King David's biblical story may be partly a defence against accusations of murder
Giant-slayer, harpist, psalmist and ancestor of the Messiah: David is revered across three faiths. Yet historians find little about him that is concrete and undisputed. One long-running debate asks whether the Books of Samuel were written partly to clear his dynasty of charges of tyranny, murder and killing a king.
In the Hebrew Bible David, whose name means beloved one, is the youngest of Jesse of Bethlehem's eight sons. After God rejects Saul, the first king, for disobedience, the prophet Samuel secretly anoints the shepherd boy instead. David enters Saul's court as a lyre player to calm the king's tormenting spirit, then becomes a hero by felling the Philistine champion Goliath with a sling after refusing the royal armour. His popularity alarms Saul, who asks what else he could want but the kingdom.
What follows is a long flight. Jonathan, the king's own son and David's devoted friend, alerts him to the danger. David feigns madness to escape the Philistine city of Gath and hides in caves and wilderness. Twice he could kill the sleeping or unsuspecting king, once cutting a corner from Saul's robe in a cave at Ein Gedi, and twice he refuses to harm the Lord's anointed. Eventually he takes service with a Philistine king while secretly raiding other peoples. After Saul and Jonathan die in battle, Judah anoints David king at Hebron, and later all the tribes follow.
As king he captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites, makes it his capital and brings the Ark of the Covenant there, though the prophet Nathan says a son of his, not David, will build the temple. The story does not flatter him. He summons Bathsheba, gets her pregnant, and arranges for her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to die in battle. Nathan traps him with a parable and foretells that the sword will never leave his house, a prophecy borne out by family violence and his son Absalom's revolt. David dies at 70, naming Solomon his heir over the elder Adonijah.
Outside the text, certainty fades. His reign may date to around the 9th century BC, but both its timing and the kingdom's borders are disputed. Scholars argue over his bond with Jonathan, parallels with Homeric hero tales, and whether parts were written as late as the Hasmonean era. Matthew and Luke trace Jesus's descent from him, and the Quran calls him a king and a prophet.
Source: David
