When Heroes Love by Ackerman Susan;

Author:Ackerman, Susan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT004160, Literary Criticism/Gay and Lesbian, REL000000, Religion/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2005-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

As table 7.1 suggests, the primary tradition that introduces David as a warrior and courtier instead of as a young shepherd (1 Sam 16:14–23), although it differs from the variant narrative in its initial presentation of David’s attributes and in its account of how David became a part of Saul’s entourage, agrees with its counterpart in many other respects. It agrees, for example, that David prevailed over the Philistine champion Goliath in single-handed combat and also agrees that, whether David was only a shepherd boy or already a seasoned soldier when he engaged in this fight, he used no weapon other than a slingshot to defeat his opponent (cf. 1 Sam 17:49, the primary tradition, and 1 Sam 17:50, the variant account). More important for our purposes, though, is the fact that the primary tradition may agree with the variant in representing the relationship of David and Jonathan in homoeroticized terms. This is indicated already in the first scene in which Jonathan and David interact according to the primary narrative, 1 Sam 19:1–7.

First Samuel 19:1–7 tells the story of how Jonathan works to dissuade Saul, who has grown jealous of David’s extraordinary military prowess, from the king’s determination to kill David.38 In vv 4–6 of the text, in a conversation with Saul, Jonathan points out to his father that, however great the king’s jealousy, David has in fact done nothing to transgress against Saul. Rather, Jonathan reminds Saul of all David has done on Saul’s behalf, especially David’s defeat of the fearsome Goliath. Jonathan’s arguments in these verses are decidedly pragmatic in tone and political in nature: Saul’s kingship is not threatened but strengthened by David’s presence in the royal court, and hence David’s life should be spared. But in vv 1–2 of this passage, where Jonathan first learns of Saul’s murderous intentions and tells David of his resolve to try to stop his father, Jonathan’s motivation for interceding is described not in terms of political pragmatism but in terms of an emotional commitment to David: “Jonathan, Saul’s son, took great delight in David” (wiyhônātān ben-šā’ûl ḥāpēṣ bĕdāwīd mĕ’ōd; 1 Sam 19:1).

Jonathan’s emotional commitment to David, moreover, might be understood as eroticized in nature. The verb found in 1 Sam 19:1, ḥāpēṣ, “to delight in,” is significant in this regard, for while this term is sometimes used to describe the delight a subject feels for impersonal or intangible objects (material possessions such as gold, vineyards, and houses; abstractions such as long life, help, and deliverance; actions such as doing what is good and pleasing before God), it often figures in important ways in passages concerned with sexual desire and erotic love.39 In Esth 2:14, for example, King Ahasuerus of Persia is said to send for a particular woman from his harem a second time only if she “delighted” (ḥāpēṣ) him on the first occasion, which is to say only if he has found sexual pleasure with her. Similarly, in Gen 34:19, the Canaanite Shechem, son of Hamor, is said to

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