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Words from the Author, David J. Ferreira about
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I wrote the Christian novel of King David with the intention of creating from the Bible a physical universe for the characters in the world of King David ben Jesse. It has been an interesting journey that has taken me through the much finer details of the biblical texts. It was a great few months that made me fall in love with the ancient Israelites. I chose King David, not because of the namesake, but rather because of the universality of the character. Not only is he one of the best-known characters in the Bible, he also experienced immense trials and difficulties before he received God’s multitude of blessings. He had to be equipped with the right knowledge, strengths, humility, and skills to become one of the greatest kings in history. The story tells of an ordinary man from a rural farm in Bethlehem, who achieved more than most monarchs in our 6000 years of recorded history. It speaks of the truth that our destiny lies not outside of us, but is rooted in our selves by God. It then gives us the capability to attain the greatness that we can only imagine, and then actually create through passionate dreams, prayer, and hard work. To touch on the fictional side of the David: The Warrior King—some of the characters that were born from my writer’s psyche, in order to enhance the reality of this world, were the soldiers and captains Ludim, Ziph, Tilon, Jarim, Eliel, Saran, and Ozra the strategist. Also Prince Jonathan’s cook Nepheg and servant Akkub, King Saul’s assassin Zidka, and the women Keturah, Princess Achsa and Ladiah, the royal concubine and prostitute, were characters I envisioned. I tried to use only biblical names for my fictional characters, and I have to admit, I chose names for the characters by sound. If they sounded like they could match the characters I had locked in my mind, then those were the names I chose. When it came to King David’s army and 'Mighty Men,' I used the names that are given in the Bible, and created personalities, dialogues, and descriptions around those names. Early on, the characters were so real in my imagination that they led in the unfolding of the book, and I like to think the Holy Spirit guided me. To my knowledge, there is no information about Prince Jonathan’s wife in the Bible. Princess Achsa, as said, is completely fictional, as were the scenes of husband and wife together, and all their dialogue. I wrote in the problems of infertility for the royal couple, because it is recorded in the Bible that Prince Jonathan did not have many children, so I thought this would be a realistic scenario as to what could be the reason. In the book, Queen Ahinoam of Israel is also largely fictional. We know that she existed from the Bible and other ancient texts, but nothing is known about her apart from some of her lineage. I wanted to create a strong woman who was so beautiful, in both mind and spirit that she could cope with the temperament and disposition of King Saul and the emerging nation of the Hebrews. Most of the scenes with the Philistine King Achish are completely fictional, as very little is known about him or his reign. As mentioned above, Queen Ladiah is a product of my creativity and she came quite unexpectedly, but I found her to be a wonderfully interesting character who enriched the scenes in Philistia. King David’s successive wars add much of the fiction to the novel, largely because of the Bible’s succinctness—many wars are written about in mere sentences. I had to do considerable research on ancient warfare, the weapons and armor of the ancient Israelites, as well as their tactics, army formations, and military ranking. I tried to recreate the battles in which King Saul hoped to send the anointed King David to his death, but instead made him more powerful and successful. These wars flowed from the rich data I gained from reading numerous academic materials, and they built bridges for me between the major events that brought David ben Jesse from being an unknown soldier to a beloved son of the nation, and ultimately, King. The work contains many facts, but also fictional characters, events, and places. I spent over six months researching for the novel, and read over ten archaeological books on Ancient Israel, numerous translated Jewish texts, fifteen different Bible commentaries and Bible translations of the Books of 1 and 2 Samuel, and also many university journals and theses on King David and the lives and times in 1000 BC. To my surprise, there was much I did not know about the Davidic texts, and I found the enlightenment quite thrilling. Some of the problems that I encountered were those surrounding King Saul. Because of his depression, he became very irrational and obsessive about the David. I had to create a plausible explanation for his actions within the reality of the character and also that of the reader. King Saul’s personality is so complex that a large part of the book is dedicated to explaining his words and deeds. Nevertheless, it was worth the research, because he is an amazing character who grounds the book and forces much growth in all the characters around him. I must say that as much of a pleasure it was to recreate a biblical history, it was also intense, because I had to scrupulously keep with the written facts, and thus did not have the freedom of many other historical fiction authors. There was a constant fear that I might write something that was not in harmony with the Bible or that would mislead a reader into believing something that was not scriptural. However, I haven’t had enough. In the subsequent historical fiction books in the King David Series, I would like to follow his kingship, how he brought the twelve tribes together as one nation, and built a kingdom that was feared by all the Middle East, from Phoenicia to Egypt, and beyond. As a final note, I would like to mention, as we historical fiction authors so often do, that any errors are solely mine, although I endeavored to work in a realistic structure within the bounds of fiction. |
