The Psalms attributed to David in Karaite Judeo-Arabic Bible Commentaries: Exegetic and Interreligious Aspects

The article deals with the characterization of King David in Yefet b. Eli's commentary on the Book of Psalms. Yefet treated the psalms attributed to David as a detailed account of events that actually occurred in David's life, even though no such events are mentioned in the books of Samuel, Kings or Chronicles. It is my suggestion that Yefet did so in order to counterbalance Christian Syriac notions, according to which the headings of the psalms (»for David«) are unreliable late additions and the psalms attributed to David have no real connection with David. This Christian concept could have been considered as a support for the Muslim contention that the Hebrew text of the Bible (as the Jews read it) is distorted.