Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

NATHAN

(Heb. nāṯān)

1. A son of David by Bathshua (Bathsheba) daughter of Ammiel; full brother of Solomon (2 Sam. 5:14; 1 Chr. 3:5; 14:4). He is mentioned in an eschatological prophecy (Zech. 12:12), which may account for Luke’s genealogy of Jesus through Nathan (Luke 3:31) rather than through Solomon (Matt. 1:6).

2. Prophet at the time of David. He arrives, with no pedigree of birthplace or genealogy, to mediate Yahweh’s dynastic grant to David (2 Sam. 7:1-17 = 1 Chr. 17:1-15), confront David with his sin against Uriah (2 Sam. 12:1-25; cf. Ps. 51 superscription[MT 2]), and conspire with Bathsheba to convince David that he had sworn that Solomon would succeed him (1 Kgs. 1:1-40).

The dynastic grant (2 Sam. 7:1-17) is comprised of two literary sources, the History of David’s Rise (7:1-7) and a Deuteronomistic addition (vv. 8-17). In ancient Near Eastern ideology, kingship was tied to temple-building; gods were represented as guaranteeing dynasties in return for the (re)building of temples. The aim of the History of David’s Rise (1 Sam. 15–2 Sam. 8) was to establish David’s kingship in place of Saul’s dynasty by proving that Yahweh chose him. However, Yahweh’s chosen one never built the expected temple. The explanation is that although David wished to build it, Yahweh forbade it, based on the precedent of the judges (2 Sam. 7:1-7).

More than three centuries later the Deuteronomist incorporated the History of David’s Rise in a comprehensive history written in support of a reform that included an attempted restoration of the Davidic kingdom and centralization of all worship in the temple. An eternal Davidic dynasty established by Yahweh and closely tied to the temple was key to the reform; hence this addition (2 Sam. 7:8-17). The addition is integrated with the preexisting text by a wordplay between bayiṯ, “house,” as “temple” (2 Sam. 7:1-7) and bayiṯ, “house,” as “dynasty” (vv. 11b-16); the prophecy that David’s son will build the temple and his throne will be established forever (v. 13) provides the missing symmetry between dynast and temple.

Nathan also mediates an oracle to David after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah (2 Sam. 12:1-25). Rather than confront the king directly, he leads David to convict himself by telling a juridical parable, a fictitious case that asks the king to pronounce judgment in his capacity as judge (2 Sam. 12:1-4; cf. 14:1-20; 1 Kgs. 20:35-43). The story of the rich man with many flocks and herds who takes the poor man’s beloved lamb to prepare a meal for a traveler provokes David’s rage and prompts him to declare the offender a dead man (2 Sam. 12:5-6). When Nathan delivers the punch line, “That man is you!” (2 Sam. 12:7a), David repents and is spared the death penalty, which is transferred to the child who is the product of the adultery (vv. 13-23). Without the intervening judgment (2 Sam. 12:7b-12), there is a clear connection between the death sentence that David unwittingly passes on himself and its transference to his child. The intervening judgment is redundant, since the redirection of David’s murder and adultery against himself creates a duplicate sentence. The interpolation was added by the author of Solomon’s Succession Narrative (2 Sam. 10–12; 1 Kgs. 1–2) to magnify David’s crimes and to connect them to the story of Absalom’s revolt (2 Sam. 9, 13-20; ; cf. esp. 16:20-22). By inserting the David and Bathsheba story near the beginning of the revolt account, David’s enhanced adultery and murder are made to appear the cause of Amnon’s rape of Tamar, Absalom’s murder of Amnon, and Absalom’s revolt. In contrast, Solomon’s ruthless consolidation measures appear necessary to restore order (1 Kgs. 2).

In 1 Kgs. 1:1-40 Nathan is not a mediator of Yahweh’s word, but a court prophet embroiled in a conspiracy. An aged David’s lack of intimacy with the exceedingly beautiful Abishag indicates that the succession is imminent (1 Kgs. 1:1-4). As the eldest, Adonijah presumes that he will be the successor, and holds a sacrificial feast that Nathan intentionally or unintentionally misinterprets as a coronation feast (1 Kgs. 1:5-10). Since the court has split into Adonijah and Solomon factions, Nathan enlists Bathsheba’s help in a plot. He persuades her to “remind” David that he had sworn that Solomon would succeed him, and Nathan then corroborates her words (1 Kgs. 1:11-27). The scheme works because of David’s faulty memory, and David directs Nathan and Zadok to anoint Solomon (1 Kgs. 1:28-40). This account by Solomon’s historian acknowledges a palace coup while asserting the legality of Solomon’s succession (cf. Gen. 27).

3. The father of Igal, one of David’s elite 30 warriors (2 Sam. 23:36; 1 Chr. 11:38).

4. The father of Azariah and Zabud, two of Solomon’s officers (1 Kgs. 4:5).

5. A Judahite in the line of Jerahmeel; son of Attai and father of Zabad (1 Chr. 2:36).

6. One of those sent by Ezra to Iddo to bring back Levites (Ezra 8:16). He may be the same as Nathan, a descendant of Binnui, who divorced his foreign wife (Ezra 10:39).

Bibliography. P. K. McCarter, II Samuel. AB 9 (Garden City, 1984); J. W. Flanagan, “Court History or Succession Document? A Study of 2 Samuel 9-20 and 1 Kings 1–2,” JBL 91 (1972): 172-81.

Marsha White

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

NATHAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)