David's Apology Turns Murder Into Scripture

The Bible is introduced as the most important book ever because it has driven history and is still driving history. Source trail 0:00 Good morning. So today we start the Bible, which will be the final unit before the semester break. Hopefully, this will be the most interesting section we do. It's certainly the most important, because the Bible is the... The Middle East, Israel and Iran, Palestine, and the emotions around holy scripture cannot be understood if the Bible is treated as a dead object. It is alive as authority, conflict, memory, and controversy.

That authority is exactly why it has to be doubted. Source trail 1:112:24 make arguments in this class that go against not only the traditional understanding of the Bible, but also the mainstream academic understanding of the Bible. So to be fair, to you, I want you to be very skeptical of wh...of different works, by many different authors so there's no worldview or consistency or continuity in the Bible you can find whatever you want in the Bible because it's such a it's a library it's a huge collection of id... The lecture opens by asking students to doubt the lecturer's authority, then defines the Bible not as one book but as a library: many works, many authors, many contradictions, and no single continuous worldview. You can find almost anything in it because a library is not one voice.

The first correction is that Jewish religion was not always monotheistic. The claim of timeless monotheism is treated as a later idea retroactively placed back into the past. The second correction is continuity: Israelites and later Jews are not simply the same people under the same religion. The third correction is history itself. The Bible's power is not that it records history faithfully; its power is that it can organize imagination as if it were history Lens point world-making-media Symbolic media make worlds when they give people the language, memory, images, roles, scripts, and emotional grammar through which reality becomes livable and action feels natural. The same mechanism can found civilization, legitimate power, coordinate without command, or detach an institution from material constraint. Source trail 10:19 We've been trying for at least 3,000 years. 300 years, 200 years, to prove that the Bible is a historical record. There are archaeologists who have spent fortunes, their entire lifetimes, looking for things like Noah's... .

The Bible tells a story of Abraham, covenant, David, and the eternal house of David. Source trail 11:2712:40 one more part of the story that Jesus was involved Maybe about 2,000 BCE, there's a man named Abraham. And he's from the city of Uruk, okay? In Mesopotamia. Or is it Ur? Okay, it's one of the two, sorry. And then God, Y...I will make Israel into the mightiest of nations, okay? So that is what it says in the Bible. The historical record is a lot more complicated, all right? So let's start in the year 1200 BCE. And this is... Towards the e... The historical argument starts elsewhere: around 1200 BCE, at the end of the Bronze Age, in the Levant. The Levant matters because it is the crossroads or nexus of empire, pressed between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia.

Before it is Israel, the Levant is a meeting place: traders, local elites, foreign mercenaries, nomads, hill people, cities, and exiled or marginal Egyptian priests. Source trail 14:0115:2616:48 This is where human civilization first developed mathematics. Writing. Astronomy. Architecture, okay? And up here are the Hittites, or Anatolia. Anatolia, again, is extremely wealthy. So the Levant is sort of sandwiched...So the Levant was really the center of the world for most of its history. And so it was a meeting place, mainly for traders, right? At this time, Levant was divided into different sections. A province called Canine was... It is not a nation. It is a melting pot of cultures, languages, and religions. That diversity will later require a story strong enough to make many peoples imagine themselves as one.

The Bronze Age collapse brings mass migration. Source trail 16:4818:1519:19 Lots of nomads, people we call the Bedouins. You also had people living in the hills of the Levant, the hill people. And you have these cities, okay? The Canaanites. You also had, believe it or not, Egyptian priests liv...These are called the Sea Peoples. They're basically like pirates. And there are these massive waves of Sea People attacking the Hittites, attacking the Levant, and attacking Egypt. And again, these are like refugees, ok... The Sea Peoples are described as pirates and refugees at once, families looking for food and attacking settled powers. Egypt contains them by giving them land in the Levant, and the Philistines become a new aggressive presence. The diverse peoples around them need a military alliance, so Saul becomes king and David enters the story as a mercenary.

David is not introduced as a saint. Source trail 20:3621:57 David. David is an extremely capable, charismatic soldier who develops a following. David, as you can imagine, because he's very charismatic, is also very ambitious, and eventually he has a falling out with Saul, okay?...So these alliances are always shifting, okay? So David goes off and fights for the Philistines. King Saul and his sons are eventually killed in battle, and David sees a political opening. So he turns back into Levant, a... He is an extremely capable, charismatic, ambitious soldier in a world where allegiance is fluid: if it benefits me, I fight for you; if it does not, I betray you. Saul dies, David sees the opening, wins the civil war, unites the factions, and creates a small empire called Israel.

After David, the structure falls apart. Source trail 23:1924:57 But David is so charismatic that when he dies, his son Solomon is not able to hold the empire together. So what happens is Israel divides into the northern kingdom and Judah, which is where the house of David is, okay?...and have them govern the Levant based on... and have them govern the Levant, okay? Does that make sense? And it is only at this point that we get the term Jews, okay? This is a Persian idea, the Jews. Before, they were... Solomon cannot hold the empire, Israel splits into the northern kingdom and Judah, Assyria destroys the north, Babylon destroys Judah, and the elite are taken away. Persia later defeats Babylon, returns the elites, and only then does the term Jews appear. Before that, in this chronology, they are Israelites.

That return changes the religion. Source trail 24:5726:1427:4429:05 and have them govern the Levant based on... and have them govern the Levant, okay? Does that make sense? And it is only at this point that we get the term Jews, okay? This is a Persian idea, the Jews. Before, they were...But after the Persian... but after the Persian Empire returns them to Judaism, they became a monotheistic religion, or the beginnings of a monotheistic religion. Why? Because when the Jews are... released from captivity... Israelite religion is polytheistic, with Yahweh in a pantheon. After Persian return and contact with Zoroastrianism, it begins becoming monotheistic. Power shifts from kings to priests, and a religion once forced to tolerate many cults becomes capable of intolerance because priests now speak for the one God.

The Bronze Age collapse matters because without it there is no Israel in this account. Source trail 30:3832:05 it's the Bronze Age collapse that allowed the Assyrians and the Babylonians to eventually become world powers. So the Bronze Age collapse was not a global phenomenon. It was a localized phenomenon to the Mediterranean,...Yep. Yeah, that's fine. Yep. Okay. So that's a good question. So the argument I'm trying to make to you is, the Bible says Abraham is a patriarch of the Israelites. But the historical record, the archaeological record i... Egypt or the Hittites would have continued to dominate the Levant. The same collapse gives the West its two pillars, Greece and the Bible. The patriarchal story says Abraham founds Israel, but the archaeological record barely reaches David. The lecture's reversal is blunt: David, not Abraham, is the historical founder.

Exile makes religion sharper. Source trail 33:4234:5436:01 It's a polytheistic religion with a pantheon of gods, okay? And maybe Yahweh's at the top, or maybe Yahweh's co -equal, okay? We don't know. And at this point, there are many divergent religions, okay? But what happens...But once this religion goes off to Babylon, it's now divorced from the people, from local reality. So the elite can design it in a way that they think is most appropriate. And we call that fanatical. Does that make sens... In Israel, religion is mixed with local people, local compromises, and many factions. In Babylon, it is detached from that reality, so elites can design it more cleanly. Identity becomes more concrete because it has to survive away from home. Fluid religion becomes formed religion.

The Bible then becomes mythology and collective memory. Source trail 36:0137:22 Okay? Much more concrete. Does that make sense? And then what happens is, as it's, now that it's much more concrete, it now interacts with Zoroastrianism, which is the religion of the Persians. And at this point, the re...And this is a very common practice. The idea is this. Most kings, every king, obtains power through really nefarious means. Okay? They either kill a lot of people to obtain power, or maybe the younger brother kills the... Its first purpose is to explain and justify David, to create legitimacy for the house that came to power through violence. This is what an apology does. The king's rise may be nefarious, but the story says God willed it, circumstances forced his hand, and he was never ambitious.

Writing matters because it is expensive and elite. Writing back then is like movie making today: materials, scribes, and patronage are required. A king can sponsor a story that makes his rule necessary Lens point legitimacy-fiction Political spin becomes durable legitimacy when writing, priestly explanation, ritual use, and collective memory turn a crisis-management story into sacred or literary inheritance. Source trail 38:33 Okay? So remember, back at this point, the very idea of writing, it is new. It's a new technology. But it's also a very expensive technology. Meaning you need to buy the materials. Okay? Which are rare. But you also nee... . Once that technology exists, power can survive not only by winning battles but by producing the account through which later people understand the battles.

The Bible later accumulates factional schools. Source trail 39:5141:0842:24 Okay? To Judah. But the Northern Kingdom now needs its own mythology. Its own Bible. Right? And so a second Bible was created. The people who are in charge of the Bible, the priest class, are interested in promoting the...Okay? The J school. Don't worry about this. I'll explain to you next class what these things mean. The people who support the Northern Kingdom as legitimate house of Israel is called the E school. E. The school that sup... The David/Judah school, the Northern Kingdom school, the priestly school, and the school explaining Israel's collapse all want their place. Persia demands one religion and one document, so the materials are placed together. The result can read like a mess because the mess is the compromise.

Most people did not read the Bible. Priests controlled the oral explanation Lens point legitimacy-fiction Political spin becomes durable legitimacy when writing, priestly explanation, ritual use, and collective memory turn a crisis-management story into sacred or literary inheritance. Source trail 43:29 So the Bible itself didn't really matter. What mattered was the oral explanation of the Bible controlled by the priest class. Does that make sense? The people didn't read the Bible. So how the Bible was actually written... , so textual neatness mattered less than political inclusion. The Bible is political real estate, the most valuable symbolic territory in the world. Everyone wants to be in it because to be in it is to have legitimacy, power, and a claim on history.

Kings have three problems: legitimacy, identity, and differentiation. Source trail 45:21 Any questions so far before I continue? Alright. So the last thing I want to talk about today is the apology of David which is the beginning of the Bible. Okay. So when kings come to power they have three major problems... They must explain why they have the right to rule, create a shared identity for people who may not belong together, and separate the new people from former cultures. David's Israel has exactly those problems because it is multicultural from the start.

The Aeneid shows the same machinery in Rome. It gives Augustus descent from Aeneas, makes him the endpoint of Roman history, turns him into the salvation and redemption of Rome, and replaces republican liberty with piety and loyalty. It also tells Rome that Greek culture is a Trojan horse Lens point story-control A story becomes Trojan-horse control when power cannot erase an inherited world, so it enters through familiar beauty, trust, or education and reverses that world's moral charge until the old virtues feel dangerous. Source trail 47:53 The third idea is the Inead remember it's anti -Greek. The problem for Rome at that time was Greek culture was vastly superior to Roman culture and so a lot of Romans were adopting Greek cultural practice like Mark Anth... . Literature solves legitimacy, identity, and differentiation at once.

David's problem is sharper because he stole Saul's throne. Source trail 47:5349:28 The third idea is the Inead remember it's anti -Greek. The problem for Rome at that time was Greek culture was vastly superior to Roman culture and so a lot of Romans were adopting Greek cultural practice like Mark Anth...Saul is the king that everyone picked or elected and he was a good king. He was good at war. He was someone that most people liked. And David took stole the throne from him. Okay? So now what is David's problem now that... If he can steal it, others can steal it from him. The apology therefore has to show the opposite of what the political record suggests. David must love Saul, serve Saul, and lack ambition. The first layer of the apology is not greatness. It is non-ambition.

The cave story is theatre. Source trail 50:3451:30 Okay? Trying to kill David and his followers. One one day Saul is alone in a cave praying to God for deliverance. David sees Saul alone and he sneaks up behind Saul. Then he takes his sword and cuts a piece of Saul's cl...But this is what the Bible is trying to do. It's trying to first show us that David is not all ambitious. In fact the entire apology of David is focused on the lack of ambition of David. Okay? So that's the first story.... David can kill Saul but cuts his clothing instead, then displays the cloth as proof: I could have killed you, but I did not because I love you. The story cannot be true in this reading because it is too perfectly fitted to the apology's need. It makes David's ambition disappear into loyalty.

The Abner story works the same way. Source trail 52:3954:14 comes David gives him a feast and then as Abner leaves he runs into David's general named Joab Joab and Joab and Abner go a long way Joab's brother and in an act of anger Joab stabs Abner to death and Abner is dead and...but the reason is this if you're David and you're king which person in the world are you most afraid of if you're the king there's a person in this world you're most afraid of or you're most suspicious of who is that pe... Abner defects toward David, Joab kills him, and David publicly curses Joab and gives Abner a great funeral. The official version says Joab acted from private anger. The political logic says otherwise: if Joab truly acted independently, David would have to kill him, because Joab controls the army.

David has Abner killed because Abner is a traitor, and David understands traitors because he is one. Source trail 55:1956:35 had to kill Abner because he was ordered to by David right now why would David want Abner to be killed because in his mind he thinks oh if Abner can betray he can also betray the house of David he is an ambitious man an...spin is it's almost impossible to see the truth from this right if you're a person you know okay um David uh um you know that Job killed Abner and you were told this story you would believe this story it's just because... He betrayed Saul, so he knows how dangerous a man like Abner can be. That knowledge cannot be admitted publicly, because admitting it would reveal David's own path to power. Good spin makes the truth almost impossible to see.

The third story begins with Bathsheba and Uriah. Source trail 57:3758:4959:54 across from him is a woman named Bathsheba Bathsheba and she's bathing naked and David is overcome with lust he's like I must have this woman okay and he's king he orders his servant to go get her she comes they have se...and Uriah thinks oh the king has called for me therefore it's an emergency okay so he rushes back and David meets Uriah at his house and David says listen Uriah you've been just doing such a great job um you're such a g... David sees Bathsheba, takes her, and she becomes pregnant. He tries to make Uriah go home so the child can be disguised as his, but Uriah refuses pleasure while his comrades suffer. His loyalty blocks the cover story, so David gives him a letter carrying his own death sentence to Joab.

Nathan's parable is brilliant because it redirects the crime. Source trail 59:541:01:011:02:11 and the letter instructs Joab to kill Uriah he Joab will send Uriah with his soldiers out in the battlefield and then at the last minute Joab will recall his soldiers leaving Joab by himself at this point the enemies wi...who's in the wrong and David says of course the rich shepherd is in the wrong he's indignant he's angry how could a man be so unrighteous as to steal another man's sheep and then Nathan says you David are the rich sheph... The rich shepherd steals the poor shepherd's sheep, David condemns him, and Nathan says David is that man. The reader remembers theft, wife, desire, punishment, mourning, poetry. But the real crime is murder. The story has made you forget that David had Uriah killed.

Uriah is killed because he is a popular brave soldier with the loyalty of the army. Source trail 1:02:111:03:33 this logic what is David's crime real crime guys he killed Uriah right you understand you've you've forgotten this fact he had Uriah killed that's a real crime he killed Uriah yeah he slept with Bathsheba that's bad but...killed in other words this Bathsheba thing must have come later to disguise the fact that David killed Uriah because he feared Uriah's popularity does that make sense right do you see how clever this story is the histor... He is David's mirror: a soldier who could become politically dangerous in the same way David became dangerous to Saul. Bathsheba comes later as disguise. The political explanation becomes emotional explanation: God is God, I am a man, I am a king, I cannot control my emotions.

The irony is that the disguise is powerful. Because David is working so hard to disguise his ruthlessness, he creates leadership literature. The story makes readers ask what man is, what God is, whether human beings can control emotion, and what moral failure means. Propaganda becomes literature because it has to hide the crime deeply enough to survive Lens point legitimacy-fiction Political spin becomes durable legitimacy when writing, priestly explanation, ritual use, and collective memory turn a crisis-management story into sacred or literary inheritance. Source trail 1:03:331:04:54 killed in other words this Bathsheba thing must have come later to disguise the fact that David killed Uriah because he feared Uriah's popularity does that make sense right do you see how clever this story is the histor...for a long time if you think about it if you think a lot about the story it unleashes a lot of ideas in you okay you have to ask yourself what is man what is God are we capable of controlling our emotions so in other wo... .

Why believe it? Many did not. Source trail 1:06:141:07:34 that make sense okay any questions about this okay that's a great question okay so the question is why would people believe this apology of of David and well the answer is most didn't believe the apology of David okay m...media or American media I I know a lot of history to understand the media is is distorting reality okay but uh most people will will believe this because they have absolutely no interest in not believing it right David'... But a king imposes reality on others, and the story is meant for people in David's coalition who want to believe. Not believing would mean accepting that the king is a murderer. Spin works when belief serves the believer.

The mainstream reading, as presented here, says the Bathsheba story must be true because it puts David in a bad light. Source trail 1:07:341:08:43 media or American media I I know a lot of history to understand the media is is distorting reality okay but uh most people will will believe this because they have absolutely no interest in not believing it right David'...makes David great right he's constantly praying to God in fact the Bible just goes on endlessly about this how David is constantly in communication with God and in this communication he's praying and asking for light fo... It makes him honest, prayerful, self-reflective, a poet king wrestling with weakness. The counter-reading is that this is exactly the brilliance of the apology. The bad light is useful because it hides a worse darkness.

The final mechanism is writing. Source trail 1:10:07 or how would they know this story okay so the idea is this first of all this was written for the elite for the people around David to know what story to tell people doesn't matter doesn't make sense okay so this was for... The story is written for elites, for internal consumption, so they know what to tell people and how to preserve David's legacy. Wait twenty years, let the people who knew Uriah and Bathsheba die, and truth becomes what is written down. History is not written by the winners. History is written by the writers.