ABSTRACT
It is sometimes assumed that there are three somewhat contradictory biblical versions of Saul’s emergence as king. Much attention has been given to these three presentations. Nevertheless, the measuring language or metalanguage by which adjudication of the ‘contradictory’ relations is sought has received little attention. The metalanguage, at one level, matches the uses of the vocabulary, which perform as standard rules to measure semantic relations and analytical sensitivity. A ‘contradiction’ is just such a mapping use. If the articulation of the metalanguage is arbitrarily adopted and is not exactly measured for its worth, then the contradictions will be traced in the metalanguage, but not in the biblical object language to which the metalanguage is applied. Of course, the metalanguage vocabulary need not be explicitly present to claim that it is normative for use in the object language—as with ‘reference’ in a proper name, it may be implicit but actual in function. According to the view that there are three contradictory versions of Saul’s regal adoption, one of the biblical accounts states that it was at Gilgal that Saul was proclaimed the first king of Israel.
