After reading Samuel I and II in the King James Bible and St. Athanasius the Great, Life of St. Anthony their were numerous themes that seemed to correspond with each other. Some of these themes quickly came to mind and others took a moment to conceptualize and reason. As the reader, a theme that one could come across is trust. Trust is seen within Samuel and the life of St. Anthony through a variety of factors including marriage, cheating, deception, and harm. Both of these readings compare to each other greatly in the fashion of trust being a vital factor in describing each reading.
Specifically, in Samuel II chapter 11 and 12 trust is discussed within the marriage of Bathsheba and Uriah. Uriah was one of King David’s soldiers who was later faulted for King David’s mishap. The first time King David saw Bathsheba he thought she was a very beautiful woman although she was married to one of his soldiers, Uriah. However, David completely disregarded the fact that they were married and as soon as Bathsheba found out her husband died in battle, “David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David has done displease the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:27). This signifies that Bathsheba completely ignored the fact that she was with Uriah, then married and had a child with King David. This is an incident of broken trust and how important trust can be in a relationship or something like this could happen.
Similarly, sticking to the theme of trust, St. Athanasius the Great, Life of St. Anthony is a more conceptual reading ultimately describing the importance of not trusting the Devil or demons and instead listening to the lord. Starting with chapter one, it warns people to not trust those who claim to tell the future. These types of people are often described as deceptive, people who look to take advantage of another. The article takes on a stand on how demons look to deceive humans by predicting events to gain trust. The demons may seem to care about the humans to the humans, “however, do this not from any care for the hearers, but to gain their trust, and that then at length, having got them in their power, they may destroy them” (St. Athanasius the Great, Life of St. Anthony 31). This proves that demons just look to take advantage of humans by deception. This deals with the theme of trust because the human does now know who is telling them their future. For example if the demon is telling the human that their future will be filled with fortune then the human is more inclined to want to believe the demon. Further, as described in the reading, the demons main goal is to become close with the human so they have a better chance of exploiting the humans life. Meaning the human has to make a choice whether to believe the so called “demon” or disregard what the demon is saying.
Trust in these two readings relate to each other similarly in the fact that an individual can choose what he or she wants to believe. In Samuel II King David chose to believe that Bathsheba was not married so he slept with her. This demonstrates a clear lack of trust between Bathsheba and Uriah. Then, in St. Athanasius the Great, Life of St. Anthony a human has to decide whether to trust a demon or not despite hearing a future they would want to live. The message of trust is definitely prevalent and similar within these two readings.
Leave a Reply