On the Road Again: King David as Involuntary Migrant

When David ben Jesse’s triumphant return from battle in 1 Sam 18 causes King Saul to despise him, the wheels are set in motion to make David an asylum seeker, refugee, and return migrant. It is burdened with those traumatic experiences that he is announced king in 2 Sam 2. What follows is a narrative of familial conflict and fracture, involuntary migration for David again (2 Sam 15), and a final return (2 Sam 20). From this point, David lives a sedentary life. Although this is an atypical summary of the narrative in 1 Sam 18–2 Kings 2, it foregrounds the important role involuntary migration plays in its plot. This article will explore that story, looking especially at how David’s attitude toward mobility as king is implicitly rejected by the narrative.

The Anti-Astrological Discourse of Maximus the Greek and Formation of Author’s Code in His Writings

The writings of Maximus the Greek (Maxim Grek) devoted to refutation of mantic astrology which proceeded in Moscow Rus in the second quarter of the 16 th century are analyzed. A conclusion is made that the opposition of two dominant pursuits predetermined the semantics of the antiastrological discourse: those were disproval of the ‘Hellenic’ teaching of star- gazers and affirmation of the force of Divine Providence, which granted the freedom of will to the Man (“the absolute rule of the Man”). Maximus the Greek based his polemic on the systemic relationship between the historic experience and the spiritual meaning. The morphology of the anti-astrological discourse embraces such stable elements of narration as the history of star-gazing, the image of fortune (”the wheel of luck”), the fates of Biblical and historical heroes, and a quotation from the song of Prophet Anna (the First Book of the Kings, 2: 7–8). The function of these units of meaning in the writings of different periods by Maximus the Greek, the forms of their presentation, the contextuality, the meaning of verbal communication, and the accents chosen became the part of the theoretical system of the polemic discourse and allowed identification of the stages of formation of the author’s code in the writings of Maximus the Greek. Maximus the Greek names the Romans and the Germans (Nikolay Bulev) to be the main culprits who initiated the spread of mantic astrology in Russia. Whereas in his earlier epistles, the learned monk from Mount Athos presents the history of formation of the pernicious teaching based on series of ethnonyms, in his later writings he pointed to Egypt and Assyria as the countries of the origin of star-gazing. Orthodox Rus is opposed to them. Movement from ethnography to geography made the scene of the anti-astrological expression more definitive. The representative series of mini-stories about the fates of the famous Biblical and historic heroes, whose feats were predetermined by the Divine Providence, served as a strong argument in the critique of star-gazing, and each name became symbolical in the sign system of the agonistic discourse of Maximus the Greek. The quotation from the song of Prophet Anna (the First Book of the Kings, 2: 7–8) should be recognized as the leading through motif of the antiastrological text. Its functioning in the writings of the learned monk allows us to describe the praxis of the discourse. The process of modification of its semantics reflected development of the author’s intention in the history of formation of the theme variety of Maximus the Greek and of the author’s manuscript code (Iosaf’s Collection of Writings) in general.

When Children Die

This chapter examines texts in which children experience violence. By examining childhood violence in war contexts, we see how brutal treatment is used in promotional texts for its rhetorical effect. Likewise, violence against children through curses is met with an equally robust societal response. Further, child sacrifice is rarely practiced but had broad narrative impact. In childhood burials, we see a high regard for children reflecting the child’s value in the domestic cult. These contexts frame how we read childhood violence in the Hebrew Bible. Psalm 137 and 2 Kings 8:11–12 offer a poetic and narrative example of how violence against children assumes a child’s value in order to be effective texts. This is demonstrated through 2 Samuel 12 and the boys and the bears in 2 Kings 2 as well as in Genesis 22. To be rhetorically effective, violence used against children assumes their broadly held value.

Heirs Apparent in Juxtaposition: David in Samuel-Kings and Michael Corleone in The Godfather

We read together the story of David in 1 Samuel 16-2 Kings 2 and that of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. They both begin outside the main power structure, the kingdom of Saul and the crime family, and then rise, often through the use of violence, to the top: King and Don. David’s decisive slaying of Goliath is matched by Michael’s assassination of Sollozzo and McCluskey. After the killings both are now recognized as serious “players” in their respective structures. As they move up the power chain David and Michael, as characters in biblical narrative and modern film, are haunted by the possibility that their stories could have been different: the innocent young shepherd and the decorated Marine. Both could be separate from the violence and corruption of Israelite monarchy and of the Corleone family.