King David

One of the most cryptic narratives in Samuel is the story of David's conquest of the city of Jebus-Jerusalem. This paper proposes that David did not conquer the city through battle, but through the Jebusites' peaceful surrender. This understanding illuminates the meaning of the obscure reference to "the blind and the lame," as well as the word "ṣinnôr."

The David and Solomon's kingdoms are no longer considered as historical by minimalist archeologists. According to Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, for example, authors of The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, at the time of the kingdoms of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was populated by only a few hundred residents or less, which is insufficient for an empire stretching from the Euphrates to Eilath. They suggest that due to religious prejudice, the authors of the Bible suppressed the achievements of the Omrides. Some Biblical minimalists like Thomas L. Thompson go further, arguing that Jerusalem became a city and capable of being a state capital only in the mid-seventh century. Likewise, Finkelstein and others consider the claimed size of Solomon's temple implausible. A review of methods and arguments used by these minimalists shows that they are impostors for writing history. The historical testimonies dated by a chronology anchored on absolute dates (backbone of history) are replaced by archaeological remains dated by carbon-14 (backbone of myths). The goal of these unfounded claims is clearly the charring of biblical accounts.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/gerard-gertoux/kings-david-and-solomon-chronological-historical-and-archaeological-evidence/paperback/product-1r86w6my.html

King David is one of the most colorful, complex, and controversial, personalities in Jewish lore. While numerous studies have focused on David's centrality to biblical literature and late antiquity, to date no comprehensive scholarly attempt has been made to investigate his image in the kabbalistic literature. This study contributes to the understanding of the connection between messianic thought, gender and mysticism. By focusing on the centrality of the figure of King David in Jewish culture the book discusses psychoanalytic perception of the self, and illuminating issues of identity, sexuality, and gender fluidity in Medieval kabbalistic literature.

The lives and relationships between Kings Saul and David from 1 and 2 Samuel are examined in greater depth as symbolic representatives and typological figures.  Saul personifies the Old covenant system, and David personifies both Jesus and the New covenant system.  Attention is given to the New Testament fulfillment of Jesus as the Son of David, to David's ability to drive out unclean spirits of Saul, and to Saul and David's roles as prophets, priests and kings.

This paper deals with the representation of David as a "feminized Messiah" appearing in the image of the Shekhinah in Kabbalistic literature, and with the connections between femininity and heresy in Jewish messianic movements. In the course of this analysis, I focus on the development of the concept of David as "fourth leg of the Divine Chariot,” from the origins of Kabbalah (the Bahir, R. Asher Ben David, R. Jacob Bar-Sheshet) to Castille and beyond, in the Zohar and the Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalah in 13th–14th Century (in texts written on the Iberian Peninsula), up to the portrayal of David as the Shekhinah in Lurianic Kabbalah and Sabbateanism. I claim that in the cases of David and Shabbatai Zevi, heresy indeed accompanies femininity. If the present order and its law are typically gendered as masculine, the threatening, disruptive forces that attempt to bring forth redemption are identified as feminine.

This article draws upon a reader-response and canonical-hermeneutical perspective in order to analyze the manner in which 2 Sam 22 and Ps 18 are embedded in their respective literary contexts. Psalm 18’s superscription functions both to guide the interpretation of the following psalm as well as evoke its “Doppelgänger” in 2 Sam 22 (and “behind” it the Song of Moses in Deut 32,1-43). It not only contains a prayer articulated in a situation of distress, as a song of thanksgiving it also retrospectively witnesses to divine acts of salvation that have an abiding validity. This analysis demonstrates that the intertextual reading of biblical texts as a significant moment of the “canon” is not a secondary imposition upon these texts from the outside.

The story of King David is one of the most celebrated ones in the bible. David's relationship with Jonathan, the son of King Saul, played a pivotal role in David's surviving the attempts of Saul to destroy him. -- 

Many believe that David and Jonathan were lovers as evidenced by David's famous lament upon Jonathan's death: "How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle. O Jonathan, thou was slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." 2 Samuel 1:25,26. Without the love and loyalty of Jonathan, David possibly would have never lived to become king of Israel. --

Malcolm Gladwell's 2013 book on the confrontation between David and Goliath is an in depth examination of how an apparently powerful adversary is no match for a more nimble opponent. -- 

The Orthodox Jews have overlooked this aspect of David's sexuality for centuries to the detriment of human happiness and reproductive success.  See:  David - Tanzio Varallo.pdf - for the famous painting of David. The painting is at the Palazzo dei Musei Pinacoteca di Varallo e Museo Calderini Via Pio Franzani.  My March 2017 letter to Pope Francis included a reproduction of this work.

This paper discusses the dual nature of historical narrative, some alleged anachronisms, the linguistic background of the names of Samuel and David, and the position of Benjamin as part of the house of Joseph, and other ethnicity issues and cultic issues that set the book of Samuel part from 7-5th century Jerusalem.

This article discusses the first series of performances of Joost van den Vondel’s Brothers in Amsterdam in 1641. The drama focuses on the heart-rending decision king David has to take to follow God’s will to ratify the executions of Saul’s sons and grandsons. With the staging of Brothers Vondel made an experiment in spreading the Word of God as profoundly, but also as respectfully as possible. He avoids showing the executions explicitly. Instead he uses diverse dramatic and visual means to urge the theatregoers to create strong mental images and thus to empathize maximally with David. Vondel’s experiment in theatre practice has striking parallels with theatre theory of the same period. In his poetics Vondel’s close friend Gerardus Vossius initiates modern discussion on the overwhelming effect of dramatic performances. With the help of Longinus’s On the Sublime Vossius makes a distinction between the ‘cheap’ momentary effect of staging explicit cruelties and the long-lasting effect of our imagination. By placing the performance of Brothers at the center of attention we get a privileged view on theatre practice and related theoretical discussion on the effect of the dramatic performance in the Dutch Golden Age.

The word of the LORD came to Samuel: "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned his back from following me and has not performed my commandments." 1 It is curious that an all-knowing and infallible God expresses regret over his own actions. If regret results from a mistake, then God's regret from crowning Saul as king of Israel appears to be a concession of imperfection on the part of the Almighty. There is more to this, however, than meets the eye. The Hebrew language is exceedingly nuanced, making a simple understanding of any verse or issue all but impossible. One element of this paper, accordingly, is to look at these feelings of divine regret in the context not only of 1 st Samuel 15, but in the still larger context of Saul's monarchy up to this point. Before taking up this task proper, it is also worth looking at the word used in this particular instance of regret, as it is a word of great contrast, rendering an interpretation of God's true feelings elusive. This paper focuses specifically on 1 st Samuel 15, but also draws from keys moments in the narrative leading to this pivotal scene. It also looks at God's tenuous relationship with Saul, how God came to regret his decision to crown Saul as king, and what His "regret" actually means. 2

Available solely from Apple iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/king-david-and-his-reign-revisited/id741571300?mt=11

Of all the Bible’s personalities, David is the most profoundly human. Courageous, cunning, and complex, he lives life to the hilt. Whatever he does, he does with all his might, exuding both vitality and vulnerability.

But what do we know about the historical David? Why didn't the biblical authors present a more flattering image of him? Why are their stories of his life filled with so many confusing details (about people, places, communities, and so on)? And why do these stories stand at the center of the Bible?

In this groundbreaking study, the award-winning biblical scholar Jacob L. Wright answers these fundamental questions. He shows how the earliest biblical sources knew David as a warlord whose greatest feat is the creation of the kingdom of Judah. Only later did David become known as the one who slew Goliath, won the love of Jonathan and Michal, took the throne of Saul,  and ruled Israel.

This beautifully designed enhanced book reveals the political concerns that prompted later generations to drastically transform David’s identity. As the first work of its kind, King David and His Reign Revisited features a dazzling array of paintings, photographs, and multimedia. Drawing on his research on war commemoration, Wright introduces an exciting new approach to the interpretation of biblical literature.


***Redaction history of much of the Book of Samuel, with extensive chapter on Chronicles. Appealing to findings from NEH-funding research project on "war commemoration," it presents new model of the formation of biblical literature and Israel's ethnogenesis.  Argues that the David narrative was originally fully separate from the Saul narrative, and that the David narrative was solely focused on the Kingdom of Judah (lacking any reference to Israel).***

This book contributes to the theory and practice of Biblical interpretation by engaging in an interpretation of Psalm 24 inspired by a particular understanding of Brevard Childs' "canonical approach": an understanding centred on the concept of "theological substance."

Sumpter shows how the literary, historical, and theological dimensions of Psalm 24 cohere into a single vision by reading the text according to the a dialectic between "witness" and "reality." An initial "synchronic" analysis of the psalm's poetic structure is then related to a "diachronic" reconstruction of the tradition history that lead to the final form. The question is then posed concerning the primary forces at work in this history of composition, a question which leads to reflection on the Trinity, first in se and then pro nobis. This latter dimension takes us back to the text, as its "Davidic" nature is further analysed in relation to the books of Samuel, the Psalter, and Isaiah. Finally, a contemporary actualization of the Psalm by Eberhard Jüngel is compared to its interpretation in Patristic exegesisin order to probe deeper into the mysterious subject matter of the text.

The parable of the poor man’s ewe (2 Sam. 12.1-4) is best interpreted along two separate axes as a commentary upon the David and Bathsheba narrative in 2 Samuel 11.  In one, the parable is an allegory for the sin of adultery with Bathsheba.  In the other, the parable is an allegory for the sin of the murder of Uriah.  This double interpretation of the parable matches Nathan’s censure of David in 12.9-12, where the prophet twice uses the formulaic opening, “thus says the Lord”, introducing two separate censures, one that focuses exclusively on the sin of adultery, and one on the sin of murder.

Summary:  Some notes on the concept of a rejected Messiah in Rabbinic thought and on ways in which David’s afflictions foreshadow those of Isaiah 53’s servant (Jesus).  Keywords:  Ruth Rabbah, David, Messiah, Isaiah 53, rejected, afflicted, Psalms.  Date:  Feb. 2021.

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Pensamiento Contemporáneo.

RESUMEN:
En la presente investigación se trabajará en torno a la relación entre religión y política en Nicolás Maquiavelo. En su obra, encontramos que la religión tiene una doble función para el autor: por un lado, una función privada; por el otro, una función pública. Como expresión de lo anterior, se analizará la figura bíblica del rey David a partir de sus textos políticos (El príncipe y Discursos sobre la primera década de Tito Livio), y particularmente, el breve discurso Exhortación a la penitencia. Este último discurso ha sido poco trabajado en sus argumentos teórico-políticos y las consecuencias que se desprenden sobre pensar la relación entre religión y política en el autor.
En esta investigación, sostendré que en Exhortación a la penitencia, y en particular, desde el análisis de la persona de David, se abre el campo de conocimiento sobre la relación entre religión y política en la obra maquiaveliana. En ese sentido, la pregunta que se abordará es ¿qué nos puede enseñar la figura de David sobre la relación entre religión y política en Maquiavelo?

So much has been written about David, King of Judah and Israel, but there was one question I needed to have answered:
How could such a murderous, loathsome, hated, adulterous, tyrant represent the Messianic ruler of God’s eternal Kingdom?
David had been a powerful warlord leading a Habiru-like gang of bandits who lived outside the law as extortionists, wife-stealers, and more. I was personally very distressed as I uncovered David as he murdered, stole wives, fathered many children with many wives and concubines. This was not the image I had of him before I conducted my research.
How was it possible that this person, who fought against the King of Israel, even taking that king’s wife as his own, how could he be the same David who is revered and became so intimately associated with the promised Messiah? How could this transformation have taken place? What took place that enabled this most amazing transformation?
This Study is not an inquiry into David. This is about the people who achieved David’s transformation. I wanted to know if it were possible to trace the processes that brought about this most amazing transformation, this stunning change of image. At the start we have a murdering tyrant and at the finish we have the messianic king. What made this possible?

THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apology has had unfortunate consequences for the reputation of King David. David has long been a controversial figure, and the interpretive tradition has generally been admiring. Modern scholarship, however, has taken a critical turn. The Enlightenment philosopher Pierre Bayle's article on David in Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697) concentrated on David's moral failures and challenged the traditional interpretation of David as a hero. In recent forms of this modern trend, David has been presented as a bloodthirsty tyrant or terrorist.

Among the canonical Gospels, it has long been noted that Matthew is the most thoroughly Davidic. For example, Matthew increases Mark's references to the son of David from four to ten. From Matthew's first verse ("Jesus the Messiah, the son of David") to the question about David's son (Matt 22:41-46), scholars have rightly perceived the myriad ways in which David traditions inform Matthew's portrayal of Jesus. Yet, despite the considerable body of scholarship on David in the pre-passion portion of Matthew, insufficient attention has been given to Jesus's Davidic portrayal in the passion narrative. In this article, I address this lacuna by focusing on Gethsemane and Jesus's arrest in Matt 26:36-56, concentrating on parallels between this passage and David's actions during Absalom's revolt. I then compare Matthew's depiction of Jesus as the Davidic messiah with other traditions prevalent in Second Temple Judaism in which the Davidic messiah is predominantly, though not always, militant. I conclude by noting Matthew's unusual typological play: though extant Second Temple texts never utilize the irenic David of the Absalom revolt for their depiction of the messiah, this is precisely the text to which Matthew appeals when depicting his crucified Davidic messiah.

The anticipation of David as a “man after Yahweh’s own heart” in 1 Sam 13:14 is to be understood as a statement about Yahweh’s election of David to kingship, rather than about David’s own moral qualities. Comparison of similar phrases in Akkadian texts shows that the phrase is part of the rhetoric of divine election to kingship. The focus on divine election does not mean David has no positive attributes. On the contrary, he is depicted as a man with clear leadership qualities. The phrase serves the Davidic apologia in distinguishing David from Saul as Yahweh’s personal choice for king.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

The authors suggest to view the origins of Islam against the background of the 6th century AD Arabian socio-ecological crisis whose model is specified in the paper through the study of cli-matological, seismological, volcanological and epidemiological history of the period. Most so-cio-political systems of the Arabs reacted to the socio-ecological crisis by getting rid of the rig-id supra-tribal political structures (kingdoms and chiefdoms) which started posing a real threat to their very survival. The decades of fighting which led to the destruction of the most of the Arabian kingdoms and chiefdoms (reflected in Ayyam al-Arab tradition) led to the elaboration of some definite "anti-royal" freedom-loving tribal ethos. At the beginning of the 7th century a tribe which would recognize themselves as subjects of some terrestrial super-tribal political au-thority, a "king", risked to lose its honour. However, this seems not to be applicable to the au-thority of another type, the "celestial" one. At the meantime the early 7th century evidences the merging of the Arabian tradition of prophecy and the Arabian Monotheist "Rahmanist" tradi-tion which produced "the Arabian prophetic movement". The Monotheist "Rahmanist" proph-ets appear to have represented a supratribal authority just of the type many Arab tribes were looking for at this very time, which seems to explain to a certain extent those prophets' politi-cal success (including the extreme political success of Muhammad).

the article revisits the traditional complex of "King David's Tomb" on Mount Zion. Scholarly consensus holds that David's actual tomb was on the southeastern hill of ancient Jerusalem. The tradition of King David's Tomb on Mount Zion is about 1,000 years old. Nevertheless in the second half of the 19th century, Ermete Pierotti a dubious Italian engineer, reported on the existence of a large and mysterious cave under the complex, part of which he explored.  Pierotti's credibility was called into question at the time, but careful study of his published works shows that a basis exists for Pierotti's arguments regarding the site. This is supported by Ground-penetrating radar exploration at the site. Research on the site is still very new and ongoing but it seems to have great potential. Yet, the nature of this cave is unknown and we must not jump into conclusions until full archeological investigation!!!

a Christian-era apocryphal work called the Words of Gad the Seer.  Found within India in 1786 by Scholar J. G. Eichhorn at a synagogue of Cochin Jews.

Written in the same fashion as the other Testaments of the Patriarchs.  (see other papers on this site)

Featuring Psalms 144 & 145.  And several visions by Gad the Seer. 

Could be the original book of Gad the Seer, retooled by early Christians. Or it could be a 2nd book of Gad the Seer.  Either way, it appears to be authentic, and worth considering for the Book of the Testaments of the Patriarchs.

For a copy of this article, please contact me only VIA EMAIL.
Full citation:
16. Sergi, O. 2020. Saul, David and the Formation of the Israelite Monarchy: Revisiting the Historical and Literary Context of 1 Samuel 9–2 Samuel 5. In: Krause, J., Sergi, O. and Weingart, K. eds. Saul, Benjamin and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel (Ancient Israel and its Literature 40). Atlanta (SBL Press): 57–91.

In this paper, the author provides a literary reading of 2 Samuel 11:27-12:25, arguing that the author of 1 & 2 Samuel carefully crafts his narrative to demonstrate God's faithfulness to His promises and David's true repentance, with the result that God would still provide David with a sure house and victory over his enemies.

Martin Krpan z Vrha, written by Fran Levstik as a conscious experiment in prose-writing, has been interpreted variously during the last century and a half. The duel between a Slovenian peasant and a giant who comes to terrorise Vienna was in turn read by scholars as a political satire, the realisation of a literary and linguistic programme, a literary parody etc. Its motif was mostly interpreted with reference to Slavic folklore characters (Pegam and Lambergar, Prince Marko, Peter Klepec etc.) The analysis according to the model devised by Vladimir Propp, however, shows striking similarities with the Biblical story of David and Goliath (1 Sm 17). The reception of this motif is marked by significant political overtones, already present in antiquity and then interestingly developed in places as diverse as sixteenth-century Florence, Prague, and the Netherlands. As attested by the sources, Levstik used this motif several times; to a certain extent he even identified with its hero.

The notion of a United Monarchy of Israel has been a hotly debated topic since at least the 1980s, especially since the archaeological record did not seem to reflect a vast kingdom that many presume to have existed, perhaps rivaling that of an empire, if the biblical account is accurate. This has called into question whether a Davidic dynasty ever existed, and whether a historical David ever lived. The archaeological evidence that has been excavated between the 1990s and 2010s has counteracted many of these criticisms, and one of the key sites that has contributed to the silencing of the critics is Khirbet Qeiyafa, a military outpost on the western fringe of the Shephelah designed to deter Philistine advances into Judah. Yosef Garfinkel has argued that the site was occupied exclusively during the Iron Age IIA, which equates to the reign of David. Lily Singer-Avitz has countered that Qeiyafa was inhabited instead during the Iron Age IB, which equates to the reign of Saul. The matter to resolve here is whether the short-lived site of Khirbet Qeiyafa was occupied during Saul’s reign, during David’s reign, or spanned both reigns.

Jacob’s vision of a ladder to heaven is one of those enigmatic Scriptural passages which has puzzled the keen intellects of many Bible scholars down through the ages, for well-known Christian commentators such as Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke have stabbed at its meaning realizing it has something to do with the Person of Jesus the Messiah and his heaven-ordained ministry to reconcile earth’s inhabitants to their Heavenly Father and Creator , but others as  Keil and Delitzsch don’t even connect this dream to the Person of Jesus .
But while we have a look at what the Christian Biblical scholars have said, we've also to see what the best of rabbinic Judaism has to offer us by way of explanation of Jacob’s dream.