Learning to read the Bible means we must read its words within their world. But sometimes we may think words within the Bible mean one thing—it seems so obvious, and yet, when we delve into the world of the Bible, we realize we must develop nuance and an ability to read more carefully. Things are not always as they seem.
Let me offer an example. The phrase “son of David” appears seven times within the Gospels (Matt. 9:27; 12:22-23; 15:22; 20:30; 21:14-15; Mark 10:46-48; and Luke 18:35-38). Most scholars and lay readers assume the Gospels’ reference to Jesus as “son of David” identifies him as a messianic figure. It seems clear. Ancient Judaism expected a Davidic Messiah. The Psalms of Solomon, a work written in the first century BC, looks forward to the coming of a Davidic King Messiah:
“See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, to rule over your servant Israel in the time known to you, O God. Undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from gentiles who trample her to destruction; in wisdom and in righteousness to drive out the sinners from the inheritance; to smash the arrogance of sinners like a potter’s jar; to shatter all their substance with an iron rod; to destroy the unlawful nations with the word of his mouth; at his warning the nations will flee from his presence; and he will condemn sinners by the thoughts of their hearts. He will gather a holy people whom he will lead in righteousness; and he will judge the tribes of the people that have been made holy by the Lord their God. He will not tolerate unrighteousness (even) to pause among them, and any person who knows wickedness shall not live with them. For he shall know them that they are all children of their God. He will distribute them upon the land according to their tribes; the alien and the foreigner will no longer live near them. He will judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his righteousness. Pause. And he will have gentile nations serving him under his yoke, and he will glorify the Lord in (a place) prominent (above) the whole earth. And he will purge Jerusalem (and make it) holy as it was even from the beginning, (for) nations to come from the ends of the earth to see his glory, to bring as gifts her children who had been driven out, and to see the glory of the Lord with which God has glorified her. And he will be a righteous king over them, taught by God there will be no unrighteousness among them in his days, for all shall be holy, and their king shall be the Lord Messiah (17:21-32; emphasis added).
So too, a manuscript discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q174, interpreted 2 Samuel 7:11, where God said of David’s heir, “I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me,” to mean “this is the Branch of David, who will stand with the Interpreter of the Law, who [will arise] in Zi[on in the l]ast days” (4Q174 f1 2i.11-12). It seems obvious then, the mention of identification of Jesus as the “son of David” within the Gospels heralds him as the Davidic Messiah.
The birth narratives found in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, which locate Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, the city of David, as well as the genealogies of Jesus found within Matthew and Luke seem to confirm this assumption further. Many Gospel scholars suggest Matthew and Luke created their stories of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem to identify him as the Davidic Messiah. Their genealogies further provide credence for Jesus as David’s anointed heir.
But, is it really so clear cut?
It seems strange for the Evangelists to invent their stories of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem yet never return to it within their Gospels as “proof” of Jesus’ messianic identity. Moreover, within the apostles’ testimony concerning Jesus in Acts, they never point to the location of his advent to support their claim of Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. The Gospels also include an episode in which Jesus challenged the identification of the Messiah as David’s descendant (Matt. 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44). If their primary argument for Jesus being Israel’s Messiah was a claim of his Davidic lineage, the inclusion of Jesus’ criticism of those who claim the Messiah is David’s son seems odd.
The New Testament elsewhere mentions Jesus’ Davidic lineage (Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8; see also Heb. 7:14 which mentions Jesus as part of the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe). Yet, none of these instances used Jesus’ Davidic lineage to argue for his messiahship. Paul juxtaposed Jesus as “son of David” according to the flesh, but “son of God” by the power of the resurrection (Rom. 1:3-4). The resurrection identified Jesus as God’s Anointed for Paul, not his Davidic lineage. His statement about Jesus as David’s descendant is matter of fact, and not messianic.
Some would argue, but what about the Gospels’ identification of Jesus as “son of David”? Those proclaim him as the Davidic Messiah. Do they? We will return to this shortly.
The Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient Jewish literature demonstrate that ancient Judaism had varied messianic ideas. Some expected priestly anointed figures. Others hoped for an anointed king. Still other looked for a prophet anointed by the Spirit. The New Testament authors did not need to “invent” Jesus’ Davidic lineage to claim him as the Messiah. Moreover, one was not considered a Messiah by virtue of the location of advent; rather, a messianic figure proved his “anointedness” by virtue of what he did (notice Jesus’ reply to John the Baptists messengers in Matthew 11:2-6).
Ancient Jewish sources, as well as archaeological evidence, indicate some individuals in the first century AD identified their lineage as belonging to the “House of David.” A single-chambered rock-hewn tomb was discovered in 1971 in the neighborhood of Giv’at HaMivtar, a northern suburb of modern Jerusalem. Inside the tomb, archaeologists discovered sixteen ossuaries (limestone boxes used for secondary burial, after the flesh had decayed). Six of these ossuaries bore inscriptions; one of which reads, “Of the House of David” (של בידוד). The Mishnah also described the special role the “House of David” had in brining wood too the Temple: “The wood-offering (see Neh. 7:10) of the priests and the people was brought nine times [in the year]…on the 20th of Tammuz, by the sons of David” (m. Ta’anit 4:5). Thus, some families within the land of Israel identified themselves as belonging to the “House of David” and as “sons of David.”
Rabbinic sources ascribe Davidic lineage for several sages, the most prominent being Hillel the Elder (y. Ta’anit 4:2; Genesis Rabbah 98:8). So too, Eusebius, deriving his material from Hegesippus, claimed the Roman emperors Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan sought out the descendants of the line of David (Ecclesiastical History 3.12; 3.19-20; 3.32.2-4). He claimed Jesus’ family was caught up in these searches. Even if Eusebius and rabbinic tradition ascribed Davidic lineage to individuals, including the family of Jesus, for apologetic purposes, their witness suggests some identified as belonging to the “House of David,” for even if their ascriptions are apologetic, they only have meaning if some identified as belonging to David’s line, as can be seen from the Jerusalem tomb inscription and the passage from the Mishnah.
We should not reject the New Testament’s claim of Jesus’ Davidic descent out-of-hand, nor should we immediately conclude the ascriptions of Jesus to David’s line by New Testament authors were inherently messianic. A careful reading of the New Testament evidence with the archaeological evidence and Jewish sources raises questions on the necessary identification of the “son of David” with the Messiah. If the identification of one as the “son of David” was inherently messianic, then the angel’s identification of Joseph, Jesus’ father, as “Joseph, son of David” (Matt. 1:20) proves rather difficult. The angel identified Joseph as the Messiah.
This brings us back to the use of the “son of David” within the Gospels. Instead of drawing quick conclusions, even though they may seem to make sense, we must read the episodes within the Gospels carefully. We must develop nuance when we seek to read the Bible within its world. Apart from the episode where Jesus questioned the identification of the Messiah as “David’s son” (Matt. 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44), the other appearances of the phrase “son of David” within the Gospels happen within the context of healings or exorcisms. What does the “son of David” have to do with healings and exorcisms?
One of David’s most well-known heirs was Solomon, who succeeded his father as king of Israel. He was the initial descendant of David, the son of David (2 Samuel 7). He besought wisdom from God at the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 3:4-14). Yet the Bible gives few anecdotes of Solomon’s wisdom to support its claim, “And the wisdom of Solomon was greater than all the people of the east and the all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (1 Kings 5:10). This absence led to the nature of Solomon’s wisdom becoming a source of speculation within post-biblical Judaism.
David and Solomon both became connected with healings and exorcisms within ancient Judaism. The Bible most clearly suggested this concerning David to ancient Jewish interpreters. David was viewed as a prophet (see Acts 2:29-30) because he had the Spirit of God (1 Sam. 16:13); this enabled him to compose psalms, some of which allowed him to drive the evil spirit from Saul (1 Sam. 18:10).
The author known as Pseudo-Philo captures this within his Biblical Antiquities:
“And in that time, the spirit of the Lord was taken away from Saul, and an evil spirit was choking him. And Saul sent and brought David, and he played a song on his lyre by night. And this was the song he played for Saul in order that the evil spirit might depart from him.
‘Darkness and silence were before the world was made, and silence spoke a word and the darkness became light. Then your name [the evil spirit] was pronounced in the drawing together of what had been spread out, the upper of which was called heaven and the lower was called earth. And the upper part was commanded to bring down rain according to its season, and the lower part was commanded to produce food for all things that had been made. And after these was the tribe of your spirits made. And now do not be troublesome as one created on the second day. But if not, remember Tartarus where you walk. Or is it not enough for you to hear that, through what resounds before you, I sing to many? Or do you not remember that you were created from a resounding echo in the chaos? But let the new womb from which I was born rebuke you, from which after a time one born from my loins [Solomon] will rule over you.’
As long as David sang, the spirit spared Saul” (60).
Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, also ascribed to David the exorcism of Saul’s evil spirit:
“Saul was beset by some misfortunes and demons, which caused him such suffocations and strangulations, that the physicians could devise no other remedy except for ordering a search for someone who could exorcize and play the harp, and who, whenever the demons might come and torment Saul, would stand over his head and play and recite his hymns…for Saul would repeatedly be exorcized by him [David], and whenever the demons would afflict Saul, David was the only physician against their tormenting as he would utter his hymns and play the harp and make Saul return to his senses…’Let these reflections move you [Saul] to greater mildness; do no injury to one who first rendered us [Saul and Jonathan] that great service of restoring you to health, when he [David] drove out the evil spirit and the demons that beset you and brought peace from them to your soul, and then avenged us on our enemies’” (Josephus, Antiquities 6:166, 168, 211).
The Psalms Scroll, discovered in Cave 11 at Qumran, concludes with an accounting of David’s compositions.
“And David, the son of Jesse, was wise, and a light like the light of the sun, and literate, and discerning, and perfect in all his ways before God and men. And the Lord gave him a discerning and enlightened spirit. And he wrote 3,600 psalms; and songs to sing before the altar over the whole-burnt daily offering every day, for all the days of the year, 364; and for the korban of the Sabbaths, 52 songs; and for the korban of the New Moons and for all the Solemn Assemblies and for the Day of Atonement, 30 songs. And all the songs that he spoke were 446, and songs for making music over the stricken, 4. And the total was 4,050. All these he spoke through prophecy which was given him from before the Most High” (11QPsa 27.9-10; emphasis added).
A scroll containing apocryphal psalms apparently used for exorcisms was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The fragmentary manuscript contains two psalms ascribed to David to be used as incantations:
“Of David. Conce[rning the words of inc]antation in the name of Yahw[eh. Invoke on eve]ry occasion the heave[ns…] Beli[al] shall come to you, [and] you shall [s]ay to him, “Who (are) you, [oh offspring of] man and of the see of the ho[ly one]s? Your face is a face of [emptin]ess and your horns (are) horns of a dre[a]m. You are darkness, and not light, [dece]it and not righteousness” (11Q11 5:4-8).
“[Of David. He that dwells ]in the shelter[ of the Most High, in the shadow of] the Almighty [he lodges. ] He who say [to the Lord: ‘My refuge] and [my] fortress, [ my God] is the safety in whom [I trust.’ For H]e will deliver you from [the snare of the fowl]er, from dea[dly] pestilence. [In] His pinions He will cover [you,] and under His [wing]s you will reside. [His] grace (will be) [fo]r you a shield and His truth a buckler. Selah…(11Q11 6:3-14).
The second psalm (11Q11 6:3-14) is Psalm 91, which was seen as a psalm for the afflicted. A third psalm within this scroll, although fragmentary, mentions Solomon as connected to the warding off evil spirits and demons.
[… A Psalm of ] Solomon. He call[ed …] [… the spi]rits and the demons […] […] these are [the de]mons and the pri[nce of Maste]mah [… I]sr[ael …] […] […] with me […] healing [… the righteous] leans on Your name and calls […] [… He says to Is]rael, Be strong [… who made] the heavens [and the earth …] who has separated [light from darkness …] (11Q11 2:2-12).
A work known as the Wisdom of Solomon, written in Greek in the first century BC, describes the nature of the wisdom given to Solomon by God.
“For it is he who gave me [Solomon] unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements; the beginning and end and middle of times, the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons, the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars, the natures of animals and the tempers of wild animals, the powers of spirits and the thoughts of human beings, the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots; I learned both what is secret and what is manifest, for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me” (Wisdom of Solomon 7:17-22; emphasis added).
Josephus described Solomon’s wisdom of Solomon as related to exorcisms. He further told a story of a contemporary event in which a Jewish exorcist performed the exorcism according to Solomon’s wisdom.
“And God granted him [Solomon] knowledge of the art used against demons for the benefit of healing of men. He also composed incantations by which illnesses are relieved, and left behind forms of exorcisms with which those possessed by demons drive them out, never to return. And this kind of cure is of very great power among us to this day, for I have seen a certain Eleazar, a countryman of mine, in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, tribunes and a number of other soldiers, free men possessed by demons and this was the manner of the cure: he put to the nose of the possessed man a ring which had under its seal one of the roots prescribed by Solomon, and then, as the man smelled it, drew out the demon through his nostrils, and, when the man at once fell down, adjured the demon never to come back into him, speaking Solomon’s name and reciting the incantations which he had composed. Then, wishing to convince the bystanders and prove to them that he had this power, Eleazar placed a cup or foot-basin full of water a little way off and commanded the demon, as it went out of the man, to overturn it and make known to the spectators that he had left the man. And when this was done, the understanding and wisdom of Solomon were clearly revealed, on account of which we have been induced to speak of these things, in order that all men may know the greatness of his nature and how God favored him, and the no one under the sun may be ignorant of the king’s surpassing virtue of every kind” (Josephus, Antiquities, 8:44-49; emphasis added).
Josephus’ story described Eleazar as invoking the name of Solomon. Once, when I was in a store selling antiques and antiquities in Jerusalem, I came across a Jewish incantation bowl[i] in which the incantation invoked, “Solomon, the son of David.” A Jewish work known as the Testament of Solomon describes interactions and dialogues between Solomon, the son of David, and demons.
The acclimation of Jesus as “son of David” within the Gospels always occurs within the context of his healings and exorcisms.
“Then a blind and dumb demoniac was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the dumb man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, ‘Can this be the Son of David?’” (Matt. 12:22-23).
“As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (Luke 18:35-38).
Ancient Judaism connected David and his son, Solomon, to healings and exorcisms. Thus, the identification of Jesus as “son of David” within the Gospels, is not messianic; rather, people sought healing and deliverance from demonic oppression from Jesus, who was known for his healings and exorcisms, as attributed to Solomon, the son of David.
Learning to read the Bible within its world requires us to become more careful readers of the biblical text itself. It also requires us to develop nuance within the world of the Bible, which comes from our interactions in the sources of its world. Scholars and lay persons alike often become too comfortable in what they think about the ancient world of the Bible. Many things sound like good “background, contextual” material, but on closer inspection, they are little more than a red herring. As we encounter more of the world of the New Testament, we gain the ability to read it in a nuanced manner. Such nuance reflects a growing comfort within the world of ancient Judaism, and our presence there isn’t quite so foreign.
[i] Jewish incantation, or magic bowls, were made by Jewish communities in Mesopotamia and Syria from the third to seventh centuries AD. People used them in their homes to drive away evil spirits. The inside of the bowel bore inscriptions (incantations) in Aramaic and sometimes depictions of demons.