ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the employment of rhetoric as commissioned in various versions of the fabula and associated sjuzhets particular to the two narrative versions of the David and Bathsheba tale (i.e., LXX 2 Samuel 11 and 12 and Antiquitates Judaicae narratives respectively). In addition, comparisons between the two narratives as well as certain apologetic tractates from the later rabbinic literature are made. The author concludes, inter alia, that neither Josephus nor the rabbinic literature adheres strictly to the biblical storyline. Josephus adjusts the account to retain the readers’ faith in the high ethical values espoused in Judaism whilst the rabbinic literature tends to soften David’s level of accountability in the David-Bathsheba-Uriah affair and almost totally exonerates Bathsheba of any culpability.
