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Category Archive: Bible - OT - Samuel

David's wives - October 01, 2007
My oldest son Woelke pointed out to me that 1-2 Samuel refer several times to David's two wives - Ahinoam and Abigail (cf. 1 Sam 25:43). They are named - complete with their places of origin - when David goes...

Spirit and fire - August 24, 2007
Saul sends three sets of men to capture David. As they approach, the Spirit falls on them and they prophesy. Mission unaccomplished. Ahaziah sends three sets of men to capture Elijah. As they approach, fire falls on them and they...

Thy Word is Truth - January 05, 2007
Near the end of his prayer in 2 Samuel 7, David confesses his confidence in Yahweh's promises concerning David's house, saying "Thy words are truth" (v. 28). Jesus echoes this words in John 17:17. The connection seems to be a...

Sheep-shearing - July 10, 2006
Jeffrey Geoghegan examines the OT events that take place during sheep-shearing festivals in an article in Biblica. He tries to discern the common themes in the four passages set during sheep-shearing: Gen 31, 38; 1 Sam 25; 2 Sam 13....

Exhortation, July 9 - July 09, 2006
When Jesus promises to send the Spirit, he describes the Spirit as the "Paraclete." This word is often translated as "Comforter," but the Greek word has a legal connotation and is actually closer to "Advocate" or even "Defense Attorney." A...

Exhortation, July 9 - July 09, 2006
Samuel anointed David with oil to designate him as the crown-prince, the successor of Saul. But why oil? Oil is food. It is one of the main ingredients of bread in Scripture, and a food in its own right. With...

David and Jonathan - May 10, 2006
Commentators in recent years have often opted for a homoerotic interpretation of David's relation with Jonathan. Yaron Peleg of George Washington University has another explanation: Jonathan was a "woman" (JSOT 30.2). Oh, so now we know! Goofy as it may...

Pinsky's Life of David - December 16, 2005
Robert Pinsky, The Life of David. New York: Schocken, 2005. 209 pp. I was prepared to dislike Pinsky's book, and the howler on the first page of the text was not encouraging ("David and the Witch of Endor"!?). My dislike...

David as Modern - June 29, 2004
Baruch Halpern argues in his 2001 biography of David, David's Secret Demons, that David was the first individualist, the first modern man. Part of his evidence is that David so often violates conventions in surprising ways. He offers David's battle...

David and Esau - June 16, 2004
Mark Biddle of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond examines some of the intertextual connections between 1 Sam 25 and the Jacob narratives in Genesis (JBL 121/4 [2002]). He discovers analogies between Nabal and Laban, Saul and Laban, and of...

JSOT Articles - October 29, 2003
Several interesting articles in the current issue of JSOT: 1) Yairah Amit of Tel Aviv University writes on "Progression as a Rhetorical Device in Biblical Literature." The concept is fairly simple: He's pointing to places where, in narrative or speech,...

Yahweh's "Anointed" - August 28, 2003
In 1 Samuel 12, Samuel gives his farewell speech to the people. He claims that he has not abused his position in any way, and asks the people to confirm this, citing Yahweh and "His anointed" as witnesses in his...

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