David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King (Bible in Its World (Paperback)) - Softcover

Halpern, Baruch

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802827977 ISBN 13: 9780802827975

Verlag: Eerdmans, 2004

Inhaltsangabe

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. The Bible portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures. Neither defending nor rejecting the traditions about David, Baruch Halpern, a leading scholar of biblical history and the ancient Near East, traces the origins of development of David's persona. Because the biblical text clearly responds to concerns that can only be contemporary with David himself, we can believe that David was both real and a central actor in the historical drama of ancient Israel. Yet at the same time, the written record also shows that contemporaries understood David's character to be much more unsavory trhan the tradition has hitherto allowed. Halpern digs beneath the layers of tradition to understand David as an individual, as a person. The man he uncovers turns out to have been complex, ambiguous, and — above all — surprising. According to Halpern, the image of David grew over time. He was the founder of the dynasty that perpetuated the texts about him, and they progressively exaggerated his accomplishments. But in the earliest writings David remains a modest figure, as this book shows for the first time. To understand David as a human being, one must keep in mind that he was primarily a politicians who operated in a rough-and-tumble environment in which competitors were ready literally to slit throats. Halpern's work raises many provocative questions: Was David an Israelite or a Philistine? Was Solomon really David's son? Did David take the throne of Israel by the consent or against the will of the people? How many murders did he commit on his way to the crown? Indeed, was David someone it would have been wise to even invite to dinner? The challenging arguments in David's Secret Demons are sure to provoke all kinds of discussion among biblical scholars and general readers alike. In addition — a big bonus — Halpern's accessible, at times humorous prose will itself draw readers everywhere into the compelling story of David found between these covers.

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Baruch Halpern is Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia and former codirector of the Megiddo Expedition. His other books include The Constitution of the Monarchy in Israel, The Emergence of Israel in Canaan, The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History, and Law and Ideology in Monarchic Israel.

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The Bible portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures.

Neither defending nor rejecting the traditions about David, Baruch Halpern, a leading scholar of biblical history and the ancient Near East, traces the origins and development of David's persona. Because the biblical text clearly responds to concerns that can only be contemporary with David himself, we can believe that David was both real and a central actor in the historical drama of ancient Israel. Yet at the same time, the written record also shows that contemporaries understood David's character to be much more unsavory than the tradition has hitherto allowed.

Halpern digs beneath the layers of tradition to understand David as an individual, as a person. The man he uncovers turns out to have been complex, ambiguous, and--above all--surprising. According to Halpern, the image of David grew over time. He was the founder of the dynasty that perpetuated the texts about him, and they progressively exaggerated his accomplishments. But in the earliest writings David remains a modest figure, as this book shows for the first time. To understand David as a human being, one must keep in mind that he was primarily a politician who operated in a rough-and-tumble environment in which competitors were ready literally to slit throats.

Halpern's work raises many provocative questions: Was David an Israelite or a Philistine? Was Solomon really David's son? Did David take the throne ofIsrael by the consent or against the will of the people? How many murders did he commit on his way to the crown? Indeed, was David someone it would have been wise to even invite to dinner? The challenging arguments in "David's Secret Demons are sure to provoke all kinds of discussion among biblical scholars and general readers alike. In addition--a big bonus--Halpern's accessible, at times humorous prose will itself draw readers everywhere into the compelling story of David found between these covers.

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David's Secret Demons

Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, KingBy Baruch Halpern

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Copyright © 2004 Baruch Halpern
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780802827975

Chapter One

The Surprising David

The Gregorian calendar calls the year A.D. 2000 the 2000th Year of the Lord(annus domini) or the 2000th year C.E. (of the Common Era), depending onone's sensibilities. Thousands of celebrants planned travel for the year well inadvance, many of them learning only later that 2000 C.E. was the end of the 2ndmillennium of the Gregorian calendar, not the start of the 3rd. In Gregorianreckoning, there was no Year 0. Hence the year 1000 was the 1000th year in thecalendar, the last year of the 1st millennium. January 1, 2001 marked the startof the new millennium.

    The Year 1 in this calendar is defined as that of the birth of Jesus, thoughtby Christians to be the Messiah, the anointed son of God. But the claim that Jesusis the Messiah, the claim that he is the son of the Jewish God, depends on hislinear descent from David. There is no direct juxtaposition of Jesus with Moses,and no implication in the Jewish or Christian traditions that Moses's descendantswould somehow redeem humanity. Likewise, no gospel text stresses Jesus'sconnections with the patriarchs of Genesis, such as Abraham. Instead, theemphasis is on the connection to David, because the messianic hopes of theJews, near the turn of the era (1 C.E., not 0), focused principally on figures ofDavidic ancestry. (There are other messianic figures in the Dead Sea Scrolls, butthese do not figure in mainstream Jewish tradition.)

    In biblical and later Jewish tradition, David is not a lawgiver. Though a greatking, though a conqueror, he is far from being a saint, or even demonstratively pious.Yet his is the line that is elected by Yahweh, Israel's God. In a nonconfessionalview, this means that the kings of David's dynasty, who ruled the state of Judah afterthe division of the kingdom in 932 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), claimedthat their God had promised them eternal kingship. The truth of this claim cannotbe evaluated by historians. Its longevity, however; its acceptance in Judaism,in Christianity; its survival in the West are remarkable phenomena. The idea of amessiah, of a Millennium with a capital M, revolves around David.

    For this longevity, whatever the claims of the dynasty, we must accordcredit to the picture of David himself. Some of this picture comes from later reflectionson that king, including the idea that he composed a large number ofbiblical psalms. Some of it, such as the report on David's combat with Goliath,or on his relations with Saul, is of indeterminate age, though it is older than thepietistic view of David propagated in Chronicles, for example, or in the usualinterpretation of Psalms. But a great deal of what the books of Samuel and thefirst chapters of 1 Kings have to say about David is contemporary, or very nearlycontemporary, with that king, in the 10th century B.C.E.

    Strangely, it is not in the texts in which he is most saintly that David's imagecaptivates readers and even worshippers. The historical David appears inthe books of 1 and 2 Samuel, and dies in the 2nd chapter of 1 Kings. He is, thetext tells us, promised eternal kingship in Israel. He is, the text tells us, Yahweh'select, the fulfillment of all Yahweh's promises to the patriarchs about Israel'sland and nationhood. These properties exalt him, make him crucial to Jesus'sgenealogy. But even if we were to regard these claims as somehow independentof his dynasty, as true, they would not account for David's appeal in the historyof Western literature and culture.

    Moses, to be sure, is portrayed in art, film, and novels. Jesus has been endlesslyportrayed. But the novelists, artists, and filmmakers are almost uniformin presenting the Moses that a confessional audience expects, the Jesus that redeemsthe world. There are exceptions, including film satires — Monty Python'samusingly adolescent Life of Brian, Luis Bunuel's superbly sardonic TheMilky Way. And in novels, excellent, earthy explorations of Jesus as a person arenot uncommon, as Nikos Kazantzakis's Last Temptation of Christ and RobertGraves's King Jesus. Still, the imagining even of Jesus is almost always devotional,however it may humanize him.

    David is another story. He is, like Moses or Jesus, the subject of "ClassicComics" portrayals. In these, the story of his fight with Goliath is fore-grounded,and misrepresented, as it is in the tradition: David is the underdog,relying on faith. This is probably the only time that David exhibits the transcendentdevotion that marks him as a man (or, rather, boy) of faith.

    But David is far from being a redemptive figure even in the tradition. True,Moses can be represented as a man tortured by doubt about his own enduranceand greatness, as a punishingly resentful man of flashing anger. David, however,is presented differently. His story invites more earthy, steamy treatments. Evenin unembarrassedly partisan hagiographies, movies such as Gregory Peck's Davidand Bathsheba or Richard Gere's King David mix in human violence, murder,warfare, sex, and court politics in a more realistic way than any film aboutJesus or Moses has ever done. Absalom and Ahitophel reflects on David emotionallyin such a way as to concretize a suicidal agony unknown even in Moses'sdeepest despair.

    Novels about David sometimes present him with the reverence accordedother iconic biblical characters. In a work like Disraeli's David Alroy ("Davidthe King"), his persona is even combined with that of Joshua in an intricate celebrationof military imperialism. Absalom, Absalom evokes him as an evil parentalarchetype, manipulative, cruel, yet almost as a counterpart of Job, suffering,however guilty, pulsations of unmerited pain.

    Both the promise of David's youth and the flaws of his maturity imprintthemselves on the imagination of writers. No novel about the Bible is so accomplishedin the historical art as Stefan Heym's brilliant The King David Report: ina profound comment both on ancient Israel and on life behind the Iron Curtain,Heym shows how a state in control of reporting on itself, in control of themedia for propagating history, twists, airbrushes, and sanitizes the seamy aspectsof its past. Like Heym's exposé, satires also tend to deconstruct the text, topenetrate to a reality behind the veil of representation, and to present David ina less favorable or less saintly light. This is clear from the disappointing satiricaltheodicy of Joseph Heller, God Knows, in which David reports discovering afterexperimenting with various techniques that it was easiest to collect foreskinsfrom the Philistines, as a bride-price for Saul's daughter, "if you killed themfirst." Heller too attacks the image of David that has become his icon, and inspiredMichelangelo's iconic statue: the warranty of his divine election, thefight against Goliath. The poor oaf "didn't stand a chance."

    What is it about David? Why does he, of all the figures in the Bible, attractsuch treatment — treatment that is at once irreverent and serious, treatmentthat punctures his apparent holiness, heroism, and honesty? The answer is thatthe text itself invites...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Eerdmans
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2004
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0802827977
• ISBN 13: 9780802827975
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 516
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland