David, David

But the plots all prove futile, and only endear David the more to the people, and especially to Saul's son Jonathan, who is one of those who love David. Warned by Jonathan of Saul's intention to kill him, David flees into the wilderness.

It is theologically important because Jonathan recognizes David as the rightful king; in terms of the narrative, 1 Samuel 18 — "Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul" — indicates the close personal friendship between the two. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2018%20;&version=47; . There is debate amongst scholars on whether this relationship might have been platonic, romantic or sexual. Boswell, John.

David mourns their death, then goes up to Hebron, where he is anointed king over Judah; in the north, Saul's son Ish-Bosheth is king over the tribes of Israel.

The assassins bring forward the head of Ish-Bosheth to David hoping for reward, but David executes them for their crime against the Lord's anointed.

Then David died and was buried in the City of David, having ruled forty years over Israel, seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.

David is also viewed as a tragic figure; his acquisition of Bathsheba, and the loss of his son are viewed as his central tragedies.

Only at his anointing by Samuel - when the oil from Samuel's flask turned to diamonds and pearls - was his true identity as Jesse's son revealed. David's adultery with Bathsheba was only an opportunity to demonstrate the power of repentance, and some Talmudic authors stated that it was not adultery at all, quoting a supposed Jewish practice of divorce on the eve of battle. Furthermore, according to David's apologists, the death of Uriah was not to be considered murder, on the basis that Uriah had committed a capital offence by refusing to obey a direct command from the King.

Finkelstein says in his The Bible Unearthed (2001): " [3] n the basis of archaeological surveys, Judah remained relatively empty of permanent population, quite isolated and very marginal right up to and past the presumed time of David and Solomon, with no major urban centers and with no pronounced hierarchy of hamlets, villages and towns." Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts , p.132. See this summary of Finkelstein and Silberman's book.

Vaughn and A.E. Killebrew (eds.), Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period , (Society of Biblical Literature, Symposium Series, No. 18), Atlanta, 2003, pp. 103-115. See also Cahill, J., David's Jerusalem, Fiction or Reality? The Archaeological Evidence Proves It, and Steiner, M., David's Jerusalem, Fiction or Reality? It's Not There: Archaeology Proves a Negative, both in Biblical Archaeology Review 24/4, 1998 (the two scholars argue opposite sides of the case for a Jerusalem in keeping with the biblical portrayal).

The oldest pottery from the site is dated to the 12th-11th centuries BCE, leading Amihai Mazar to speculate that it represents a pre-Davidic Jebusite fortress, while at the other end of the chronological range there is the 7th-century bulla found in the structure.

Thompson, who measures Samuel against the archaeological evidence and concludes that "an independent history of Judea during the Iron I and Iron II periods the period of David has little room for historicizing readings of the stories of I-II Samuel and I Kings." "A View from Copenhagen", Thomas L. Thompson, Professor of Old Testament, Copenhagen University.

He states the belief that David actually came from a wealthy family and was "ambitious and ruthless": "The vigor with which the apology in the Bible asserts David's innocence against Saul strongly suggests that he was in fact involved in a plot against him." The story with Goliath was probably part of the propaganda in David's favour. McKenzie's view is that David was a tyrant who murdered his political opponents, including his own sons.

The genealogical line runs as follows: Judah Pharez Hezron Ram Amminadab Nahshon Salmon Boaz (the husband of Ruth) Obed Jesse David. This genealogy is only available from post-exilic biblical sources included in the later books of Chronicles and Ruth. Without these sources, all that would be know of David's ancestry was that he was the son of Jesse. The "tenth generation" formula is part of a larger pattern of tens within the Pentateuch/Deuteronomistic history: there are twenty generations of patriarchs (two sets of ten) from Adam to Abraham before David, and twenty kings of Judah after him, with the three Patriarchs Abraham-Isaac-Jacob between. The schematic character of the genealogy, and the fact that it runs from the Creation (Adam) to the destruction of Jerusalem, suggests that it was an exilic or post-exilic invention.

He had eight wives: Michal, the second daughter of King Saul; Ahinoam the Jezreelite; Abigail the Carmelite, previously wife of the evil Nabal; Maachah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; Haggith; Abital; Eglah; and Bathsheba, previously the wife of Uriah the Hittite.150px|left|thumb|Samuel anoints David, Europos, Syria, Date: 3rd c. CE ]The Book of Chronicles lists David's sons by various wives and concubines. In Hebron he had six sons (): Amnon, by Ahinoam; Daniel, by Abigail; Absalom, by Maachah; Adonijah, by Haggith; Shephatiah, by Abital; and Ithream, by Eglah. By Bathsheba, his sons were: Shammua; Shobab; Nathan; and Solomon. His sons born in Jerusalem by other mothers included: Ibhar; Elishua; Eliphelet; Nogah; Nepheg; Japhia; Elishama; and Eliada. () According to , Jerimoth, who is not mentioned in any of the genealogies, is mentioned as another of David's sons. According to , David adopted Johnathan's son Mephibosheth as his own.

Source: Wikipedia > David