{"id":58456,"date":"2019-06-28T07:18:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T04:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58456"},"modified":"2023-01-22T16:04:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T14:04:54","slug":"the-dynamics-of-dynasties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-dynamics-of-dynasties\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dynamics Of Dynasties"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[834,835,436,423],"acf":{"old_id":"58456","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56443,"related_cahpter":"252","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"David skillfully treads a fluid line between innocence and manipulation","content":"

A central moral and political dilemma of the Book of Samuel is rooted in the dynamics of inherited kingship. The logic of dynastic monarchy defines the field of systematic ambiguity in which Samuel\u2019s power-seekers and power-wielders necessarily operate and interact. The monopoly of sovereign authority by a single house or lineage not only gives rise to a lethal winner-take-all struggle for supremacy; it also creates, as we now want to show, the fluid line between innocence and manipulation that David skillfully treads. The Book of Samuel contains a story of two dynasties, Saul\u2019s and David\u2019s, the second replacing the first. In line with the logic of dynastic structures, a usurper of monarchical power cannot permit any members of the previous dynasty to survive. This is a bitter but inescapable rule. If they live, survivors of the ousted dynasty will provide a dangerous rallying point for social forces discontent with the ruling family. Survivors will be resentful troublemakers, constantly conspiring against the upstart family who expropriated their hereditary rights. Any moment of public dissatisfaction with the new king will rekindle their latent hopes for restoration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is no wonder that Jonathan, Saul\u2019s own son, who loved David and accepted him as the future king, was haunted by the possibility of both his own death and his descendants’ extirpation at the hands of David. He even made David swear an oath to alleviate this fear:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cand the LORD shall be with you [David] as He was with my father [Saul]. Would that while I am still alive you may keep the LORD\u2019s faith with me, that I not die, and that you do not cut off your faithfulness from my house for all time\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

For Jonathan had sealed a pact with the house of David and the LORD shall requite it from the hand of David.\u201d (1 Sam 20:13-16)<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, David kept only the letter but not the spirit of this sacred oath. Yet David\u2019s reputation required its basic violation to be shrouded in ambiguity. Indeed, the detailed account of David\u2019s efforts to control his public image, both before and after he becomes king, is a striking feature in the Book of Samuel. It is no exaggeration to say that the principal question raised by our author\u2019s tale of two warring dynasties is this: How can David replace Saul without being blamed for regicide and without bloodying his hands with the politically unavoidable extinction of Saul\u2019s descendants?<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpts from The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp.43-4. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56668,"id":56668,"title":"halbertal-book cover.jpg","filename":"halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-fine-grained-phenomenology-of-political-power\/halbertal-book-cover-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"halbertal-book-cover-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56661,"date":"2019-06-02 14:58:58","modified":"2019-06-03 03:02:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2000,"height":2000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","2048x2048-width":2000,"2048x2048-height":2000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from:\u201cThe Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel\u201d ","main_caption":"The Dynamics Of Dynasties","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"David skillfully treads a fluid line between innocence and manipulation","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":56668,"id":56668,"title":"halbertal-book cover.jpg","filename":"halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-fine-grained-phenomenology-of-political-power\/halbertal-book-cover-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"halbertal-book-cover-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56661,"date":"2019-06-02 14:58:58","modified":"2019-06-03 03:02:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2000,"height":2000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","2048x2048-width":2000,"2048x2048-height":2000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58456"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112032,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58456\/revisions\/112032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}