David taunting Goliath: divine judgment and messianic expectation

Hale, Kevin William (2020) David taunting Goliath: divine judgment and messianic expectation. MTh(R) thesis, University of Glasgow in partnership with Edinburgh Theological Seminary.

Abstract

This thesis examines the use of the taunting language used by David and Goliath against each other in 1 Samuel 17 and its usefulness in understanding both the David and Goliath narrative and 1 Samuel as a whole, particularly as it pertains to the themes of messiah and king. The research examines such language in order to test the Christo-centric reading of the narrative. In the content of a literarily fascinating verbal onslaught, one finds a set of threats involving non-burial and carrion-eating animals that is linguistically, syntactically, and thematically similar to numerous threats throughout the Hebrew canon. When examined, one finds these judgement scenes to have both a common purpose of judgement and a common eschatological force. Further, when one examines, the taunting language of the David and Goliath narrative against Ancient Near Eastern literature, various linguistic and narrative parallels are found which appear to share a very similar rhetorical function to the taunting language of 1 Samuel 17:43-47. In light of the shared function of the Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern analogues to both the taunting language of 1 Samuel 17 and the David and Goliath narrative as a whole, one rightly reads the latter as a purposeful text designed with a particular function related to divine judgement, authority, and eschatological force - ideas that are brought together in the themes of messiah and king thus supporting a Christo-centric reading. This function of the David and Goliath narrative provides a clue to the potential purpose of its broader context. Indeed, when one situates 1 Samuel 17 in the broader narrative one finds that it is not an anomaly in how it functions but ties in with the narrative of 1 Samuel as a whole.

• Item Type: Thesis (MTh(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: David, Goliath, taunting, non-burial, messianic, messiah, Old Testament Messianism, 1 Samuel, curse.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BR Christianity; B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BS The Bible
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Theology and Religious Studies
• Supervisor's Name: MacLeod, Prof. John Angus and Adams, Dr. Sean
• Date of Award: 2020
• Depositing User: Rev. Kevin Hale
• Unique ID: glathesis:2020-80253
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 16 Mar 2020 16:44
• Last Modified: 07 Sep 2022 14:13
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.80253
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/80253