WHy is King David Always held up as a great guy?

by zack 62 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  David is to Israel as Robin Hood is to Merry Olde England.

  He is "one of us" in his weakness and his strength. He is not the plaster saint with painted cheeks. David is a man's man and virile scamp.

  That he can be so "human" and so beloved of God endears him to readers. If David can screw up so badly and yet God LOVES HIM--there must be hope for me.

  The bible accounts of David refuse to reduce the personhood of David down to the evils he committed or the worst sins he embraced. The essence of David appears to be heroic purity vis a vis his God.

  Davidic lore hinges on God becoming a Jewish mother toward a naughty boy. Jehovah "tsk-tsks" at her boy's horrid antics as she punishes him. Yet, there is a soft spot in mother-Jehovah's heart and he really can do no wrong.

  Whoever the real David was Israel never got another character they loved more. Jesus, where he succeeded with Jews, fit David's prototype. Where Jesus failed it was as a Davidic king and man of action.

  All great Jewish leaders stand or fall in comparison to the legendary David.
• 

  Elsewhere

  He was an "Alpha Male"

  That's right!

  *** Starts pissing my name in the snow ***

  Elsewhere... such a hot-n-steamy name.
• 

  Cellist

  I don't know, Terry. I never liked King David. Not even when I was a zealous JW. He was selfishness to the extreme, cowardly, rude and just generally obnoxious. A loveable scamp he definitely was not. Right up to his final days he was a heartless lecher. He didn't have an ounce of natural affection, it was all outward show.
  
  He was definitely a sociopath.
  
  Cellist
• 

  nvrgnbk

  He was definitely a sociopath.

  Nicely put, sister.
• 

  anewme

  You are all sooooooo right on!!!!
  
  David was a bad man!
  
  
  How could we think for years he was such a great guy when he did so many awful things to others in the name of Jehovah????
  
  
  Definitely cult brainwashing.
• 

  willyloman

  Dubs look up to David as a shining example because dubs are followers of followers. Back in the day, the alpha males who started this religion revered David as their guy - he ruled with an iron fist, took what he wanted, when he wanted it, made no apologies, and marched to his own drummer. Rutherford and the others liked the looks of that model and copied it. He's their hero. The legend has been handed down. Dubs today don't question it, they just keep rewriting the old books and magazine articles and spitting them back out.
• 

  Narkissos

  Ancient characters (historical or fictional) we can only judge anachronistically...

  If our standard of social skills is being able to queue for half-an-hour at the supermarket quietly, they are unlikely to measure up (or down?). Especially an "ideal" king/warrior.

  Otoh, I find Terry's parallelism with Robin Hood quite good (mutatis mutandis, as ever).
• 

  Cellist

  I don't believe that he was even an ideal ancient king/warrior. He was quite often cowardly in his behaviour. For instance, he was afraid of his own army commander, Joab. Rather hard to understand when you compare that to his supposed attitude when facing Goliath.
  
  As far as judging him by the standards of his own time, even his contemporaries in the biblical accounts found him weird and difficult to understand.
  
  Cellist
  
  Edited to say: I agree that he's the perfect hero for the leaders of the WTS.
• 

  hillary_step

  Narkissos,

  Otoh, I find Terry's parallelism with Robin Hood quite good (mutatis mutandis, as ever).

  Or to put it less anachronistically, he robbed from the Bitch to give to the Whore.

  Any person who gets to have virgins as human hot-water bottles when he is definately wrinkled and probably impotent must have done something right, apart of course from being a National hero.

  HS
• 

  Narkissos

  Cellist:

  The David traditions in Samuel juxtapose very different ideologies, some which paint him as the ideal shepherd-king and warrior, and others which are clearly critical (or even anti-monarchic). Chronicles, otoh, characteristically tones down the "bad" (by slightly later standards).

  HS,

  he robbed from the Bitch to give to the Whore.

  Lol. (Mical being a case in point, 2 Samuel 6:20-24.)

  Any person who gets to have virgins as human hot-water bottles when he is definately wrinkled and probably impotent must have done something right, apart of course from being a National hero.

  The probable point of the story of the "sexy nurse" was precisely to show that he was impotent, hence unable to rule by ancient standards. So Adonijah thought his time had come (2 Kings 1:5).