Jesse

The righteous Jesse (in the older Romanian form Ieseu) was the father of King David, the grandson of Boaz and Ruth and an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh. His story is in the Book of Ruth, the First Book of Kings and Chronicles. The Church honours him among the righteous and the ancestors of the Lord.

His family

Jesse was the son of Obed, who was the son of Boaz and Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:17). He lived at Bethlehem, in the tribe of Judah, a well-⁠known man of the town and owner of sheep, and an old man at the time of the events. According to the First Book of Kings he had eight sons, among them Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah and David, the youngest. Chronicles names seven sons and two daughters, Zeruiah and Abigail, and counts David the seventh, which shows that one of the brothers died young or went unnamed. His best-⁠known grandsons are Joab, Abishai and Asahel, the sons of Zeruiah. In Scripture he is also called the Ephrathite, that is, of Ephrathah, the old name of Bethlehem.

The anointing of David

God rejected King Saul and commanded the prophet Samuel to go to Bethlehem, to Jesse, to anoint the one chosen as king. Samuel came, offered sacrifice and called Jesse and his sons. Jesse passed each of them before the prophet, but the Lord chose none of them: "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Kingdoms 16:7). Only then did Jesse say there was still the youngest, who was keeping the sheep. David was brought, ruddy with beautiful eyes, and Samuel anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

Later Saul sent for David to play the harp, and Jesse sent him with gifts. Another time he sent him with provisions to his brothers in Saul's camp, where David met Goliath (1 Kingdoms 17). When Saul began to pursue David, David took his parents to Moab, to the king at Mizpah, to be safe (1 Kingdoms 22:3-4).

An image of Christ

The prophet Isaiah announced: "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit" (Isaiah 11:1). The Fathers of the Church understood these words as the announcement of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the all-⁠holy Virgin Mary, who is the "rod" that came out of Jesse, while Christ is the "flower." For this reason in iconography Jesse appears as the root of the genealogical tree of the Lord, on the frescoes of church porches and in icons of the Synaxis of the ancestors. The genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew (1:5-6) names him: "Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king."

Veneration

The Church commemorates Jesse with the ancestors of the Lord, especially on the Sundays before the Nativity of the Lord. Scripture does not say where he died.