101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

Myths of the Heroes 281
spear as enemy soldiers were close by. Saul then asked the stranger to slay him and put
him out of his impending misery. This the stranger did, and then he brought Saul’s
crown and bracelet to King David’s camp. After hearing the stranger’s account, David
had him immediately executed for slaying the LORD’s anointed king.
In this second story, while Saul is busy battling the Philistines, David is elsewhere,
attacking the Amalekites. The stranger is also an Amalekite. Although the two battles
are far apart, this Amalekite mysteriously appears at Saul’s side, where the king stands
wounded by a spear, and slays him. He then brings Saul’s crown to David rather than
Saul’s son, the heir apparent to the throne. David, who claims to have had no knowledge
as to how Saul’s battle went before the Amalekite brings him the news, has the
Amalekite executed before the stranger can reveal anything more.
This second story portrays Saul’s death as less noble than does the earlier suicide
story, and the first account appears to be an attempt to cover up the fact that Saul died
at the hands of an enemy soldier. While the second story makes clear that Saul died at
the hands of the Amalekite, it raises the possibility that the Amalekite had been in
David’s service when he killed Saul.
David had been engaged in battle with the Amalekites just before this Amalekite
mysteriously appeared at Saul’s side and ran him through. The Amalekite brought the
crown right away to David, who had no public claim to be Saul’s successor (although
he was allegedly secretly anointed by Samuel as such.) And David killed the messenger
before any more could be said.
The evidence shows that Saul didn’t fall on his own sword but that an Amalekite,
possibly in David’s employ, ran him through. While David’s scribes tried to cover up
the whole incident by claiming that Saul died a noble death, someone, either inside
David’s court or familiar with how Saul actually died, knew the truth and preserved
an account of it that was incorporated into the biblical story of King David. The possible
sources for the true story might be Abner, Saul’s general and personal bodyguard,
who initially opposed David as Saul’s successor but then joined with him, or Joab,
David’s chief assassin, who opposed Solomon as David’s successor.