The Internet is a great resource to find actual scholarship based on detailed analysis of scripture, not just someone’s opinion. What about that love between Jonathan and David, according to scripture? Some have put good studies online on the question.
The first mention is the following: “And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that
the soul of Jonathan was knit/qashar with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” (1Sam 18:1, KJV)
[Some Hebrew/English Interlinear OTs include the gender modifiers and what I have underlined in these read: “and soul-of Jonathan
she-was-tied in soul of David”. The Hebrew
qashar is modified by “she” in 3 OT verses, and the other two are of women, Gn.38:28 & Josh 2:21.
Many times
qashar is modified by male gender, and always in verses about men. Why was Jonathan’s soul referred to as “she”, along with two other verses which are females? Not all Heb/Eng Interlinear Bibles include the gender modifiers, but one you can read online does:
1sa18.pdf
The love in 1 Sam. 18:3 is
H160 אַהֲבָה
'ahabah and the first use of the word is in:
“And Jacob said unto Laban,
Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled,
that I may go in unto her.” (Gen 29:21, KJV)
Omitting the couple of times the word H160 is used of God’s love, human love from the first occurrence is used of Jonathan and David in 1 Sam. 18:3; 20:17, and then 2 Sam. 1:26. It is used once again before the close of 2 Kings and it reads:
"Then Amnon hated her with exceeding great hatred; for the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love(
H160) wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone." (2Sam 13:15 ASV) **
Ammon loveth his sister Tamar; ravisheth her; then hateth and driveth her away, 2Sa 13:1-19
The choice of the Hebrew for love regarding Jonathan and David appears to be quite clear.
Reading the last reference to Jonathan and David, we read:
“I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.” (2Sam 1:26, KJV)
First, the love is of women plural, not a wife or mother. It is not the love of father or brother, but the “love of women”. Since it is plural, to make it wife, it has to be wives. How great is the love, a non-sexual love of a harem?? The meaning is so clear, that about the 8th century, the Latin Vulgate copyists added a completely spurious, false sentence found in no manuscript and it is seen as the Douay-Rheims renders the Latin of the verse:
“I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan: exceeding beautiful, and amiable to me above the love of women.
As the mother loveth her only son, so did I love thee.” (2Sa 1:26 DRB)
You don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to know why the church copyists about the 8th century began adding that sentence.
The church itself let the cat out of the bag on this one!
It cannot be said this teaches that David and Jonathan ever engaged in sex, but it cannot be said that it doesn’t suggest something homoerotic. David had about 10 wives and a hundred concubines, so sexual faithfulness does not seem high in David’s mind.
like they do with the symbol of the rainbow as their sin list of inclusion. They also like to co-opt a Bible verse or three.
