David as Modern

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 with Goliath as an example. Contrary to the popular presentation, David is not an underdog in his fight with Goliath, since he uses surprise tactics and attacks from “outside the ring.” He concedes that “David WOULD be the underdog, had he accepted combat on traditional terms,” but goes on to say that David uses “the element of surprise, the ruse” as a method for “leveraging skills into victory.” Halpern points to Mark Twain’s views, as expressed in the Connecticut Yankee, that “David is modern man, rejecting the mindless, medieval ritualized combat of the PHilistines: the fates of nations cannot depend on single combat, but the fates of nations are too important to scruple about the rules of sport. Combat is not a matter of personal honor, but of national destiny.” Further, “David begins his career as a musician playing the lyre for Saul. In the Goliath episode, he moves on to reject the etiquette of social relations shared by all around him. This is the pattern that will persist throughout his history. He is not just Yahweh’s elect: he is Yahweh’s avenger. He is not just destined for greatness: he shapes his greatness by a complete disregard for orthodoxy.”

With Halpern’s larger methodological and substantive theses, I have no sympathy whatever. He claims that 1-2 Samuel gives us a cleaned-up version of David’s life, from which the skilled interpeter can extract the true story of a David whose agendais “systematically to root out Saul’s family.” But on the unorthodoxy of David’s fight with Goliath, Halpern is right on target. Contrary to the heroisms of the ancient world ?EANE and Greek ?Eone’s goal in battle is victory, not personal glory and reputation. If glory and honor are at stake, they are Yahweh’s. And this means that the “honorable” rules of ancient combat have no moral claim upon David or Israel’s armies.