First Sunday After Christmas - Jesus of King David's Bloodline (Series, Part 5.b.)
One theme of the day’s Matthew 1 gospel is the royal bloodline of Jesus.
On his father Joseph’s side, the gospel claims there were 14 generations from Abraham to King David;
14 from David to the Babylonian captivity;
and 14 from that to Jesus.
Seven was considered a number of perfection, so fourteen is double perfection, here times three.
On his mother’s side, Jesus was also (figuratively) of royal (heavenly) blood, conceived out of wedlock by the Holy Spirit, but an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, explains, and tells him to marry her anyway (mentioned in a previous post [1] as possibly related to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure).
On the one hand, King David was considered a great king. He also seems a disaster. He had an affair with Bathsheba and arranged for the death of her husband, alluded to in Hamlet [2]. This affair was a terrible example to his children, who seemed to follow in the path of his sin as much as his wisdom, with their lives marked by sexual scandal and violence [3]. Some see an influence of King David tales in Shakespeare’s Lancastrian tetralogy [4].
In Shakespeare’s time and his plays, there was anxiety about fathers being cuckolded by unfaithful wives who might conceive their lovers’ illegitimate children. Bastards are mentioned in Shakespeare more than 100 times, in more than 20 plays.
One way to view the Christmas story is that Joseph was cuckolded by the Holy Spirit: his wife bore him a bastard son of heaven.
From the date of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway's wedding, and of the birth of their first child, most historians believe that first child was conceived out of wedlock, probably by William – but maybe by someone else? And an angel told him to marry her anyway? 😉
Shakespeare and his culture placed great value on the themes of such tales.
[To be cont.]
POSTSCRIPT:
Also see this good blog post on King David, Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan, and Shakespeare, Shaw, and others: https://spectrummagazine.org/culture/nathan-shakespeare-and-dramatic-preaching-or-david-had-little-lamb/
INDEX for posts in this series on the TWELVE DAYS of CHRISTMAS in Shakespeare’s time (and possible influences on the plays):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/twelve-days-of-christmas-in-churches-of.html
NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] See part 1 in this series: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/first-day-of-christmas-in-english.html
[2] In 2.2.633-634, when Hamlet says, “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King,” he alludes to the prophet Nathan doing the same thing, catching the conscience of King David with a story about a shepherd who had one beloved sheep. When Claudius goes to pray, he prays quoting clips from the psalm associated with David’s sinful affair with Bathsheba and his arranging for her husband’s death.
[3] In 2 Samuel 10-11, after Nathan catching David’s conscience, God says to David through the prophet Nathan,
“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus said the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of his sin.”
- David’s daughter Tamar is raped by her half-brother Amnon, David’s firstborn son.
- David does nothing, so after two years, David’s son Absolom arranges for servants to kill his half-brother, similar to the way his father once arranged for others to arrange the death of Uriah.
- Absolom leaves Jerusalem for three years, estranged. David does little to reconcile, for two more years.
- Absolom finally tries to rebel against his father and seize the throne.
These are just a few of the troubles that plague the house of David.
[4] See “Types of King David in Shakespeare's Lancastrian Tetralogy”
Evett, David, Shakespeare Studies, New York, Vol. 14, (Jan 1, 1981): 139.
https://www.proquest.com/openview/d915c4f2f1b4cb149fdadc9867c4ee3c/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819311
IMAGES:
Left: Jacob Backer, “Nathan and David,” c. 1633. Private collection.
Public domain via
https://www.pubhist.com/w7805
Right: Georges de La Tour (1593–1652),
“The Appearance of the Angel to Joseph,” c. 1628-1645.
Nantes Museum of Arts, public domain via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Georges_de_La_Tour_022.jpg
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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