THE BOOK OF PSALMS
Pious tradition assigns the authorship of the entire Book of Psalms to King David himself, but modern scholarship allows that only a few of the psalms date back to the supposed lifetime of David— and none can be proven to be his own work. The oldest of the psalms may have originated in the coronation rituals of the Davidic kings, and Psalm 45 in particular, apparently composed for the wedding of an Israelite king and a foreign-born woman, may refer to King Solomon, David's son. Other psalms, however, are dated no earlier than the Babylonian Conquest and the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in 586 B.C.E. Still, various of the psalms are associated with specific events in the life of David. Psalm 51, for example, is linked to David's remorse over his sexual liaison with Bathsheba: “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities,” pleads the man whom the Bible calls the “sweet singer” of Israel. “Create me a clean heart, O God.” (Ps. 51:11–12) Notably, no such self-abasing prayers are uttered by King David as we come to know him in the work of the Court Historian, and we are left to wonder which depiction of David— the worldly-wise king or the pious penitent—is more faithful to the flesh-and-blood David who can be glimpsed beneath the surface of the ancient text.
DAVID AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
David figures importantly in portions of the Hebrew Bible even where he is not mentioned at all. Indeed, according to one fundamental theory of biblical authorship, the biography of David as embodied in the Court History may have been the seed out of which the rest of the Bible grew.
Scholars propose that the composition of the Court History began during the reign of David and continued during the reign of his son Solomon—a period of prosperity and cultural flowering known as the Solomonic Enlightenment. Other books of the Bible, including portions of the sweeping “primal history” in Genesis and the saga of Moses in Exodus and Numbers, may have been composed at roughly the same time by the author called J, perhaps in order to provide the “backstory” leading up to the glorious reign of David.
Thus, for example, Joel Rosenberg characterizes Genesis as “a ‘midrash,’ if you will, upon the Davidic history,” that is, a theological commentary in the form of imaginative storytelling.3 Walter Brueggemann characterizes portions of Genesis as “an extremely sophisticated statement by one of Israel's earliest, most profound theologians.”4 And, as we have already noted, Richard Elliot Friedman argues that J and the Court Historian are one and the same.
If David is only anticipated in the early books of the Bible, he is openly celebrated in the books that follow Samuel and Kings, including the Psalms and the prophetic writings. Even the Christian Bible recalls and honors David, describing Jesus of Nazareth as “made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God.” (Rom. 1:3, 4) The flesh-and-blood David was transformed by these later biblical authors from an earthly king into a celestial one and then into a messianic icon. That is why he remains the touchstone of theology throughout the Bible.
* A “source,” as the term is used in Bible scholarship, generally refers to a single individual or a group of individuals who authored or edited a biblical text.
* The biblical author who generally calls God by his personal name (“Yahweh,” or, as it is spelled in German, “Jahweh”) is known to scholars as the Yahwist, or “J.” Another biblical author, who uses the term “Elohim” (“God,” or perhaps more accurately, “gods”) to identify the God of Israel, is known as the Elohist, or “E.” A third biblical source, whose work reveals a strong interest in sacred law and other priestly matters, is identified as the Priestly Writer, or “P.” A late biblical source who collected, combined, and revised the biblical text is known as the Redactor, or “R.” The author of the Book of Deuteronomy is known as the Deuteronomist, or “D.” See The Harlot by the Side of the Road, appendix, “Who Really Wrote the Bible?”
Chronology
The dating of events and texts in early biblical history is much debated among scholars, and thus the dating used in this book is approximate and in many instances speculative, notably for events earlier than 722 B.C.E. Following Jewish and scholarly practice, I have adopted the designation B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in place of the more familiar B.C. (Before Christ) and C.E. (Common Era) in place of A.D. (Anno Domini, “In the year of Our Lord”).
Among the biblical sources were a few authors, probably the priestly scribes known collectively as the Priestly Writer, or “P,” who were fairly obsessed with numbers; they insisted on measuring and counting and dating, and the results of their calculations are recorded with complete assurance throughout the Bible. Thus, the traditional starting point for fixing the dates of biblical lives and events is a passage in the Book of Kings where the biblical author reports that construction of the Temple at Jerusalem commenced “in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, the second month of that year,” which was exactly 480 years “after the Israelites had come out of Egypt.” (1 Kings 6:1) (NEB) Elsewhere the Bible is much less assured; the age of Saul when he became king of Israel, for example, is simply left blank, and his reign is given as only two years in the Masoretic Text. (1 Sam. 13:1) Indeed, the text was so obviously wrong that the Septuagint left the passage out altogether.
Nowadays scholars no longer rely on the self-dating passages of the Bible. Rather, they attempt to correlate the key dates in the biblical narrative with archaeological finds and ancient texts preserved by other peoples, at least where such evidence exists. The chronology offered here is intended to show the relationship in time between the events as set forth in the Bible and the composition, editing, and later discovery of the texts in which those events are recorded.
BEFORE THE COMMON ERA (B.C.E.)
Biblical Events Biblical Sources and Texts
1800–1700 Wanderings of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and the Matriarchs (Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel)
1700–1600 Joseph in Egypt; the settlement and enslavement of the Israelites
1280 Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses
1240–1200 Conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua
1200–1025 Israel under the rule of the Judges Earliest fragments of Hebrew poetry later preserved in the Bible
1025–1005 Reign of King Saul
1005 Reign of King David in Judah begins
1000 Conquest of Jerusalem by King David Earliest portions of the Court History of David
Archives and chronicles consulted by later biblical authors
Book of Jashar and other lost books mentioned in the Bible
965 Death of King David and commencement of the reign of King Solomon Court Historian at work
964 Construction of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem begins Yahwist at work
925 Death of King Solomon and division of the united monarchy into northern kingdom (Israel) and southern kingdom (Judah)
880 Erection of the stela at Tel Dan, bearing the earliest extra-biblical reference to the House of David Elohist at work
722 Conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and destruction of the “Lost Ten Tribes”
700–600 Deuteronomist and Deuteronomistic Historian at work
622 King Josiah on the throne of Judah Discovery of the Book of Deuteronomy
597 Babylonians occupy land of Judah
596 Zedekiah, last descendant of King David to reign in Judah, ascends the throne
587–586 Destruction of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, fall of the southern kingdom of Judah, and commencement of the Babylonian Exile
Death of King Zedekiah
538 End of the Babylonian Exile and return of the Jews to Jerusalem
520 Dedication of the Second Temple at Jerusalem
500 Priestly Source at work
400 Chronicler at work
Redactor at work; text of the Five Books of Moses fixed in final form
250–100 Translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek (Septuagint)
100 Earliest surviving Hebrew texts of the Bible preserved at Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls)
COMMON ERA (C.E.)
70 Destruction of the Second Temple at Jerusalem by the Romans and dispersion of the Jewish people
90 Final canonization of the Hebrew Bible
50–150 The Gospels and various other books of the New Testament composed and compiled
405 First translation of the Christian Bible from Greek into Latin (St. Jerome's Vulgate)
500–1000 Standardization of the Hebrew text of the Bible by the Masoretes (Masoretic Text)
1526 First translation of the Bible into English (William Tyndale's Pentateuch)
1611 King James (Authorized) Version of the Bible
1947 Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
1993 Discovery of the stela at Tel Dan
Endnotes
CHAPTER ONE
CHARISMA
1. Robert Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist, pt. 2, 1 Samuel (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 156.
2. Raymond-Jean Frontain and Jan Wojcik, eds., The David Myth in Western Literature (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1980), 5.
3. Abram Leon Sachar, A History of the Jews, rev. ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), 34.
4. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, eds., Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, trans. John T. Willis, Geoffrey W. Bromley, and David E. Green (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1978), vol. 3, 158.
5. Peter R. Ackroyd, “The Succession Narrative (So-called),” Interpretation 35, no. 4 (October 1981): 385.
6. Cited in Ralph Klein, “Chronicles, Book of, 1–2,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1992), vol. 1, 725.
7. Jan Wojcik, “Discriminations against David's Tragedy in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature,” in Frontain and Wojcik, David Myth, 27, citing Rabbi Samuel ben Nahmani in Talmud Shabbath.
8. Harold Bloom and David Rosenberg, The Book of J (Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), 40–41, referring to the work of Bible scholar Gerhard von Rad.
9. Martin Noth, The Old Testament World, trans. Victor I. Gruhn (Philadelphia: Fortress Press: 1966), 376–381.
10. Cited in Donald Harman Akenson, Surpassing Wonder (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998), 363–364.
11. 1 Sam. 13:14. The Hebrew text includes a pronoun rather than a direct reference. “[T]he Lord hath sought a man after His own heart,” Saul tells Samuel, “and the Lord hath appointed him to be prince over His people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.” The reference is to David.
12. 2 Sam. 16:7. According to most English translations of the text, including the JPS, David is condemned by a man called Shimei as a “man of blood, and base fellow.” P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., however, renders the same phrase as “bloodstained fiend of hell” in his translation of 2 Samuel in the Anchor Bible series.
13. Albrecht Alt, Essays on Old Testament History and Religion, trans. R. A. Wilson (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1966), 178.
14. Quoted in Evan Thomas and Matthew Cooper, “Extracting a Confession,” Newsweek, August 31, 1998, p. 34.
15. Bloom and Rosenberg, Book of J (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), 242.
16. Some scholars, most recently Richard Elliott Friedman in The Hidden Book in the Bible (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), suggest that “J” was the source for much of the text that we find in the Book of Samuel.
17. Walter Brueggemann, “David and His Theologian,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 30, no. 2 (April 1968): 156, crediting Gerhard von Rad for the argument that chapters 2–11 of Genesis “are intended to be and indeed are an extremely sophisticated statement by one of Israel's earliest, most profound theologians.”
18. David Rosenberg, The Book of David (New York: Harmony Books, 1997), 2.
CHAPTER TWO
THE WRONG KING
1. P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., trans., intro., and commentary, I Samuel, Anchor Bible (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980), 62.
2. Samuel was obliged by his mother's promise to Yahweh to take the so-called Nazirite vow, which required him to abstain from wine, “strong drink,” and any other products made from the grape (including vinegar) and to leave his hair unshorn. (Num. 6:1–21) Another famous Nazirite was Samson, whose long hair was a sign of the sacred vow that was the real source of his strength: “For I have been a Nazirite unto God from my mother's womb,” as Samson explained to the treacherous Delilah. (Judges 13:3–5, 7; 16:17)
3. Strictly speaking, God is here referring to the destruction of the priestly dynasty of Eli in Shiloh and its replacement by the house of Zadok at Jerusalem during the reign of David. (1 Sam. 3:14, 25) But the divine oracle can be understood to prefigure a revolution in the political and spiritual life of ancient Israel that reaches its highest expression in the accession of David to the throne.
4. McCarter, I Samuel, 18 ff. (“The middle stage in the growth of the First Book of Samuel … is prophetic in perspective and suspicious of the institution of monarchy.”)
5. According to the Bible, the Philistines were the archetypal enemy of the Israelites. Scholarship suggests that they originated in the Aegean, and they were among the waves of so-called Sea Peoples who began to migrate to the ancient Near East in the twelfth century B.C.E. The Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III defeated the Philistines in battle in 1190 B.C.E. and settled them as mercenaries in Canaan, where they later established themselves in five independent cities, including Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath. The geographical place name Palestine is derived from the Philistines.
6. Adapted from JPS. (The phrase “Adapted from …” is used in King David to indicate that I have taken the liberty of changing the punctuation, capitalization, and spelling as they appear in the cited source and omitting some words and phrases that do not change the meaning of the quoted material. See “A Note on Bibles and Biblical Usage” on page 347.)
7. Goyim is an Akkadian loan-word that means “nations” and is generally used in the Bible as a collective term of reference for non-Israelites. The KJV sometimes translates the word as “heathen,” and it has come to be used as a lighthearted, but also slightly offensive, term for non-Jews.
8. Adapted from JPS. The complete text of Samuel's oration is found at 1 Sam. 8:10–22.
9. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 49.
10. Jan Wojcik, “Discriminations against David's Tragedy in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature,” in Frontain and Wojcik, David Myth, 1980, 14.
11. Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist, pt. 2; 1 Samuel, 224, referring specifically to “the particular manner in which Saul dies” and attributing the passage to the biblical source known as the Deuteronomist.
12. Adapted from JPS and AB.
13. Adapted from KJV, NEB, and AB.
14. McCarter, I Samuel, 180.
15. According to a tale preserved in the Talmud (Horayot 11b and 12a), Moses himself prepared a supply of the stuff that lasted until the reformer-king Josiah ended the practice of anointing kings and high priests in the seventh century B.C.E.
16. The Masoretic Text omits the second and third sentences of Samuel's speech, which appear in translations based on the Septuagint. According to the JPS, Saul says: “Is it not that the Lord hath anointed thee to be prince over His inheritance?” (1 Sam. 10:1)
17. R. E. Clements, Abraham and David (London: S.C.M. Press, 1967), 49.
18. Adapted from JPS.
19. “Though the word ‘lot’ (goral) is not used here, the technical terminology of lot casting may be discerned…. The outcome of the lottery was believed to be divinely determined.” McCarter, I Samuel, 192.
20. Strictly speaking, Saul was not raised to kingship when Samuel first anointed him. In the passages that describe the secret anointment (1 Sam. 10:1), Saul is described as a nagid—“prince,” “leader,” or “commander”—rather than as a melek—“king.” The term may refer to
a “king-designate” or, as we might put it, a crown prince (Mc-Carter, I Samuel, 178–179). Elsewhere in the biblical account, however, Saul is presented as a king by Samuel and acclaimed as a king by the general populace.
21. The Ammonites were a Semitic people of the ancient Near East whose language was related to Hebrew and whose homeland was the eastern bank of the Jordan River. The site of its royal capital, Rabbah Ammon (or Rabbathammon), is identified with Ammon in what is now the modern state of Jordan. According to the Bible, Israel and Ammon long disputed with each other for sovereignty over the east bank of the Jordan.
22. The Hebrew word translated in the Anchor Bible as “holocaust” (olah) is usually rendered in English-language Bibles as “burnt-offering” or “whole-offering” and identifies an offering that is burnt whole on the altar. Precisely because the word “holocaust” refers to a sacrificial offering to the God of Israel, some historians and critics prefer the Hebrew word shoah (“catastrophe”) over “Holocaust” to describe the mass murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children by Nazi Germany and its allies.
23. Moab was located on a sixty-mile-long plateau along the eastern and northeastern shore of the Dead Sea, bordering on Ammon to the north, Edom to the south, and the land of Israel to the west. The Moabites, like the Ammonites, are described in the Bible as the descendants of Lot, nephew of the patriarch Abraham, and it is suggested that the Edomites are the descendants of Esau, brother of the patriarch Jacob. Thus, ironically, all three of these nations are regarded in the Bible as both the bitter enemies and the distant relations of the Israelites. (Gen. 19:37–38, 25:30) See my The Harlot by the Side of the Road (New York, Ballantine Books, 1997), chapter 3, “Life Against Death.”
King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) Page 33
