Preventing a Bloodbath

Preventing a Bloodbath Commentary by Jennifer Moldenhauer Cite Share Show Bible Passage In this oil sketch from the early 1630s, the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens dramatically depicts the meeting of Abigail and David. The blonde Abigail in her seventeenth-century costume has dismounted from her donkey and is kneeling on the ground in front of David, turning to him in conversation and, at the same time, pointing to the loaves of bread that the servants have brought with them. David, who has also dismounted from his white horse, is already trying to help her up. He is depicted as an older but agile man and his clothing—like that of his followers—is reminiscent of a Roman general. While the image positions the viewer as an onlooker, standing outside the action, the reader of the biblical text experiences the encounter as though at Abigail's side: ‘she met them, Abigail saw David, she made haste, she dismounted the ass, she fell on her face before the face of David, she bowed to the ground, she fell at his feet, she said...’ (vv.20–24). And Abigail then starts a long discourse addressed to David. The text thus assigns Abigail discursive dominance in the encounter, even though her words express politeness and respect towards him. Abigail’s long and careful speech has two functions in the narrative: to calm David’s raging bloodlust, and to point to the future and the kind of king that David will become. The almost tender glances and touches between the protagonists indicate that she succeeds in this. Almost forgotten is David’s previous military-style speech to his men that each man should take his ‘sword’ (vv.13, 21–22). At the time this oil sketch was painted, Europe was in the midst of one of the most devastating wars in European history: the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). The works of the Catholic Rubens are also situated in the context of European power politics and many of those works with Christian subject matter also reflect his close experience of such confessional conflicts; they were never far away. Likewise, potential conflict looms close in the story of Abigail, which takes place between several battles between Saul and David—battles which will decide the future of the monarchy, and result in YHWH's appointment of David as leader over Israel. References Fischer, Irmtraud. 2003. ‘Abigajil: Weisheit und Prophetie in einer Person vereint’, in Auf den Spuren der schriftgelehrten Weisen. Festschrift für Johannes Marböck anlässlich seiner Emeritierung, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 331, ed. by Irmtraud Fischer et al. (Berlin: De Gruyter), pp. 45–61 Sauerländer, Willibald. 2011. Der katholische Rubens. Heilige und Märtyrer (München: Verlag C.H. Beck)