Jonathan (1 Samuel)

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."[3] 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.[4] 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, provoked perhaps by David's beauty.[5][6] Jonathan helps David escape from Saul, and asks him to show kindness to his family (1 Samuel 20:14–15); biblical scholar Joyce Baldwin suggests that this indicates that Jonathan recognised David as the future king.[7]

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",[8] 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",[9] but such an event is never described in the Bible and one Bible scholar, Diana V. Edelman, has ruled it as unlikely.[10] 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.

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).[2]

David and Jonathan, 1642, by the studio or a follower of Rembrandt. Jonathan is the figure in the turban.[11]

Jonathan died at the battle of Mount Gilboa along with his father and brothers[12] (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.[2] [13] 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.

Jonathan has typically been portrayed as a "model of loyalty to truth and friendship", in the words of T. H. Jones.[3]

• 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.