David and Jonathan between Athens and Jerusalem

Authors

  • James E. Harding University of Otago

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/rsrr1-1-7

Keywords:

David and Jonathan, Achilles and Patroclus, Homosexuality, Oxford Hellenism, Jeremy Bentham, John Addington Symonds, Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster

Abstract

This article seeks to explain what made it possible for modern biblical scholars to ask whether the relationship between David and Jonathan in 1-2 Samuel should be regarded as sexual. The answer is to be found in the way the David and Jonathan narrative was read in the nineteenth century alongside passages in Greek and Roman texts that refer to analogous pairs of friends who had already become, or were on their way to becoming, tropes for homoeroticism.

Author Biography

  • James E. Harding, University of Otago
    Lecturer in Hebrew Bible, University of Otago

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Published

2011-07-12

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

David and Jonathan between Athens and Jerusalem. (2011). Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, 1(1), 37-92. https://doi.org/10.11157/rsrr1-1-7