Immediately after the presentation of Goliath’s head to Saul, David comes into contact with Jonathan, the King’s eldest son.
The next three chapters chronicle David’s persecution at the hands of Saul and Jonathan’s attempts to save him. Caroline, Bronwen and I were struck by the innocence of David’s suffering and the selfless love Jonathan offers as an antidote.
In contrast to the preceding chapter David’s agency or presence seems muted in Ch.18-20. We hear about his military successes second-hand from the women who came out ‘singing and dancing’ and his lyre playing now holds no power of the evil spirits which plague Saul. David is put on the back foot by Saul’s jealousy and has to escape out his window, like the spies in Jericho (Joshua 2), and become a fugitive.
The redeeming feature of David’s link to the royal family is Jonathan. From an instantaneous connection, and bearing of ‘sword, bow and belt’, Jonathan has given himself over to the service of David. This sense of service might echo the theme we picked up on in David’s service to God in Ch.17. However, it has its own unique character in that it is described through the language of love. While there is scholarship to suggest ‘love’ is being used in a political way (Fleming, 2016) a common reader-response is to see the relationship of David and Jonathan as working on a romantic, even erotic level (Oliveira, 2017). As a group we held neither interpretation too tightly but enjoyed the intensity of emotion which the passage conveyed.
As his father continues on a path of destruction, Jonathan embodies an alternative route and a sense of hope for the future of Israel which could be founded upon a friendship of self-giving rather than a simple story of individualistic power grabbing.
References
Fleming, Erin E., 'Political Favouritism in Saul's Court', in Journal of Biblical Literature , 135:1 (Spring 2016), pp.19-34.
Oliveira, Anthony, 'David and Jonathan', the queer bible, https://www.queerbible.com/queerbible/2017/9/8/david-and-jonathan-by-anthony-oliveira (accessed 22/09/2024).
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