Sunday, April 5, 2009

Week Fifteen (Holy Week)

Comment on weekly readings from April 5th through April 11th (Days 95-101).
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2 comments:

  1. Natalie SantucciApril 7, 2009 at 11:52 PM

    Hi,

    I'm trying to figure out how Saul died. In the reading for April 5, Chapter 31, it states that Saul wanted his armor-bearer to kill him and when his armor-bearer refused, Saul fell upon his own sword. In the first chapter of the April 6 reading, David meets a man who claims to have seen Saul leaning upon his spear and when Saul sees the man, he asks the man to slay him and the man claims to have killed Saul. So, is the man lying? Did Saul kill himself or was he slain by the man? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

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  2. Robert VivianoApril 12, 2009 at 5:22 PM

    You bring up a very good point in your readings. We know that Saul and his sons died during battle but we have two different ending versions. The fact that Saul was losing the battle and did not want to be captured by his enemies is understandale since the treatment of heads of state was always cruel and painful. When his aromor bearer would not kill him Saul tried to do the job himself. It appears that he did impale himself but from the narative in chapter 1 of 2 Samuel an alien from another nation found him and killed him and brought his crown and arm band to David. This would suggest that this alien from another nation did in fact get to Saul before Phillistines did because he had the kings crown and arm band. What we do not know was whether or not the king was already dead and he just removed the crown and arm band or if in fact he did kill Saul. However he did try to get credit and praise from David for killing Saul but only ended up getting killed himself by his own words that he had killed the king. This is one of those passages that will have to get clarified when we "get to the other side" and ask God what really happened. Saul died and the kingdom was taken from him and given to David. It was Saul's to lose and lose it he did by his sinfulness of doing what God had told him not to do.

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