Civilization #21: The Apology of King David of Israel

The Bible is the most important book ever written. It has driven a lot of history, and it's driving a lot of history today. If you want to fully understand the conflict in the Middle East—what's happening between Israel and Iran, what's happening in Palestine—you cannot do so without a full understanding of the Bible.

At the same time, because it's so important, the ideas around it are very controversial. There are billions of people around the world who believe the Bible is the word of God, that it's Holy Scripture, and that every word in it comes to us from the Divine. Obviously, that's not what I believe. More so, I'm going to make arguments that go against not only the traditional understanding of the Bible but also the mainstream academic understanding. I want you to be very skeptical of what I say. Come with doubts about my authority and my understanding of the Bible. Feel free to challenge me, because what I will say will be extremely controversial.

An Introduction to the Bible's Structure

The word Bible is Greek for "books," and it really means a library. The first thing you need to understand is that the Bible is a collection of different works by many different authors. There's no single worldview, consistency, or continuity. You can find whatever you want in the Bible because it's a huge collection of ideas—about 2,000 pages. Very few people actually read the Bible in its entirety. People might read certain sections, but most will receive their understanding of the Bible from authorities like priests or rabbis.

The Bible itself is divided into two major sections.

The Hebrew Bible (The Tanakh)

The first section is what we call the Hebrew Bible, which was originally written in Hebrew and is the major book of the Jews. The Hebrew term for the Bible is the Tanakh (T-N-K). This is an acronym for its three major sections:

• T stands for Torah, or "teachings." This is the laws of the Jewish tradition, for example, the Ten Commandments.
• N stands for Nevi'im, or "prophets." The prophets themselves are divided into minor and major. In Rome, the most admired people were the generals like Julius Caesar and Pompey. In Greece, they were the poets like Homer and the playwrights. In the Jewish tradition, the people who are most admired are the prophets—individuals who speak the truth of God. They are social critics who challenge the authority of the kings in order to promote the laws and teachings of God.
• K stands for Ketuvim, or "writings." This is basically things that don't really belong in teachings and prophets but which have some cultural or religious significance to the Jewish people.

The New Testament

Then we get to the New Testament, which is something that only Christians believe. Jewish people do not accept anything in the New Testament. The New Testament calls the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament. Why? Because the Old Testament is seen as the promise of salvation, the promise of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the deliverance or the fulfillment of this promise in Jesus Christ—his coming and his work.

The New Testament itself is divided into many different works and is a lot smaller than the Old Testament.

• The Gospels: "Gospel" is Greek for the "good word" or "good news." The good news is that Jesus is on Earth and he's here to deliver us from our sins and our suffering.
• Letters: These were mainly written by someone named Paul. They are the work of Jesus's apostles who, after the death of Jesus, went around the world to promote the Gospel.
• Revelation: This is a major book about the end of the world and the idea of the Second Coming—how even though Jesus is dead, he will return and bring eternal peace to the world.

From the Bible and its interpretation comes the Quran, which is the basis for Islam. Eventually, we'll cover all three: the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran. We'll start with the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible.

Challenging Three Foundational Myths

To understand the Hebrew Bible, I will have to teach you a lot of history. This history will be extremely broad, but over time I will be more precise. There are three ideas about the Hebrew Bible that Jews today believe which are not true.

1. The Myth of Monotheism: The first idea is that the Jewish religion has always been monotheistic, meaning the Jews have always believed in one God, Yahweh, who has been the god of the Jews since Abraham, the patriarch of all Jewish people. I will show you this is not true. In the beginning, Jewish people, like everyone else, were polytheistic. Monotheism is a modern idea that has been retroactively put back into Jewish history.
2. The Myth of Continuity: The second myth is that Jewish history or the Jewish religion has been continuous for at least 3,000, possibly 4,000 years. I will show you that's not true. There have been many major changes to the religion, and these changes are so drastic that you can argue these are very different people. The Israelites are very different from the people we call Jews today.
3. The Myth of Historical Record: The last idea is that the Bible is a historical record. For at least 300 years, we've been trying to prove that the Bible is a historical record. Archaeologists have spent fortunes and entire lifetimes looking for things like Noah's Ark or people like Moses, and they can't find them. This tells us pretty conclusively that the Bible is not a historical record. It is a work of our imagination. It is a literary work—a very powerful literary work, and that's what explains its relevance and power today.

The Historical Context: The Levant at the End of the Bronze Age

The Bible tells you that maybe about 2000 BCE, there was a man named Abraham from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia. God (Yahweh) thought Abraham was the best man in the world, so he made a covenant with him, saying, "You are the most righteous and dignified man I've ever seen, and I will make you a father of a new nation called Israel." These people would eventually become the Israelites. The greatest king of the Israelites was named David, and God said to David, "You are the greatest man I've ever seen. I love you as you love me. Therefore, I will make your house, the House of David, eternal. The House of David will reign over Israel for all eternity. I will make Israel into the mightiest of nations."

That is what it says in the Bible. The historical record is a lot more complicated.

Let's start in the year 1200 BCE, towards the end of the Bronze Age. We're about to enter the Bronze Age Collapse, which lasts for about 100 years. At this time, the world's focus is on a place called the Levant.

The Levant has always been important. As we discussed in previously, it was one of the first centers of agriculture; Jericho is in the Levant. But it's also important because the Levant is where three major civilizations and empires meet. It is the crossroads or the nexus of empire. These three empires are:

• Egypt, which for most of human history has been the wealthiest and most powerful nation.
• Mesopotamia, the creative civilization where mathematics, writing, astronomy, and architecture first developed.
• The Hittites in Anatolia, which was also extremely wealthy.

The Levant is sort of sandwiched between three extremely aggressive, wealthy, and powerful nations that are extremely advanced and sophisticated. As such, the Levant has always been a colony of either Egypt or Anatolia. It has not been very independent for very long because it's at the edge of empire.

Because of its position, the Levant is what we call a meeting place. Every culture, every language, every religion imaginable at this time met in the Levant, mainly for trade purposes. From the Levant, you could go across the Mediterranean into all of Europe and into Northern Africa. The Levant was really the center of the world for most of its history.

At this time, the Levant was divided into different sections. A province called Canaan was a province of Egypt. Canaan was special to Egypt because the Egyptians loved two things: wine and olive oil, and the Levant was very good at harvesting both. But the Egyptians didn't really like to go outside Egypt, so the people administrating the Levant were local elites tied to Egypt, but also foreign mercenaries from as far as Greece. We know this because we've discovered Greek pottery that dates back to this period. These foreign mercenaries would then intermarry with local women.

You also had lots of nomads living in the Levant because of Arabia—people we call the Bedouins. You had people living in the hills, the "Hill People." You had the Canaanite cities. You also had, believe it or not, Egyptian priests living in this area. Why? Maybe they had a certain religion that was considered heretical or controversial in Egypt, so they had to leave. Or maybe they were priests who got into a political struggle and were exiled.

The Levant at this point is not a nation. It's a meeting place, a melting pot of cultures, languages, and religions. It's as diverse as can be.

The Bronze Age Collapse and the Rise of Israel

Then, of course, the Bronze Age Collapse happened.

What caused the Bronze Age Collapse?

We don't know exactly why it collapsed. The mainstream understanding is that it was a perfect storm of several factors, including climate change, civil unrest, natural disasters like earthquakes, and competition among empires. What's important to understand is that the Bronze Age Collapse was a localized phenomenon in the Mediterranean. If you go east to Mesopotamia, where the Assyrians and Babylonians were, they were fine. In fact, the collapse allowed the Assyrians and Babylonians to eventually become world powers.

The Bronze Age Collapse is important because it gives us Greek civilization—Homer and Plato—and it also gives us the Bible. If you look at this history, Israel would not have come into being without the collapse. Egypt or the Hittites would have continued to control the Levant. The Greeks and the Bible are the two fundamental pillars of Western Civilization. That's why Westerners are so fascinated by the Bronze Age Collapse; in their minds, it's part of God's divine plan to create Classical Greece and the nation of Israel so that his vision for the world could be achieved through Jesus.

During the collapse, you have this massive migration of people looking for food. These are called the Sea Peoples; they're basically pirates. Massive waves of Sea Peoples attacked the Hittites, the Levant, and Egypt. These were refugees, a forced migration of people trying to feed their families. They basically overran the Hittites, destroyed the cities of the Levant, and almost destroyed Egypt. But Egypt, because it was so wealthy, was able to hold them off.

Eventually, the Sea Peoples and Egypt came to an agreement: "Stop attacking us, and we'll give you land in the Levant. You can settle down there, grow your own food, and feed your families." This place is what we call Philistia, and these people are the Philistines. These were basically Sea Peoples, mainly Greek.

This created a problem for everyone else in the Levant because now you have a foreign presence that is very aggressive and expansionist. The diverse peoples of the Levant needed to come together to fend off this threat from the Philistines, as well as other aggressive neighbors. So, they agreed to elect a king to lead them in war. This person was named King Saul.

King Saul was a very good king and a good military leader. He employed a lot of mercenaries, and one of these mercenaries was named David. David was an extremely capable, charismatic soldier who developed a following. Because he was very charismatic, he was also very ambitious, and eventually, he had a falling out with Saul. David was Saul's best general, but he was too ambitious, and Saul suspected him. So, David ran off and joined the Philistines.

It's important to understand that borders, alliances, and allegiances were extremely fluid at this time. If it benefited me, I'd fight for you; if it didn't, I'd betray you. There were different factions within all alliances. The Philistines were divided among different ethnic groups, and the people in the Levant were divided into different political factions. Alliances were always shifting.

King Saul and his sons were eventually killed in battle, and David saw a political opening. He turned back to the Levant and started to politically maneuver to be the new king. His power base was in a place called Hebron, in the south, but the house of Saul was still around. A civil war ensued, and eventually, David triumphed. He was able to unite these people and create a new nation called Israel. Under David's leadership, Israel was able to put down aggressions from its neighbors and build a small empire.

This is what we know from the archaeological record. We have evidence of David, but we have absolutely no evidence of anything before David, including Abraham. I think David is the founder of the nation of Israel, not Abraham.

When David died, his son Solomon was not able to hold the empire together. Israel divided into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom of Judah, where the House of David was.

The Great Divide: From Israelites to Jews

The Levant is a very important strategic location. As major empires started to consolidate their power, they wanted to take it over. The Assyrian Empire came in and destroyed the northern kingdom. Then, eventually, the Babylonian Empire came in and destroyed Judah. The Babylonians took the Israelite elite—basically the royalty—and forced them to go to Babylon, where they were held as hostages or captives.

Eventually, the Persian Empire came and defeated Babylon. What they did next was very interesting. They decided to release these Israelite elites, have them return to Jerusalem and Israel, and have them govern the Levant. It is only at this point, around 500 BCE, that we get the term Jews. This was a Persian idea. Before, they were called the Israelites.

Now we have a radical departure from the tradition. There are three major differences.

1. From Polytheism to Monotheism: Under the Israelites, it was a polytheistic religion. They had one god, Yahweh, but they also had a pantheon of gods, which was true for every other religion. Yahweh was at the top, but they also celebrated other gods like Baal and Asherah. We know this because they're written down in the Bible. But after the Persian Empire returned them to Judea, they became a monotheistic religion, or at least began the process. Why? Because when the Jews were released from captivity by the Persians, their religion merged with the Persian religion called Zoroastrianism, which is a dualistic religion of good and evil.
2. From Kings to Priests: During the time of the Israelites, the people with the power were the kings and the monarchy. But after 500 BCE, the Jews decided they didn't want any kings, partly because their overlords were the Persians. The center of power became the priesthood. The people with absolute authority were the priests, not the kings. There were kings, but they were subservient to the priests who spoke on behalf of Yahweh.
3. From Tolerance to Intolerance: Because the Israelites were polytheistic and ruled by kings, they were tolerant and welcoming of other religions. As kings, you need to establish diplomatic alliances with other countries of different religions. When you marry someone from another political dynasty, you are also marrying into that religion. So, Israel under the kings was a very tolerant society. But if you're run by priests, you become intolerant because you insist that your religion is the best. That's why after the Persians lost control and the Greeks (the Seleucid Empire) came into the Levant, the Jews rebelled against them. The Greeks were polytheistic, and the Jews considered themselves monotheistic. They refused to acknowledge the culture and religion of the Greeks. Things got really bad when the Romans came in.

This is the history of the Jewish people up until the birth of Jesus.

The Bible as Political Real Estate

The Bible is the mythology, the collective memory of the Israelites. It was first created in order to explain, justify, and create legitimacy for David. This is what we call an apology. This is a very common practice. Most kings obtain power through nefarious means—they kill a lot of people or a younger brother kills the older brother to usurp the throne. Kingship usually requires ruthlessness, but when you're ruthless, you have a legitimacy problem.

The way most kings resolve this issue is by sponsoring writings, an apology, to explain why he is king. The answer usually is: because God willed it so. "I have no choice in the matter. I'm not ambitious, but circumstances forced my hand to save my people, to do God's work. I had to kill my brother, I had to kill my enemies, even though I myself am not a violent person." That's usually how the apology goes.

At this point, the very idea of writing is a new and expensive technology. You needed to buy rare materials and hire people who could write. You basically needed to support a team of scribes to create any work. Writing back then was like moviemaking today—an expensive endeavor usually sponsored by the king to justify his rule.

So, the Bible was created first as an apology for David. But as we discussed, Israel eventually divided into two nations. The Bible of the House of David went with Judah. The northern kingdom now needed its own mythology, its own Bible.

The Bible at this point was divided into at least four major factions or schools:

• The J school: The school that supports the House of David and its legitimacy.
• The E school: The people who support the northern kingdom as the legitimate House of Israel.
• The P school: The school that supports the power of the priests, interested in promoting their own interests, mainly rituals.
• The D school: The school that looks back at the history of Israel from the Babylonian captivity, trying to figure out why the House of David collapsed. Their answer is that the Israelites refused to follow the will of God and became polytheistic or immoral.

When the Persians took over, they insisted on one religion, one document. So, all four were put together to create the Bible. But the way they did it was very interesting: they just put them together. If you read the Bible, it's like A-B-C-D, A-B-C-D. One line is from the E school, the next from the J school, the other from the P school. It's very confusing and almost unreadable if you don't understand this history.

Why would they do this? First, most people didn't read or write back then, so the Bible itself didn't really matter. What mattered was the oral explanation of the Bible, controlled by the priest class. The second, more important reason is that the Bible is political real estate.

The Bible is the most valuable political real estate in the world. Everyone wants to be in the Bible because to be in it gives you legitimacy and power.

If you're a king with four sons who all want to be king, your best solution is to divide the kingdom among them. The same was true for the Bible. You had four extremely powerful schools and factions, so the best way to resolve the issue was to say, "Listen, we'll put you all in the Bible together."

The Apology of David: Legitimacy, Identity, and Differentiation

When kings come to power, they have three major problems to solve:

1. Legitimacy: What gives you the right to be king?
2. Identity: You need to create an identity that everyone in a multicultural entity accepts.
3. Differentiation: You need to get people to divorce their former cultures.

An example of this is Augustus Caesar and the writing of the Aeneid. The Aeneid provides political legitimacy to Augustus because he is a direct descendant of Aeneas, the founder of Rome. It also creates a new Roman identity focused on piety and loyalty over liberty. Finally, it is anti-Greek, warning that Greek culture, like the Trojan horse, will corrupt and destroy Rome.

Every king has to resolve these three issues, and that's what David is trying to do with the Bible. Let's focus on legitimacy.

Now that David is king, a lot of people don't think he's legitimate because he ruthlessly tried to usurp the throne from Saul, the elected king whom most people liked. David's problem now is that if he set the precedent of stealing the throne, others are now empowered to steal it from him. So, the first thing the apology for David does is show that David loved Saul and was not at all ambitious.

Story 1: David Spares Saul

One story that illustrates this is when Saul, thinking David is trying to kill him, is chasing David with his army. One day, Saul is alone in a cave praying. David sees him, sneaks up behind him, takes his sword, and cuts a piece of Saul's clothing. Then David disappears. When Saul leaves the cave, David rushes to him and says, "Saul, my king, I could have killed you. This piece of your clothing is proof. But I didn't, because I love you and I'm loyal to you." And Saul says, "This is proof that you never meant to kill me." Obviously, this story cannot be true, but it's trying to show us that David is not ambitious.

Story 2: The Death of Abner

The second story is this: Saul is dead, and his young son is on the throne. A general named Abner, who was loyal to Saul, sees the political winds changing and tries to align himself with David. Abner writes to David, saying, "I will swear loyalty to you, and we will end the civil war." David writes back, "Come to me, we'll have a feast, and we'll be friends."

Abner comes, David gives him a feast, and as Abner leaves, he runs into David's general, Joab. Joab and Abner go way back; Abner had killed Joab's brother. In an act of anger, Joab stabs Abner to death. Once Abner is dead, the house of Saul gives up, and David is able to unite Israel. In the Bible, David is so angry about this that he curses Joab and gives Abner a great funeral because David does not want to betray his friends.

Why is this story wrong? It's what we call spin. If you're David, the king, which person in the world are you most afraid of? Your general, Joab, who has access to your army. If Joab were ever to act independently, David would need to kill him. In this circumstance, Joab supposedly acted independently against David's wishes. This cannot possibly be true. Joab had to have killed Abner because he was ordered to by David.

Why would David want Abner killed? Because in his mind, if Abner can betray the house of Saul, he can also betray the House of David. He is an ambitious man. Why would David come to this conclusion? Because he himself is like that. He betrayed Saul, so he's very cautious about people who betray their leaders. But he couldn't say this publicly, because it would show he knew this from his own experience. You can see how wonderful the spin is; it's almost impossible to see the truth.

Story 3: David and Bathsheba

Now for one more story, which is even harder to figure out because of the spin. David is king, and his armies are always at war. One day, David is on the rooftop of his house and sees a woman named Bathsheba bathing naked. He is overcome with lust and orders his servants to get her. They have sex, and she gets pregnant.

The problem is, she's married to a man named Uriah the Hittite, one of David's best soldiers, who is off fighting for Israel. David, being very clever, invites Uriah back home. He tells Uriah, "You've been doing such a great job. I want to give you a vacation. Go home and be with your wife." But Uriah says, "My king, my comrades are dying on the battlefield. How can I find pleasure with my wife when my friends are suffering? I refuse to go home."

David can't convince him. So, David gives Uriah a letter to his general, Joab. The letter instructs Joab to kill Uriah by sending him into battle and then recalling his soldiers at the last minute, leaving Uriah to be swarmed and killed by the enemy. That's what happens.

Once Uriah is dead, David marries Bathsheba. At this point, David is visited by a prophet named Nathan, who tells him a parable about a rich shepherd with 100 sheep who steals the poor shepherd's only two sheep to feed a traveler. David is indignant and says the rich shepherd is in the wrong. Nathan says, "You, David, are the rich shepherd. You have violated God's law. As punishment, God will take away your son with Bathsheba." That's what happens, and David goes into mourning.

This is a very powerful story, but it's complete spin. This is not what happened. How do we know?

First, Nathan says to David, "You have stolen a man's wife, therefore you are in the wrong." What's the problem with this logic? The real crime is that he had Uriah killed! That's murder.

So, why would he murder Uriah? Why not just talk to him? Because the army is loyal to Uriah. David feared Uriah because Uriah was a popular, brave soldier, just like David had been. David used his popularity to usurp the throne from Saul, so he thought Uriah could do the same thing to him. Therefore, he had to have him killed.

The historical truth must have been that David feared Uriah's popularity and needed to get rid of him. After he killed Uriah, he needed to explain to his army, who loved Uriah, why it happened. So they came up with the story: "Oh, because I fell in love with his wife. I couldn't control myself. I'm just a man."

The irony is that because David is working so hard to disguise his ruthlessness, he's creating very powerful literature. He created a powerful story that has captured the imagination of readers for a long time. It makes you ask: What is man? What is God? Are we capable of controlling our emotions? This story is so well-constructed that it inspires you to imagine your own personal, emotional, and moral life. We call this literature.

It's no coincidence that today, the Jewish people are among the most creative people in the world. The past 200 years have seen three revolutionary thinkers—Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, and Sigmund Freud—all Jewish, all raised in the Jewish tradition of asking deep questions about what it means to be human.