The reformed David(s) and the question of resistance to tyranny : reading the Bible in the 16th and 17th centuries
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The reformed David(s) and the question of resistance to tyranny : reading the Bible in the 16th and 17th centuries
（Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies, 601 . Scriptural traces : critical perspectives on the reception and influence of the Bible ; 3）（T & T Clark library of Biblical studies）
Bloomsbury, 2016, c2014
- : pbk
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Note
"First published 2014. Paperback edition first published 2016"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. [218]-228) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This study centers on the question: how do particular readers read a biblical passage? What factors govern each reading? DeLapp here attempts to set up a test case for observing how both socio-historical and textual factors play a part in how a person reads a biblical text. Using a reception-historical methodology, he surveys five Reformed authors and their readings of the David and Saul story (primarily 1 Sam 24 and 26). From this survey two interrelated phenomena emerge. First, all the authors find in David an ideal model for civic praxis-a "Davidic social imaginary" (Charles Taylor). Second, despite this primary agreement, the authors display two different reading trajectories when discussing David's relationship with Saul. Some read the story as showing a persecuted exile, who refuses to offer active resistance against a tyrannical monarch. Others read the story as exemplifying active defensive resistance against a tyrant.
To account for this convergence and divergence in the readings, DeLapp argues for a two-fold conclusion. The authors are influenced both by their socio-historical contexts and by the shape of the biblical text itself. Given a Deuteronomic frame conducive to the social imaginary, the paradigmatic narratives of 1 Sam 24 and 26 offer a narrative gap never resolved. The story never makes explicit to the reader what David is doing in the wilderness in relation to King Saul. As a result, the authors fill in the "gap" in ways that accord with their own socio-historical experiences.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Calvin and Beza Set the Stage
3. The Dutch David: William of Orange in Davidic Dress
4. Andrew Willet and the Jacobean David
5. Samuel Rutherford and the Scottish David
6. The David Story: Gap-Filling and Reading Strategies
7. Bibliography
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