...Okay man, I remember verses 1-4 being taught to me as being, essentially, just an epic bromance when I was in Sunday school and when I initially read them for the study that was still how I was interpreting it but.
"Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul." is what my Bible says for verse 3 and now I'm just kind of reeling at how much I just...didn't think to actually read into what that actually might've meant from a queer perspective.
18 confuses me as well tho. I feel like there's a lot of context regarding marriage laws and traditions of the time that I simply am missing. It might be worth looking up the history of it and seeing what's there, though given the emphasis my own Bible places on David becoming the King's son-in-law there may be a political bent to the whole thing.
Tho David even seems to deliberately challenge Saul on this by saying "Who am I, and what is my life or my father's family that I should be son-in-law to the king?"
And later on in verse 23 David even seems to get a bit snarky with the servants: "Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing I am a poor and lightly esteemed man?"
I AM NOT SURE WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON THERE, but it almost reads to me as though he's getting very PA with the King there for this whole arranged marriage and was having none of it...Up until the King said the dowry would be one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, and then suddenly David was all for this marriage. Maybe he just...wanted a challenge...?
As for 11, my Bible doesn't say anything about an evil spirit but simply a distressing spirit...which is probably essentially the same thing but I am curious about the original line now. But I do think you're right in that Saul likely was bipolar or borderline. The idea of possession and spirits does have its roots in possibly being a way to describe what was going on with those who were dealing with a mental illness iirc.
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Date: 2014-06-16 06:32 am (UTC)"Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul." is what my Bible says for verse 3 and now I'm just kind of reeling at how much I just...didn't think to actually read into what that actually might've meant from a queer perspective.
18 confuses me as well tho. I feel like there's a lot of context regarding marriage laws and traditions of the time that I simply am missing. It might be worth looking up the history of it and seeing what's there, though given the emphasis my own Bible places on David becoming the King's son-in-law there may be a political bent to the whole thing.
Tho David even seems to deliberately challenge Saul on this by saying "Who am I, and what is my life or my father's family that I should be son-in-law to the king?"
And later on in verse 23 David even seems to get a bit snarky with the servants: "Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing I am a poor and lightly esteemed man?"
I AM NOT SURE WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON THERE, but it almost reads to me as though he's getting very PA with the King there for this whole arranged marriage and was having none of it...Up until the King said the dowry would be one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, and then suddenly David was all for this marriage. Maybe he just...wanted a challenge...?
As for 11, my Bible doesn't say anything about an evil spirit but simply a distressing spirit...which is probably essentially the same thing but I am curious about the original line now. But I do think you're right in that Saul likely was bipolar or borderline. The idea of possession and spirits does have its roots in possibly being a way to describe what was going on with those who were dealing with a mental illness iirc.