The Love of David and Jonathan: Ideology, Text, Reception

Were David and Jonathan gay lovers? This very modern question is at the root of the recent explosion of studies of the David and Jonathan narratives. Beneath the plurality of interpretations lies the ambiguous text of 1 and 2 Samuel, a text that has drawn its readers - from the Hebrew redactors and the translators of the Septuagint and Targum to queer theorists and historians today - to the task of resolving its several possible meanings. Generations of readers have studied the biblical narrative framed by a range of differing theories and assumptions, but today's scholarly battle over David and Jonathan has been fought on three fronts: scripture, historical criticism, and queer theory and politics. This book argues that the power and ambiguity of the text has been determined by both the richness of the biblical story as a work of narrative art and the influence of reception history on critical agendas.