Kings, ref. Abraham

The Biblical allegory that is Kings took a little break from the Saul/David story last night. There was the obligatory reference in the form of a modification of 1 Samuel 18:7 – Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. But for the most part, the story focused on some clichéd writing with a minor deviation into Genesis.

This deviation involved the king’s son by his mistress. Apparently the boy is sick and was dying. Silas, reeling from the spate of bad luck that has plagued him lately, meets the Reverend Samuels to ask him how to get back into God’s good graces. Samuels doesn’t know but knows that atonement must be made in the form of sacrifice. Silas storms off in his car but promptly hits a deer. Figuring this is the first part of the sacrifice, he kills the dying animal. He then returns to the hospital to keep vigil until morning when the boy awakes. Knowing that the treatment has worked, Silas then walks away, vowing to never see them again as the price of keeping the boy alive and hopefully resuming his good standing with God.

This story has two aspects of the story of Abraham in it, although Silas is far more resistant of God’s will. In the original story, Abraham is given a test to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham complies but an angel stops him before he can cut Isaac’s throat. Instead, Abraham is given a ram to sacrifice. Silas being given a deer to kill instead of his son dying echoes this.

The other aspect of Abraham is that Silas walks away and vows not to see his mistress and her son again. This is similar to Abraham sending away his son Ishmael and his mother Hagar. The main difference is that Abraham sent away Ishmael because he mocked Abraham’s chosen heir Isaac and because Hagar grew increasingly disrespectful of her mistress Sarah, probably feeding into Ishmael’s resentment of his younger brother. In Kings, the other family is sent away because Silas sees it as an aspect of atonement in trying to get back into God’s favor and retain the crown. This puts a very different spin on motivations while keeping the nominal details the same.

Overall, this was a boring and somewhat predictable episode. Next week looks like it might get a little better by accelerating the plot against the king. Yay for civil war.