David's Relation to Moses: The Context, Content, and Conditions of the Davidic Promises (original) (raw)
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David in History and in the Hebrew Bible
The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King, eds. M. Zawanowska, M. Wilk, pp. 19–40, 2021
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. chapter 1 David in History and in the Hebrew Bible Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò David, next to Moses, is one of the most studied biblical characters.1 The problem is, however, that this important figure has no clear extra-biblical reference, which makes reconstructing the historical David and his kingdom a difficult, if not an impossible, task. A short paper such as this cannot exhaustively examine scholarly literature on David, nor every mention of the son of Jesse in biblical literature. Therefore, this article's objective is solely to review extra-biblical sources, as well as selected biblical traditions related to this figure, to see whether at all, and if so, to what extent, they can be considered reliable historical sources, and on this basis to offer some general observations on the historical David.
Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King: The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
One of the most complex and ambivalent characters in the Bible is King David. Traditionally considered to be the pious author of the book of Psalms, a brave warrior and a perfect ruler, he was also a vassal of the Philistine king and a sinner whose morally dubious behaviour is criticized in the Bible itself. Little wonder, therefore, that his image underwent significant interpretative changes in perception and reception in different monotheistic traditions. So far, scholarly research has mostly focused on the ways he was appropriated by some of these traditions in isolation from others. The proposed conference will question this dominant exclusive approach and attempt to scrutinize perceptions and receptions of King David and his book in different monotheistic traditions from late antiquity until the early modern period in a more inclusive fashion. Its aim is to take a new, critical look at the process of biblical creation and subsequent exegetical transformation of this figure, with particular emphasis put on the multilateral fertilization and cross-cultural interchanges among Jews, Christians and Muslims in different genres of their respective religious literatures and arts.
David in the role of a second Moses – The revelation of the temple-model (tabnît) in 1 Chronicles 28
in: J. Jeon, L. Jonker (eds), Chronicles and the Priestly Literature of the Hebrew Bible (BZAW 528), 2021
The essay aims first to elucidate the diverse activities of King David related to the foundation of the first temple of Jerusalem and its cult. The second part of the paper will consider the question of how David’s striking equation with Moses, Israel’s cult founder par excellence, should be understood. Is he a second Moses? What is the status of the instructions compiled by him in comparison with that of the Torah? This question seems to have attracted only little attention in scholarship. The importance of David in general is often explained with reference to the Chronicler’s hope for a restauration of the Davidic monarchy in the late Persian or early Hellenistic era, or rather as an eschatological messianic expectation. However, if one or the other were the case, why, one should ask, would the author put such emphasis on David’s competence for the conceptualization and the establishment of the Jerusalemite cult. In view of this strong focus, one might imagine another main reason for the great importance assigned to David by the author: it might have less to do with his significance as dynasty founder and bearer of messianic hopes than with the high value given to the Jerusalemite temple and its foundation which necessitated an appropriate founder personality .David’s importance in the Book of Chronicles consists primarily in his role of founder of Israel’s unique sanctuary and the organization of its cult.
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel , 2017
The article examines the literary relations between the accounts of Davidʼs war with Israelʼs neighbours (2 Sam 8:1–14) and his war with the Ammonites and Arameans (2 Sam 10:1–11:1a; 12:26–31). I suggest that the former was written later than the pre-Deuteronomistic story cycles of David and Solomon, and that it rests heavily on these works. I further posit that due to the long process of oral transmission of the history of David’s rise, this account includes memories of different periods, some of which might reflect the time of Jeroboam II.
The Three Kingdoms and David's Rise to Kingship
Journal of Asian Evangelical Theology 24, 2020
This article is part of my ongoing project aimed at reading 1 and 2 Samuel as a unified work focusing on politics. My project reflects a recent trend in biblical scholarship, spearheaded by Yoram Hazony, of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, to read the Old Testament as primarily a work of philosophy rather than a religious document. Making an argument very similar to my own are Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes in their recent book, The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel. Their close exegesis of the lives of Saul and David provides abundant insights that are applicable “wherever and whenever political power is at stake.” In this paper I build on Halbertal and Holmes’s work while adding a comparative element, discussing similarities between 1 and 2 Samuel and a medieval Chinese novel, The Three Kingdoms.