The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero by Joel S. Baden

we will have the opportunity to critically examine the biblical depiction of Saul’s mental state. Suffice it to say for the moment that the popular notion of Saul’s insanity is dubious at best. And if Saul’s “evil spirit” is an invention of the biblical authors, so too is David’s lyre-playing, for the two are always linked.
    What we can say at this point is that the evil spirit said to descend on Saul is carefully counterposed in the Bible with the claim that “the spirit of Yahweh gripped David” from the day that Samuel went to Bethlehem to secretly anoint him as king (1 Sam. 16:13). The narrative intentionally constructs Saul as David’s foil, and David as predestined to replace Saul as king. And it does so by means of a historically unverifiable indicator: the invisible, indescribable “spirit of Yahweh.”
    From a faith perspective, such a thing cannot be challenged; from a historical perspective, it cannot be substantiated or corroborated. The “spirit of Yahweh” is a theological explanation for the historical circumstance of Saul’s eventual downfall and David’s rise in his place. It is also an explanation unique to the narrative of Samuel, as it is absent from the history of David’s life presented in Chronicles. It is a literary construction, not a historical record.
    Equally unverifiable is the story of Samuel anointing David in Bethlehem in 1 Samuel 16:1–13. A central part of this narrative is its secrecy: only Samuel, Jesse, and David’s brothers witness the anointing. What’s more, this anointing is never again mentioned in the David narrative. Not only does no one outside of David’s immediate family see it happen, but no one is ever told that it happened. No historical event can be extracted from this episode; it exists only for the reader’s benefit, as a means of legitimating David as the future king even before he has proved himself worthy of kingship.
    Just as the “spirit of Yahweh” serves to elevate David at Saul’s expense, so too the story of David’s anointing is intentionally counterposed with the selection of Saul as king in 1 Samuel 10. In that story, Samuel gathers all of Israel and, using lots, narrows the search down to the tribe of Benjamin, to the Matrite clan, and finally to Saul; Saul, however, is not present but is with the baggage. When he is finally brought forward, he is the tallest man there, and both Samuel and the people acclaim him as king (10:17–24). The similarities between this and the story of David’s anointing are evident. Both feature Samuel; in both, possible candidates are winnowed until the true king is identified; and in both, the future king is elsewhere and must be retrieved to receive the kingship. The selection of David replicates the selection of Saul, though with one important difference. Saul is acclaimed as king because of his impressive stature: “When he stood among the people, he rose a head taller than all the people. Samuel said to all the people, ‘Do you see the one whom Yahweh has chosen? There is none like him among all the people’ ” (10:23–24).
    When it comes time to anoint David, however, the very characteristic that signified Saul’s kingship is explicitly rejected, and rejected by Yahweh himself. For when David’s eldest brother Eliab stands before Samuel, Yahweh says: “Do not take note of his appearance or his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees does Yahweh see; man sees only what is visible, but Yahweh sees into the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Although Eliab is under discussion here, it is hard not to hear in this a clear rejection of Saul as well. As one biblical scholar has put it, “Eliab is something of a ‘new Saul,’ so that in his rejection Saul is denounced in effigy.” 19 Again, Saul is a literary foil for David; Saul was selected on illegitimate grounds, but David was chosen for all the right reasons.
    It is immensely difficult to extract any historical information from the