The Bible and Intra-Jewish Politics: Early Rabbinic Portraits of King David

This essay explores some of the concerns which might have influenced early rabbinic reconstructions of the private life and public career of King David. David and his monarchy were treated as vehicles for constitutional polemic, transposed into symbols of a particular type of ruler and regime. Three specific instances recorded in the Babylonian Talmud which lend themselves to political interpretation are discussed. When linked to allied early rabbinic dicta on the exercise and distribution of political power, they illustrate separate facets of what appears to have been an integrated constitutional doctrine. That doctrine is outlined and the purposes to which it was put are demonstrated.