David Then and Now: Double-Voiced Discourse in 1 Samuel 16.14–23
When Saul's servants suggest David for the job of court musician in 1 Sam. 16.14–23, they seem to ‘overnominate’ him. They describe the young shepherd boy as a ‘mighty man of valor’ and a ‘man of war’, titles clearly unsuitable for this youngest son of Jesse in the present literary context. Sch...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2013
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| In: |
Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Year: 2013, Volume: 38, Issue: 2, Pages: 201-215 |
| Further subjects: | B
double-voiced discourse
B David B M.M. Bakhtin B 1 Samuel 16 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | When Saul's servants suggest David for the job of court musician in 1 Sam. 16.14–23, they seem to ‘overnominate’ him. They describe the young shepherd boy as a ‘mighty man of valor’ and a ‘man of war’, titles clearly unsuitable for this youngest son of Jesse in the present literary context. Scholars have proposed various theories for understanding these enigmatic words: from source-critical reconstruction to chronological disjunction to anticipatory literary strategies. This article proposes that the difficulties posed by the words of Saul's nameless servants can be best understood as examples of the literary device described by Mikhail Bakhtin as double-voiced discourse. In this strategy, Saul's nameless servants speak both in their own voice and from their own perspective about a young shepherd boy but they also speak in another voice from a larger perspective about the shepherd-king, the warrior-poet. Reading the words of Saul's nameless servants as an example of double-voiced discourse not only solves the difficulties of this text but also provides a fruitful literary dialogue between a young shepherd and a man who would become the founder of Israel's monarchy. |
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| ISSN: | 1476-6728 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0309089213475401 |