Sunday, December 11, 2016

Regarding character, What are the similarities between King Saul in 1 Samuel 14:24-15:35, 18:1-12, 22:6-19 and Creon in Antigone?

The character Creon from Antigone has some definite parallels with historic King Saul from the biblical account recorded in 1 Samuel. Both make rash pronouncements, show extreme pride, and rule unjustly. 
After his two nephews died in battle, Creon decreed that one should receive an honorable burial but that the other would be left unburied. Anyone who buried the corpse of Polyneices would be put to death. Even when the person who violates this decree turns out to be Antigone, Creon's niece and soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Creon refuses to repeal his decree. Likewise, Saul decreed than any soldier who ate until all the Philistines were routed would die. Later he found that God's judgment was upon Israel and inquired who had sinned. He said that even if it was his own son Jonathan, he would be put to death. In the case of Antigone, the prophet and the Chorus eventually persuade Creon to reverse his order, but it comes too late to save Antigone. In the biblical account, Jonathan's fellow soldiers plead for his life, and Saul lets his son live.
Creon's major character flaw is hubris, or great pride, which leads to his eventual downfall. Expecting to be honored above all others, he refuses to back down and listen to the advice of his son. In the same way, God withdrew his blessing from Saul and selected a king to replace him because of Saul's pride. God blessed him when he was "small in [his] own eyes," but rejected him when he rejected God and chose his own way.
Finally, both men ended up ruling unjustly in that they equated the king's will with acceptable law. Creon tells Haemon that the king's decisions and opinions must take precedence over what the people want. Toward the end of Saul's reign, he became so convinced that he could create his own laws that he ordered the execution of scores of God's priests and a whole town based on his own whim. Both men had a faulty view of justice, believing that whatever the king decreed was just and ignoring the higher laws of God or the gods. 
With their rash pronouncements, pride, and faulty view of justice, King Creon and King Saul had a lot in common.

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