Jonathan (1 Samuel)

This article is about the Biblical person from 1 Samuel. For other uses, see Jonathan (disambiguation).

Frederic Leighton, Jonathan’s Token to David . Jonathan shooting three arrows to warn David

Jonathan (Hebrew: יְהוֹנָתָן‎ Yəhōnāṯān or יוֹנָתָן‎ Yōnāṯān; "Yahweh has gifted") is a heroic figure in 1 Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. A prince of the United Kingdom of Israel, he was the eldest son of King Saul as well as a close friend of David, who eventually succeeded Saul as king.

Like his father, he was a man of great strength and swiftness (2 Samuel 1:23), and he excelled in archery (1 Samuel 20:20, 2 Samuel 1:22) and slinging (1 Chronicles 12:2).

Conflicts with Saul

Jonathan first appears in the biblical narrative as the victor of Geba, a Philistine stronghold (1 Samuel 13), while in the following chapter he carries out a lone and secret attack on another Philistine garrison, demonstrating his "prowess and courage as a warrior." However, he eats honey without knowing that his father had said, "Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes" (1 Samuel 14:24). When he learns of his father's oath, Jonathan disagrees with the wisdom of it, as it requires the soldiers to pursue the enemy although weak from fasting. Saul decides to put Jonathan to death for breaking the ban, but relents when the soldiers protest (1 Samuel 14:45).

The story of David and Jonathan is introduced in chapter 18, where it says that "Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself" (verse 1). The feeling is expressed before the men exchanged a single word, and some scholars have proposed that what Jonathan felt can be described love at first sight. Others describe it as Phila or loving friendship – a type of love is still prevalent among soldiers on the battlefield today, also know as comradery, or in a lesser form as "love for a common interest". Jonathan's feelings are perhaps provoked by David's compliance with order. This is expressed when Jonathan denies his father's order to have David killed.

Saul suspects that Jonathan is colluding with David, who he believes is conspiring to overthrow him. Saul insults Jonathan calling him the "...son of a perverse and rebellious woman!" in 1 Samuel 20:30. While this is an "idiom of insult directed at Jonathan", some scholars see in this verse support for the theory that Ahinoam, the wife of Saul was also the wife of David. Jon Levenson and Baruch Halpern suggest that the phrase "to the shame of your mother's nakedness" suggests "David's theft of Saul's wife", but such an event is never described in the Bible and one Bible scholar, Diana V. Edelman, has ruled it as unlikely. The theft David had took was not theft. In fact, it was YHWH(God of Israel) that anointed David's lineage with the Kingship instead of Saul's. Saul even goes so far as to attempt to kill Jonathan by throwing a javelin at him during a fit of paranoid rage. But, before this event happened, all Jonathan did was ask his father what did David do to him so that he would be put to death? (1 Sam. 20:32-33), which suggests David had never wronged Saul. Jonathan sharing mutual interests with David denied his own throne because David was anointed by Samuel; the last judge and first priest of Israel. In other words, the hand to the King. Jonathan denied his throne to serve his God, and he blessed David. Therefore, Jonathan is righteous before the Lord.

The last meeting between Jonathan and David would take place in a forest of Ziph at Horesh, during Saul's pursuit of David. There, the two would make a covenant before the Lord before going their separate ways (1 Samuel 23:15 – 18).

Death

David and Jonathan, 1642, by the studio or a follower of Rembrandt. Jonathan is the figure in the turban.

Jonathan died at the battle of Mount Gilboa along with his father and brothers (1 Samuel 31). His bones were buried first at Jabesh-gilead, (1 Samuel 31:13) but were later removed with those of his father and moved to Zelah. Jonathan was the father of Mephibosheth, to whom David showed special kindness for Jonathan's sake (2 Samuel 9), which memorably included describing the love between the two men as superior to the love that David experienced from women.

Cultural symbolism

Jonathan has typically been portrayed as a "model of loyalty to truth and friendship", in the words of T. H. Jones.

Further reading

• Adam Green, King Saul, The True History of the First Messiah (Lutterworth Press, 2007) – includes a critical literary reassessment of the character and personality of Jonathan and his relationships with Saul and David.