hazael as the King of the Aramaens. But Hazael definitely worshiped Hadad as his principal god. Possibly this fact had been forgotten or had to be ignored by the 6th century, since the Aramaic kingdom collapsed and the Aramaic people had become integrated into the Israelite kingdoms. But if true (and it makes no sense for the OT writers to make it up), it would be evidence that Elijah wasn’t all that consistent in his foreign-god-bashing.
I don’t think that there’s any ignorance that Hazael worshiped the god Hadad. The text pretty much recognizes it, giving both his predecessor and successor the name Ben-Hadad, and, in 1 Kings 20, at least, saying that the excuse that the Aramaens gave for an Israelite victory was
So the book of Kings is aware that the Arameans worship different gods. Elijah is told to anoint Hazael (and Elisha actually does it) because he’s going to attack and defeat Israel as a punishment for its sins.
You don’t ask God for his date’s ID!
Handy how the Israelies sin a lot before foreign powers of great strength attack them.