The high priest Abiathar serves a perplexing purpose in the narratives of King David’s rise and reign. While he is routinely instrumental in aiding David during crucial moments of heightened tension, he nevertheless receives no overt characterization and never once speaks. This paper argues that paying close attention to characters like Abiathar can offer readers additional insight into authorial intent. By implementing Alex Woloch’s theories of character-space and character-systems, minor characters become exceptionally helpful in clarifying the purposes of certain authorial decisions within the text. This paper serves as a test case for this new literary approach.
AckroydP (1971) The First Book of Samuel. London: Cambridge University Press.
2.
AlterR (2019) The Hebrew Bible, vol. 2, Prophets. New York: Norton.
3.
ArnoldBTChoiJH (2003) A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
4.
AuldAG (2011) I & II Samuel: A Commentary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox.
5.
BadenJS (2013) The Historical David: the Real Life of an Invented Hero. New York: HarperOne.
6.
BalM (1993) First Person, Second Person, Same Person: Narrative as Epistemology. New Literary History24 (2): 293–320.
7.
Bar-EfratS (2008) Das Zweite Buch Samuel: ein Narratologisch-Philologischer Kommentar. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
8.
BarthesR (1977) The Death of the Author. In Image Music Text: Essays Selected and Translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana, pp. 142–48.
9.
BennettA (2005) The Author. London: Routledge.
10.
BerlinA (1983) Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative. Sheffield: Almond Press.
11.
BezzelH (2021) Saul and David: Stages of their Literary Relationship. In David in the Desert: Tradition and Redaction in the ‘History of David’s Rise’, edited by BezzelHannesKratzReinhard G.Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 159–80.
12.
BlenkinsoppJde BoerPAH (1966) Theme and Motif in the Succession History (2 Sam. xi 2 ff) and the Yahwist Corpus. Volume du Congrès: Genève 1965. Leiden: Brill, pp. 44–57.
13.
BoccacciniG (2002) Roots of Rabbinic Judaism: an Intellectual History, from Ezekiel to Daniel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
BodnerK (2013) Jonathan Son of Abiathar: The Fulfillment of a Prophetic Word About the Dissolution of a Priestly Line. In The Artistic Dimension: Literary Explorations of the Hebrew Bible, edited by BodnerKeith. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 103–13.
16.
BodnerKJohnsonBJM (eds) (2020a) Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings. London: T&T Clark.
17.
BodnerKJohnsonBJM (2020b) Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel. London: T&T Clark.
18.
BodnerKJohnsonBJM (2023) Characters and Characterization in the Book of Judges. London: T&T Clark.
19.
BoothWC (1983) The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd ed.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
BryantJ (2002) The Fluid Text: A Theory of Revision and Editing for Book and Screen. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
21.
BryantJ (2013) Textual Identity and Adaptive Revision: Editing Adaptation as a Fluid Text. In Adaptation Studies: New Challenges, New Directions, edited by BruhnJorgenGjelsvikAnneHanssenEirik Frisvold. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 47–68.
22.
BuddeK (1894) The Books of Samuel. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.
23.
BuddeK (1902) Die Bücher Samuel: Erklärt. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.
24.
CampbellAF (2005) 2 Samuel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
25.
ChikeJC (2023) Marginal Characters: A Strategy of Persuasion in 1–2 Samuel. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament48 (1): 69–83.
26.
ClementsRE (2016) God and Temple: The Idea of the Divine Presence in Ancient Israel. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
27.
CodyA (1969) A History of Old Testament Priesthood. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute.
28.
CoganM (2000) I Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 10. New York: Doubleday.
29.
CookSA (1900) Notes on the Composition of 2 Samuel. American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures16 (3): 145–77.
30.
CrossFM (1973) Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
31.
De VriesSJ (2004) 1 Kings. 2nd ed. Word Biblical Commentary 12. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
32.
DickMB (2004) The ‘History of David’s Rise to Power’ and the Neo-Babylonian Succession Apologies. In David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts, edited by BattoBernard F.RobertsKathryn L.Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, pp. 3–20.
33.
DietrichW (2012) Davids fünfte Kolonne beim Abschalom-Aufstand. In Die Samuelbücher im deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, pp. 227–53.
34.
DietrichW (2023) 2 Samuel 15–20. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
35.
DriverSR (1890) Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel with an Introduction on Hebrew Palaeography and the Ancient Versions, and Facsimiles of Inscriptions. Oxford: Clarendon.
36.
DuttonD (1987) Why Intentionalism Won’t Go Away. In Literature and the Question of Philosophy, edited by CascardiAnthony J.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 192–209.
37.
EdelmanDV (1991) King Saul in the Historiography of Judah. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
38.
EslingerL (1989) Into the Hands of the Living God. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
39.
FarrellJ (2017) The Varieties of Authorial Intention: Literary Theory Beyond the Intentional Fallacy. Palgrave Macmillan. Cham, Switzerland.
40.
FerrerD (2025) Genetic Criticism and its Logic: The Draft and the Text. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
41.
FirthDG (2009) 1 & 2 Samuel. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.
42.
FokkelmanJP (1981) Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel, vol. 1, King David (II Sam. 98–20 & I Kings 1–2). Assen: Van Gorcum.
43.
FokkelmanJP (1986) Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel, vol. 2, The Crossing Fates (I Sam. 13–31 & II Sam. 1). Assen: Van Gorcum.
44.
ForsterEM (1955) Aspects of the Novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
45.
FritzV (2003) 1 & 2 Kings: A Continental Commentary. Translated by HagedornAnselm. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
46.
FrolovS (2004) The Turn of the Cycle: 1 Samuel 1–8 in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives. Berlin: De Gruyter.
47.
GaskellP (1972) A New Introduction to Bibliography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
48.
GreenB (2003) How are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel. London: Sheffield Academic Press.
49.
GunnDM (1975) David and the Gift of the Kingdom (2 Sam 2–4, 9–20, 1 Kgs 1–2). Semeia3: 14–45.
50.
GunnDM (1980) The Fate of King Saul: An Interpretation of a Biblical Story. Sheffield: JSOT Press.
51.
HaganH (1979) Deception as Motif and Theme in 2 Sm 9–20; 1 Kgs 1–2. Biblica60 (3): 301–26.
HaysJD (2003) Has the Narrator Come to Praise Solomon or to Bury Him? Narrative Subtlety in 1 Kings 1–11. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament28 (2): 149–74.
54.
HertzbergHW (1964) I & II Samuel: A Commentary. Philadelphia: Westminster.
55.
HirschEDJr. (1967) Validity in Interpretation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
56.
HundleyMB (2023) Remembering the Lost Ark: The Ark Narrative in its Contexts. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament48 (2): 135–53.
57.
HuttonJM (2009) The Transjordanian Palimpsest: the Overwritten Texts of Personal Exile and Transformation in the Deuteronomistic History. Berlin: De Gruyter.
58.
HuttonJM (2010) All the King’s Men: The Families of the Priests in Cross-Cultural Perspective. In:Seitenblicke: Literarische und Historische Studien zu Nebenfiguren im Zweiten Samuelbuch, edited by DietrichWalter. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pp. 121–51.
59.
JohnsonBJM (2020) Character as Interpretive Crux in the Book of Samuel. In Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel, edited by BodnerKeithJohnsonBenjamin J. M.London: Bloomsbury.
60.
JohnsonJA (2005) The Trouble with Solomon: Competing Characterizations in the Solomonic Narrative. PhD Thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary.
61.
JonesG (1984) 1 and 2 Kings. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
62.
JudgeH (1956) Aaron, Zadok, and Abiathar. Journal of Theological Studies7 (1): 70–74.
63.
KeysG (1996) The Wages of Sin: a Reappraisal of the ‘Succession Narrative’. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
64.
KimD (2023) Absalom’s Rebellion and David’s Flight (2 Sam 15): The Emergence of the Ideal King David. Biblische Zeitschrift67 (1): 43–63.
65.
KleinRW (2018) 1 Samuel. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
66.
KnappA (2021) The Succession Narrative in Twenty-First-Century Research. Currents in Biblical Research19 (3): 211–34.
67.
KöhlerL, et al. (1994) The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill.
68.
KöhlmoosM (2022) Authorial Intention(s) in Old Testament Texts. In Authorship and the Hebrew Bible, edited by AmmannSonjaPyschnyKatharinaRhyderJulia. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 75–92.
69.
LabahnA (2020) Reorientation in Responsibility of Levites Taking Care of the Ark. In Scribes and Scribalism, edited by LeuchterMark. London: T&T Clark; Bloomsbury, pp. 107–21.
70.
LemcheNP (1998) Prelude to Israel’s Past: Background and Beginnings Israelite History and Identity. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson.
71.
LiuH (2020) Propaganda: Ideas, Discourses and its Legitimization. London: Routledge.
72.
LozovyyJ (2009) Saul, Doeg, Nabal, and the ‘Son of Jesse’: Readings in 1 Samuel 16–25. London: T&T Clark.
73.
McCarterPK (1984) II Samuel. Anchor Bible. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
74.
MacDonaldN (2019) David’s Two Priests. In Writing, Rewriting, and Overwriting in the Books of Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets: Essays in Honor of Cynthia Edenburg, edited by KochI.RömerT.SergiO.Leuven: Peeters, pp. 243–63.
75.
McGannJ (1983) A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
76.
MacKayM (2010) Character and the Novel. In The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel, edited by MacKayMarina. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 64–78.
77.
McLavertyJ (1984) The Concept of Authorial Intention in Textual Criticism. The Library SV6–VI (6): 121–38.
78.
MøllerL (2017) Character. In Literature: an Introduction to Theory and Analysis, edited by ThomsenMads Rosendahlet al. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 55–66.
79.
NaamanN (2010) David’s Sojourn in Keilah in Light of the Amarna Letters. Vetus Testamentum60 (1): 87–97.
80.
NowackW (1902) Handkommentar zum Alten Testament: Richter, Ruth und Bücher Samuelis. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
81.
PhelanJ (1989) Reading People, Reading Plots: Character, Progression, and the Interpretation of Narrative. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
82.
PhelanJRabinowitzPJ (2012) Character. In Narrative Theory: Core Concepts and Critical Debates, by HermanDavidet al. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, pp. 111–18.
83.
PizerD (1971) On the Editing of Modern American Texts. Bulletin of the New York Public Library75: 147–53.
84.
PolzinR (1993) Samuel and the Deuteronomist: A Literary Study of the Deuteronomic History, Part Two: 1 Samuel. Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
85.
ProvanIW (1995) Why Barzillai of Gilead (1 Kings 2:7)?: Narrative Art and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion in 1 Kings 1–2. Tyndale Bulletin46 (1): 103–16.
86.
QuarantoAStanleyJ (2021) Propaganda. In The Routledge Handbook of Social and Political Philosophy of Language, edited by KhooJustinSterkenRachel Katharine. New York: Routledge, pp. 125–46.
87.
RidoutGP (1971) Prose Compositional Techniques in the Succession Narrative (2 Samuel 7, 9–20; 1 Kings 1–2). Berkeley, CA: Graduate Theological Union.
88.
RobertsJJM (2002) Zion in the Theology of the Davidic-Solomonic Empire. In The Bible and the Ancient Near East: Collected Essays. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, pp. 331–47.
89.
RookeDW (2000) Zadok’s Heirs: The Role and Development of the High Priesthood in Ancient Israel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
90.
RostL (1982) The Succession to the Throne of David. Sheffield: Almond Press.
91.
RudnigTA (2006) Davids Thron: Redaktionskritische Studien zur Geschichte von der Thronnachfolge Davids. Berlin: De Gruyter.
92.
SaconKK (1982) A Study of the Literary Structure of ‘The Succession Narrative’. In Studies in the Period of David and Solomon and Other Essays: Papers Read at the International Symposium for Biblical Studies, Tokyo, 5–7 December, 1979, edited by IshidaTomoo. Tokyo: Yamakawa-Shuppansha, pp. 27–54.
93.
SchmidKSchröterJ (2021) The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
94.
SeibertEA (2006) Subversive Scribes and the Solomonic Narrative: A Rereading of 1 Kings 1–11. London: T&T Clark.
95.
ShepherdDJ (2023) King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
96.
SimonU (1990) Minor Characters in Biblical Narrative. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament15 (46): 11–19.
97.
SternbergM (1987) The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
98.
StillingerJ (1991) Multiple Authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
99.
StillingerJ (1994) A Practical Theory of Versions. In Coleridge and Textual Instability: The Multiple Versions of the Major Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 118–40.
100.
StolzF (1981) Das Erste und Zweite Buch Samuel. Zürich: Theologischer Verlag.
101.
Stougaard-NielsenJ (2019) The Author in Literary Theory and Theories of Literature. In The Cambridge Handbook of Literary Authorship, edited by BerensmeyerIngoBuelensGertDemoorMarysa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 270–87.
102.
SweeneyMA (2020) Eli: A High Priest Thrown under the Wheels of the Ox Cart. In Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel, edited by BodnerKeithJohnsonBenjamin J. M.London; New York: T&T Clark, pp. 59–75.
103.
TadmorH (1984) Autobiographical Apology in the Royal Assyrian Literature. In History, Historiography, and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures, edited by TadmorHayimWeinfeldMoshe. Jerusalem: Magnes, pp. 36–57.
104.
Taggar-CohenA (2005) Political Loyalty in the Biblical Account of 1 Samuel XX–XXII in the Light of Hittite Texts. Vetus Testamentum55 (2): 251–68.
105.
ThompsonTL (2000) If David Had Not Climbed the Mount of Olives. In Virtual History and the Bible, edited by ExumJ. Cheryl. Leiden: Brill, pp. 42–58.
106.
ThorpeJ (1972) Principles of Textual Criticism. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library.
107.
ToornK (2007) Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
108.
TsumuraDT (2007) The First Book of Samuel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
109.
Van HulleD (2022) Genetic Criticism: Tracing Creativity in Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
110.
Van SetersJ (1983) In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History. New Haven: Yale University Press.
111.
Van SetersJ (2009) The Biblical Saga of King David. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
112.
VeijolaT (1975) Die ewige Dynastie: David und die Entstehung seiner Dynastie nach der Deuteronomistischen Darstellung. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
113.
VermeylenJ (2000) La Loi du Plus Fort: Histoire de la Rédaction des Récits Davidiques de 1 Samuel 8 à 1 Rois 2. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
114.
Von RadG (1953) Studies in Deuteronomy. London: SCM Press.
115.
WalshJT (1995) The Characterization of Solomon in First Kings 1–5. Catholic Biblical Quarterly57 (3): 471–93.
WéninA (2013) David et le Massacre des Prêtres de Nob (1 S 21–22): Une lecture narrative. Revue Biblique120 (3): 362–87.
118.
WhybrayRN (1968) The Succession Narrative: A Study of II Samuel 9–20; I Kings 1 and 2. London: SCM Press.
119.
WimsattWKJr.BeardsleyMC (1946) The Intentional Fallacy. Sewannee Review54 (3): 468–88.
120.
WolochA (2014) The One vs. the Many: Minor Characters and the Space of the Protagonist in the Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
121.
WürthweinE (1994) Studien zum Deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk. Berlin: De Gruyter.
122.
YoonS-H (2014) The Question of the Beginning and the Ending of the So-Called History of David’s Rise: A Methodological Reflection and its Implications. Berlin: De Gruyter.
123.
ZellerH (1975) A New Approach to the Critical Constitution of Literary Texts. Studies in Bibliography28: 231–64.
