I promised it in English so here it is, but I've got a French draft of this post I'll polish up:
With all the Biblical symbolism in Kaamelott, the way Arthur is represented makes him far more comparable to King David and his son King Salomon (I just can’t call him Solomon, sorry - technically his real name is Shlomo anyway) than to Jesus.
David & Arthur:
- Both are born with no status or claim to the throne, both are anointed or designated as chosen by God as children - Both are hated or hunted down by the King who preceded them, who is either their father or their father figure - Both are destined to replace a harsh, violent King and both are immensely more beloved by the people - Both are brilliant warlords who are more successful in their campaigns than the previous King - Both are skilled musicians. That’s not really a trait typically associated with Kingliness. - Both are strikingly handsome (oui bon, ça va, Arthur est bg, me jetez pas la pierre) - Both have badass swords (David takes Goliath’s sword after knocking him out and he cuts off his head with it.) - Both are noble and courageous, but they fall from grace because of lust. David has many wives and mistresses and still sleeps with a married woman (Bathsheba), tries to lie his way out of it, fails, and has Bathsheba’s husband killed. The child they had together dies as a result of his sins. Arthur refuses to kill Karadoc, but he does try to trick and cheat, and he is the one who dies because he has no children. - Both have the same kind of relationship with the previous Chosen One. Saül hates David and wants him dead because he knows David is everything that he is not, but David adamantly refuses to hurt him out of respect for God and love for Saül. Saül himself can’t make up his mind and swears he won’t kill him after all several time, but always goes back to his hatred. David spends years running away from him. Sounds at all familiar? - One more: they have the same kind of relationship with the one who thinks he should be their successor. Absalom (David’s son) initially loves his father but comes to regard him as useless, and he grows bitter after being exiled for punishing one of his brothers when the King wouldn’t. He rebels, hunts David down, and David again refuses to hurt him out of love for him, and mourns him when he is gone, before taking back the throne after years. Lancelot is both Saül and Absalom. If we go by the Arthurian legend, well, that does kind of sound like Mordred. - Despite how royally they screwed up, Arthur and David’s status is never taken away from them by God, though their full potential is stunted by their sins. David doesn’t get to build the Temple - which falls onto his ‘better, brighter’ son Salomon, he loses a son as an infant, is hunted by one of his sons later on, and has his dynasty weakened and is told that his kingdom will fall to ruin after him because of all that he has done. Arthur doesn’t find the Grail (and most likely never will, because it will fall onto Perceval), loses the daughter he thought he might have, loses the hope that he will have children, and is followed by the answer to his sins made flesh. But David stays king, and Arthur never loses the ability to pull Excalibur out of the stone. - Both are given a chance at redemption, and both are given hope that their glory will be restored. David is promised that the savior of his people will be born from his line, and Arthur - again going by the legend - will come back from his sleep at the hour of his people’s greatest need.
Salomon & Arthur:
- Both are sons of Kings but still not destined for the throne originally - Both are essentially bastards/sons of sin (Salomon is the second son of Bathsheba, Arthur is essentially the son of Uther’s Mevanwi) - Both are handsome - Both build great monuments to God (the First Temple and Kaamelott, built for the Grail quest) - Both are the greatest Kings the world has seen, but ‘multiply horses and wives’ - something forbidden to Kings in the bible. Basically, it’s about not putting one’s faith in one’s military might and earthly riches + not getting led astray by lust and numerous political alliances. Both do exactly that, and having his faith depend on his material and tangible successes is precisely why Arthur loses said faith. They try to achieve spiritual goals with a human mindset - Both have reigns initially characterized by long periods of peace and prosperity - Both worship foreign gods - Both completely mess up their destinies because of how many women they sleep with (Salomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.) - Both are simultaneously very wise and very dumb - Both hold a grievance session where they suggest cutting a living being in half to prove a point. (Okay, okay, this one is just funny. Salomon tells two women to split up the baby they’re both claiming is theirs, so the real mother immediately begs him to give the baby to the other woman instead out of love, proving Salomon is smart. Arthur tells Roparzh to give Guethenoc half a donkey and then throws money at them because he’s so done that he just wants them to shut up, proving that Arthur needs a nap.)
King Arthur, like King David and King Salomon, is a human messiah. Human messiahs save their people through the sword, they protect them through the sword, and they are liable to bring it all crashing down when their human flaws catch up to them. Their only hope lies in getting a second chance, and in the God who conferred them their status not taking it away.
That makes them all foils to Jesus as a symbol.
Here’s Arthur and Jesus:
- Both are conceived supernaturally, but Arthur's birth is a result of a depraved king's lust while Jesus' is of the highest purity - Both have to flee from the current king and live their early childhood in exile - Both are destined to something beyond human understanding - Both are meant to free their people and bring salvation to the world - The sky darkens and the world shakes at the time of their ultimate confrontation with evil
That's about as far as it goes.
In the Bible, Jesus is the Son of God and God himself made flesh. That means he is not chosen. Jesus is born with his divine nature, that means he is always destined for The Throne (though not a human one), unlike humans who are picked to everyone’s surprise. Arthur and David are chosen by God, after the previous candidate to the same destiny has been rejected. Their status was not inherent to their nature, even if it seems God will never completely take it away from them. Jesus is neither universally beloved, nor is he handsome or striking (no, really, he is understood to have ‘no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him’).
Where David plays music to God in public and is known for his songs, Jesus prays in private and is a craftsman. He is not skilled as an artist. He is not educated, unlike the Kings. He does not live in a palace or a castle, he is homeless - and where Arthur’s homelessness is directly linked to his disgrace, and his disconnection from his own destiny, Jesus’ destiny is fulfilled as a penniless nomad. He is meant to have nothing.
Jesus drinks and eats with prostitutes, foreigners and tax collectors (the worst pariahs in Jewish society at the time) with no concern for his reputation, because he is here to help people like them specifically. Jesus is not a soldier - at least not on Earth. He has to tell his followers again and again that he has not come to free the country and people from the Romans physically, and that he is not a warlord in the sense that they all expected of the Messiah, but that he has come to usher in a spiritual kingdom instead. He never picks up a sword.
Jesus is meant to give himself, while David, Salomon and Arthur are given tasks revolving around objects (the Temple and the Grail) who are only sacred because they are linked to God.
Jesus remains completely celibate his whole life.
Jesus remains sinless his whole life.
Finally, he dies so that everyone who believes in him can be free from their crimes and sins - he dies so that everyone can be innocent, where Arthur imagined death as a means to make others guilty.
Parallels can definitely be drawn between Arthur and Jesus, but Arthur, as a Christ figure, is the polar opposite of a heavenly king charged with a mission in this world. He is a human king with a mission far too spiritual for his understanding and abilities (to the point the Grail might not even be on this plane.) He is a human messiah, which is to say a stepping stone to things greater than himself, whereas Jesus is a divine messiah, that is to say the embodiment of all great things.
Hence: Arthur is David, not Jesus.
