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In your Eternal Struggle tapes you say that David was about 18 years old and Jonathan was about 40 years of age. Can you substantiate this?
Answer:
David was the last of Jesse’s eight sons. Only three of his brothers were in the war. One had to be 21 to enter the war or battle. There would be four other sons between them and David. This makes him about 17 or 18, depending on whether a couple of the four were twins.
I Samuel 17:4 and 12, "4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height [was] six cubits and a span. 12 Now David [was] the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name [was] Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men [for] an old man in the days of Saul."
Jonathan, on the other hand, was the oldest son of King Saul.
I Samuel 14:49, "Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishui, and Melchishua: and the names of his two daughters [were these]; the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Michal:"
He died with King Saul, but Ishbosheth, another son of Saul’s, was over 40 years old when he became king in Saul’s absence. At the same time David became king at Hebron and David was 30. Therefore, I believe it is reasonable to believe The Companion Bible is right in its notes on I Samuel 18:1 and I Samuel 17:12. Jonathan was about forty and David was 17 or 18 years of age, and it was definitely a "mentor" situation.