David Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Interpretation in Abrahamic tradition== ===Rabbinic Judaism=== David is an important figure in [[Rabbinic Judaism]], with many legends about him. According to one tradition, David was raised as the son of his father Jesse and spent his early years herding his father's sheep in the wilderness while his brothers were in school.<ref name="Ginzberg 1909">{{cite book |title= The Legends of the Jews|url= https://archive.org/details/legendsofjews0007ginz|last= Ginzberg|first= Louis|year= 1909|publisher= Jewish Publication Society|location= Philadelphia}}</ref> David's adultery with Bathsheba is interpreted as an opportunity to demonstrate the power of repentance, and the Talmud says it was not adultery at all, citing a Jewish practice of divorce on the eve of battle. Furthermore, according to Talmudic sources, Uriah's death was not murder, because Uriah had committed a capital offense by refusing to obey a direct command from the King.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=82&letter=D#260|title=David|website=jewishencyclopedia.com|access-date=2014-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011100050/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=82&letter=D#260|archive-date=2011-10-11|url-status=live}}</ref> However, in tractate Sanhedrin, David expressed remorse over his transgressions and sought forgiveness. God ultimately forgave David and Bathsheba but would not remove their sins from Scripture.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin|page=107a}}</ref> In [[Legends of the Jews|Jewish legend]], David's sin with Bathsheba is the punishment for David's excessive self-consciousness. He had besought God to lead him into temptation so that he might give proof of his constancy like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who successfully passed the test and whose names later were united with God's, while David failed through the temptation of a woman.<ref name="Ginzberg 1909"/> According to [[midrashim]], [[Adam]] gave up 70 years of his life for the life of David.<ref>Zohar Bereishis 91b</ref> Also, according to the [[Talmud Yerushalmi]], David was born and died on the Jewish holiday of [[Shavuot]] (Feast of Weeks). His piety was said to be so great that his prayers could bring down things from Heaven.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Ginzberg | first1 = Louis | translator-last = Szold | translator-first = Henrietta | title = Legends of the Jews | website = [[Sefaria]] | date = 1909 | url = https://www.sefaria.org/Legends_of_the_Jews.4.4.50?lang=en | access-date = October 26, 2021 }}</ref> ===Christianity=== {{Infobox saint | name = King David the Prophet | birth_date = | death_date = | feast_day = December 29, 6 October – Roman Catholicism | venerated_in = [[Roman Catholicism]]<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://catholicsaints.info/king-david/| title=King David| date=2008-10-28| access-date=2019-09-16| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420233200/http://catholicsaints.info/king-david/| archive-date=2019-04-20| url-status=live}}</ref><br/>[[Eastern Orthodoxy]]{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}<br/>[[Oriental Orthodoxy]] | image = 5201-king-david-in-prayer-pieter-de-grebber.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = ''King David in Prayer'', by [[Pieter de Grebber]] ({{Circa|1640}}) | birth_place = | death_place = | titles = Holy Monarch, Prophet, Reformer, Spiritual Poet and Musician, Vicegerent of God, Psalm-Receiver | beatified_date = | beatified_place = | beatified_by = | canonized_date = | canonized_place = | canonized_by = | attributes = [[Psalms]], [[Harp]], Head of [[Goliath]] | patronage = | suppressed_date = | issues = | prayer = | prayer_attrib = }} {{See also|Genealogy of Jesus|Davidic line}} The Messiah concept is fundamental in Christianity. Originally an earthly king ruling by divine appointment ("the anointed one", as the title [[Messiah]] had it), in the last two centuries BCE the "son of David" became the apocalyptic and heavenly one who would deliver Israel and usher in a new kingdom. This was the background to the concept of Messiahship in early Christianity, which interpreted the career of Jesus "by means of the titles and functions assigned to David in the mysticism of the Zion cult, in which he served as priest-king and in which he was the mediator between God and man".<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152497/David "David"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090819074455/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/152497/David |date=2009-08-19 }} article from ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online''</ref> The early Church believed that "the life of David foreshadowed the life of Christ; [[Bethlehem]] is the birthplace of both; the shepherd life of David points out Christ, [[The Good Shepherd (Christianity)|the Good Shepherd]]; the five stones chosen to slay Goliath are [[Typology (theology)|typical]] of the [[Holy Wounds|five wounds]]; the betrayal by his trusted counsellor, [[Ahitophel]], and the passage over the [[Kidron Valley|Cedron]] remind us of Christ's [[Passion (Christianity)|Sacred Passion]]. Many of the Davidic Psalms, as we learn from the New Testament, are clearly typical of the future Messiah."<ref name=corbett>John Corbett (1911) [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04642b.htm King David] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925212531/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04642b.htm |date=2007-09-25 }} ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' (New York: Robert Appleton Company)</ref> In the [[Middle Ages]], "[[Charlemagne]] thought of himself, and was viewed by his court scholars, as a 'new David'. [This was] not in itself a new idea, but [one whose] content and significance were greatly enlarged by him".<ref>{{cite book |last=McManners |first=John |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhpKxQT8n74C&pg=PA101 |page=101 |isbn=9780192854391 |date=2001-03-15 |publisher=OUP Oxford |access-date=2016-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209020220/https://books.google.com/books?id=DhpKxQT8n74C&pg=PA101 |archive-date=2016-02-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Latin liturgical rites|Western Rite]] churches ([[Lutheran]], [[Roman Catholic]]) celebrate David's feast day on 29 December or 6 October,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Zeno|title=Lexikoneintrag zu »David (8)«. Vollständiges Heiligen-Lexikon, Band 1. Augsburg 1858, ...|url=http://www.zeno.org/Heiligenlexikon-1858/A/David+(8)|access-date=2021-10-09|website=www.zeno.org|language=de}}</ref> Eastern-rite on 19 December.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160312173029/https://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1229.shtml Saint of the Day] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530061211/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1229.shtml |date=2008-05-30 }} for December 29 at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Washington, D.C.</ref> The [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] celebrate the [[feast day]] of the "Holy Righteous Prophet and King David" on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before the [[Great Feast]] of the [[Christmas|Nativity of the Lord]]) and on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (Sunday before the [[Christmas|Nativity]]), when he is commemorated together with other [[genealogy of Jesus|ancestors of Jesus]]. He is also commemorated on the Sunday after the Nativity, together with [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] and [[James, the Brother of the Lord]] and on 26 December (Synaxis of the Mother of God).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Пророк Дави́д Псалмопевец, царь Израильский |url=https://azbyka.ru/days/sv-david-car |access-date=2021-10-09 |website=azbyka.rudays |language=ru}}</ref> ====Middle Ages==== [[File:Arms of Ireland (Variant 1) (Historical).svg|thumb|left|upright=0.75|Coat of arms [[attributed arms|attributed]] to King David by mediaeval heralds.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lindsay of the Mount Roll |last=Lindsay of the Mount |first=Sir David|author-link=David Lyndsay|date=1542 |url=https://archive.org/stream/facsimileofancie00lind#page/n49/mode/2up|publisher=Edinburgh, W. & D. Laing |access-date=2015-06-21|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203022459/https://archive.org/stream/facsimileofancie00lind#page/n49/mode/2up|archive-date=2016-02-03}}</ref> (Identical to the [[Coat of arms of Ireland|arms of Ireland]])]] In European [[Christian culture]] of the [[Middle Ages]], David was made a member of the [[Nine Worthies]], a group of heroes encapsulating all the ideal qualities of [[chivalry]]. His life was thus proposed as a valuable subject for study by those aspiring to chivalric status. This aspect of David in the Nine Worthies was popularised first through literature, and thereafter adopted as a frequent subject for painters and sculptors. David was considered a model ruler and a symbol of [[Divine right of kings|divinely ordained monarchy]] throughout medieval [[Western Europe]] and [[Eastern Europe|Eastern]] [[Christendom]]. He was perceived as the biblical predecessor to Christian Roman and Byzantine emperors and the name "New David" was used as an honorific reference to these rulers.<ref name=Garipzanov>{{cite book|last1=Garipzanov|first1=Ildar H.|title=The Symbolic Language of Royal Authority in the Carolingian World (c. 751–877)|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004166691|pages=128, 225|year=2008}}</ref> The [[Kingdom of Georgia|Georgian]] [[Bagrationi|Bagratids]] and the [[Solomonic dynasty]] of [[Empire of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]] claimed direct [[Claim of the biblical descent of the Bagrationi dynasty|biological descent]] from him.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rapp|first=Stephen H. Jr. |title=Imagining History at the Crossroads: Persia, Byzantium, and the Architects of the Written Georgian Past |date=1997|publisher=Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan|page=528}}</ref> Likewise, kings of the [[Franks|Frankish]] [[Carolingian dynasty]] frequently connected themselves to David; [[Charlemagne]] himself occasionally used "David" his pseudonym.<ref name=Garipzanov/> ===Islam=== {{Main|David in Islam}} David (Arabic: داوود ''Dā'ūd'' or ''Dāwūd'') is an important figure in [[Islam]] as one of the major [[prophet]]s [[God]] sent to guide the [[Israelites]]. He is mentioned several times in the [[Quran]] with the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] name داود, ''Dāwūd'' or ''Dā'ūd'', often with his son [[Solomon in Islam|Solomon]]. In the Quran, David killed [[Goliath#Islam|Goliath]] ([[Q2:251]]), a giant soldier in the Philistine army. When David killed Goliath, God granted him kingship and wisdom and enforced it ([[Q38:20]]). David was made God's "[[vicegerent]] on earth" ([[Q38:26]]) and God further gave David sound judgment ([[Q21:78]]; [[Q37:21–24]], [[Q26]]) as well as the [[Psalms]], regarded as books of divine wisdom ([[Q4:163]]; [[Q17:55]]). The birds and mountains united with David in uttering praise to God ([[Q21:79]]; [[Q34:10]]; [[Q38:18]]), while God made iron soft for David ([[Q34:10]]),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://quran.com/34/10|title = Surah Saba - 10}}</ref> God also instructed David in the art of fashioning [[chain mail]] out of iron ([[Q21:80]]);<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://quran.com/21/80|title = Surah Al-Anbya - 80}}</ref> this knowledge gave David a major advantage over his [[bronze]] and [[cast iron]]-armed opponents, not to mention the cultural and economic impact. Together with Solomon, David gave judgment in a case of damage to the fields ([[Q21:78]]) and David judged the matter between two disputants in his prayer chamber ([[Q38:21–23]]). Since there is no mention in the Quran of the wrong David did to [[Uriah the Hittite|Uriah]] nor any reference to [[Bathsheba]], [[Muslim]]s reject this narrative.<ref>Wheeler, Brannon M. ''The A to Z of Prophets in Islam and Judaism'', "David"</ref> Muslim [[tradition]] and the ''[[hadith]]'' stress David's zeal in daily prayer as well as in [[fasting]].<ref>"Dawud". ''Encyclopedia of Islam''</ref> Quran commentators, historians and compilers of the numerous ''[[Stories of the Prophets]]'' elaborate upon David's concise quranic narratives and specifically mention David's gift in singing his Psalms, his beautiful recitation, and his vocal talents. His voice is described as having a captivating power, weaving its influence not only over man but over all beasts and nature, who would unite with him to praise God.<ref>''Stories of the Prophets'', Ibn Kathir, "Story of David"</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page