ContradictionsReading order 379Bible context 2 min read
Was David alone when asking for the holy bread at Nob?
Samuel depicts David arriving alone, while the Gospel retellings include hungry companions who receive the bread.
- Textual conflict
- Weak tension
- The alleged conflict needs substantial assumptions, such as treating an omission as a denial or figurative language as literal.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
David arrives alone in Samuel, but later companions receiving bread need not have stood beside him at the initial meeting.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Ahimelech finds David alone when he arrives at Nob
Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
1 Samuel 21:1
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:1 Samuel 21
Jesus describes David sharing the sacred bread with companions
But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Matthew 12:3-4
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)