House of David – some of the actors hint at how their characters have been developed
Abner knows something, Ahinoam turns to witchcraft, and the actor who plays Goliath says his character is a "misunderstood", "family-oriented" man.
The first three episodes of House of David—the upcoming series about David, Saul, and Goliath—are coming to Prime Video in just a couple weeks.
That means we’re going to start seeing features about the show and interviews with its makers. And the first new article I’ve seen along these lines is this report from Collider, which visited the show’s set in Greece last summer.
The story doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the series, but it does hint at a few of the ways that the series might be fleshing out its biblical characters. So, here are a few of the more interesting excerpts from the article, with comments by me.
First, a quote from Oded Fehr, who plays Abner, Saul’s general:
“He’s all in for Saul, even as things start to unravel,” Fehr told us. “He knows God has chosen someone else, but his allegiance is to Israel first.”
This is interesting, as the biblical Abner did switch to David’s side eventually, and he did justify his defection by saying God had chosen David to replace Saul’s family (II Samuel 3:9-10, 17-18)—but he didn’t do or say these things until many years after the events of this series.
Prior to his defection, Abner not only helped Saul pursue David (I Samuel 26:4-16), he also put Saul’s son Eshbaal on the throne (II Samuel 2:8-9), and he waged a civil war against David and the tribe of Judah on Eshbaal’s behalf (II Samuel 2-3).
Abner eventually abandoned Eshbaal because Eshbaal accused him of sleeping with one of Saul’s concubines (II Samuel 3:6-11). It was only then—after he switched to David’s side and began shoring up support for David among the Israelite elders—that the biblical Abner started calling David the chosen one.
So what does the Abner of this series know, and when does he know it?
Does he merely know that the prophet Samuel said God would give the throne to one of Saul’s neighbours (I Samuel 15:28)? Or does he know that Samuel has anointed a specific person, i.e. David, to replace Saul already?
And, more to the point, does he actually believe that God is on David’s side?
If the Abner of this series truly believes—“knows”—that God has chosen someone to replace Saul, and if he somehow learns early on that David is that person, then it would have major implications for his future actions, assuming future seasons of this series follow the basic narrative outline in the Bible.
One could very easily argue that the biblical Abner latched onto the “chosen one” talk around David for political purposes, after he switched allegiances. But the way Fehr talks, the Abner of this series could be a much more deeply conflicted individual, actively believing in David’s destiny while fighting against it.
As ever, we shall see.
Next, a quote from Ayelet Zurer, who plays Saul’s wife Ahinoam:
“I found a podcast in Hebrew that focused on Saul’s journey, and it really opened my eyes,” she said. “Then I started looking into the historical context of witchcraft because my character turns to it when she loses control. It’s fascinating how different it was perceived back then.”
Oooh, witchcraft.
The Bible tells us nothing about Ahinoam aside from the fact that she was Saul’s wife and her father’s name was Ahimaaz (I Samuel 14:50). It doesn’t even tell us whether any of Saul’s children were hers, though we can probably infer that some of them were, particularly the ones who are mentioned in the same passage as her.1
So, Ahinoam “turning to witchcraft when she loses control” is definitely an invention of the show. I assume it’s inspired by the story in which Saul himself turns to a witch or medium to contact the spirit of Samuel before a big battle (I Samuel 28).
And next, a few quotes from Martyn Ford, who plays Goliath:
“This isn’t just some big guy who likes to fight,” he said. “He has a life, a mother, brothers—he’s got reasons for everything he does.” The production team has taken a hybrid approach to his size, as Goliath is... well, his name explains it, so how big is he actually going to be? “We’re aiming for about 14 feet,” Ford explained. “We’re using forced perspective, specialized lenses, and creative blocking. The goal is to make it feel real, not just CGI-heavy.”
Ford also reflected on the complexity of his character, because the Bible doesn't exactly provide detailed notes on “supporting characters” within its pages: “They’ve created the character to actually be a person of heart and care, and very family-oriented,” he said. “Very much a misunderstood character through what you may know about in history... The outcast that he became drove him to the outcome that happened. For me, the most important part is to try and humanize him as much as possible and bring some element of sympathy but also understanding to the outcome.”
Two quick points:
First, this confirms the Wall Street Journal’s report that Goliath will be 14’ tall in this series (which is much taller than the biblical Goliath, who was 6’9” or 9’9” depending on which manuscript you read; Ford himself is 6’8”).
And second, the reference to Goliath’s “mother” and “brothers” is interesting. I Chronicles 20:5 does say that Goliath had a brother, singular, named Lahmi. Evidently in the series he will have more. As for his mother, the Bible says nothing about her, but apparently the Talmud says Goliath’s mother was Orpah, the Moabite sister-in-law of Ruth’s who did not follow Naomi to Bethlehem (Ruth 1:8-15). Hmmm.
For what it’s worth, Michael Iskander (who plays David) and Ali Suliman (who plays Saul) spoke to Collider too, but they didn’t say anything particularly new or unique-to-this-series about their characters, so I’m not quoting them here.
I did, however, want to quote this line from Jon Gunn, one of the show’s directors, regarding how they picked Greece as the place to shoot the series:
In their search for the perfect location, they had scouted Morocco, Jordan, Italy, and even Israel before ultimately deciding Greece’s landscapes were the perfect setting. “We’re going much more for the mountains than the islands,” Gunn explained. “There’s a lot of stuff here that hasn’t really been photographed before, but it’s incredible that you can go to a mountain and find a city on top of it that’s been there for thousands of years.”
And, that’s about it for now. More later, perhaps.
As noted above, the first three episodes of House of David will premiere on Prime Video February 27. After that, new episodes will come out every Thursday until April 3.
We do know that Saul had other wives and/or concubines (II Samuel 3:7, 12:8, 21:7-13), so we can’t rule out the possibility that Jonathan, Michal, etc. were the children of those women.