Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #21 - The Apology of King David of Israel

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

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 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, happening between Israel and Iran, what's happening in Palestine, you cannot do so without a full understanding of the Bible. At the same time, the Bible is, because it's so important, the ideas around 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 the divinity himself and obviously that's not what I believe more so I'm gonna 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 to be fair to you I want you to be very skeptical of what I say okay come to class with doubting my authority doubting my understanding of the Bible okay so feel free to challenge me and I want you to challenge me because what I will say in this class is will be extremely controversial okay so let me give you a brief introduction to the Bible

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 artist in 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 a library, it's a huge collection of ideas. There's about 2,000 pages. So there's very few people who actually read the Bible in its entirety. There are people who might read some section of the Bible,

But most people will receive their understanding of a Bible from authorities like priests or rabbis. Okay? 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... So the Hebrew term for the Bible is the Tanakh. So you may hear some people say the Tanakh. It just means the Hebrew Bible, okay? The Tanak is T and K. And this is the Hebrew term for certain ideas. The T stands for Torah or teachings.

So this is the laws. of the Jewish tradition. For example, the Ten Commandments, right? Second is N, which means prophets. And the prophets themselves are divided into minor and major. So, in Rome, the people who are most of the generals, right, Julius Caesar, Pompeii. In Greece, the people who most admire are the poets,

Homer and the playwrights. In the Jewish tradition, the people who are most admired are the prophets. These individuals who speak the truth of God, they're social critics, and there are people who challenge the authority of the kings in order to promote the laws and teachings of God. Does that make sense? The prophets are the people who are most admired in the Jewish tradition. And the third are, 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. So this is the Hebrew Bible. And then we get to the New Testament, which is something that only Christians believe. So Jewish people do not accept anything in the New Testament. The New Testament calls the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament. Why? Because the Old Testament is the promise of salvation.

The promise of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the deliverance or the fulfillment of this promise in Jesus Christ. It's a coming and the work of Jesus Christ. New Testament itself is divided into many different works. It's a lot smaller than the Old Testament. So there are the Gospels. The Gospels is Greek for the 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. There's letters, mainly by someone named Paul. And these are the work of Jesus' Apostles. after the death of Jesus. They go around the world, they promote the gospel of Jesus, the good news. 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 Revelation, which is about the end of the world. And it's the idea of the second coming. How even though Jesus is dead, he will return and he will bring peace, eternal peace, to the world. Now, from the Bible, in the interpretation of the Bible, comes the Quran. And this is the basis for Islam.

Okay? So eventually we'll do all three. The Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Koran. We'll start with the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. Okay? 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.

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. There are three ideas about the Hebrew Bible. that Jews believe, the Jews today believe, which are not true. 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. That's what Jews believe.

I will show you this is not true. In the beginning, Jewish people, like everyone else, were polytheistic. Monotheistic is a modern idea that has been retroactively put back into Jewish history. 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. And what I will show you is that's not true. And 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 the Israelites, the people who founded 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 one really important idea you need to understand. The history of the Israelites and the Jewish people are not continuous. All right. Okay. Doesn't make sense?

Okay. Any questions so far? Are you guys following along? Okay. Yeah, so the last idea is the Bible, or the Hebrew Bible, it's a historical record. And what I will show you is,

we've been trying for at least 300 years, to prove that the Bible is, historical record. There are archaeologists who've spent fortunes in 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. It is a literary work. Now it's a very powerful literary work and that's what explains its relevance and its power today okay I'll explain why it's powerful but I want 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 gonna talk a little about the broad history of the Israel like people okay so in the Bible what it tells you is maybe about 2000 BCE there's a man named Abraham and he's from the city of Eric okay in Mesopotamia or is it Urr okay it's it's one or two sorry and then God Yahweh thought Abraham was the best man in the world so God Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham and said you 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 greatest 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

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 okay 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 Bronze Age collapse which lasts about for 100 years at this time let's go the world issue is is in a place called the Levant and the law-vaunt has always been important because as we discussed in previous classes Levant was one of the

first centers of agriculture. So Jericho is in the Levant. But it's also important because the Levant is where three major civilizations and empires meet. 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. Over here is Mesopotamia which is the creative civilization this is where human civilization first developed mathematics writing astronomy architecture okay and up here are the high types or Anatolia and naturally again is extremely wealthy so

the Lavad is sort of sandwiched between three extremely aggressive wealthy and powerful nations that are extremely advanced and sophisticated. So the Levant has always been a colony of either Egypt or Anatolia. 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 Levon. One is what we call a nothing pot 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 Mesoenna are extremely wealthy. From the Levant, you can go across the Mediterranean into all of Europe and into Northern Africa. So the Levant was really the center of the world for most of its history. And so it was a meaning place, mainly for traders. At this time, Levant was divided into different sections. A province called K9 was a province of Egypt. And K9 was special to Egypt because the Egyptians loved two things.

They loved wine, they loved olive oil. And the Levant was very good at harvesting both wine, good wine, and olive oil. So, but the Egyptians didn't really like to go outside Egypt. So the people administrating the Levant were local elites tied to Egypt, but also foreign mercenaries. And these four mercenaries were from as far as Greece. And we know this because we've discovered Greek. pottery that dates back to this period. These four mercenaries would then

intermarry with the local woman, because as you can imagine, these are young males. Okay? You also had lots of nomads living in the Levant because of Arabia, right? Lots of nomads. People we call the Bedouins. You also had people living in the hills of the Lavan, the hill people.

And you have these cities, the Kenyanites. You also had, believe it or not, it's just a priest living in this area. Why would they live in this area? Well, because they had a certain religion that was considered heredictical. or controversial in Egypt so they have to leave to practice a religion or maybe they were priests who got into a political struggle and as such they were exiled to the Levant. 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. Then what happened, of course, is the Bronze Age collapse. The thing about the Bronze Age collapse is you have this massive migration of people looking for food. These are all the sea peoples. They're basically like pirates. And there are these massive waves of sea people attacking the Haiths, attacking the Levantis. and attacking Egypt. And again, these are like refugees.

Okay, this is a forced migration, and they're trying to feed their families. They basically overrun the Hypatts. They destroy the cities of the Levant. And they almost destroy Egypt, but Egypt, because it's so wealthy, it's able to hold off the sea people. Eventually what happens is

the sea peoples and Egypt come to an agreement. come to an agreement and say, listen, stop attacking us, and we'll you land in the Levant. You can sit down there, you can go your own food, and you can feed your families. Okay? And this place is what we call Philistia. And these people are the Philistines.

So these are basically the sea peoples, mainly Greek, actually. There are a lot of Greeks among the Philistines. But this creates a problem for everyone in the Levant. Because now you have a foreign presence, sorry, you have a foreign presence that is very aggressive and expansionist. So now the people in the Levant need to come together and fend all this threat from the Philistines. They also have these neighbors as well, these other cultures that keep on attacking them. 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. And King Saul is a very good king. He's a very good military leader. He's helping the people in the Levant fan off the Philistines and aggressive neighbors. So this is a military alliance. King Saul 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 soul 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 a line And alliances and allegiances are extremely fluid at this time. If it benefits me, I'll fight for you.

But if it doesn't benefit me, then I'll betray you. There are different factions within all alliances. So the Philistines are divided among different ethnic groups. The people in the Lavand are divided into different political factions. You have these hill people, these nomads, you have these foreign missionaries, and they're fighting for different reasons. So these alliances are always shifting. So David 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. And his power base is in a place called. Hebron or in south the Levant but the house of Seoul 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 basically put down any aggressions from its neighbors.

And they're able to build an empire, a small empire, no way near Egypt, but it's an empire. All right? So this is what we know from the archaeological record. But David is so charismatic that when he dies, his son Solomon is not able to hold the empire together. So what happens is Israel divides into the northern kingdom and Judah, which is where the house of David is. Now again, the Lovat is a very important strategic location.

So as these empires, major empires, start to consult the power, they want to, take over the Levant, okay? So the Syrian Empire comes in and destroys the Northern Kingdom. And eventually, the Babylonian Empire will come in and destroy Judah. Okay? The Babylonians will take the Israel elite, basically the royalty, and force them to go to Babylon, where they would be hold

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, have them return to Jerusalem and Israel, and have them govern the Levant based on... to and have them govern the law law.

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're called the Israelites. And this is 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, under Israelites, it's a very, it's a polytheistic religion. 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 shall. other gods like Bao and Arshara. We know because they're written down in the Bible.

So we know at this point, issue is still a polytheistic religion. But after the Persian empire returns them to Judaism, they became a monotheistic religion or the beginnings of a monotheistic religion. Why? Because when the Jews are released from captivity by the Persians, their religion merges with that of the Persian religion called Zoroastrianism. And Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion, meaning there's good and evil. So that's the first major difference. At the beginning, the Bible was very much a polyphistic religion, and then after the Israelites became the Jews, it became

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 the but after 500 BCE the Jews decided they didn't want any kings and they couldn't have kings because they're over the words or the Persians right So the sin 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 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 other difference is, remember, at this point, they're polyphistic and they're kings, which means they are tolerant. They're welcoming of other religions, right, because you're politicistic, but also as kings, you need to establish diplomatic alliances with other countries, who have different religions, right?

So when you marry someone 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. And that's why after the Persians lost control and the Greeks came in to the Levant, this is the Seleucid Empire, okay, the Jews, rebelled against the Greeks because the Greeks were politicistic and the Jews

considered themselves monotheistic okay they refused to acknowledge the culture and the religion of the Greeks and then things are really bad and the Romans came in okay doesn't make sense okay so this is the history of the Jewish people up until the birth of Jesus okay any questions so far Do you get to understand what's happening? Excuse me? Okay, so how did the Bronze Age collapse? Okay, we talked about this, okay?

We don't know why collapse. The mainstream economic understanding is, it was a perfect storm of several factors, including climate change, including civil unrest, including natural disaster like earthquakes, including competition, competition among empires what's important to understand is when we talk about

a bunch of these collapse it we're really talking about about basically this area if you go east to Mesopotamia where the Neal with so where the Assyrian and the Babylonians are they're fine okay and it's a branch of collapse that allow the Syrians and the Babylonians to eventually become world powers so the Bronchians The Bronze Age collapse was not a global phenomenon, it was a localized phenomenon to the Mediterranean. But why the Bronze Age collapse is important

is because the Brunchaus collapse will give us Greek civilization, Homer and Plato, okay? It will also give us the Bible, right? Because if you look at this history, Israel would not have come into being without the Bronze Age collapse. Egypt or the Haightites will continue to control the Levant. And it's important to understand that 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 Bronze Age collapse. Because in their minds, the Bronze Age collapse is part of God's divine plan or design to create classical Greece and the nation of Israel. that his vision for the world can be achieved through Jesus. Okay? That's fine. Yeah. Okay.

So that's a good question. So the argument I'm trying to make up, make to you is, the Bible says Abraham is a patriarch of the Israelites. But the historical record, the archaical record is, we appear to have evidence of David. We have absolutely no evidence of anything before David. Okay? So I think David is the founder of the nation of Israel, not Abraham.

Next class, I'll explain to you why they constructed this mythology, okay? But first I want to give you a broad overview. Next class, I will explain to you where these ideas, Abraham and Moses came from. It'll make sense when I explain it to you. Do you guys have any more questions before I go on? Yep. Okay. Right, okay.

Okay. So, what happened during the Persian period, right? Okay. So at this point, the religion of Israel is no different from the local areas. It's a polythetic religion with a penthouse, okay? And maybe Yahweh is 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 doesn't make sense and what we know is when you do that We need to attach to religion and you put it into a place that has no reaction with the local people and the culture. It becomes much more fanatical. It becomes much more focus and fanatical.

Do you understand? Okay? Do you understand? Because if it's in Israel and there are different cultures, the religion has to be tolerant. and police different factions among the people. 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 it in a way that they think is most appropriate. And we call that fanatical. Doesn't make sense? So an example of this, okay, it's a bad analogy, 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, very diverse identity. When you go out to America, right, then you have much 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 issue itself the religion is constantly changing it's very fluid but when they're off to Babylon that they have the use of religion to survive as a people as an identity and so it becomes much more form okay much more concrete doesn't make sense and then what happens is as it's now that's much more concrete it now interacts with Zoroastrianism which is the religion of the person

and and at this point the religion becomes basically what it is today okay so I'm sorry I don't I don't mean 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 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. And so I'm going to discuss why the Bible was first created in this class.

And what I'll explain to you is the Bible was first created in order to explain and justify and create legitimacy for David. This is what we're called an apology. And this is a very common practice. The idea is this. Most kings, every king, obtains power through really nefarious means. They either kill a lot of people to obtain power, or maybe the younger brother kills the older brother to usurp the throne.

Usually kingship requires 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 have so. Because I have no choice in a matter. I'm not ambitious.

I was not at all ambitious. But the circumstances 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. That's usually how the apology goes. So remember, back at this point, the very idea of writing, it is new, it's a new technology, but it's also very expensive technology, meaning you need to buy the materials, which are rare, but you also need the people to be able to write, and they're also very expensive.

expensive 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 it's a very expensive endeavor that was usually sponsored by the king in order to justify or explain why he is king in order to create legitimacy doesn't 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 David Israel divides into two nations now the house of David the Bible goes with the house with how Judah okay to Judah but the northern

kingdom now it needs its own mythology its own Bible right and so a second Bible was created the people who are in charge of the Bible the priest class are interested in promoting their own interests mainly the importance of ritual it doesn't make sense like what are rituals why do we need them why are priests important then you have people at this point in the Babylon captivity looking back at the history of Israel and trying to figure out why the house David collapsed and their answer is because the Israelites refused to follow the will of God because the Israelites became

politicistic 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 the the school that supports the power of the Priests are obviously called the P school, okay, for priests.

And then the school that tries to go back in history and examine why Israel fell, and which believe it's because the Israelite God, these people are what we call the D school, okay? The D school. So E, G, P, 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. Well, the way they did it was very interesting. all they did was just put them together okay you understand so you have so if you read the bible it's like a b c d a b cd okay so one line it's 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's impossible for you to read the bible i'm not sure if you try to read the bible it's not

readable okay so why would they do this why would they just put all four text together about 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 The Bible itself didn't really matter. What mattered was the oral explanation of a Bible controlled by the priest class. Doesn't make sense.

The people didn't read the Bible. So how the Bible was actually written was not that important. It was important for the priest to have access to the Bible, but the people didn't actually read the Bible. That's the first reason. The second more important reason is because the Bible is political. real estate. I want you to remember this idea.

Okay? This is the most valuable political real estate in the world. Everyone wants to be in the Bible. Because to be 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 global factions so 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 school goes first in 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 valuable political real estate in the world.

Everyone wants to be in there. And what ideas are, you can find it in there will ultimately shape human history. Any questions so far before you 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, 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?

Second problem is the idea of identity. And this is a huge problem for the Israelites because the Israelites is a multicultural entity. You have people speaking different languages, different cultures, They practice different cultures, they practice different religions. So now you need to create an identity that everyone accepts. The third thing is differentiation.

You need not only for these people to get along, but 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 are now Israelized and you're not Egyptian anymore. And the example that we use for this is Augustus Caesar and the writing of the Inniad. Remember, the Inniad, it's a book about a character named Innius, and it provides political legitimacy to Augusta Caesar, because Augustus Caesar is a direct descendant of Innius, who is the founder of Rome.

Also, what the Ineat said is, Augustus Caesar is the end point of Roman history. Everything before Augustus Caesar led to him. Augustus Caesar is like the Jesus of Rome. He is the salvation, and he is the redemption of Rome. That's what the Ineus, the Ineat does. Second thing about the Ineat is, it creates a new Roman identity that focuses on piety, loyalty over liberty.

Remember the problem for Giza Caesar was Romans didn't like kings. Well, now he's a king. So how do you get people to obey? Well, you tell them piety is more important than liberty. The third idea is the Ineat, remember, it's anti-Greek. The problem for Rome at that time was Greek culture was vast superior to run culture and so a lot of Romans were adopting Greek cultural practice like Mark Anthony and so the Inniad said Greek culture is like the Trojan horse

if you let into your city Greek culture will corrupt you and destroy 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 of the Bible that illustrate David's quest for legitimacy next class we'll talk about identity and differentiation and how the Bible achieves that, okay? But for 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 rufously tried to usurp the throne from Saul, right? So 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 liked and David stole the 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 set the president if you steal the throne then others are now empowered to steal the front 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 soul 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 of One day, Saul is alone in a cave praying to God for deliverance. David sees Saul alone and he sneaks up behind Saul. Then he takes his sword and cuts a piece of Saul's clothing. And then David disappears. Soul leaves the cave and then David rushes to him and says, So, 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 prove that you never meant to kill me. And this is a story in the Bible. Obviously, this story cannot be true, okay?

But this is what the Bible is trying to do. It's trying to first show us that David is not all inhibition. 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. The second story is this. Soul is dead, and his son, who is a young man, comes into the throne. There's a gentleman named Abner, who was loyal to Saul, but now that soul is dead,

and David is very popular among the people. among the people, Abner 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 Seoul and the House of David. You will unite Israel. And then David writes back and says,

yeah, come to me, come to me, I'll give you a feast, and then we'll be friends. and so Abner comes, David gives him a feast, and then as Abner leaves, he runs into David's general named Joab, Joab. And Joab and Abner go a long way back, okay? There were friends, there were enemies. Abner killed Job's brother.

And in an act of anger, Joap stabs Abner to death, and Abner is dead. And once Abner is dead, The house of soul basically gives up, and David is able to unite Israel. Now that's the story in the Bible. David is so angry by this that he curses Joel, and he gives Amner a great funeral.

Because David does not want to betray his friends. Why is this story wrong or completely made up? It's not made up, but it's what we call spin, right? Clearly, Abner and David had a feast together, and clearly Joe Up killed Abner. But why is the Bible version 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 your 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? 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. 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 Abner 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? Job had to kill Abner because he was ordered to by David. Right? Now, why would David want Amner to be killed? Because in his mind, he thinks, oh, if Amner can betray the house of soul, he can also betray the house of David.

He is an ambitious man. And why would he think like that? What would David come to this conclusion? Because he himself is like that. Do you understand? He himself betrayed Saul. So he's very, very careful or cautious about people who betrayed their leaders. Abner betrayed the House of Soul.

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 they would show

he in fact 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, David, you know that Job killed Abner, and you told the story, you would believe this story. It's just because Abner was angry, that he killed, sorry, it was just because Job was angry, he killed Abner. You'll believe that, right? When you think about it, it can't be true.

Now, I'm going to give you one more story. And this story is actually even harder to figure out because of the story. the spin. Now that David is king of Israel, Israel has many enemies. So his armies are always at war. One day David is on the rooftop of his house. So, and this is Israel is not a very rich place. So these are palaces. They're just houses. Okay. And so David is strolling on his rooftop. And across from him is a woman named Bashaiba, and she's bathing naked. And David is overcome with lust.

He's like, I must have this woman, okay, he's king, he orders her 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 Eurea, the Height. And Eurela Height is one of David's best soldiers, he's fighting for David and Israel somewhere else so David's like oh this is a

problem because once you'rea comes home and he finds Bersiba has a new child he's gonna know it's not his so either he's gonna 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 Euria back home okay so you are it comes home from the war and you think oh the king has called for me therefore it's an emergency okay so he rushes back and David meets Eurea at his house and David says listen you're just doing such a great job 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're here's

like my king my comrades are dying they're starving out in the battlefield. I can't abandon them. How can I find pleasure my wife, when my friends 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 Eurea to go home. So then David tells Eurea, you're such a great soldier, you're so loyal, I'm so happy and proud. that you fight for me. He gives Urea a letter to his general Joab, okay? And the letter instructs Joab to kill Urea.

Joab will send Urea with his soldiers out in the battlefield, and then at the last minute, Joop will recall his soldiers, leaving Joel by himself. At this point, the enemies will swarm Eurea and killed Urea. And that's what happens. And once Uriah is dead, David marries a sheepa 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 your question

and David says sure go ahead Nathan says let's imagine there are two shepherds there's a rich shepherd with a hundred 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 rich shepherd steals the poor man's shepherd to feed the traveler. Who's in the 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 Nathan says, you, David. are the rich shepherd you have violated God's law you are the wrong and as punishment God will take away your son or your child with Boshiba and that's what happens and David is goes into mourning okay he is distraught he's depressed and he writes a lot of culture okay so this is a very powerful story and this is a story that has captured imagination of everyone for thousands of 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 sorry you have stolen a man's wife therefore you are wrong what's a problem is logic what is David's crime real crime guys he He killed Eurea. You understand? You've forgotten this fact. He had Eurea killed. That's a real crime. He killed Eurea.

Yeah, he's up with Bishiba, that's bad. But it's much worse if you murder someone, okay? So another question then is, why would he murder Eurea? Why not just talk to him, honest, and says, Eurea, I'm sorry, I love your wife. I had sex with her, I'm sorry. Why did David have to have to get Durya killed? What was Eurea killed? Yeah, because the army is loyal to Eurea, right?

So why would David fear Eurea? Because Eurea is a popular brave soldier, just like David. And David uses popularity in order to usurp the throne from Saul, right? Therefore, David thinks, Eurea could do the same thing to me. Therefore, I have to have to get him killed. In other words, this Bashiba thing must have come later to disguise the fact that David killed Eurea because he feared Eurea's popularity. Does that make sense? Right? You see how clever this story is?

The historical truth must have been David feared Eurea's popularity. Eurea's popularity and he need to get rid of Eurea so he can cause this plan and then after he killed Eurea he needed to explain to his army okay who loved Eurea why this happened and then there 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 Doesn't 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 a very powerful story that has captured the imagination of readers for a long 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, 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. Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, and Simon 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 doesn't 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 David and

well the answer is most most didn't believe the policy of David 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 it was written for people who were part of David's political coalition you understand his enemies wouldn't believe this right but it was meant it's basically meant to appease or convince those who want to believe David.

Does that make sense? Spin. And it happens today, guys. When you watch the news, it's spin. It's distorting reality. And so most people will believe the media, right? There are some people who will never believe the media. Like, I don't believe anything the media tells me.

Whether it's Chinese media or American media. I know a lot of history to understand the media is destroying reality. Okay. But most people will believe this because they have actually no interest in not believing it. David's king. If you don't believe it, then you have to believe your king is a murderer. Does it make sense? Yeah, yeah, echo?

Oh, yeah, that's a good question. Okay, 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. You understand? And it shows the genius of David because David is wrestling with his own morality.

David is being honest. So the mainstream understanding is David is a poet king. He's a man who prays constantly and engaged in a process of self-reflection. And that's what makes David great. 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 Besheba story is epa manic about

this because why would a man make this up right well I've told you why But most scholars don't see that. Most scholars think, okay, well, this but Shepa story puts David in the worst possible light. Therefore, it must be true. And therefore, it shows us David is a poor king, who is constantly thinking about his own moral failings. And so he's an inspiration to his people. That's the mainstream understanding. Any other questions?

Yep. That's right. Oh, okay. So the question is, if people at that time were mainly illicit. literate, why was this written down, or how would they know the story? Okay. So, 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.

Doesn't make sense. Okay? So this was for internal consumption, and this was to basically preserve David's historical legacy. So maybe 20 years from now, when everyone's dead, when people who knew Yorea and Bashiba were dead, well, what is truth now? The truth is what's been written down, okay? That's why they're saying history is written by the writers. History is not written by the winners.

History is written by the writers. Does that make sense? Any more questions? Okay, great. So next class, we'll continue the Hebrew Bible, okay? Because it starts off as an apology for David, but it evolves into a much large mythology right so that's next class