Saul Is Esau: Themes From Genesis 3 And Deuteronomy 18 In 1 Samuel -- By: Nicholas G. Piotrowski

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 81:2 (Fall 2019)
Article: Saul Is Esau: Themes From Genesis 3 And Deuteronomy 18 In 1 Samuel
Author: Nicholas G. Piotrowski


Saul Is Esau: Themes From Genesis 3 And Deuteronomy 18 In 1 Samuel

Nicholas G. Piotrowski

Nicholas Piotrowski is President and Academic Dean of Indianapolis Theological Seminary.

Significant Pentateuchal themes serve a major leitmotif in 1 Samuel that narratologically shape Saul’s demise (as well as David’s rise) in the language of Gen 3:15, 4:5b–8, and 25:19−34 (as well as 27:37−41). David is predictably portrayed as the “Seed of the Woman,” but the reader is increasingly shocked by the gradual typecasting of Saul as a manifestation
of the “Seed of the Serpent” (Gen 3:15) and “another nation” (Gen 25:23), first appearing like Cain and then Esau. Moreover, thematic links between Gen 3:17 and Deut 18:9–22 find redemptive-historical development in 1 Samuel as Saul, like Adam, does not hear/obey the voice of the
Lord. The entire David-Saul struggle, therefore, is read against the backdrop of Genesis as a whole and Deut 18. This reading provides theological depth to the characterization of Saul and further elucidates the contribution of 1 Samuel to redemptive history.

The first time I read Animal Farm I did not understand, nor much like, the ending. I grew up on Billy the Kid and Indiana Jones stories, so I expected a shoot-out, a fist fight, a car chase, or all three to mark the grand conclusion of the conflict between the animals and the people. Instead, the story concludes with the more affable animals looking through a window to observe a meeting between their old masters—the people—and their new masters—the pigs. As they look on, it appears that the pigs start to morph into people and the people start to morph into pigs until there are no distinguishing characteristics between any of them. The pigs have become people-ish and the people have become pig-ish. And this is how the book ends. The other animals, after observing these transformations, simply walk away and go back to their lives of tedium and suffering. The end. Nothing more. While disappointed in this apparent anti-climax, I could not stop thinking about it. Only after months of pondering, and with a second reading, did I finally realize that it was the perfect ending because it ties off several threads that appear throughout the narrative, and hammers home the larger point of the book as a whole. It was not only th...

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