2 Samuel 6 Analysis

In the essay text ‘Psychological Interpretation, Dancing David: A Psychological Reading of 2 Samuel 6’, Paul M. Joyce acknowledges the way a psychological approach to Biblical Studies is an added value for exegetical, devotional purposes and also other unforeseen reasons. He most especially makes a point by mentioning how this is relevant when applied to the narration of the ark transfer and the ensuing dialogue between David and his wife Michal. Unlike Saul, David has not been deeply scrutinized from a subliminal point of view. However, the narrative offers a wide spectrum of material to analyze. Indeed, the author finds the passage to be ‘powerfully emotive’ and insightful to the extent that he identifies with David. Before positing his theses,

By so doing, he gives a feasible scope to his personal interpretation and takes the readers in his own realm of emotions and also leads them to their own free associations. In the analysis of the chain of non-cognitive reactions in 2 Samuel 6, David’s persistence in dancing with no inhibition nor constraints, causes the author to identify with him. A natural corollary of this position is that Joyce also sees Michal as the antagonist of the story.

Whenever the name Michal appears in the sixth chapter of 2 Samuel, it is always next to the patronym ‘daughter of Saul’ and Paul M. Joyce follows suit.

The connotation immediately becomes a negative one, even before knowing what Michal actively did to be seen as the main opponent in the story, merely for the name she bears. The author, from his male perspective, sees Michal as an underlying reality of a mother who constantly exerts her possessiveness on her son, trying to tame her son’s free

He mentions that psychological interpretation is based on grounded rationale. For instance, although his response to the narrative might be subjective, he reports that there is an interference. The first obvious identification with David is his gender. The connection proceeds to become increasingly closer when he admits that David’s spontaneity is what attracts him due to his childhood that what subjected to his mother’s constraints. The further motif behind his empathy with David is that as soon as he begins to identify himself with him, David becomes the target of hatred.

b) MICHAL: ‘THE ENEMY OF THE DIVINE WARRIOR’

It naturally seems right for both the reader and the author to despise Michal for the Bible also take this stance.

To support this idea, Paul M. Joyce draws an analogy with a 1553 painting by Francesco Salviati, where David’s wife looks at the whole scene from on high.

Looking from an upper story implies looking down on a person, in a judgmental way. This resonates with the episode in Judges 5:28 which he borrows from Choon-Leong Seow.

In the author’s words: ‘In Judges the woman who looks through the window is aligned with the enemy of the warrior’.

According to the author her position is eloquent, since it encourages the assumption that she did so with great