Thank you for supporting our publishing ministry. To keep reading, subscribe-subscriptions begin at $4.95-or log in. This article is available to Christian Century magazine subscribers only. Baden, an associate professor of Old Testament at Yale Divinity School and author of The Historical David, assumes that religious folk are unaware of David’s real life and think of him as a hero-the sweet singer who composed Psalms and was prayerfully submissive to God and bold in fulfilling God’s plans.

Now other biblical characters are being subjected to reductionist critiques as well. Interweaving historical and methodological chapters with detailed textual case studies, Baden provides a critical introduction to the history of Pentateuchal. We may suspect that Jesus is accustomed to this, having learned the hard way when he was on Earth. We are appalled by the revelations because we know not to cheat we shake our heads because we know how to be good and we want to be good.īest sellers have been mocking Jesus for some time now. Our craving to hear more debunking tells us a lot about our low estimate of human nature and about the feeble expectations we have of ourselves. We should be weary of the revelations: home-run hitters admit to using performance-enhancing drugs, politicians turn out to have swindled us, trusted clergy and coaches are found to have misbehaved. David is one of the most celebrated characters in the Bible. The curtain has been pulled back on Thomas Jefferson, Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa and even Jesus. The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero Books by Joel S. The public has a taste for biographies of great people who on closer inspection turn out to be not so great after all.

The Historical David by Joel S. Baden