1-4: These are the verses that suggest that David and Jonathon got married.
9: Jealousy is never a good look on humanity.
10: I still have issues with the idea of an evil spirit from God. An evil spirit sure, but not one from God. Perhaps Saul was bipolar?
14: My Bible suggests that "successful" could be substituted with "wise" in this translation. I think it's interesting and relevant that David was wise because the Lord was with him. Not that he won all his battles necessarily, but that he went into each battle with wisdom. The Lord didn't win the battles for him, He just granted him wisdom to see what was best, and let David make his own decisions. Kind of like we were talking in last chapter, that God doesn't win our battles for us, just gives us the tools to succeed and lets us fight on our own.
18: This is where I get confused by the possible marriage earlier. If David and Jonathon were married, why would a second marriage be a problem? Is it the possibility of children?
28-29: Why is he more afraid now that he knows David has God on his side AND that his daughter loves David? What about his daughter loving David makes Saul anxious?
...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.
I love the queer reading of this because it makes so much sense. I was taught epic bromance too, but man. Taking in a queer reading of these two makes their relationship so much stronger imo.
He'd already turned down one marriage to the king's other daughter too, so yeah, I don't get what the big deal was. I think you're right, and we're missing a whole lot of context here. Idk if he wanted a challenge or if he felt he had to earn a place in the king's family or if maybe he was happy with Jonathon and didn't want to take on another marriage...
My problem is not with whether or not it was possession exactly, so much as I dislike the idea of something evil being sent from God. But I think that yeah, bipolar disorder or maybe even early-onset Alzheimer's could explain Saul's issues.
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9: Jealousy is never a good look on humanity.
10: I still have issues with the idea of an evil spirit from God. An evil spirit sure, but not one from God. Perhaps Saul was bipolar?
14: My Bible suggests that "successful" could be substituted with "wise" in this translation. I think it's interesting and relevant that David was wise because the Lord was with him. Not that he won all his battles necessarily, but that he went into each battle with wisdom. The Lord didn't win the battles for him, He just granted him wisdom to see what was best, and let David make his own decisions. Kind of like we were talking in last chapter, that God doesn't win our battles for us, just gives us the tools to succeed and lets us fight on our own.
18: This is where I get confused by the possible marriage earlier. If David and Jonathon were married, why would a second marriage be a problem? Is it the possibility of children?
28-29: Why is he more afraid now that he knows David has God on his side AND that his daughter loves David? What about his daughter loving David makes Saul anxious?
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"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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He'd already turned down one marriage to the king's other daughter too, so yeah, I don't get what the big deal was. I think you're right, and we're missing a whole lot of context here. Idk if he wanted a challenge or if he felt he had to earn a place in the king's family or if maybe he was happy with Jonathon and didn't want to take on another marriage...
My problem is not with whether or not it was possession exactly, so much as I dislike the idea of something evil being sent from God. But I think that yeah, bipolar disorder or maybe even early-onset Alzheimer's could explain Saul's issues.