Jonathan (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: ''Yəhōnāṯān'' or ''Yōnāṯān''; "

YHWH The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from right to left, a ...

has gifted") is a figure in the

Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' King Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late elevent ...

of the Kingdom of Israel, and a close friend of

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. He is described as having great strength and swiftness
2 Samuel 1:23
and excelling in

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...

(
2 Samuel 1:22
and slinging

.

Conflicts with Saul

Jonathan first appears in the biblical narrative as the victor of Geba, a

Philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

stronghold ( 1 Samuel 13), while in the following chapter he carries out a lone and secret attack on another Philistine garrison, demonstrating his "prowess and courage as a warrior."T. H. Jones, "Jonathan," in J. D. Douglas, (ed.), ''New Bible Dictionary'' (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 654. However, he eats

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

without knowing that his father had said, "Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes" (1 Samuel 14:24). When he learns of his father's oath, Jonathan disagrees with the wisdom of it, as it requires the soldiers to pursue the enemy although weak from fasting. Saul decides to put Jonathan to death for breaking the ban, but relents when the soldiers protest (). The story of

David and Jonathan David and Jonathan were, according to the Hebrew Bible's Books of Samuel, heroic figures of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel, who formed a Covenant (historical), covenant, taking a mutual oath. Jonathan (1 Samuel), Jona ...

is introduced in Samuel 1 (18:1), where it says that "Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself". The feeling is expressed before the men exchanged a single word in an interaction that has been described as ''

philia ''Philia'' (; ) is one of the four ancient Greek words for love, alongside '' storge'', '' agape'' and '' eros''. In Aristotle's ''Nicomachean Ethics'', philia is usually translated as "friendship" or affection. The complete opposite is cal ...

'' or

love at first sight Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common theme in creative works: a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been desc ...

. The relationship between David and Jonathan has also been compared more explicitly to other homoerotic relationships in Near Eastern literature, including by the Near Eastern scholar Cyrus H. Gordon, who noted the instance in the Book of Jashar, excerpted in Samuel 2 (1:26), in which David "proclaims that Jonathan's love was sweeter to him than the love of a woman" as being similar to

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...

' comparison of

Patroclus In Greek mythology, Patroclus (generally pronounced ; ) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and an important character in Homer's ''Iliad''. Born in Opus, Patroclus was the son of the Argonaut Menoetius. When he was a child, he was exiled from ...

to a girl and

Gilgamesh Gilgamesh (, ; ; originally ) was a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. He was possibly a historical king of the Sumer ...

's love for

Enkidu Enkidu ( ''EN.KI.DU10'') was a legendary figure in Mesopotamian mythology, ancient Mesopotamian mythology, wartime comrade and friend of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Their exploits were composed in Sumerian language, Sumerian poems and in the Akk ...

"as a woman". Saul suspects that Jonathan is colluding with David, who he believes is conspiring to overthrow him. Saul insults Jonathan calling him the "... son of a perverse and rebellious woman!" in 1 Samuel 20:30. Saul even goes so far as to attempt to kill Jonathan by throwing a javelin at him during a fit of paranoid rage. But, before this event happened, all Jonathan did was ask his father what did David do to him so that he would be put to death? (1 Sam. 20:32-33), which suggests David had never wronged Saul. The last meeting between Jonathan and David would take place in a forest of Ziph at Horesh, during Saul's pursuit of David. There, the two would make a covenant before the Lord before going their separate ways.

Death

Jonathan died at the battle of

Mount Gilboa Mount Gilboa (; ''Jabal Jalbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in the West Bank. It overlooks the Harod Valley (the eastern part of the larger Jezreel Valley) to ...

along with his father and brothers (1 Samuel 31). His bones were buried first at Jabesh-gilead,
1 Samuel 31:13
but were later removed with those of his father and moved to Zelah. G. Darshan
"The Reinterment of Saul and Jonathan’s Bones (II Sam 21, 12–14) in Light of Ancient Greek Hero-Cult Stories"
ZAW, 125,4 (2013), 640–645. Jonathan was the father of Mephibosheth, to whom David showed special kindness for Jonathan's sake (2 Samuel 9).

Cultural symbolism

Jonathan has typically been portrayed as a "model of loyalty to truth and friendship", in the words of T. H. Jones. He is venerated as a saint by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Conflicts with Saul

Death

Cultural symbolism

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading