This is Week Twenty Five of Giford's Bible Study Programme.

I said I'd come back to David. Well, here we are again.

In terms of number of words, David is one of the most written-about characters in the Old Testament, and the earliest of whom there is any archaeological evidence. Yet much of what is written about him seems to be legend rather than history. Furthermore, it seems that there are several conflicting stories about him that have all come to be included in the Bible.

David is annointed by Saul:

The LORD said to Samuel, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king. [...] Then the LORD said, 'Rise and anoint him; he is the one.' So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.

1 Sam 16:1-13

David is a skilled musician and becomes Saul's armourbearer (and, possibly, lover):

And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.

1 Sam 16:17-21

David slays Goliath:

And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine [Goliath], he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.

1 Sam 17:55

So we have three stories of how David came to prominence, at least two of which are flatly contradictory - in one, he famously kills Goliath (and Saul has never heard of him before); in another, he is a skilled harpist who becomes Saul's armour-bearer long before meeting Goliath; and in the third he is annointed by God (working through the prophet Samuel). We might perhaps reconcile the third with one of the first two; but why would we? There are clearly multiple stories here, and three seems as likely a number as two (unless we are supposed to believe that Saul is in an advanced stage of dementia and cannot recall his own beloved squire).

This is widely taken as a further example of there being several separate sources for the Old Testament that have been combined into the books we now have.