Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [79]
To combat the Philistine threat, the Israelites tell the aging Samuel they need a king to lead them. Taking the priestly position that they only need God’s leadership, Samuel warns the people to be careful; they may get what they are asking for. In Samuel’s eyes, a king will only mean trouble, taxes, and forced labor. Sounding a bit jilted when he learns that his people want an earthly king, God tells Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” God then helps Samuel find Saul, the son of a wealthy Benjaminite.
BIBLICAL VOICES
And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the King. (1 Sam. 10:24)
If God had chosen the king, his first draft choice wasn’t so great. Saul’s reign (c. 1020-1012 BCE) was tainted. He is what the ancient Greeks called a “tragic” figure, a noble character possessing fatal flaws. Although he won some early victories, Saul failed to thoroughly defeat the Philistines and never established a firm rule over the loose-knit Israelite tribal confederation. The biblical account traces all of Saul’s flaws as a leader back to a split with Samuel, who clearly never liked Saul or the idea of a king in the first place.
The entire Samuel-Saul conflict is basically a “church versus state” argument and reflects the view of the priests who wrote the Hebrew scriptures: only God, through his priests, should rule Israel. The priesthood felt that kings, who were a threat to their authority, were not a good idea, and the composers of these histories ultimately blamed the monarchy for all the misfortunes that befell Israel. The trouble begins when Saul tries to make a sacrifice before a battle and he mucks things up. As in a union whose rules dictate who does which jobs, making sacrifices was the priest’s job, and Samuel and the rest of the “priest union” are not happy when Saul infringes on their sacred turf. Before long, Samuel is secretly looking for a new and improved king. The aging prophet goes off to the little town of Bethlehem where the seven sons of a man named Jesse are paraded past him, but none of them passes muster. Samuel asks if there are any other sons and is told the youngest is out tending sheep. A young boy enters, handsome and eyes shining. He is the one, Samuel is told by God, and the old priest secretly anoints this shepherd boy: “And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”
BIBLICAL VOICES
And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail;…He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you not come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” (1 Sam. 17:4-9)
Who really killed Goliath?
This is how you probably remember it. After rejecting some armor loaned by Saul because it is too large, little David accepts the Philistine champion’s challenge, picks up five smooth stones and his shepherd’s sling, and sets out to meet this giant. The ten-foot-tall (“six cubits and a span”) Goliath laughs at the sight of the smallish shepherd. Then the first stone catches Goliath between the eyes and he falls down, unconscious. David takes Goliath’s sword, kills him, and calmly lops off the Philistine giant’s head.
Now a few “facts.” At the end of the Goliath story, Saul doesn’t know who David is. But in an earlier passage, David is seen playing the harp for Saul. Either Saul knows David or he doesn’t. This is another compelling piece of evidence for the idea that various sources were woven together to create this