James Getz at Kethubim has decided to post something on the Nevi’im. In a post entitled “Musings on Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel”, he discusses James C. Moyer’s 1969 Brandeis dissertation, “The Concept of Ritual Purity among the Hittites.” James (Getz, not Moyer) points out a passage in which James (Moyer, not Getz) draws attention to the idea that the king in ancient Israel may have been inviolable due to his anointing. Both of the Jameses (Jamesayim?) have good things to say, and I encourage people to head over to Kethubim to read the post.

I wanted to add a couple of things that may support what they both have to say. It may be the case that David refused to attack Saul because he was God’s anointed. But we do have other cases in which kings were assassinated by others who had been anointed. The most obvious example is Jehu who was anointed with the specific instructions to strike down Joram, who presumably had also been anointed when he became king.

I also wonder about Solomon and Adonijah. Although the text does not explicitly say so, it is hard to imagine that Adonijah had not been anointed as king by Abiathar (1 Kings 1:5-10). Yet he is scared that Solomon, who has also been anointed (1 Kings 1:34), will kill him (1 Kings 1:49-53). Solomon does not do so at the time, although he later has Adonijah killed for requesting Abishag as his wife (1 Kings 2:25). It is interesting in this case that Solomon sent someone else to do it. If kings were inviolable except to others who were anointed, then apparently one anointed person could send a non-anointed person to kill another anointed person.

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