David As a Biblical "Good- Fella" and "The Godfather"

DAVID AS A BIBLICAL "GOOD- FELLA" AND "THE GODFATHER" CULTURAL-SOCIAL ANALOGIES WITH MONARCY AND LA COSA NOSTRA William H. U. Anderson, St. Stephen's College, 8810 -112 Avenue, Edmonton AB Canada T6G 2J6 You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone. —Al Capone The opening scene from Martin Scorsese's movie Goodfellas always reminds me of the David story in 2 Sam 8,2. In that scene, we are taken to the backwoods behind the trunk of a car with three imposing yet anxious thugs surrounding it. When central character Henry Hill nervously opens the trunk we are exposed to the grossly bloodied body ofa three quarters dead man groaning and wallowing in his own blood. To this Tommy rushes forward and aggressively stabs the victim over and over again with a big butcher knife. The sound effects of the knife repeatedly penetrating the body are haunting. Jimmy then shoots the victim over and over again. We read in 2 Sam 8,2 that "David also defeated the Moabites. He made them lie down on the ground and measured them off with a length of cord. Every two lengths of them were put death, and the third length was allowed to live." I always hear the same sound effects from the opening scene of Goodfellas when I read this account of David's treatment of the de- fenceless Moabites. Just as the sound effects heighten the sense of callous brutality in the Goodfellas" murder, so too by imagining the Scandinavian Journal ofthe Old Testament vol. 18 no. 1 (2004) © Taylor & Francis 10.1080/09018320410007663 David as a Biblical "Goodfella " 61 same sound effects when reading this David story, it reminds us how brutal David's murderous activities were—helping to dispel the myths surrounding him. This article has, as a part of its purpose, the intent to unmask some of the behavior of David and of monarchy for what they are: essentially organized crime maintained in large part by the use of indiscriminate violence. This is turn raises moral questions in relation to David as the arche- type for messiah—and consequently theological questions concerning the "man after God's own heart" (theodicy). These, however, are beyond the scope of this article. Scholars search for analogies with which to better understand biblical texts. David has been compared to the "outlaw", "refugee", "vas- sal", "renegade", "guerrilla", "bandit chief, "fugitive" and "fugitive hero". I suggest there are better cultural-social analogies, i.e., David as a "goodfella" while in exile from Saul and in the land ofthe Philistines, and upon accession to the throne, "The Godfather". This article there- fore also argues that monarchy has cultural-social analogies with La Cosa Nostra. The recurring theme of indiscriminate violence will be emphasized throughout this study because it is "inherent in the system". 1. Organization, Purpose and Activities of La Cosa Nostra and Monarchy There is power in organization! To have power, real power, means organization. There is efficiency of power in organization. And power is usually related to some kind of force—either intellectual as in "knowledge is power" (that is why only the aristocracy were edu- cated and "commoners" were not) or physical power as in "violence". While I am not arguing that La Cosa Nostra, monarchy and the Da- vidic regime are formally organized in exactly the same way in every detail, the ethos and similarities are frightening—once we get past the glamour! The term "mafia", synonymous with La Cosa Nostra, may trace its etymology back to an Arabic word for "refuge". While Sicily was occupied by various groups during the medieval period, families would take "refuge" in the surrounding hills or "strongholds". From there they would run guerrilla attacks on anyone who threatened the absent landlord's property. Thus we have the origins of one of La 62 William H. U. Aneierson Cosa Nostra's mainstay activities, i.e., the "protection racket" based in intimidation and extortion through threat of violence. This is exactly what David did during his exile from Saul. When David was seeking reflige in the strongholds of the desert, he sent ten imposing men to ask for a "piece of the action" from Nabal (1 Sam. 25). Essentially David made Nabal "an offer he couldn't refuse". The relationship between David and Achish of Gath also demon- strate parallels of organizational structure and activities between the ad hoc "feudal" nature of the monarchal system and of organized crime—namely the independent yet tribute tied activities of the Gio- vane D'Honore or "goodfellas" (mercenaries). Strayer summarizes the feudal system thus: To sum up, the basic characteristics of feudalism in Western Europe are a fragmentation of political authority, public power in private hands, and a military system in which an essential part of the armed forces is se- cured through private contracts. Feudalism is a method of government, and a way of securing the forces necessary to preserve that method of government... The possessors of political and military power will natu- rally mold their society to fit their own needs. They will manipulate the economy so that they get the greatest share of production; they will de- velop a class structure which gives them the highest position; ... they will establish standards to which their society must conform. Coming from the social sciences, David has been viewed in terms of "chiefdom"—or at least a transitional phase between chiefdom to monarchy proper. However, as Frick admits, it is difficult to make distinctions between chiefdom and the state in ancient societies— especially in the light of Renfrew's "features of chiefdom"—and this social construction has many interchangeable features with feudal monarchy and La Cosa Nostra anyway. Ianni, Albini and Firestone argue that the organizational structures of the La Cosa Nostra are not rigid as in "corporations". Rather, while there may be a "boss" or "feudal overlord", there is still considerable freedom to go about one's own business (enterprises)— providing that the appropriate "tribute" of such enterprises were brought to the boss. Firestone, in pulling together the testimony of convicted mobsters by way of their memoirs, says of this phenome- non that Similarly, Joe Cantalupo, formerly an associate with the Colombo family, also explains that he was free to do whatever he wanted so long as he brought money into the family. Thus, Cantalupo recalls that "the rules of the game were simple. Make money any way you can" ... the memoirs reveal that all of the authors engaged in a wide variety of David as a Biblical "Goodfella " 63 criminal activities, ... In retum for these services, the memoirs explain, the bosses, like feudal lords, took a cut of the profits made by those under their protection... That the mob boss functions more liJce a feudal lord than a modem CEO is also confirmed in Boss of Bosses, an account of the daily life of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano written by two former FBI agents, Kurins and O'Brien... because rank and status in the Mafia are understood in ways more typical of a feudal or aristocratic society than a modem bureaucracy. The same "patron-client" relationship ean be found in David as a goodfella of Achish while in the land of the Philistines. David con- ducts regular raiding parties and reports to Achish (who no doubt, given ancient Near Eastern customs, received a "cut" from David's criminal activities). McCarter, in his commentary on 1 Samuel 27 says of this relationship: The granting of landed properties to favored servants was a common part of the feudal economy of the city-states of the ancient Near Eastem Bronze Age. The practice seems to have been perpetuated in the Philis- tines principalities of the Iron Age, just as it was under the Israelite monarchy (see 18:14; cf. 22:7). In the present case the grant is evidently made in retum for certain services of arms—a true military fief—as the materials that follow show. All such grants were permanent and inalien- able, and the parenthesis at the end of v 6 traces the fact that Ziklag was in the writer's time a special crown property in Judah (a situation about which we have no other information) to the events here recorded. Of course there were considerable developments over history lead- ing up to what we would consider the "classic" period of organized crime at the turn of the twentieth century. Indeed the general popula- tion, and even J. Edgar Hoover himself exhibited, considerable shock as to just how organized these crime families were and the extent of them and their activities. This was on the basis of Joe Valachi's essential testimony to the 1963 U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which exposed the organizational structure of the mafia and its operations. Since then, much more information has come to light over La Cosa Nostra's organization and activities. Four important foundational concepts emerge after reviewing the history of the mafia: the need for strong organization based in family ties (or ties to a family), secrecy, refuge (or a secret place fi^om which to operate, e.g., the backroom of a bar or the inner chamber of a cas- tle) and absolute loyalty to the family on threat of death. This "code of silence" is called the omerta. Sometimes, as in the David story with Achish, this omerta was forced onto people, i.e., witnesses were silenced by murder. 64 William H.

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