Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2009
In the 11th chapter of the second book of Samuel, we read how King David saw Bathsheba in the evening: ‘v.2. And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.’
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Earlier versions of this paper were read to a staff-student colloquium at Saint David's University College, to a meeting of the Welsh Philosophical Society and to a group at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik. I am grateful for comments, particularly from David Cockburn and Carolyn Wilde who read the piece.