Why is it that Abigail is listed this way throughout I and II Samuel? I'm sure that there is some point to it that I am completely missing.

Is it an equivalent of "Jackie Kennedy-Onasis"? or what?

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James Helbert, Wytheville, VA
Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCUS
TheBibleAlone.com / The Edinburgh Inn
"Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” - Zechariah 3:2

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I've been reading 1 and 2 Samuel and wondering the same thing, and even thought about starting a thread! I hope someone has an explanation.

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Evie B.
New Members Class, RPCNA, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. -- Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)

GMTA, Evie. I just wish mine could think of the reason behind this appellation.....

I'm wondering if it was because once again David has taken another wife that doesn't belong to him. In the NT, Bathsheba is not even called by her name but by "the wife of Uriah". God never gave David or anyone else permission to have multiple wives. I think it was done to show the disobedience that was done.

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sarah
WI
OPC
My Pastor's Sermons: Mark Jenkins...he's awesome!!!

Good point, Sarah. I was wondering if it might not be a reprimand, thought I didn't quite connect all the dots, as you have.

But it still records her as David's wife.

Anyone else?

Maybe to point her out. Like someone calls a lady "The widow" so maybe it was to point out that this particular lady was the one being mentioned maybe?

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Doug
Baptist
Hemet, Ca
Old Time Radio Podcast

Why not praise her? Abigail, the virtuous woman married to a pig, who was loyal to the pig. More loyal to one of the biggest pigs in history except for when loyalty to God caused her to go behind her husbands back. And even then, in the presence of a handsome, charismatic rebel leader still remained loyal to her husband.

Who knows what sparks flied between Abigail and David when they met? No one. But we do know that she stayed with her husband until he died. Her hands weren't guilty, although there is no doubt at all that she was very unhappy in her marriage.

But when he died, and she was free, she went to David. Some sort of communication must have been sent between the two. Whether their thoughts were pure or not, their hands were clean, and they married legally, and loved each other. And God blessed them with children, and when she was kidnapped, and both their hearts were broken, God Himself brought them back into each other's arms again.

I see no need to point fingers. To me it's another love story, and her epithet a reminder of the story behind their marriage.

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Tim Vaughan
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian, OPC,
Santa Maria
California

I wasn't saying Abigail was wrong on this matter as Bathsheba was in enticing David. I was saying David was wrong in taking yet another wife. God in the Garden set up how marriage was to be...between one man and one woman. David broke God's law by having multiple wives.

There may be more to it than that, of course, but there is another Abigail whom you wouldn't want to confuse with the erstwhile wife of Nabal.

2 Samuel 17:25
1 Chronicles 2:16,17

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Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Vanities and disguises have covered us, and thereby we are naked; licenciousness hath inflam'd us, and thereby we are frozen; voluptuousness hath fed us, and thereby we are sterved, the fancies and traditions of men have taught and instructed us, and thereby we are ignorant.
John Donne

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The Howling Wilderness

Sarah, you're naturally right in that David would have been better to have had only one wife, but he didn't break God's law. He married Abigail perfectly legally.

But then wouldn't the appellation "Abigail the second (third?) wife of David" fit the bill of distinguishing between the two?

Did David rightfully get rid of Michal before he married Abigail?

1Sam 18

43David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. 44Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

Looks to me that David took Abigail and Ahinoam as wives at the same time. Doesn't really say if Saul gave Michel away before David took these two wives...maybe it does somewhere else. Even if Saul did give Michel away first, the fact that David took two wives at the same time doesn't make his marriage to Abigail legal.