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David ("beloved"), was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet (he is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the Psalms). The biblical chronology sets his life c.1037 - 970 BC, his reign over Judah c.1007 - 1000 BC, and his reign over the united Kingdom of Israel c.1000 - 970 BC.
The Book of Samuel is the primary source of information on his life and reign; there is little archaeological evidence to confirm the Bible's picture of David, although the Tel Dan stele suggests that a king named David founded a Judaean royal dynasty by the 9th-century BC, but his story has been of immense importance to subsequent Jewish and Christian culture.
The Biblical account
David's family
David was born in Bethlehem, in the territory of the Tribe of Judah.
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David ("beloved"), was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet (he is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the Psalms). The biblical chronology sets his life c.1037 - 970 BC, his reign over Judah c.1007 - 1000 BC, and his reign over the united Kingdom of Israel c.1000 - 970 BC.
The Book of Samuel is the primary source of information on his life and reign; there is little archaeological evidence to confirm the Bible's picture of David, although the Tel Dan stele suggests that a king named David founded a Judaean royal dynasty by the 9th-century BC, but his story has been of immense importance to subsequent Jewish and Christian culture.
The Biblical account
David's family
David was born in Bethlehem, in the territory of the Tribe of Judah. His father was named Jesse. His mother is not named in the Bible, but the Talmud identifies her as Nitzevet daughter of Adael. . David had seven brothers and other sisters. He had eight wives: Michal, the second daughter of King Saul; Ahinoam the Jezreelite; Abigail the Carmelite, previously wife of the evil Nabal; Maachah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; Haggith; Abital; Eglah; and Bathsheba, previously the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
, Syria, Date: 3rd c. CE]]
The Book of Chronicles lists David's sons by various wives and concubines. In Hebron he had six sons : Amnon, by Ahinoam; Daniel, by Abigail; Absalom, by Maachah; Adonijah, by Haggith; Shephatiah, by Abital; and Ithream, by Eglah. By Bathsheba, his sons were: Shammua; Shobab; Nathan; and Solomon. His sons born in Jerusalem by other mothers included: Ibhar; Elishua; Eliphelet; Nogah; Nepheg; Japhia; Elishama; and Eliada. According to , Jerimoth, who is not mentioned in any of the genealogies, is mentioned as another of David's sons. According to , David adopted Johnathan's son Mephibosheth as his own.
David also had at least one daughter, Tamar by Maachah, who was was raped by Amnon, her half-brother. Her rape leads to Amnon's death. Absalom, Amnon's half-brother and Tamar's full-brother, waits two years, then avenges his sister by sending his servants to kill Amnon at a feast to which he had invited all the king's sons.
Biblical narrative
David is chosen
Yahweh withdraws his favour from Saul, king of Israel, and sends the prophet Samuel to seek a new king for his people from the sons of Jesse of Bethleham. Seven of Jesse's sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel says "The LORD has not chosen these." He then asks "Are these all the sons you have?" and Jesse answers, "There is still the youngest but he is tending the sheep." David is brought to Samuel, and "the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
David and Saul
Saul is troubled by an evil spirit. His advisors suggest he send for David, the son of Jesse, "a man of valour, skilled in playing (the lute)". David comes to the court, and Saul makes him his armour bearer, and whenever the king is tormented by the evil spirit he calls for David, and the music comforts him.
David and Goliath
When the Israelites faced the Philistines in the Valley of Elah, David was bringing food to his older brothers who were with King Saul. When David hears Goliath challenging the Israelites to send their own champion to decide the outcome in single combat, he insists that he can defeat Goliath. Saul reluctantly allowed him to make the attempt. David was victorious, felling Goliath with a stone from his sling, at which the Philistines flee in terror and the Israelites win a great victory. David cut off the giant's head, and brought it to Saul.
The enmity of Saul
The Bible states: "Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well." Saul made David a commander over his armies and offered him his daughter Merab in marriage. David was successful in many battles, and the women said, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." David's popularity awakened Saul's fears - "What more can he have but the kingdom?" - and by various stratagems Saul sought David's death. But the plots of the jealous king all proved futile, and only endeared the young hero the more to the people, and especially to Saul's son Jonathan, one of those who loved David. Warned by Jonathan of Saul's intention to kill him, David fled into the wilderness.
(The relationship between David and Jonathan, the son of King Saul, David's brother-in-law by Saul's daughter Michal, and Saul's rightful heir, is a central element in the story of David's rise. Jonathan recognises David as the rightful king, and 1 Samuel 18 - "Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul" - implies a close personal relationship between the two. There is debate amongst religious scholars whether this relationship was platonic, romantic but chaste, or sexual, but it is depicted favourably in the Biblical narrative.)
David in the wilderness
In the wilderness David gathers a band of followers and becomes the champion of the oppressed while evading the pursuit of Saul. He accepts Ziklag as a chief from the Philistine king Achish of Gath, but continues secretly to champion the Israelites. Achish marches against Saul, but David is excused from the war on the accusation of the Philistine nobles that his loyalty to their cause cannot be trusted.
David made king
Saul, Jonathan and several of Saul's other sons are killed in a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa. then David goes up to Hebron, where he is anointed king over Judah; in the north, Saul's son Ish-Bosheth is king over the tribes of Israel. War ensues between Ish-Bosheth and David, and Ish-Bosheth is assassinated. The assassins bring forward the head of Ish-Bosheth to David hoping for reward, but David executes them for their crime against their king. Yet with the death of the son of Saul, the elders of Israel come to Hebron, and David is anointed King of Israel and Judah. Upon these events he is 30 years old.
David's reign
David conquers the Jebusite fortress of Jerusalem and makes it his capital, "and Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house." David brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, intending to build a temple. God, speaking to the prophet Nathan, forbids it, saying the temple must wait for a future generation. But God makes a covenant with David, promising that he will establish the house of David eternally: "Your throne shall be established forever."
David goes on to conquer Zobah and Aram (modern Syria), Edom and Moab (roughly modern Jordan), Philistine lands, as well as other territories.
Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite
David commits adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Bathsheba becomes pregnant and David sends for Uriah, who is with the Israelite army at the siege of Rabbah, so that he might lie with his wife and so conceal the identity of the child's father. Uriah refuses to do so while his companions are in the field of battle and David sends him back to Joab, the commander, with a message instructing him to abandon Uriah on the battlefield, "that he may be struck down, and die."
David marries Bathsheba and she bears his child, "but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." The prophet Nathan confronts David, saying: "Why have you despised the word of God, to do what is evil in his sight? You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife."
David repents, but God "struck the child ... and it became sick ... [And] on the seventh day the child died." David then leaves his lamentations, dresses himself, and eats. His servants ask why he lamented when the baby was alive, but leaves off when it is dead, and David replies: "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, who knows whether Yaweh will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."
David's son Absalom rebels
David’s son Absalom rebels. Absalom and David come to battle in the Wood of Ephraim. Absalom is caught by his hair in the branches of an oak and David’s general Joab kills him as he hangs there. When the news of the victory is brought to David he does not rejoice, but is instead shaken with grief: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Death of David and Solomon's succession
Solomon became king after the death of his father David. According to the biblical book of 1 Kings, when David was "old and stricken" "he could not get warm."
After the death of David, Solomon became king over a united Israel, but Solomon's son Rehoboam could not hold the united state together and it split into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
The traditional site of David's tomb is inside the City of David together with other Judean kings, but ancient tradition holds that he is buried in the structure adjacent to the Dormition Church, owned by the Diaspora Yeshiva.
Religions and David
David in Judaism
David's reign represents the formation of a coherent Jewish kingdom centered in Jerusalem and the institution of an eternal royal dynasty; the failure of this "eternal" Davidic dynasty after some four centuries led to the later elaboration of the concept of the Messiah, at first a human descendant of David who would occupy the throne of a restored kingdom, later an apocalyptic figure who would usher in the end of time.
In modern Judaism David's descent from a convert (Ruth) is taken as proof of the importance of converts within Judaism. David is also viewed as a tragic figure; his acquisition of Bathsheba, and the loss of his son are viewed as his central tragedies.
Many legends have grown around the figure of David. According to one Rabbinic tradition, David was raised as the illegitimate son of his father Jesse and spent his early years herding his father's sheep in the wilderness while his brothers were in school. Only at his anointing by Samuel - when the oil from Samuel's flask turned to diamonds and pearls - was his true identity as Jesse's son revealed. David's adultery with Bathsheba was only an opportunity to demonstrate the power of repentance, and some Talmudic authors stated that it was not adultery at all, quoting a supposed Jewish practice of divorce on the eve of battle. Furthermore, according to David's apologists, the death of Uriah was not to be considered murder, on the basis that Uriah had committed a capital offence by refusing to obey a direct command from the King.
According to midrashim, Adam gave up 70 years of his life for the life of David. Also, according to the Talmud Yerushalmi, David was born and died on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). His piety was said to be so great that his prayers could bring down things from Heaven.
David in Christianity
Originally an earthly king ruling by divine appointment ("the anointed one", as the title Messiah had it), the "son of David" became in the last two pre-Christian centuries the apocalyptic and heavenly who would deliver Israel and usher in a new kingdom. This was the background to the concept of Messiahship in early Christianity, which interpreted the career of Jesus "by means of the titles and functions assigned to David in the mysticism of the Zion cult, in which he served as priest-king and in which he was the mediator between God and man." The early Church believed that "the life of David [foreshadowed] the life of Christ; Bethlehem is the birthplace of both; the shepherd life of David points out Christ, the Good Shepherd; the five stones chosen to slay Goliath are typical of the five wounds; the betrayal by his trusted counsellor, Achitophel, and the passage over the Cedron remind us of Christ's Sacred Passion. Many of the Davidic Psalms, as we learn from the New Testament, are clearly typical of the future Messias."
In the Middle Ages, "Charlemagne thought of himself, and was viewed by his court scholars, as a 'new David'. [This was] not in itself a new idea, but [one whose] content and significance were greatly enlarged by him." The linking of David to earthly kingship was reflected in later Medieval cathedral windows all over Europe through the device of the Tree of Jesse its branches demonstrating how divine kingship descended from Jesse, through his son David, to Jesus.
Western Rite churches (Roman Catholic, Lutheran) celebrate his feast day on 29 December, Eastern-rite on 19 December. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Church celebrate the feast day of the "Holy Righteous Prophet and King David" on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord), when he is commemorated together with other ancestors of Jesus. He is also commemorated on the Sunday after the Nativity, together with Joseph and James, the Brother of the Lord.
The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cites David as one directed by God to practise polygamy, but who sinned in committing adultery with Bathsheba and having Uriah killed. This clarifies the LDS doctrine that polygamy is only allowed as directed by the Lord, otherwise it is a grievous sin. The Church forbade polygamy in 1890, citing a revelation given to Wilford Woodruff at that time.
David in Islam
- Main article Islamic view of David
David (Arabic Dawood) is one of the prophets of Islam, to whom the Zabur (Psalms) were revealed by God (Allah). The Islamic tradition includes many elements from the Jewish history of David, such as his battle with the giant Goliath, but rejects the Biblical portrayal of David as an adulterer and murderer - the rejection is based on the concept of ismah, or the infallibility of the prophets. According to some Islamic traditions David was not from Judah but from Levi and Aron.
David also appears in various ahadith (oral traditions derived from those who knew the Prophet Mohammed). In Sahih al-Bukhari and in Abd-Allah ibn Amr he is named as the person whose way of fasting and praying is the most perfect: "Allah's Apostle (Muhammad) said to me, "The most beloved fasting to Allah was the fasting of (the Prophet) David who used to fast on alternate days. And the most beloved prayer to Allah was the prayer of David who used to sleep for (the first) half of the night and pray for 1/3 of it and (again) sleep for a sixth of it." David was also given the most beautiful voice of all mankind, just as Joseph was given the most beautiful appearance. In one hadith, Abu Hurairah narrates that Muhammad said, "The reciting of the Zabur (i.e. Psalms) was made easy for David. He used to order that his riding animals be saddled, and would finish reciting the Zabur before they were saddled." Other hadith relate that David's reading of psalms was so entrancing that fish would leave the sea to listen when he recited, and that it was he who began the building of the Holy Temple, completed by his son Solomon, and which later became the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Historicity of David
See The Bible and history and dating the Bible for a more complete description of the general issues surrounding the Bible as a historical source.
Archaeological evidence
An inscription found at Tel Dan dated c.850-835 BC, as well as the Mesha Stele from Moab have been interpreted as containing the phrase 'House of David'. Kenneth Kitchen has proposed that an inscription of c. 945 BC by the Egyptian Pharaoh Shoshenq I mentions "the highlands of David," but this has not been widely accepted. "If the reading of ??? ??? [House of David] on the Tel Dan stele is correct, ... then we have solid evidence that a 9th-century BC Aramean king considered the founder of the Judean dynasty to be somebody named ???" (David).
While the Tel Dan stele is largely accepted as supporting the historical existence of a Judean royal dynasty tracing its descent from an individual named David, the interpretation of the archeological evidence on the extent and nature of Judah and Jerusalem in the 10th century BC is a matter of fierce debate. Israel Finkelstein and Ze'ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University do not believe the archeological record supports the view that Israel at that time was a major state, but rather was a small tribal kingdom, although both Finkelstein and Silberman do accept that David and Solomon were real kings of Judah about the 10th century BCE. Finkelstein says in his The Bible Unearthed (2001): "[O]n the basis of archaeological surveys, Judah remained relatively empty of permanent population, quite isolated and very marginal right up to and past the presumed time of David and Solomon, with no major urban centers and with no pronounced hierarchy of hamlets, villages and towns." According to Ze'ev Herzog "the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom". On the other is William Dever, in his What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?, holds that the archaeological and anthropological evidence supports the broad biblical account of a Judean state in the 10th century BC.
The Bronze and Iron Age remains of the City of David were investigated extensively in the 1970s and 1980s under the direction of Yigael Shiloh of Hebrew University, but failed to discover significant evidence of occupation during the 10th century BC
In 2005 Eilat Mazar found a Large Stone Structure which she claimed was David's Palace, but the site is contaminated and impossible to date accurately. Elsewhere in the territory of biblical Judah and Israel, no royal inscriptions exist from the 10th century BCE, nor evidence of a royal bureaucracy (the equivalents of the LMLK seal attached to oil jars associated with the Judean royal bureaucracy of the late 8th century BC), nor the inscribed potshards which would provide evidence of widespread literacy. Surveys of surface finds aimed at tracing settlement patterns and population changes have shown that between the 16th and 8th centuries BC, a period which includes the biblical kingdoms of David and Solomon, the entire population of the hill country of Judah was no more than about 5,000 persons, most of them wandering pastoralists, with the entire urbanised area consisting of about twenty small villages.
Historicity of the Biblical account
The biblical evidence for David comes from three sources: the Psalms, the book of Samuel (two books in the Christian tradition), and the book of Chronicles (also two books in the Christian tradition). Although almost half of the Psalms are headed "A Psalm of David", the headings are later additions, and the Hebrew preposition translated in English as "of" can also be translated as "for". "No psalm can be attributed to David with certainty, and aside from the headings, they contain no information about David's life that is useful for historical reconstruction." Chronicles retells Samuel from a different theological vantage point, but contains little if any information not available in Samuel. The biblical evidence for David is therefore dependent almost exclusively on the material contained in the chapters from 1 Samuel 16 to 1 Kings 2.
The question of David's historicity therefore becomes the question of the date, textual integrity, authorship and reliability of 1st and 2nd Samuel. Since Martin Noth put forward his analysis of the Deuteronomistic History biblical scholars have accepted that these two books form part of a continuous history of Israel, compiled no earlier than the late 7th century BC, but incorporating earlier works and fragments. Samuel's account of David "seems to have undergone two separate acts of editorial slanting. The original writers show a strong bias against Saul, and in favour of David and Solomon. Many years later, the Deuteronomists edited the material in a manner that conveyed their religious message, inserting reports and anecdotes that strengthened their monotheistic doctrine. Some of the materials in Samuel I and II , notably the lists of officers, officials, and districts are believed to be very early, possibly even dating to the time of David or Solomon. These documents were probably in the hands of the Deuteronomists when they started to compile the material three centuries later."
Beyond this, the full range of possible interpretations is available, from the "maximalist" position of the late John Bright, whose "History of Israel", dating largely from the 1950s, takes Samuel at face value, to the recent "minimalist" scholars such Thomas L. Thompson, who measures Samuel against the archaeological evidence and concludes that "an independent history of Judea during the Iron I and Iron II periods [i.e., the period of David] has little room for historicizing readings of the stories of I-II Samuel and I Kings." Within this gamut some interesting studies of David have been written. Baruch Halpern has pictured David as a lifelong vassal of Achish, the Philistine king of Gath; Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman have identified as the oldest and most reliable section of Samuel those chapters which describe David as the charismatic leader of a band of outlaws who captures Jerusalem and makes it his capital.
David's legacy
Genealogy
According to , David is the tenth generation descendant from Judah, the fourth son of the patriarch Jacob (Israel). The genealogical line runs as follows: Judah -> Pharez -> Hezron -> Aram -> Amminadab -> Nahshon -> Salomon -> Boaz (the husband of Ruth) -> Oved -> Jesse ->David. This genealogy is only available from post-exilic biblical sources included in the later books of Chronicles and Ruth. Without these sources, all that would be know of David's ancestry was that he was the son of Jesse.
The "tenth generation" formula is part of a larger pattern of tens within the Pentateuch/Deuteronomistic history: there are twenty generations of patriarchs (two sets of ten) from Adam to Abraham before David, and twenty kings of Judah after him, with the three Patriarchs Abraham-Isaac-Jacob between. The schematic character of the genealogy, and the fact that it runs from the Creation (Adam) to the destruction of Jerusalem, suggests that it was an exilic or post-exilic invention.
The New Testament traces the genealogy of Jesus back to David and Adam , with three blocks of fourteen "generations" each being similarly schematic. It is explained that in the ancient world each letter of the alphabet had a numerical value, the value for the name "David" being fourteen: the fourteen "generations" thus underscored Christ's Davidic descent and his identity as the expected Messiah.
Claimed descendants of David
The following are some of the more notable persons who have claimed descent from the Biblical David, or had it claimed on their behalf:
- Jesus of Nazareth
- Judah Loew, Yehuda Loew ben Bezalel (c. 1525, Prague; 22 August 1609 Prague), also known as "The Maharal of Prague".
- The Abravanel family
- The Baal Shem Tov, and through him every Hassidic Rebbe descended from him
- Dov Ber of Mezeritch
- Eliezer Silver
- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whose family is descended from Judah Loew.
- Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Representation in art and literature
Art
Famous sculptures of David include (in chronological order) those by:
Literature
- Elmer Davis's 1928 novel Giant Killer retells and embellishes the Biblical story of David, casting David as primarily a poet who managed always to find others to do the "dirty work" of heroism and kingship. In the novel, Elhanan in fact killed Goliath but David claimed the credit; and Joab, David's cousin and general, took it upon himself to make many of the difficult decisions of war and statecraft when David vacillated or wrote poetry instead.
- Gladys Schmitt wrote a novel titled "David the King" in 1946 which proceeds as a richly embellished biography of David's entire life. The book took a risk, especially for its time, in portraying David's relationship with Jonathan as overtly homoerotic, but was ultimately panned by critics as a bland rendition of the title character.
- In Thomas Burnett Swann's Biblical fantasy novel How are the Mighty Fallen (1974) David and Jonathan are explicitly stated to be lovers. Moreover, Jonathan is a member of a winged semi-human race (possibly nephilim), one of several such races co-existing with humanity but often persecuted by it.
- Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, also wrote a novel based on David, God Knows. Told from the perspective of an aging David, the humanity — rather than the heroism — of various biblical characters are emphasized. The portrayal of David as a man of flaws such as greed, lust, selfishness, and his alienation from God, the falling apart of his family is a distinctly 20th century interpretation of the events told in the Bible.
- Juan Bosch, Dominican political leader and writer, wrote "David: Biography of a King" (1966) a realistic approach to David's life and political career.
- Allan Massie wrote "King David" (1995), a novel about David's career which portrays the king's relationship to Jonathan and others as openly homosexual.
- Madeleine L'Engle's novel Certain Women explores family, the Christian faith, and the nature of God through the story of King David's family and an analogous modern family's saga.
- King David's Warriors are the subject of the upcoming series of novels, a fictionalized account of David's wars as seen through the eyes of his fighting men.
Film
- Gregory Peck, played King David in the 1951 film David and Bathsheba, directed by Henry King. Susan Hayward played Bathsheba and Raymond Massey played the prophet Nathan.
- Finlay Currie, played an aged King David in the 1959 film Solomon and Sheba, directed by King Vidor. Yul Brynner played Solomon and Gina Lollobrigida played the Queen of Sheba.
- Jeff Chandler, played King David in the 1960 TV movie A Story of David, directed by Bob McNaught. Basil Sydney played King Saul and Donald Pleasence played Nabal.
- Keith Michell, played the older King David, and Timothy Bottoms, played the younger King David in the 1976 TV miniseries The Story of David, directed by David Lowell Rich and Alex Segal.
- Richard Gere portrayed King David in the 1985 film King David directed by Bruce Beresford.
- Nathaniel Parker portrayed King David in the 1997 TV movie David. It also starred Sheryl Lee as Bathsheba and Leonard Nimoy as Samuel. The villain King Saul was portrayed by Jonathan Pryce.
- Christopher Egan will play the lead of David Shepard in the upcoming TV series Kings, an interpretation of the King David story.
Music
Arthur Honegger's oratorio, Le Roi David ('King David'), with a libretto by Rene Morax, was composed in 1921 and instantly became a staple of the choral repertoire; it is still widely performed.
Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" has references to David ("there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord", "The baffled king composing Hallelujah") and Bathsheba ("you saw her bathing on the roof") in its opening verses.
"Mad About You", a song on Sting's 1991 album The Soul Cages explores David's obsession with Bathsheba from David's perspective.
Dead by the Pixies is a retelling of David's adultery and repentance.
Herbert Howells (1892-1983) composed an artsong for voice and piano called "King David".
Musical Theatre
In 1997, lyricist Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita) collaborated with Alan Menken to create a musical based on the Biblical tale of King David. Based on Biblical tales from the Books of Samuel and 1 Chronicles, as well as text from David's Psalms, a concert version, produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and André Djaoui and directed by Mike Ockrent, was presented as the inaugural production at Disney's newly renovated New Amsterdam Theatre (the former home of the Ziegfeld Follies), playing for a nine-performance limited run in 1997. The cast included Roger Bart, Stephen Bogardus, Judy Kuhn, Alice Ripley, Martin Vidnovic, and Michael Goz, with Marcus Lovett in the title role. Though a Broadway run was scheduled, it was soon canceled and there have been no future arrangements to move the musical to the Broadway stage. The piece has subsequently been performed only two other times -- a three day run in Texas in 2004 at the Cathedral at the Arts District Virgin of Guadalupe Shrine in Dallas/Irving Arts Center's Dupree Theater, and a 2008 two-night engagement at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
There are many large demands to the production which impede the work from being performed frequently - primarily the strenuous vocal demands placed on the singers, as well as the thirty-piece chorus and an orchestra that numbers in the excess of sixty musicians.
See also
Further reading
- For a more complete summary of all the episodes in the Saul/David story in Samuel (but excluding Chronicles), see
External links
- David's family tree
- King David's Tomb in Jerusalem
- on ThoughtCast
- Biblical Archaeology Review
- Orthodox icon and synaxarion
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