Love in the Hebrew Bible by Park Song-Mi Suzie;

Author:Park, Song-Mi Suzie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 7255057
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing

JONATHAN AND DAVID’S RELATIONSHIP

The darker side of love, including betrayal, death, and dynastic collapse reaches its climax when Jonathan meets and befriends David. First Samuel 18 describes their intense introduction:

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul [nephesh] of Jonathan was bound to the soul [nephesh] of David, and Jonathan loved [ahav] him as his own soul [nephesh]. Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved [ahav] him as his own soul [nephesh]. (1 Sam. 18:1–3)

Like Saul who comes to love David quickly after their meeting, so also Jonathan falls victim to David’s charms and is immediately and repeatedly said to love David (1 Sam. 18:1, 3). This love, moreover, is so contagious that Saul and Jonathan’s love will quickly be followed by that of Michal, Jonathan’s sister and Saul’s daughter, the court, and the people of Israel (1 Sam. 18:16, 20, 22, 28).

Considering the charged introduction, interpreters have long wondered whether the story of David and Jonathan describes a same-sex relationship and whether these characters were gay or bisexual. Undoubtedly, this has led to an immense amount of scholarship. For the sake of our analysis of love, I will quickly summarize the various positions on this question, which largely fall within an interpretative spectrum.9

On the one end are those who view the tale of David and Jonathan as clearly indicative of a same-sex relationship.10 Nancy Wilson, for example, describes David as “the most clearly bisexual figure in the whole of the Bible,” and that Jonathan is “more truly gay” than David.11 Similarly, Theodore Jennings states that the introduction of Jonathan and David should be considered as “love at first sight,” and that, not just Jonathan, but Saul, too, had a sexual relationship with David.12 These overlapping sexual relationships are, according to Jennings, the basis of the conflict among the three.13

In the middle are those commentators who are less sure about how to classify David and Jonathan’s relationship.14 Noting that being gay and its meanings reflect contemporary understandings and designations of sexual identity, which differ from those in the ancient Near East, these scholars argue that the story of Jonathan and David’s relationship should be, at best, viewed as evincing homoerotic allusions, images, and terminology, many of which are comparable to similar images or ideas found in other ancient Near Eastern myths, such as the famous ancient Mesopotamian tale known as the Epic of Gilgamesh.15 Many of these commentators note that the story of David and Jonathan arises from the homosocial culture of the ancient Near East and ancient Israel, and therefore reflects the social, political, theological, and gender significance of male social bonds and connections.16

On the other end of the interpretative spectrum are those who view Jonathan and David’s story as largely devoid of homoerotic or same-sex meanings, terminology, or imagery. Instead, using William Moran’s influential article on love in Deuteronomy, these interpreters argue that love (ahav) in the stories about Jonathan and David, like in Deuteronomy, has a largely political or covenantal, not erotic, meaning.

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