Studies on David Collection (11 vols.)

David in Love and War is a reworking of the dissertation that Bailey worked on while at Emory College in Atlanta, Georgia. His interests in literary critical concerns directed him in regards to the information he wanted to cover in his book. Bailey covers 2 Samuel 10 —12 as well as the connection between David and Bathsheba.

The Story of King David attempts to provided a fresh perspective on the narrative about David in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. Commonly known as the "Succession narrative," Gunn attempts to create better appreciation for its nature as a story. The book provides an initial survey of pespectives on the narrative, followed by his own proposed alternative view of the succession narrative as a story. This proposal is the developed through literary and rhetorical analysis. Gunn concludes with his own interpretation of the narrative and two appendixes on literary criticism and style.

During the time of David and Solomon, the relationship between Egypt and Palestine was a pertinent one. Ash analyzes the evidence—epigraphical sources from Egypt, as well as the archaeological data from Palestine. He also examines the biblical text, which reveal that the inhabitants of ancient Palestine and the people of Egypt had minimal contact. When reading any content that relates to the history of the relations and contacts between Egypt, Palestine, and Israel this resource is of benefit, as it helps to shed light on the relationship between these countries.

The three Nathan narratives in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings are given detailed consideration in this fascinating study. A persuasive attempt is made to reconstruct the original form of the traditions and to trace the modifications made to them before they were finally accepted into the Succession Narrative. The original Nathan, a court official and chief spokesman for the Jebusite group, sought a working compromise between the original Jebusite inhabitants of Jerusalem and its new Israelite settlers. After accepting service under King David, Nathan tried to secure the best he could for the Jebusites in this new situation. When this tradition was expanded, modified and theologized, the consistent Nathan of early tradition became a complex character, and almost appears as a dual personality: the diplomatic court prophet of the original narrative became an outspoken prophet of Yahweh in the “theological” accounts of his activities.

David M. Gunn wrote The Fate of King Saul to inspire a renewed interest in the study of the Old Testament as well as the study of Saul. He explores the study of Saul and researches the narrative aspect of the books of Samuel. Additionally, he also researches the narrative that is a part of the Old Testament since the content can be complicated and difficult to understand.

In his book King David with the Wise Woman of Tekoa, Lyke researches in depth the historical and social processes of 2 Samuel 14 that shaped the Hebrew Bible. Also covered are the many historical and social processes that formed the Hebrew Bible as a whole.

In the reface of David’s Social Drama, Flanagan writes that the goal of the book is to “enrich the understanding of ancient Israel's early Iron Age, especially the processes of state formation that the Bible attributes to David”. Also addressed in this book are the traditions of biblical history as well as archeological and literary information and how it pertains to David.

This book marries the several elements:

• A given text (1 Samuel)
• A focal character (King Saul)
• A spacious and creative theorist (Mikhail Bakhtin)
• A historical context

The author argues that the narrative of 1 Samuel may be read as a riddle propounding the complex story of Israel/Judah's experience with kings as an instruction for those pondering leadership choices in the sixth century. The work is an extended reflection on what went wrong with kings and why new leadership must be attempted. The extended riddle of Saul works to show how the life of the king is fundamentally destructive, not because any is malicious but because of many factors of weakness and inadequacy that will be familiar to readers.

 

This synchronic study of the books of Samuel examines the multifaceted character of David. His is a complex tale, seemingly designed to explore the human dimension of a traditional motif: divine election and rejection. Through speeches and actions, David is revealed as a man who never quite understands his fate. Why has Saul been rejected and why is David not rejected? If Saul sinned, David sinned boldly. The man, David, through poetic soliloquies (2 Samuel 1: 19–27; 22:2–51; 23:1b–7), explores this question.

2 Samuel 7 has always been a focal point in discussion about the Davidic covenant and its relationship to the exodus (or Sinai) covenant. This new rhetorical study of the speeches of Yahweh and David in 2 Samuel 7 examines the dynamics of the conversation between the two characters, a conversation essentially about houses and obligation. The reading proposes that talk of a Davidic dynasty is a diversionary strategy that Yahweh uses to deflect David's interest from a temple building project. It also suggests that the manner in which Yahweh presents the offer of dynasty conceals an empty offer behind the facade of a grandiose and unending lineage. The history of religions problem of a Davidic versus sinaitic covenant may be resolved by attending less to the facade and more to the undertones of Yahweh's offer.

In this close reading of a text central to the story of David, the author, using the tools of linguistic pragmatics and poetics, exposes the text's promotion of a prophetic-based ideology, through a polemical rhetoric that polarizes David and Yahweh around the opposed notions of king (melek) and leader (nagid). He then goes on to analyze the context, in ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and in Samuel, for how the text develops this opposition, and finally reflects on its promulgation of the supreme mediacy of the prophetic word.