The Sword of Goliath: David in Heroic Literature / Edition 1

by Stanley Jerome Isser

Overview

The Sword of Goliath offers a fresh view of the biblical story of David, shifting the focus from historicity to issues of genre and popular culture. Isser compares the biblical stories of David with other heroic literature, including the Greek heroes of Homer, King Arthur, and Robin Hood. He suggests that the David stories, most of them now lost, originated in popular heroic literature that continued to grow during the later monarchy and into the Persian period. Isser engages a wide array of biblical scholarship to illuminate the complexity of ascertaining the historicity of much of the David traditions. Readers will find here a new perspective on the biblical David that moves beyond the current historical debate in biblical studies. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589830790
Publisher:	Society of Biblical Literature
Publication date:	08/15/2003
Series:	Studies in Biblical Literature
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.48(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
1.	Introduction	1
2.	Approaches to the Biblical Text	5
	The Text as Historical Literature	5
	Source Analysis	6
	Focus on the Deuteronomist and Beyond	11
	The Question of Historicity	14
	The Minimalists and Their Opponents	15
3.	Popular Heroic Tradition	22
	Poetic Fragments	22
	Catalogues of Heroes	23
	The Hero's Companion	25
	Other Characters	27
	Other Heroic Elements	27
	David and Goliath	28
	The LXXB Version	29
	The Material Omitted by LXXB	29
	The Sword of Goliath	34
	David as a Rogue	37
	Samuel, Saul, and Gad	41
	Conclusions	44
4.	Other Heroic Traditions	46
	Homer	46
	King Arthur	47
5.	Development of the Tradition: Background	52
	Thesis	52
	Genre: Story, Biography, or Apology?	54
	Setting of the Story and Issues of Historicity	59
6.	Formation of the Legend	72
	The Tales behind Short Notices and Longer Military Accounts	72
	Enhanced Stories and Tales	75
	Development of Characters	77
	Poetry or Prose?	78
	Collecting Traditions and Fixing the Legend	80
	The Orality Factor	83
	Uses of the Legend: Samuel-Kings and Beyond	85
	The Relevance of Herodotus	87
	Summary	98
7.	A Fresh Look at David in the Twenty-first Century: The Young David	100
	General Issues	100
	Biography	104
	Samuel	109
	The Ark Narrative, Part 1 (1 Sam 4-7:1)	111
	Samuel and the Israelite Demand for a King (1 Sam 7:3-8:22)	113
	Saul Becomes King (1 Sam 9-12)	115
	Saul and His Opponents: Philistines, Amalekites, Samuel (1 Sam 13-15)	118
	Anointment of David (1 Sam 16:1-13)	122
	David's Appearance at Saul's Court (1 Sam 16:14-23)	123
	David vs. Goliath and the Aftermath (1 Sam 17-20)	124
	David the Fugitive (1 Sam 21-26)	127
	David the Mercenary (1 Sam 27; 28:1-2; 29; 30)	133
	The Death of Saul (1 Sam 28:3-24; 31; 2 Sam 1)	136
	The Issue of Sources	138
8.	A Fresh Look at David in the Twenty-first Century: David as King	148
	King at Hebron (2 Sam 2-5)	149
	Consolidation of Power: Extermination of the Saulides (2 Sam 21:1-14; 9:1-13; 6:20-23)	154
	Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Sam 11-12)	157
	David and Absalom (2 Sam 13-20)	159
	Solomon's Coup d'Etat (1 Kgs 1-2)	166
	The Added Units	170
9.	Last Words	180
	Bibliography	185
	Index of Authors	191
	Index of Subjects	193