Was King David an INFJ or ENFJ?
- Thread starter BlackKnightKisses
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I'm an ENFP who was looking for information on King David as an INFJ and, thanks to Google Search, accidentally stumbled across this post on this forum. I decided it was well worth joining just to be able to reply - and in the future, perhaps to contribute things of interest to INFJs on my academic specialty, the "melodic rendition" of Hebrew Scripture.
From that melodic rendition alone - no doubt about it, folks - David was an INFJ. It was Isaiah who was an ENFJ. (Solomon, Hosea and the apostle Paul were fellow ENFPs.) Let's get off my ENFP tangent and get back to David...
Suzanne Haik-Vantoura (INFJ) not only rediscovered the original meaning of the melodic signs of the Masoretic Text, but demonstrated they cannot be of medieval origin. Rather, the evidence is that all of Hebrew Scripture "from Moses to Chronicles (or Malachi, in the Christian order)" was created, taught and transmitted as "art song", and that this notation (or specifically, the hand-gestural system it transcribes) is as old as the words are. David's Psalms (named or anonymous, such as Pss. 96 and 119) are masterpieces of the INFJ mindset as led by God.
In her own work on the Psalms (out of print, but available on my blog), SHV points out the numerous characteristics of David the poet-composer and how they correlate with what the Bible tells us of his personality and character. From the type perspective, let me point out a few things:
1. His psalmody and prosody (e.g., his Elegy for Saul and Jonathan and his Song of the Ark) had deep introspection, more often than not.
2. David was noted for his foresight (Ni) supported by his concern for the welfare of the group (Fe) - not the other way around. INFJ, not ENFJ.
3. Dr. Linda Berens notes that ENFJs often use their "childlike" Se in musical directions. But ENFJs - not to stereotype here, but this fits what I've observed and read - typically don't hold grudges against people who critique their self-exposure as Michal did, or who betray them in other ways. INFJs famously can and do. My INFJ girlfriend is like that. I'm not. My ENFJ friends are not. But my girlfriend doesn't easily "let go" of past hurts. Does that sound familiar to you INFJs?
4. David really "stepped on the gas pedal" with his Inferior or Aspirational Se, in the same context (dancing before the Ark). Put another way, he was letting his "alter ego ENFP" "let it all hang out". But this was RARE for him. His sacred music has a *modesty which too many people in the "contemporary Christian music" world, and even in the Jewish/Israeli music worlds, simply don't pick up from the words alone too often. Compare that to the modesty he had when he was asked to marry first one and then the other of Saul's daughters.
5. Probably only an INFJ could act like an ENFP on steroids early in the celebration and then give such an exquisitely "melopoetic", folksong-like Song of the Ark, improvised yet deeply moving, such as SHV transcribed into score form and mezzo-soprano Mira Zakai recorded.
And that's just for starters. David is often mistaken for an INFJ because 1) he "socialized" so well for a primary-I and 2) he is normally viewed only via a four-level model of cognition. The eight-level model developed by Beebe, Berens et al. is far superior - it explains far more and removes ambiguities as well.
From that melodic rendition alone - no doubt about it, folks - David was an INFJ. It was Isaiah who was an ENFJ. (Solomon, Hosea and the apostle Paul were fellow ENFPs.) Let's get off my ENFP tangent and get back to David...
Suzanne Haik-Vantoura (INFJ) not only rediscovered the original meaning of the melodic signs of the Masoretic Text, but demonstrated they cannot be of medieval origin. Rather, the evidence is that all of Hebrew Scripture "from Moses to Chronicles (or Malachi, in the Christian order)" was created, taught and transmitted as "art song", and that this notation (or specifically, the hand-gestural system it transcribes) is as old as the words are. David's Psalms (named or anonymous, such as Pss. 96 and 119) are masterpieces of the INFJ mindset as led by God.
In her own work on the Psalms (out of print, but available on my blog), SHV points out the numerous characteristics of David the poet-composer and how they correlate with what the Bible tells us of his personality and character. From the type perspective, let me point out a few things:
1. His psalmody and prosody (e.g., his Elegy for Saul and Jonathan and his Song of the Ark) had deep introspection, more often than not.
2. David was noted for his foresight (Ni) supported by his concern for the welfare of the group (Fe) - not the other way around. INFJ, not ENFJ.
3. Dr. Linda Berens notes that ENFJs often use their "childlike" Se in musical directions. But ENFJs - not to stereotype here, but this fits what I've observed and read - typically don't hold grudges against people who critique their self-exposure as Michal did, or who betray them in other ways. INFJs famously can and do. My INFJ girlfriend is like that. I'm not. My ENFJ friends are not. But my girlfriend doesn't easily "let go" of past hurts. Does that sound familiar to you INFJs?
4. David really "stepped on the gas pedal" with his Inferior or Aspirational Se, in the same context (dancing before the Ark). Put another way, he was letting his "alter ego ENFP" "let it all hang out". But this was RARE for him. His sacred music has a *modesty which too many people in the "contemporary Christian music" world, and even in the Jewish/Israeli music worlds, simply don't pick up from the words alone too often. Compare that to the modesty he had when he was asked to marry first one and then the other of Saul's daughters.
5. Probably only an INFJ could act like an ENFP on steroids early in the celebration and then give such an exquisitely "melopoetic", folksong-like Song of the Ark, improvised yet deeply moving, such as SHV transcribed into score form and mezzo-soprano Mira Zakai recorded.
And that's just for starters. David is often mistaken for an INFJ because 1) he "socialized" so well for a primary-I and 2) he is normally viewed only via a four-level model of cognition. The eight-level model developed by Beebe, Berens et al. is far superior - it explains far more and removes ambiguities as well.