The Bible TI251 Fall 2020

During the discussion today, something that crossed my mind was how people knew who the prophets were. Did they themselves proclaim to be called by God to be a prophet or did the majority of the people recognize the wisdom the prophets carried and they declare them as prophets? This also gets me thinking whether they knew during the time they were living in, before any of the prophets’ predictions came true or weren’t fulfilled, if they were false prophets or if they actually knew what was going to happen in the future because of what they were told by God. It’s easy to see who in the Bible were the prophets because we now see whether their predictions came true or not. How the people who were actually living with the prophets knew they were who they claimed to be, I still do not understand.

When you Google ‘prophet’ the first definition that pops up is “a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God.” With this definition in mind, figures like Ezekiel, Jesus, and Moses fit into the criteria for being a prophet. In class we talked about how the only way to reveal a false prophet was to wait and see if their premonitions/predictions of future events actually came to pass. It seems strange now to entrust so much into the counseling and advice from a fortune teller. The idea of a false prophet reminded me of the sci-fi game, Halo, where the main antagonist is an alien hegemony (called the Covenant) led by false prophets. Long-story short, humanity posed a threat to the entire pyramid scheme of the zealous alien hegemony. The blind faith of the followers of the fictitious Covenant and the faith placed into prophets of the Bible’s writing correlated with each other in my head during class. More of a random post, but Biblical texts and structures influence other media around us.

In class we discussed if King David really existed or not. I enjoyed being able to explore this idea and whether or not he was a real king or a fictional character. From what I read, it seemed there is not much physical evidence to suggest King David existed. There is some new evidence coming into play, however. There were a couple stones found that supposedly had information about King David on them. There have also been a few discoveries about where King David lived. However, most of these sites seem to have a strong bias towards wanting King David to be real. Therefore, it does not seem like there is currently any physical proof that King David was a real person.

I enjoyed going more in depth on the Kings of Israel. I especially enjoyed it because in fourth grade I was in the children’s choir at my church and I played King Saul in our yearly play. My “portrayal”, if you can even call it that, was King Saul being very angry and aggressive, which was not reflected at least in what we read for class. I always get excited when I hear people reference King Saul because of this but I didn’t have the same emotional attachment to him when reading the David and Goliath story. We have a recorded version of my play and when I go home I would be interested to compare that satirical and childish version of King Saul, to what we read in the Bible. I predict many differences as we know there are many differences between what we are told about the Bible as children versus as adults, one example being the beheading of Goliath.

In class, we started out with the topic of David and Goliath. This story is definitely one of the more notable stories from the Bible, and many learned about it from a young age. As the Israelites and the Phillistines were at war, they sent their greatest warrior, Goliath, to fight. As a kid, I imagined that he was this huge giant up against a little kid, David. I remember how cool it was that David killed Goliath with simply a stone (and also beheading him, but obviously they never taught us that) and then he later become King. It was an inspiring story of an “underdog” rising up and defeating a great big warrior. “He’s big, but God’s bigger!” I remember the Veggie Tales episode of the story. It’s interesting to think that we’re not sure if the reign of David happened, or if he even existed. I have never questioned this before, but being in this class has presented many other things that we question the historicity of, like the Exodus. It’s good that we have the tools to research and find evidence to find whether these things actually happened or not.

When I think of King David, my mind goes straight to the David and Goliath story in the Bible. Then I go straight to thinking about his reign as king and the length, the joys and laments that were written in the book of Psalm, and how prosperous the time was. But the misogyny that he expressed is not something that really came to mind before this lesson. It is right there in the Bible where I learned the other aspects of David, but I had skipped over those sections or really didn’t pay much attention to them if I read over them. Sometimes this is can be connected to powerful people who have great aspects to them like leading or a big donation to support a cause, but they do some shady acts and it is hidden from the public. Yes, it is a person and they should have privacy, but when there are people that the press picks and chooses to expose for devious acts it leads you to question why this particular person is being propped on a pedestal? Definitely, David was a great ruler, but also why was his bad side swept to the side when teaching about him, I feel that by teaching these facts can show that even the kings were human and that what he did was wrong.

Another thing that I hadn’t questioned before was the existence of David. To really think about how King David might not have existed is mind-boggling, but when presented with the facts from archaeology, this really is a controversial topic. It is interesting to see the comparisons between what archaeologists have found and how it aligns to the teachings of the Bible. From one article that I read, it clearly stated that the Bible is not a historical recount, but a religious document. But, I think that historians and archaeologists look into the stories of the Bible to try and draw out the truth behind it to see how it existed.

When I was younger, I did attend some bible school and a “vacation bible school” camp.  I do vividly remember picture Goliath as some giant, towering man who could crush a village with his foot, and David some small guy who hit Goliath with a rock and he fell down.  I have always been inspired by this story, and even if it wasn’t completely how the story goes (who would’ve thought they wouldn’t teach kids about a beheading!) it still has the same inspiring theme despite some more adult situations within the actual story.

I was also very interested on the topic of “whether David raped Bathsheba or not” and was interested in researching whether King David actually did exist.  Now while I had heard the David and Goliath story, I had never heard any of this and didn’t know who Bathsheba was (I guess Veggie Tales doesn’t cover that part!).  So to find out that he potentially raped a woman was kind of shocking, but also interesting to learn at the same time as David always seems to be portrayed in such a positive light.

Today in class we talked about the story of King David. In class we talked about 1 Samuel 16. The story in which David is introduced.  It was said in class this story is estimated to be 1000 BCE. We later talked about the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. “51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.” In Sunday school I never learned that David chopped off Goliath’s head. In addition to this I had never realized David did a lot of things. David, waged war, he killed people and raped women. David however did turn into a King. His legacy would rule for generations and with it a supposed Empire. In class we talked about the legitimacy  of Davids Empire, However the only thing linked to him is the Les Dan. This was etched in stone and translated to “House of David”. Besides this the only other artifacts that have been found are structures but no direct correlation to David besides the estimated year of construction. David was a king who will go down in history as one of the most famous warriors and rulers due to his story in the Bible.

After today’s class discussion on David and Goliath, I vividly remember always comparing Goliath to a lion when I was younger.  Goliath is always described as undefeatable.  He, in essence, could be compared to a mighty beast, and because David had previously killed a lion before, it was easy to compare Goliath to a lion.  Goliath intimidated people! He threatened the Israelites, but David stood up and put up a fight, even though the odds seemed stacked against him.

Ever since I can remember, David has been so inspiring in this story.  I can relate to just how he felt so intimidated by this giant being standing in front of him.  Although they had a physical battle, I have had many battles that I have had to fight verbally, because of getting picked on.  So, in a lot of ways, I was very glad that we read this story.  It reminded me that even when I feel weak, God will give me strength if I trust in Him.  I think that this really speaks to me today because with everything going on and all the tensions that we see daily, it is important for us to remember that the evil (or Goliath) can be defeated, despite how undefeatable it may seem.  The devil is working through the evil in this world just as he worked through Goliath, but just like David, we can overcome it.

In Sunday-School, David was always told to me in a very positive light. He was often described as a just and noble king, but when I try to remember the stories about David, I was only told a very small portion of his battle with Goliath. I was certainly not told that David cut off Goliath’s head when he had won the battle. Every time a character from the Bible is mentioned in class that I recognize, I realize that the ink on the paper depicts a much more grim version of these characters that what was told to me at Sunday-School (maybe for the better when I was learning about these characters as a child). It’s horrific to read that David would send Uriah on a suicide mission out of jealousy after raping Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. The more we dive into the nitty gritty of the Bible, the more horrified I become that tales like these are written in the Bible. This book is definitely written for mature audiences only, and it’s astonishing how little I actually know about the Bible and its stories.