Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 180:717 (Jan 2023)
Article: Your House Is My House: Exegetical Intersection Within The Davidic Promise
Author: Gary Edward Schnittjer

BSac 180:717 (January-March 2023) p. 54

Your House Is My House: Exegetical Intersection Within The Davidic Promise

Gary Edward Schnittjer

Gary Edward Schnittjer is Distinguished Professor of Old Testament in the School of Divinity, Cairn University, Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

Abstract

The Davidic promise makes exegetical allusions to the blessing of Judah (Gen 49:8–12) and the place legislation (Deut 12:2–29), which are actualized in the house of David and the house of Yahweh. David and Solomon make interpretive interventions with Nathan’s oracle within the Deuteronomistic and Chronistic narratives. The present study investigates the father’s and son’s exegetical enhancements of subtle interpretive allusions to Torah expectations that intersect within the Davidic promise.

Introduction

The scriptural exegetical allusions within the Davidic promise mediated by Nathan give rise to a series of exegetical allusions by David and Solomon. This evidence makes the Davidic promise an exegetical intersection.

Nathan’s presentation of the promise uses numerous scriptural traditions including subtle allusions to the blessing of Judah (Gen 49:8–12) and the place legislation (Deut 12:2–29). The Davidic promise connects these key allusions as they are actualized in the house of David and house of Yahweh, respectively.

Modern scholars have sharply disputed the (un)conditionality of the promise to the house of David as well as the name theology of the house of Yahweh. These debates often serve competing excavative diachronic agendas. In spite of protracted attention, confusion surrounds these seemingly intractable debates. Consequently, the significance of the connection between the houses of David and Yahweh has not been adequately explained. But it is this connection

BSac 180:717 (January-March 2023) p. 55

that most attracted the attention of David and Solomon.

Several speeches of David and Solomon embedded in the Deuteronomistic and Chronistic narratives wrestle with the implications of the relationship between the house of David and house of Yahweh. The Deuteronomistic narrative consists of the scrolls of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings as a coherent and unified serial that unfolds in the shadow of Deuteronomy. The Chronistic narrative refers to the story of the Davidic kingdom and its temple patronage presented in Chronicles.1

The present study pursues the thesis t...