Civilization #21: The Apology of King David of Israel

good morning so today we start the Bible which will be the final unit before the semester break hopefully this will be the most interesting section we do it's certainly the most important because the Bible is the most important book uh ever and it is driving a lot it has driven a lot of history it's driving a lot of history today so if you want to fully understand the conflict in the Middle East what's happening between Israel and Iran uh what's happening in Palestine you cannot do so without a full understanding of the Bible at the same time the Bible is um because it's so important the ideas around it are very controversial there are billions of people around the world who believe the Bible is the word of God it's Holy Scripture every word in the Bible comes to us from the Divine uh the Divinity himself and obviously that's not what I believe um more so I'm going to make arguments in this class that go against not only the traditional understanding of the Bible but also the mainstream academic understanding of the Bible so um to be fair uh to you um I want you to be very skeptical of what I say okay come to class with doubting my authority doubting uh my understanding of the Bible okay so feel free to challenge me and I want you to challenge me uh because what I will say in this class um is will be extremely controversial okay so let me give you a brief introduction to the Bible um and then I'll explain some of the history behind the Bible okay and this overview is going to be very broad very general but it will help structure the AR of the Bible for the next few classes okay all right so the Bible the Bible is Greek for books and it really means Library so the first thing you need to understand is the Bible it's a collection of different works by many different authors so there's no worldview or consistency or continuity in the Bible you can find whatever you want in the Bible because it's it's such a it's a library it's a huge collection um of ideas there's about 2,000 pages okay so there's very few people who actually read the Bible in its entirity there are people who might read certain sections of the Bible okay but most people will only will receive the understanding of the Bible from authorities like priests or rabbis okay um the bi the Bible itself is divided into two major sections the first section is what we call the Hebrew Bible and so this was originally written in Hebrew and this was this is the major this is the book of the Jews okay what do the Jews believe they believe in the Hebrew Bible the Hebrew Bible itself is divided into three major sections the first is uh so uh so the Hebrew term for the Bible is the tanak okay so you may hear hear some people say the tanak it just means the Hebrew Bible okay the tanak is TN K and this this is uh the Hebrew term for certain ideas uh the T stands for Torah or teachings so this is the laws of the Jewish tradition okay for example The Ten Commandments right second is n which means prophets or uh and the prophets it themselves are divided to minor and major so in Rome um the people who are most admire are the generals right Julius Caesar Pompei in Greece the people who are most am are The Poets Homer and the playwrights in the Jewish tradition the people who are most admired are the prophets uh these individuals who speak the truth of God they're social critics and there are people who challenge the uh authority of the kings in order to promote um the laws and teachings of God okay does that make sense the prophets are the the people who are most admired in the Jewish tradition and the third r k is writings so basically things that don't really belong in teachings and Prophets but which have some cultural or religious significance to the Jewish people okay so this is the Hebrew Bible and then we get to the new testament which is something that only Christians believe all right so Jewish people do not accept anything in the New Testament the New Testament calls the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament okay why because the Old Testament is the promise of Salvation right the promise of Jesus Christ the New Testament is the Deliverance or the Fulfillment of This Promise in Jesus Christ okay it's a coming and the work of Jesus Christ New Testament itself is dived to many different works it's a lot it's a lot um smaller than the Old Testament so there are the gospels the gospels is Greek for the um good word and the good news is that Jesus is on Earth and he's here to Deliver us from our sins and our suffering uh there's letters uh mainly by someone named Paul and these are the work of Jesus apostles um after the death of Jesus they go around the world they promote the Gospel of Jesus the the good news okay and this is about what they do and then there's something called there's some other books as well but the major one is called re Revelation um which is about the end of the world and it's the idea of the second coming how even though Jesus Is Dead um he will return and he will bring peace Eternal peace to the world now from the Bible in interpretation of the Bible comes the Quran and this is a basis for Islam okay So eventually we'll do all three the Hebrew Bible the New Testament and the Quran we'll start with the um Old Testament the Hebrew Bible okay um so the Old Testament the Hebrew Bible is what we will start with and to do so I will have to teach you a lot of history and this history will be extremely broad okay but over time I will be more precise I will go into specific details about this history in order for you to better understand the Bible okay um there were three ideas about the Hebrew Bible that Jews believe the Jews today believe which are not true okay the first idea is the Hebrew Bible the Jewish religion has always been monotheistic meaning the Jews have always believed in one God his name is Yahweh and he is the god of the Jews since Abraham who is the patriarch of all Jewish people okay that's what Jews believe I will show you this is not true in the beginning Jewish people like everyone else was uh were polytheistic okay monotheistic is a modern idea that has been retroactively um put back into Jewish history okay so that's the first myth that I will correct the second myth that I correct is that Jewish history or the Jewish religion has been continuous for at least 3,000 years possibly 4,000 years okay and what I will show you is that's not true in so there have been many major changes to the religion and these changes are so drastic that you can argue these are very different people okay so um the Israelites the people who the religion are very different from the people we call Jews today and I will show you why in next few classes okay that's that's one really important idea you need to understand the history of the Israelites and the Jewish people are not continuous all right okay does that make sense okay any any any questions so far are you guys following along okay um um yeah so and the last idea is the Bible or the Hebrew Bible it's a historical record and what I will show you is um we've been trying for at least 300 years 20 years to to prove that the Bible is hisorical record okay there are archaeologist who spent fortunes entire lifetimes looking for things like Noah's Ark looking for people like Moses can't find them okay and this tells us pretty conclusively that the Bible is not a historical record it is a work of our imagination okay it is it is a literary work now it's a very powerful literary work and that's what explains um its relevance and its um Power today okay I'll explain why it's powerful but I want you to remember it's not historical work it is a literary work it's a work of our Collective imagination all right okay now I'm going to talk a little about the broad history of the Israelite people okay um so in the Bible what it tells you is maybe about 2000 in uh BCE there's a man named Abraham and he's a from the city of uh uh Eric okay in Mesopotamia or is it ER okay it's it's one of the two sorry um and then God Yahweh thought yah Abraham was the best man in the world so God Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham and said you are are the most righteous and dignified man I've ever seen in the world and I will make you a father of a new nation called Israel okay and these people will become eventually the Israelites and the goodest King of the Israelites is named David and then David and then God says to David David you are the greatest man I've ever seen I love you as you love me therefore I will make your house the House of David Eternal okay you the House of David will ring over Israel for all eternity I will make Israel into the mightiest of Nations so that is what it says in the Bible the historical record is a lot more complicated all right so let's start in the year 1200 BC and this is towards the end of the Bronze Age right we're about to enter the Bron age collapse which last about for 100 years at this time let's look at the world issue is is in a place called The Levant and the Levant has always been important because as we discussed in previous classes lavant was one of the first centers of agriculture culture so Jericho is in the Levant but it's also important because the Levant is where three major civilizations and Empires meet okay they are the crossroads or the Nexus of Empire these three Empires are Egypt which again for most of its human history has been the wealthiest and the most powerful Nation okay over here is Mesopotamia which is the creative civilization this is where um human civilization first developed mathematics writing astronomy architecture okay and up here are the high ties or Anatolia and Anatolia again is extremely wealthy so the lavad is sort of sandwiched between three extremely aggressive wealthy um and Powerful Nation that that are extremely Advanced and sophisticated so the lant um has always been a colony of either Egypt or Anatolia okay very it's it it's not been very independent for very long and it can't be because it's at the edge of Empire but because of its position okay the leavon is what we call a nothing po or a meeting place so every culture every language every religion that was imaginable at this time met in the Levant okay mainly for trade purposes right because again Egypt and mesop are extremely wealthy from the lant you can go across the Mediterranean into all of Europe and into Northern Africa okay so the lavant was really the center of the world for most of its history and so it was a meeting place mainly for traitors right um at this time uh lavant was divided into different sections a province called canine was a province of Egypt and canine was special to Egypt because the Egyptians loved two things they loved wine they loved olive oil and the Levant was very good at um harvesting both wine good wine and and olive oil so um but the Egyptians didn't really like to go outside Egypt so the people administrating the lavant were local Elites tied to Egypt but also foreign mercenaries and these four mercenaries were from as far as Greece okay and we know this because we've discovered um Greek pottery that dates back to this period these four mer Mercenaries would then inter Mar with a local woman because as you can imagine these are young uh males okay you also had lots of Nomads living in the lavant because of Arabia right okay lots of nomad people we call the bans you also had people living in the hills of the lon uh the Hill People then you have these cities okay the um the Canaanites you also had Believe It or Not Egyptian priests living in this area why would they live in this area well because they had a certain religion that was considered her heretical or controversial in Egypt so they had to leave to practice their religion or maybe they were priests who got into a political struggle and as such they were exile to the lant okay so does that make sense the Levant it's not at this point a nation at this point it's really a meeting place a Melting Pot of cultures languages and religions it's as diverse as can be and historically this has always been the case right then what happened of course um is the Bron AG collapse the thing about the Bron collapse is you have this massive migration of people looking for food right these called the sea peoples they're basically Pirates and this and like there are these massive waves of sea people attacking the Hittites attacking the lavant and attacking Egypt and again these are like refugees okay this is a forc migration and they're trying to feed their families they basically overrun the high ties they destroy the cities of the lavant and they're they almost destroy Egypt but egyp because it's so wealthy it's able to hold off the sea people eventually what happens is the ca people and Egypt come to an agreement and say listen stop attacking us and we'll you land in the lavant you can settle down there you can go your own food you can feed your families okay and this place is what we call philistia and this is and these people Philistines so these are basically um sea the sea peoples mainly Greek actually there are a lot of Greeks among the Philistines but this creates a problem for every once in the lant because now you have a foreign mess uh sorry you have a foreign presence that is very aggressive and expansionist okay so now the people the lavant need to come together and F off this threat from the Philistines they also have these neighbors as well these other cultures that keep on attacking them okay so these are extremely diverse people and so what they agreed to do is elect a king to lead them in war against the Philistines and this person is named Saul King Saul all right and King sa is a very good King he's a very good military leader he's helping the people in the Lavon fend off the Philistines and aggressive neighbors okay so this is a milit military Alliance King Saul um employs a lot of mercenaries and one of these mercenaries is named David David David is an extremely capable charismatic Soldier Who develops a following David as you can imagine because he's very charismatic is also very ambitious and eventually he has a falling out with Saul okay David is Saul's best General best soldier but David is too ambitious and so sort of suspects David so what David does is he runs off and joins the Philistines okay he's not fighting for the Philistines what's really important for us to understand and I know it's a hard concept okay but borders and alliances and allegiances are extremely fluid at this time if it benefits me I'll be I'll fight for you but if it doesn't benefit me then I'll betray you okay there are different factions within all alliances okay so the Philistines are divided among different ethnic groups the the people in the lavant are divided into different political factions you know you have these Hill people have have these Nomads you have um these foreign missionaries and they're fighting for different reasons so the the alliance are always shifting okay so David um goes off and fights for the Philistines King Saul and his sons are eventually killed in battle and David sees a political opening so he turns back into Levant and he starts to politically maneuver to be the new king okay and um his power his power power base is in a place called habran or in South um the lont but the house of Saul is still around and so there's a civil war now going on and eventually David triumphs and then David's able to unite these people and he creates a new nation called Israel all right and then Israel is able under David's leadership is able to um basically um put down any aggressions from its neighbors and they're able to build an Empire a small Empire okay nowhere near Egypt but it's an Empire all right so this is what we know from the archaological record but David is so charismatic that when he dies his son Solomon is not able to hold the empire together so uh what happens is Israel divides into the northern kingdom and Judah which is where the House of David is okay now again the Levant is a very important strategic location so as these Empires major Empires start to consolidate the power they want to take over the lant okay so who so the Assyrian Empire comes in and destroys the northern kingdom and then eventually the Babylonian Empire will come in and Destroy Judah okay the B the Babylonians will take the Israel Elite Bas basically the royalty and force them to go to Babylon where they will be H as hostages or captives eventually what will happen next is the Persian Empire will come and defeat Babylon and what they do next is very interesting they decide they will release these Israelite Elite H have them return to Jerusalem and Israel and have them govern the lant based on to and have them govern the Lan okay does that make sense and it is only at this point that we get the term Jews okay this is a Persian idea the Jews before they called the Israelites and this about 500 BC okay 500 BC and now we have a radical departure from the tradition okay and so I'll explain three major differences and then I'll explain I'll go into detail about these differences in future classes okay the first major difference is Israel uh under Israelites it's a very it's a polytheistic religion they don't they have one God Yahweh but Yahweh but they also have a Pantheon of Gods which is the same which is true for every other religion right there's a Pantheon of gods Yahweh is at the top but they also celebrate other gods like uh ba and asur okay we know because they're written down in the Bible so we know at this point Israel is still a polytheistic religion but after the Persian um but after the Persian Empire returns them to judism they became a monotheistic uh religion or the beginnings of a monotheistic religion why because when the when the Jews are released from ctivity by the Persians their religion merges with that of the Persian religion called zor aism and zorin ism is a dualistic religion okay meaning there's good and evil so that's the first major difference the at the beginning the Bible was very much a polytheistic religion and then after uh the Israelites became the Jews it became M monotheistic okay second big difference is this second big difference is during this time the people with the power in Israel were the Kings okay the monarchy but after uh the but after um 500 BC the Jews decided they don't want any Kings and the don't have Kings because the overlords are the Persians right so the cent of power became the priesthood okay the priests the people with the absolute Authority are the priests not the Kings there are Kings but the kings are are not subservient to the priests who speak on behalf of Yahweh okay because now it's a monotheistic religion and then there's one other difference the the other difference is remember at this point they're poly polytheistic and they're kings okay which means they are tolerant they're welcoming of other religions right because you're polytheistic but also as kings you need to establish diplomatic alliances with other countries or different religions right so when you marry uh someone uh from another political Dynasty you also are marrying into that religion does that make sense so Israel under the Kings is a very tolerant religion but if you're run by priests right you become intolerant because you insist that your religion is the best okay and that's why after the Persians lost control and the Greeks came in to the vant uh this is the the saluan Empire okay the Jews rebelled against the Greeks because the Greeks were polytheistic and the Jews consider themselves monotheistic okay they refused to acknowledge the culture and the religion of the Greeks and then things are really bad when the Romans came in okay does that make sense okay so this is the history of the Jewish people up until the birth of Jesus okay any questions so far you guys understand what's happening how did Theon collapse excuse me how did Theon AG collap okay um so how did the bronch age collapse okay we talked about this okay okay we don't know why collapse the um mainstream economic understanding is it was a Perfecto it was a perfect storm of several factors including climate change including um civil unrest including natural disaster like earthquakes okay including um competition among Empires what's important to understand is when we talk about bage collapse it we're really talking about about basically this area if you go east to Mesopotamia where the Neo sorry where the Assyrian and the Babylonians are they're fine okay and it's BR collapse that allow the syrians and the Babylonians to eventually become world powers so um the Bron collapse was not a global phenomenon it was a localized phenomenon to the Mediterranean okay but why the Bron collapse is important is because the bran claps will give us Greek civilization Homer and Plato okay it will also give us the Bible right because if you if you look at this history Israel would not have come into being without the branchage collapse Egypt or the high ties would continue to control the lant all right and it's important to understand the Greeks and the Bible are the basis the two fundamental pillars of Western Civilization you understand that's why westerners are so fascinated by the branch AG collapse because in their minds the branch AG collapse is part of God's divine plan or design to create Classical Greece and the is in the nation of Israel so that his vision for the world can be achieved through Jesus okay yep yeah that's fine yeah okay so that's a good question so the argument I'm trying to make up make make to you is the Bible says Abraham is a patriarch of the Israelites but the historical record the AR the AR Aral record is we be have evidence of David we have abely no evidence of anything before David okay um so I think David is a founder of the nation of Israel and not Abraham next class I I will explain to you why they constructed this mythology okay all right but I but first I want to give you a broad overview all right next class I will explain to you where these ideas Abraham and Moses came from it'll make sense when I when I explain it to you okay but you guys do you guys have any more questions before I go on yeah can you clarify on how Isel ReliOn okay right okay okay so um uh what happened with during the Persian period right okay so at this point um the religion of Israel is no different from the local areas it's part it's it's a it's a polytheistic religion with a pentagon of gods okay and maybe yahweh's at the top or maybe Yahweh is co-equal okay we don't know and at this point there are many Divergent religions okay but what happens is Babylon conquers Jerusalem and then the Jews are sent in Exile so now the religion is sent overseas and it's the religion is detached from the culture and the people does that make sense and what we know is when you do that when you when you detach the religion and you put it into a place that has no interactions with the local people in the culture it becomes much more uh fanatical much it becomes much more focused and fanatical okay do you understand okay do do you understand because if it's in Israel and they different cultures the religion has to be tolerant and um please different factions among the people okay does that make sense but once this religion goes off to Babylon it's now divorced from the people from local reality so the elite can design in a way that they think is most appropriate and we call that fanatical does that make sense so an example of this okay um it's a bad analogy but but maybe this will help you right now you're not sure what it means to be Chinese okay you're Chinese but Chinese in China it's a very fluid uh very uh diverse identity when you go off to America right then you have much C more concrete much more clear understanding of what it means to be Chinese your Chinese identity becomes much more formed does that make sense okay the same thing with religion within Israel itself the religion is constantly changing it's very fluid but when they're off to Babylon they have to use religion to survive as a people as an identity and so it becomes much more um formed okay much more concrete does that make sense and then what happens is as it's now that's much more concrete it now interacts with zor asianism which is the religion of the Persians and and at this point the religion becomes um basically what it is today okay um so I I'm sorry I don't I I don't think I've explained this clearly clearly to you but I want to wait until we get to this period okay right now right now I'm just giving you like a broad overview okay any more questions before I begin before I continue all right now I want to talk about the Bible okay because the Bible is the mythology it's a collective memory of the Israelites okay and so I'm I'm going to discuss why the Bible was first created in this class and what what I will explain to you is the Bible was first created in order to explain and just justify and create legitimacy for David okay this what we call an apology and this is a very common practice the idea is this most Kings every King obtains power through um really nefarious means okay they either kill a lot of people to obtain power or maybe the younger brother kills the older brother to usurp the throne okay usually kingship requires um ruthlessness but the problem is when you're ruthless you have a legitimacy problem right so the way that most Kings resolve this issue is by sponsoring writings or an apology to explain why he or she is king and the answer usually is because God will it so because I have no choice in the matter I'm not ambitious I was not at all ambitious but the circumstance is forced my hand to save my people to do God's work I had to kill my brother I had to kill my enemies even though I myself am not a violent person okay that's usually how the apology goes okay so remember back at this point the very idea of writing it is new it's a new technology but it's also a very expensive technology meaning you need to buy the materials okay which which are rare but you also need the people to be able to write okay and they're also Al very expensive and you basically needed to be able to support a team of scribes to create any work of fiction so writing back then is like movie making today okay it's a very expensive um Endeavor that was usually sponsored by the king in order to justify uh or explain why he is King in order to create legitimacy does that make sense so the Bible was created first as an apology for David and explains why the house of House of David is now in charge of Israel but as we discussed okay eventually the House of David Israel divides into two Nations now the House of David the Bible goes with the house with how Judah okay to to Judah but the northern kingdom now needs his own mythology its own Bible right and so a second Bible was created the people who are in charge of the Bible uh the priest class are interested in promoting their own um interests mainly in the points of ritual it does that make sense like what are rituals why do we need them why are priests important then you have um people at this point in the Babylon captivity looking back at the history of Israel and trying to figure out why the House of David collapsed and their answer is because the Israelites refus to follow the will of God because the Israelites became polytheistic or they became immoral okay does that make sense in other words the Bible at this point are divided into like four major factions or schools okay the school that supports the House of David the legitimacy of the House of David is called the J school okay the J school don't worry about this I'll explain to you next class what these things mean the people who support the northern kingdom as legitimate House of Israel is called the E School e the school school that supports the uh Power of the priest obviously call the P school okay for priests and then the school that tries to go back in history and examine why Israel uh fail um and which believe it's because the Israelites betrayed God this these people are what we call the D score okay the D score so EGP and d and these are just four of the major schools there are other schools as well all right and so at this point the Bible was divided into like four major schools or documents controlled by different factions when the Persians take over okay they insisted you need one religion guys you need one document and so all four were put together to create the Bible but the way the way they did it was very interesting all they did was just put them put them together okay do you understand so you have so if you read the Bible it's like a b c d a b c d okay so one line is from the e school the next line is from the J School the other line is from the P school it's very confusing to read if you don't understand this history it is impossible for you to read the Bible I'm not sure if you tried to read the Bible it's not readable okay so why would they do this why would they just put all four texts together without major editing or revisions why do you guys know why would they do that it's very I mean they just made a complete mess of the Bible but why would they do that okay okay so let me explain the first major reason is most people didn't read or write back then so the Bible itself didn't really matter What mattered was the oral explanation of the Bible controlled by the priest class does it make sense the people didn't read the Bible so how the Bible was actually written was not that important it was important um for the priest to have access to the Bible okay but the people didn't actually read the Bible that's the first reason the second more important reason is because the the Bible is political real estate and I want you to remember this idea okay this the most valuable political real estate in the world everyone wants to be in the Bible because to be in the Bible gives you legitimacy it gives you power right so if you're a king you have four sons who all want to be king well your best solution is to divide the kingdom among the four Sons right same with the Bible you have four extremely powerful schools and Bal factions so the be the best way to resolve the issue is just to say listen we'll put you all in the Bible together okay like and you you when you merge them it's a lot easier than if you just try to do it um by order okay like e scho goes first first and J school then P school then D school okay they just put them all together does that make sense okay so this is a very important idea the Bible is the most is the most valuable political real estate in the world everyone wants to be in there and what ideas are you can find in there will ultimately shape human history okay any questions so far before I before I continue all right so the last thing I want to talk about today is the apology of David which is the beginning of the Bible okay um so when kings come to power they have three major problems right the first major problem is legitimacy what gives you the right to be king okay second problem is the idea of identity and this is a huge problem for the Israelites because Israelites it's a multicultural entity you have people speaking different languages different cultures they they practice different cultures they practice different religions so now you need to create an identity that everyone accepts Okay the third thing is differentiation you need not only for these people to get along but you need them you need to get them to divorce their former culture does that make sense because you have Egyptian priests in there you have to tell these Egyptian priests you're now Israelites and you're not Egyptian anymore an example that we use for this um is Augustus Caesar and the writing of the inad okay remember the inad it's a book about a character named inas and it provides political legitimacy to August Caesar because Augustus Caesar is a direct descendant of inas who is the founder of Rome also what the inat said is a Caesar is the end point of Roman history everything before August Caesar led to him Aus Caesar is like the Jesus of Rome okay he is the Salvation he's Redemption of Rome okay that's what the inas the inad does okay second second thing about the inad is it creates a new Roman identity that's that focuses on piety loyalty over Liberty remember the problem uh fora Caesar was Romans in like kings well now he's a king so how do you get people to obey well you tell them Piet is more important than Liberty right the third idea is the Indian remember it's anti- Greek the problem for Rome at that time was Greek culture was vast Superior to ran culture and so a lot of Romans were adopting Greek cultural practices like Mark Anthony and so uh the inad said Greek culture is like the troan horse if you let into your city Greek culture will corrupt you and destroy Joy you okay so guess what guys every King has to resolve all three issues okay legitimacy identity and differentiation and that's what David is trying to do with the Bible okay so let's so I'll give you three examples three stories from the Bible that illustrate um David's quest for legitimacy next class we will talk about um identity and differentiation and how the Bible achieves that okay but this this class I want to focus on legitimacy so now that David is King a lot of people don't think he's legitimate why because he ruthlessly tried to user the Throne from Saul right Saul is the king that everyone picked or elected and he was a good King he was good at War he was someone that most people um liked and David took stole the th Throne from him okay so now what is David's problem now that he has a throne others will try to steal it from him right you understand because if you David are if you said the president if you um steal the throne then others are now empowered to steal the throne from you as well okay so the first thing the Bible does the apology for David does is show us David loved Soul he was not at all ambitious he cared only for the well-being of his King okay and so one story that illustrates this there are actually many many stories in the Bible that does this but one story that illustrates this is this so Saul thinks David's trying to kill him so he's chasing after David with his army okay trying to kill David and his followers one uh one day Saul is alone in a cave praying to God for deliverance David sees Saul alone and and he sneaks up behind Saul then he takes his sword and cuts a piece of soul uh clothing okay and then David disappears sa leaves the cave and then David rushes to him and says Saul my king I beg of you give me a second let me explain to you back then in the cave I could have killed you this is a piece of clothing to prove I could have killed you but I didn't because I love you because I'm loyal to you I would never kill you and then Saul says oh this is this is proof that you were you never meant to kill me okay and this is a story in the Bible um obviously this story cannot be true okay but this is what the Bible's trying to do it's trying to first show us that David is not all ambitious in fact the entire apology of David is focused on the lack of ambition of David okay so that's the first story let's look at the Second Story okay the second story is this soul is dead and his son who's a young man um comes into the throne there's a general named adner okay Abner who was loyal to Saul but now that Saul is dead and David is very popular among the people adner sees the political winds changing and Abner tries to align himself with David So Abner writes a long letter to David and saying listen I will swear loyalty to you and will end the civil war between the house of Saul and the House of David you will unite Israel and then David writes back and says yeah come to my um come to me we'll have I I'll give you a feast and then we'll be friends and so adner comes David gives him a feast and then as adner leaves he runs into um David's General named joab joab and joab and Abner go a long way back okay they were friends they were enemies Abner killed Jo brother and in an act of anger joab stabs adner to death okay Abner is dead and once Abner is dead the house of Saul basically gives up and David is able to unite um Israel okay that's the so in the Bible David is so angry by this that he curses job and he and he gives amner uh great funeral right because David does not does not want to betray his friends why is this story wrong or completely made up it's not made up but it's it's what we call spin right clearly adner and David had um a Feast together and clearly joab killed Abner but why is the Bible version of of of this event wrong or incorrect it can't be true you guys know okay this is hard okay but the reason is this if you're David and you're King which person in the world are you most afraid of if you're the king there's a person in this world you're most afraid of or you're most suspicious of who is that person H Abner okay yeah he is suspicious of Abner but in general you should be suspicious of joab right because joab has access to your army Abner is your enemy but joab has access to your army so if joab wants to betray you he could okay so in other words because David is most suspicious of joab if joab were ever to act independently then David would need to kill him does that make sense and in this circumstance joab acted independently David told joab apner was an honored guest and joab didn't care he was angry about the death of his brother and he kills Abner this cannot possibly be true you understand joab had to kill Abner because he was ordered to by David right now now why would David want adner to be killed because in his mind he thinks oh if Adar can can can betray the house of Saul he can also betray the House of David he is an ambitious man and why would he think like that why would David come to this conclusion because he himself is like that do you understand he he himself betrayed Saul so he's very very very careful or cautious about people who betray their leaders right Abner betrayed the house of Saul and it was very likely that he would betray David at some point as well and so David had to have him killed right but he could not say this publicly because if you if you were to say this publicly then it would show he in fact knew knew this because he betrayed Soul does that make sense the logic of this okay but you can see how wonderful the spin is it's almost impossible to see the truth from this right if you're a person you know okay um David uh um you know that job killed Abner and you told the story you believe the story it's just because Abner was angry that he killed uh sorry it was it it was just because job was angry he killed Abner you believe that right when you think about it it can't be true okay now I'm GNA give you one more story and this story is actually even harder to figure out because of the spin okay now that um David is king of Israel Israel has many enemies so his armies are always at War okay one day David is on the rooftop of his house so and this is Israel is not a very rich place okay so these these AR palaces they're just houses okay and so David is strolling on his rooftop and across from him is a woman named BBA bash sheiba and she's bathing naked and David is overcome with lust he's like I must have this woman okay and he's King he orders his servant to go get her she comes they have sex okay the problem is we have sex but she gets pregnant okay the problem now is but she was married to a man named UA the he Tite and Yu the hightide is one of David's best soldiers and he's fighting for David and Israel somewhere else so David's like oh this is a problem because once yua comes home and he finds BBA has a new child he's going to know it's not his so either he's going to kill her or he's gonna figure out it's David to come kill him okay so David being very clever has a solution to this he invites Ura back home okay so UA comes home from the war and UA thinks oh the King has called for me therefore it's an emergency okay so he rushes back and David meets Yura at his house and David says listen Yura you've been doing such a great job um you're such a great Soldier you're so loyal I want to give you a vacation go home and be with your wife and you is like uh my king my comrades are dying they're starving out in the battlefield I can abandon them how can I find pleasure my wife when my friends are are suffering I refuse to go home I will not go home until the battle is won and David tries his best but he can't convince Yura to go home so then David tells UIA you're such a great Soldier you're so loyal I'm so happy and proud that you fight for me he gives you a letter to his General uh joab okay and the letter instructs joab to kill yua he joab will send Yura with his soldiers out in the battlefield and then at the last minute Jo will recall his soldiers leaving Jo by himself at this point the enemies will swarm Uria and kill Yura and that's what happens and once yura is dead David marries basba and they have and they're about to have a child together at this point David is visited by a prophet named Nathan and Nathan says to David I want to ask you a question and David says sure go ahead Nathan says let's imagine there are two Shepherds there's a rich shepherd with a 100 sheep and there's a poor shepherd with two sheep there's a traveler a foreign guest who comes in a town and the rich Shepherd wants to honor him with a feast the shepher the rich Shepherd steals the poor man's Shepherd to feed the traveler who's going wrong and David says of course the rich Shepherd is in the wrong he's indignant he's angry How could a man be so unrighteous as to steal another man's sheep and then naan says you David are the rich Shepherd you have violated God's law you are the wrong and as punishment God God will take away your son or your child with basba and that's what happens and David is goes into mourning okay he is distraught he's depressed he writes a lot of poetry okay so this is a very powerful story and this is a story that has captured imagination of everyone for a thousand years but it's complete spin this is not what happened okay how do we know okay first thing is this Nathan says to David you have stolen a man's Shepherd uh sorry you have stolen a man's wife therefore you in the wrong what's what's the problem with this logic what is if it's crime real Crime Guys he killed you right you understand you you forgotten this fact he had Yura killed that's the real crime he killed Ura yeah he s with BBA that's bad but it's much worse if you murder someone okay so another question then is why would he murder Yura why not just talk to him honestly and says Zia I'm sorry I love your wife I I had sex with her I'm sorry why did he why did David have have to have have to get Thea killed what was Thea killed yeah because the loyal the Army is loyal to Ura right so why would David fear Yura because yura is is a popular Brave Soldier just like David and David used his popularity in order to user the throne from Saul right therefore David thinks Yura could do the same thing to me therefore I have to have to get him killed in other words this BBA thing must have come later to disguise the fact that David killed Ura because he feared ura's popularity does that make sense right you see how clever this story is the historical truth must have been David feared y popularity and he need to get rid of Yura so he can C this plan and then after he killed UIA he need he needed to explain to his army okay who loved Ura why this happened and then they was like oh because I fell in love with his wife I couldn't control myself I'm just a man okay God is God I'm a man I'm a king I can't be God I can't control my emotions right does that make sense but the irony of this is because David is working so hard to disguise his ruthlessness he's creating very powerful literature he created very powerful story that has captured the imagination of readers for a long time time and you think about it you think a lot about the story it unleashes a lot of ideas in you okay you have to ask yourself what is man what is God are we capable of controlling our emotions so in other words this story is extremely well constructed that inspires you to imagine your own personal and emotional and moral life we call this literature right so guys it's no coincidence that today the Jewish people are the most creative people in the world when you go to America for University uh most of your professors are Jewish most of the best thinkers in the world are Jewish these past 200 years there have been three revolutionary thinkers Carl Marx Albert Einstein and San Freud they're all Jewish who are who are stepped who are who have been raised in the Jewish tradition of asking deep questions about what it means to be human does that make sense okay any questions about this okay that's a great question okay so the question is why would people believe this apology of of David and well the answer is most most didn't believe the apology of David okay most were very clear about David's Ambitions but when you're King you need to impose your reality on others okay so this is why this written and so um it was written for people who were part of David's political Coalition do you understand his enemies wouldn't believe this right but it was meant it was basically meant to appease or convince those who want to believe David does that make sense okay Spin and it's it's it happens today guys when you watch the news it's spin right it's it's the story of reality and so most people will believe the media right there are some people who will never believe the media like I I don't believe any anything the media tells me whether it's Chinese Media or American Media I I know a lot of history to understand the media is is distorting reality okay but uh most people will will believe this because they have absolutely no interest in not believing it right David it's King if you don't believe it then you have to then you have to believe your king is a murderer okay does that make sense yeah yeah Echo what's the main understanding of story oh yeah that's a great question okay I yeah this is really important what's the mainstream understanding of the story so the mainstream understanding of the story is it has to be true why because it puts David in a bad light do you understand and it shows the genius of David because David is wrestling with his own Mor reality David is being honest right so the M understanding is David is a poet King he's a man who prays constantly and engages in a process of self-reflection and that's what makes David great okay he's constantly praying to God in fact the Bible just goes on endlessly about this how David is constantly in communication with God and in this communication he's praying and asking for light for for truth in his own weaknesses okay to be delivered from his failings as a man and the Bish bisha story is epanic um about this because why would a man make this up right well I've told you why but most schols don't see that most schs think okay well this basa story puts David in the worst possible light therefore it must be true and therefore it shows us David is a PO King who is constantly thinking about his own moral failings and so he's an inspiration to his people okay that's the mainstream understanding any other questions yep that's right oh okay so um the question is if people at that time were mainly illiterate why was this written down or how would they know the story okay so um the idea is this first of all this was written for the elite for the people around David to know what story to tell people does that make sense okay this is so this was for internal consumption and this was to basically uh preserve David's historical Legacy so maybe 20 years from now when everyone's dead when people who knew UIA and basiba were dead well what what is truth now the truth is what what's been written down okay that that's why they're saying history is written by the writers right history is not written by the winners history is written by the writers right okay does that make sense okay any more questions okay great so next class uh we will continue the the Hebrew Bible okay because it starts off as an apology for David but it evolves into a much larger mythology right so that's next class