a grueling thursday...

It's been a boring day: Gospels class at 11:00, work 12:15-2:00, and then I've spent the rest of the day doing homework. I've finished my David papers, and I'm halfway done with my Pauline Epistles final. Courtney went home today to work on stuff for the motorcycle race she's working at tomorrow night. It sucks, because I'm bored out of my mind and I can't see her. I only saw her for about two minutes today when she came and visited me in the coffee shop. We had fun last night, though, sitting out on the hill in the grass with Trista and taking funny pictures. One of our student security guards came over on a power-trip and tried to act like he was monitoring us, even though we were sitting right on the curb in plain view of the entire campus.

I've been working on my "Life of David" book. It is basically nothing more than an exploration of David's life in chronological order of certain passages. Most books I have seen on the life of David arrange David's life topically; in going the chronological direction, I am doing it in a unique way. The emphasis of this work is on the cultural and historical backgrounds of David. I am doing a lot of good research on the historical and cultural backgrounds of the various texts. I have already discovered many things in the text that an untrained eye--an eye such as mine!--would not see without the aide of studying cultural and historical backgrounds. I find the life of David fascinating, and I am putting up the sections of my book as I go through it. Here are the two complete first sections below:

The Life of David: Prologue - The Evolution of a Nation
The Life of David: Act I - David's Early Years

I found some cool images online that go with the story of "David and Goliath." Here they are with the reasons why I chose them amongst hundreds of others:

I like this painting because it captures both the size of Goliath (nine and a half feet tall) as well as his general dress (in accordance with classic Homeric, Aegean fashion). Interestingly, the javelin slung across his back in this painting was most likely a scimitar in the actual event. This is what Goliath may have looked like in his everyday existence.

This image depicts Goliath standing before the armies of Israel (unseen) and announcing a challenge: their best warrior against him in a fight to the death, and the losing side becomes the winning side's slaves. This "Trial by Champion" is a Greek concept the Philistines probably knew well, having come from the Aegean Sea around the 13th Century B.C. Here, Goliath is echoing forth his challenge, insulting the Israelite army, and mocking their God YHWH.

A young Israelite boy of about seventeen years old--named David--decided to take on the challenger. Armed only with a sling, he goes before the towering Philistine warrior and, in a running gallop, releases the stone. The sling in the ancient world was a deadly weapon, capable of hurling a stone up to 30 mph (some Egyptian records state that a skilled slinger could throw his stone up to 100 mph). I like and dislike this picture. I like this picture because it captures the terrain of the Valley of Elah, where the battle was fought: two opposing hillsides, a cutting ravine, and a dried-up creek bed formed the terrain of the battlefield. I dislike it because David is seen here throwing the stone from a stopped position while the text of 1 Samuel 17 states that he was running when he released the stone.

David did not slay the giant with a sling, contrary to popular belief. Rather, he knocked the giant unconscious with the sling, killed the giant with his own sword, and then cut off his head. I like this picture because it captures the image of David drawing the Philistine warrior's sword from its sheath, with the Israelites in the back right rallying before their charge against the fleeing Philistine army to the left.

This is a digital image, and it's my favorite. I love how you see the sling in David's right hand, the sword in his left, and Goliath fallen at his feet. This image captures the moments before David bends down and cuts off Goliath's head.