Eric wrote: (a lot of quoted stuff here, folks--so feel free to page down)
>Snow Leopard wrote:
><<
>>(i) Saul was killed by his own hands (1 Sam. 31:4), by a young
>>Amalekite (2 Samuel 1:10), by the Philistines (2 Sam. 21:12)>>
>
>“By the Philistines” is not a valid conclusion, check the context and
>you will find that they hung his dead body, it was not an execution.
>As for the other two, it’s possible that Saul tried to kill himself,
>failed, and was then ‘aided’ (or whatever) by the young man.
>>>
>1 Samuel 31:3-5 (English-NIV)
>3
>The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook
>him, they wounded him critically.
>4
>Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or
>these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse
>me." But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul
>took his own sword and fell on it.
>5
>When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword
>and died with him.
>
>
>2 Samuel 1:6-10 (English-NIV)
>6
>"I happened to be on Mount Gilboa," the young man said, "and there was
>Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and riders almost upon
>him.
>7
>When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said,
>`What can I do?'
>8
>"He asked me, `Who are you?' "`An Amalekite,' I answered.
>9
>"Then he said to me, `Stand over me and kill me! I am in the throes of
>death, but I'm still alive.'
>10
>"So I stood over him and killed him, because I knew that after he had
>fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head
>and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord."
>
>
>
>2 Samuel 21:11-13 (English-NIV)
>11
>When David was told what Aiah's daughter Rizpah, Saul's concubine, had
>done,
>12
>he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the
>citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had taken them secretly from the
>public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after
>they struck Saul down on Gilboa.)
>13
>David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and
>the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.
>
>The words speak for themselves.
And they speak for Snow Leopard, I regret I have to say.
One account has him falling on his own sword, another has him falling on his own spear, (a very minor difference) but not quite dying and needing to be finished off by another. And the last account is talking about his _bones_ being hung not him (or even his body).
But to re-ask Eric's question:
Snow Leopard, what do _you_ think Jesus preached? And what does it mean to you to live a "Christ-like" life?
-Prof. Tim