Three Type-Scene Murder Stories in 2 Samuel 1, 3, and 4: David’s Accession Apology

This article discusses how the affinitive elements in 2 Samuel 1, 3, and 4 can be well-understood using type-scene concepts based on the concept of family resemblance and prototype theory. Applying the “type-scene” concept flexibly enables various arrangements of similar motifs and scenes, or even their absence, in the three murder stories, conveying associated messages. The repetitive motifs and scenes employed are the key characters “going out and coming back”; a background of death; killing a Saulide; mourning; judging or executing the killer; a “blood” curse; and elegy. The successive stylistic variations and modifications in conversation, narration, and elegy, in terms of motif alternations and changes in order, imply that, while David refrains from taking advantage and defends the Saulides’ honor, he treats Saul, Abner, and Ishbosheth differently according to their high and low political values. The increasingly fast pace of the narratives’ logical flow—variously determined by the length of conversation (in both dialogue and soliloquy), mourning, lamentation, and their changes in order and even their absence—indicates that, as the Saulide demise becomes gradually fatal, the narrator’s focus on their remaining members diminishes. Consequently, the establishment of David’s kingship based on his innocence is intensified.