David and Jonathan

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 sound, Peleg’s article is not so easily dismissed. He points not only to “he loved him as his own soul” (1 Sam 18:1), but also to the fact that covenant relations are often described in marital terms (David and Jonathan “cut covenant” in 18:3-4) and the fact that David was “taken from his father’s house” to live with Saul’s family (18:2), language sometimes used for taking a bride (Gen 38:11; Lev 22:13); and the clear parallels between Jonathan’s devotion to David and Michal’s. To this point in the story, Jonathan is the senior partner, and David is his little buddy.


After the exchange of clothing (1 Sam 18:4), however, the dynamics of the relationship shift: “While David is constantly engaged in action, either doing Saul’s bidding or running away from him, Jonathan stays behind, usually in the palace. This unusual, especially since previously Jonathan had distinguished himself on the battlefield. In addition, each time Jonathan is mentioned, his commitment and love for David is peculiarly stressed. And, each time the two meet, Jonathan is wistfully courting David’s affection and good graces, despite his elevated social status” and the difference in age (Peleg discusses 1 Sam 20 in this connection). When Saul challenges Jonathan with by calling him a shame to his mother’s nakedness, Peleg thinks that he is calling him a “mama’s boy,” playing second fiddle to the shepherd boy from Bethlehem.

In short, “Jonathan is seeking David’s emotional support as well as his physical protection, despite the fact that he may be older, that he is more experienced, and that he is socially superior to David. Jonathan’s portrayal may therefore be understood as mainly a means to an end, a literary construction of a political one. The unusual way it is done here is by casting the connection between the two men in the mold of a relationship between a man and a woman. Paradoxically, this untraditional casting of a traditional relationship seems to me to undermine rather than promote the potential for a homoerotic reading.” The “masculine-feminine” relation of Saul’s son to David is destabilitized “in order to reaffirm God’s new choice, David, as husband and father for the nation.” Jonathan, described as a “bride,” becomes representative of the nation and a royal house now dependent upon a new dynasty.

One detailed point is also worth noting: Peleg translates the phrase of David’s lament about the superiority of Jonathan’s love to the love of women as “for me your love was wonderful,” that is, “he is simply paying homage to Jonathan’s great devotion to him” and not expressing his affection to Jonathan (though that is also clear in the narrative). When we compare Jonathan to his sister Michal, we can see what David means: Jonathan’s devotion to David is surely better than the love of at least that woman.


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