David
Outcast to his family, traitor to his king, divine to his people.
In The Leper Messiah, we travel back 1000 years before Jesus was born to excavate the ancient world and another icon of the western world, David.
We dig up the secrets of the Hebrew desert world and Egyptian mysticism: the Ark of the Covenant, the great city of Memphis, and David’s dark and twisted childhood are all cloaked behind the robes of The Leper Messiah.
But it’s not the mighty Kind David we hunt, but rather the outcast, the troubled one, the desperate David that we seek.
On this ancient archaeological dig, we wonder who was David as a child? How did his home life shape his character? For it is the sling-shot years that we will excavate and highlight, and not the overblown stories of Goliath which has become one of the most recognizable tropes of the western world.
Nitzevet
David is mentioned more than any other figure in the Old Testament, 1000 times to be exact, yet his mother Nitzevet is not mentioned once. Her name does not appear in the Biblical text, but rather in the Midrash, the ancient commentary on part of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Still, she could see father then her own doorstep in ancient Bethlehem and her visons were full of portent and greatness for her young David.
David’s childhood was dark and twisted: His father rebuffed the runt of a brood of 7 boys and did not think that David was his, yet his mother was his guardian angel and protectorate. The father and his sons were off hunting in the highlands, while Nitzevet practiced her magic and cast spells on David.
The Leper Bridge
A deep current of mysticism runs throughout her life and the Leper Messiah. Further, she teaches David to be unafraid of the things that cause panic in the hearts of ancient men.
In the chapter, The Leper Bridge, Nitzevet and David are in the high country at dusk and a storm is brewing. A group of Lepers, who trek across the barren hills to avoid meeting people are crossing a dangerous bridge. Nitzevet, address the men calmly and teaches David not to be afraid of the scourge that most men fear in this violent and dangerous world.
Nitzevet is preparing her son to become a citizen of his world. He lives in the shadows of the great Egyptian and Mesopotamian powers and must know what to fear and what to learn on his great voyage of discovery.
The spells she casts and the vision she sees alone can not prepare him so he needs an education long before he takes on the mantle of greatness.
David’s time was on the cusp of the second iron age Iron 11 (1200-1000 BCE) and at that time Ramesses X sat as Pharaoh of Egypt, while Tiglath-Piliser 1 sat on the Mesopotamian throne. These two rivals fought a protracted war and were both at a low ebb which allowed David to move in the shadows of these great powers.
David and the Lion
Throughout David’s troubles childhood, we catch glimpses of his nature: his courage is displayed one day at the Sacna water pools which glisten in the new day sun. His brother, Shema is trapped by a lion at the water-hole and rather than running away, David, recalls all the times he practiced with his sling-shot, steadies himself behind a rock and begins to attack the beast.
“Abinadab came from the hills with his bow and arrow locked and ready. He moved gracefully and swiftly over the plains.
“Brothers” he called.
He stopped as he reached the boys, still huddled together on the sun-bleached rocks. From his satchel, he took a ram’s horn and with one mighty blow, the rolling hill country resounded with the deep, mellow call that brought the hunting clan together, and the Hebrews to prayer.”
But David’s heroics was not the end of his dark, lonely childhood. His father, Jessie, continued to avoid him yet showed grudging respect, while David’s brothers followed their father without question.
And so the sullen boy wandered the hill country alone while his frown spread over all of Judea…