Professor James A. Diamond tells us: “One problem that the sages of the Talmudic era encountered was the fact that no biblical figure even remotely walked or talked like a rabbi.” This anomaly was particularly serious when those figures were the founding fathers of Judaism, such as the patriarchs and Moses, or its most prominent heroes, such as Kings David and Solomon. The dilemma of biblical heroes who did not meet the ethical and spiritual standards of rabbinic Judaism placed the sages in a quandary, as was the case with King David.

David was the second king of the people of Israel and reigned from approximately 1010 to 970 BCE. The Bible describes him as a great warrior and a writer of psalms. In his 40 years as ruler, he accomplished important things, uniting the people of Israel, leading them to victory in numerous battles, conquering the land, and paving the way for his son Solomon to build the Temple. But the Bible also mentions how he committed adultery with the woman who would later become his most famous wife, Batsheva, King Solomon’s mother. David saw her naked from his terrace, had relations with her, and impregnated her. But Batsheva was married to Uriah, so David sent him to the front lines, where he died. Nathan prophesied the punishment that would fall upon the House of David for this sin: «The sword will never depart from your house.»

But the rabbis of the Talmudic era presented a different picture. The Midrash tells us: “David was not educated like his brothers, but spent his days in the fields tending sheep. This pastoral life prepared him for the position he was to occupy. He treated the sheep entrusted to his care with love and tenderness, so God said: ‘He understands how to tend sheep, so he will become the shepherd of my flock of Israel’” (Midr. Teh. 78). And in another passage they continue in the same vein: “David’s humility is said to have been so extraordinary that when he taught the Torah to his students in the legendary rabbinical academy of his time, he did so while sitting on the bare floor, rather than in the comfort of pillows and cushions. This was because David refused to assume a hierarchical posture in front of his students.”

Why did the rabbis do this? In writing the Mishnah and later the Gemara, the rabbis sought to frame the practice of Judaism within an ethical and religious framework that they understood very clearly, but which the stories in the Bible sometimes failed to explain. How could they understand that the Messiah would come from the House of David if he was a sinner who had committed adultery with Bathsheba? Diamond says: “The rabbis of this formative period, like modern scholars, faced in the biblical texts, among other peculiarities, a series of contradictions, duplicate narratives, literary and legal gaps, chronological discrepancies, inconsistencies, passages and terms that could not be deciphered.” Richard Kalmin comments that, especially in the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis saw great sages everywhere and presented biblical figures, even the most sinful, as great rabbis.

The way to fix the problem with King David was to change the narrative. They turned the sinful David of the Bible into the holy David of the Talmud.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: James A. Diamond “King David of the Sages: Rabbinic Rehabilitation or Ironic Parody”