COVE

This Gallery focuses on the novel “God Knows” (1984) by Joseph Heller which is primarily based on the biblical story of King David.   

About the Author: 

Joseph Heller (as shown in photo 1 c. 1979) was born on May 1st, 1923, in New York City, and died on December 12th, 1999 (aged 76) in East Hampton, New York. He was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays and is best known for his novels "Catch-22," (1961) and “Something Happened” (1974).  Heller’s writing genre is mostly satirical with a twist of dark humor and often relates his novels to his personal experiences. At age nineteen, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and described his experience as “fun in the beginning” and that he “felt like a hero.” After the war, he studied English at the University of Southern California and then at New York University graduating in 1948. The next year, he received his M.A. in English from Columbia University. While working as a copywriter for a small advertising agency and teaching composition at Pennsylvania State University for two years, he became published in 1948 when The Atlantic ran one of his short stories. Heller was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972. Growing up with Jewish parents, Heller identified himself as Jewish as well. However, he used his Jewish identity as a matter of ethic identification rather than as a religious belief. Heller was agnostic and stated that Jewish religious traditions would not affect him. From this Jewish environment he was surrounded by, Heller was able to have the knowledge of biblical stories, yet his ability to separate his “Jewishness” from his religious beliefs which helped his writing of “God Knows” encapsule a biblical story without the pressure of religious conformity.  

Plot Summary:  

Joseph Heller wrote his fourth novel “God Knows” in 1984 (as shown in photo 2) which is narrated by the Biblical King David of Isreal from his death bed recounting his memories. These memories and stories are not told straightforwardly, however. Heller instead characterized David rambunctiously as he shares the Biblical stories of Samuel 1 and 2 with a comical, satirical twist. Heller meditates David’s own morality and indicates an exploration of family, life, and death. Readers of the Bible know King David as a humble, courageous, and faithful legendary warrior. As for Heller’s novel, David is rather an egotistical, angry, and rash Jewish kid. The novel begins with David at the age of 70 attended by a young virgin Abishag the Shunammite, to which he describes his admiration, sexual desires, and longing for her. While the young girl is beautiful, she does not fulfill David’s sexual needs. Rather, he longs and desires more intensely for his wife Bathsheba despite her cold shoulder towards him. Bathsheba wants her son Solomon to be king, but David presents immense hatred for him (despite being his father) and refuses to appease her. David presents an insecurity that somebody else is “better” than him, including his own son who is accused by David of stealing his “original” and “iconic” poetry. David also becomes insecure of the fact that there is no book in the Bible named after him despite his “famous elegy” on Saul and Jonathan that he assumes is so celebrated. While this conflict internal endures, David wallows over his “glory days.” He re-tells his killing of Goliath the Philistine giant with self-admiration, emphasizing that only he could have slain him with his sling and stone. He walks readers through his complicated relationship with Saul explaining his internal turmoil of resentment towards him, but also a desire to rekindle a better relationship between them. Above all, David’s biggest complication he faces is his relationship with God. As David sees it, God has dealt unfairly with His chosen people. He rants about God’s absence and abandonment, stating that God’s “promise land” wasn’t promised at all. As David’s narration continues, Heller makes strategic literary decisions to make this so-called uninteresting biblical story rather comical. Heller includes unexpected moments of humorous irony that become shocking to exist in a story with a biblical context. This includes innuendos about homosexuality between David and Saul’s son Jonathan, and the representation of vulgar language and snarky remarks coming from biblical characters such as David. Heller’s novel additionally can be characterized as a satire by continuously criticizing and ridiculing King David by characterizing him as self-absorbed and unconcerned. 

Biblical References: 

In “God Knows,” Joseph Heller interacts with the text in the Bible in two opposite ways: either taking direct biblical quotes and using it for dialogue, or drawing from biblical plot lines and making them rather humorous or shocking  

Examples of direct parallels across the Bible and Heller’s “God Knows:” 

1. “I Am Who I Am” / “I Am That I Am”  

Exodus 3.13-14: “But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”  

Heller 22: “Moses, ever unassuming, was pessimistic about his chances. 

“Why should they believe me? Why should they follow me? What should I say to them when they ask me Your Name?” 

“I AM THAT I AM.” 

“I AM THAT I AM?” 

“I AM THAT I AM?”  

The word changes of “who” to “that” is simply a matter of different translations of the Bible. Heller draws directly from the well-known disoblige between God and Moses, where God explains to Moses how to reveal Himself. Heller purposefully includes this parallel to strengthen Moses’ character possibly making him appear more closely connected to the Moses in the Bible. This is in comparison to Heller’s David who is characterized contrastingly to the David in the Bible.  

1. David and Goliath’s dialogue  

1 Samuel 17.43-44: “The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” 

Heller 72: “Am I a dog?” he raged, and drew another large breath to range some more”  

“Come to me – come on, come on!” He was moving both arms now, rabidly beckoning me towards him. “And I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.”  

These quotes are from the dialogue between Goliath and David moments before David kills him (as shown in photo 3). Again, Heller borrows lines from the Bible to use as dialogue between the characters in his novel. Heller furthermore decides to make the addition of continued narration of how these lines are delivered from Goliath. Similarly to the previous example, Heller may have used this borrowing as a way of making Goliath seem more “biblical.” 

Examples of Heller turning biblical plotlines into humorous scenes: 

1. Innuendo of homosexuality  

1 Samuel 18.1: “the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”  

Heller 135: [David and Joab speaking]  

“Why shouldn’t I marry the king’s daughter Michal?” [David]  

“I thought Jonathan was the one you loved.” [Joab] 

I was jolted. “Are you crazy?” I demanded “Where the hell did you ever get that idea?” 

“From Jonathan,” Joab returned at once. “Your soul is knit with his soul, isn’t it?” 

Heller decides to add a shocking layer to the relationship between David and Jonthan that is not explicitly stated in the Bible. While the Bible implies that David and Jonthan do have a close friendship (as shown in photo 4), Heller decides to lean into a modern interpretation that there were suspicions of homosexuality between the two. From this innuendo, there's an increase in tensions between David and how others perceive him which adds to the mockery of his character that Heller is generating.  

1. Saul’s attack and David’s escape 

1 Samuel 19.9-10: “Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music. Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.”  

Heller 153: “All of my preparations were wasted. No sooner did I lift my head to pose like an angel and part my lips for my first dulcet note than he rose from his bench and let fly at me with the javelin, seeking again to smite me even to the wall with it. Holy shit, I thought with terror. Again I was stupefied. Again he missed me by inches, the weapon embedding itself in the wood behind me with a loud report. This time, though, I made up my mind at once. Fuck him, I decided, and leaped to my feet. Enough is enough! Music he wants? Balls he’ll get! I ducked my head and bounded away.”  

Heller described Saul’s attack on David similarly to the Bible’s description of it, but he drastically changed David’s reaction. The Bible seems to calmly describe David’s escape where he doesn’t say word, whereas Heller portrays it more realistically. Heller’s David angrily uses vulgar language cursing Saul which, in my opinion, is a real reaction to a javelin being thrown at you. While the use of cursing and insults adds comedic effect, it also continues to poke fun at David’s character, making him seem rash and ill-mannered. 

Intertextuality: 

Joseph Heller creates intertextuality between the Bible and his novel “God Knows” by taking the entire biblical story of King David (as shown in photo 5) and adding twists of comedy, and satirical jabs at David’s overall character. David in the Bible is known to be courageous, smart, and a leader for the Israelite people. Heller wrote this novel with the idea of re-telling this story but in a way that would completely change the reader’s perspective of David and who he really is. While Heller often made changes to the characterization of David and his relationships with biblical characters, he maintained some biblical accuracy and paid good attention to historical contexts. By borrowing specific lines and words explicitly written in the Bible, readers can see that Heller is purposefully connecting his novel to the original context of the biblical story, and not entirely making it his own. Additionally, the use of certain characters (such as Goliath and Moses) having dialogue that's directly taken out of the Bible allows for characters other than David to seem more “biblical” or righteous and holy, whereas David is most often the opposite. Heller’s decision to make David speak indecently is a satirical effect that contrasts the David in the Bible. Heller’s David becomes more realistic in the sense that no human can possibly be as sacred or “clean” as biblical characters. Additionally, Heller’s David deals with the internal turmoil of his faith in God that aren’t necessarily stated in the biblical story of David. From this, there’s a sense of mockery towards the biblical David that Heller implies as he strives for readers to hear the story of David from a modern, realistic point of view. These differences generated between the two David’s makes readers think twice about the David they thought they knew from just reading the Bible.

Works Cited

Images:

Koeniges, Thomas R. Joseph Heller circa 1979. 1979.  File:Joseph_Heller_circa_1979.jpg  

God Knows 1st Edition Cover. 20 Oct. 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GodKnows.JPG 

Dore, Gustave. David Slays Goliath. 1866.  https://timelessmoon.getarchive.net/amp/media/071adavid-slays-goliath-fbdda6

Dore, Gustave. David and Jonathan. 1866. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Jonathan#/media/File:073A.David_and_Jonathan.jpg

King David. Late 1700s. Greek Catholic Cathedral of Hajdúdorog, Hungary. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_David_Hajdudorog.JPG

Texts: 

Coogan, Michael D., editor. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. 4th ed., Oxford UP, 2009.

Heller, Joseph. God Knows. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2004. 

“Joseph Heller.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Apr. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Heller