David and Jonathan were the paradigm of male friendship in both the Christian and Jewish Middle Ages. Their bond was understood in both traditions as following in the classical pattern of friendships, especially in a military context, between an older and a younger man, and by the later Middle Ages in both Christian and Jewish culture took on the trappings of chivalry. The story was retold in prose and verse, in Latin and a variety of medieval vernaculars, including Yiddish, and Christian and Jewish biblical commentators used it to make a variety of points, only some of which related to the nature of male friendship.
In a magnificent thirteenth-century book of Bible illustrations mostly contained in Morgan Library MS 638, folio 28 verso, we find this illustration of 1 Samuel 17 and 18. David, as a youth, killed Goliath, and Jonathan, the son of King Saul, was so taken with him that he "loved him as himself" and they made a covenant, after which Jonathan gave David his cloak, weapons and sword-belt.
The book was made in France around the middle of the thirteenth century, with the Latin text added during the subsequent century. In 1608 the book was given as a gift to Shah Abbas, who had the Latin text translated into Persian; later, text in Judeo-Persian was added.
