As promised, I am writing a bit about my passion, fascination, and wonder of the Hebrew Bible. Or the (S)Hebrew Bible. I just made that up. Feminism.
Raise your hand if you find the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) boring and confusing.
Don't be shy, no one's looking.
I'll admit, for the majority of my life I thought the Hebrew Bible pointless and annoying. Sure, Song of Songs made me giggle, and I guess the story of Moses was cool. But the rest of the stories did not excite me. It was just a bunch of weird names I could not pronounce of people who lived a ridiculously long time.
Now, raise your hand if you find the Hebrew Bible violent and immoral.
Incest, polygamy, genocide, deceit. Yikes. Those are some very mature themes the people of God decided to include in the holy scriptures. I know many a person who has either lost faith or dramatically stumbled over these themes, and rightly so. At first glance, they seem to portray the God of love and mercy as a God of anger and wrath.
Finally, raise your hand if the Hebrew Bible has ever been used to oppress you.
A collection of books that is meant for freedom, equality, and justice is being used for oppression and injustice, what? Classic human nature. Women, it is unfortunate that this is all too real of a statement. Men, I'm sure you've been oppressed too, but it does not seem fair the entirety of scripture was written and pieced together in an incredibly patriarchal society. Without proper exegesis, these stories simply do not translate into our modern society. Along with gender inequality comes racial, socio-economic, and religious oppression. How do you think our Native American brothers and sisters feel when they read how God's people committed genocide on the Canaanites simply to take the land that was promised to them? Sounds a little too familiar to our American history.
This is precisely what I love about the Hebrew Bible.
I T ' S M E S S Y .
The Hebrew Bible undeniably does a great job at capturing the messiness of humanity. It is multifaceted. Everyone who comes to the Scriptures brings their own life experience, and sometimes the outcome can be less than favorable.
This collection of books is richly steeped in its culture. In order to understand the Hebrew Bible, we must understand the cultural world in which it was created.
As good old Fee and Stuart once said,
A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers.
The key to understanding the Hebrew Bible is solid exegesis.
Ex-e-ge-sis:
noun
critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.
Thank you Google for that enlightening definition.
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Now let's practice exegesis.
This exegesis comes from one of the best podcasts I have every heard:
T O C L E A R T H E A I R :
Yes I listen to Rob Bell, and yes I think he is an incredibly gifted teacher. Regardless of where you stand with the whole, LOVE WINS debacle, Rob Bell still has many insightful and relevant teachings.
So for a moment, let us lay down our pride and prejudices– not the novel by Jane Austen, rather the character traits we all have– and continue reading with an open hand as we delve right into one of the most offensive passages in the Hebrew Bible.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14
When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife, you are to bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife. Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.
Y I K E S .
How is this allowed in our holy Scriptures?
I'm sure all you women (and men) out there are incredibly offended. I know when I first read this passage I was! It is passages like this that enrage me and only add kindle to the fire of disliking the Old Testament.
But what was it saying in its time?
Let us take a look into Ancient Near Eastern culture regarding the rules of war.
In the ANE, if you crush an army, everything that was once theirs becomes yours and is treated like objects to do whatever you want with.
That includes women. If you kill a man and find his wife attractive, you can take her home with you to be your wife and do whatever you want with.
We see this concept in the Deuteronomy passage, yet something is different.
1. She must shave her head, trim her nails, remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month.
This is humanizing the woman! By allowing her to mourn, the Israelites acknowledged her as a human being with emotions and gave her time to process losing her husband, family, and everything she once knew.
Believe it or not, this was a radical step forward for women's rights in its time. To treat a woman like a human being, not a piece of property to do whatever you wanted with? The audacity!
2. Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go where she wants, but you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because you have humiliated her.
In the ANE, women had no rights. So, it was lawful to cast her out, or even sell her for money, if you were not pleased with her sexually. However, with no where to go, women often turned to prostitution in order to survive.
Israel, however, was commanded to let her go free, which included giving her a certificate of divorce so she would have legal standing and a greater chance of survival without prostituting herself.
Again, a radical step forward for women's rights!
When we read this in 2015 with no contextual understanding, this passage seems like an offensive, oppressive, and revolting text. But when we look at it through the lens of ANE culture, we see it is ruffling the feathers of patriarchy with the daring notion women are human beings and not objects.
Now, have we come a long way in regards to women's rights since Deuteronomy 21? YES.
Do we still have a long ways to go today in the quest for women's rights? YES.
Society is still run by men. Prostitution still exists. Women are still raped. Women are still paid less.
It is important to understand that,
The Bible exists on a continuum of human growth and consciousness.
Through the entirety of Scripture, we see humanity growing and maturing on matters of human rights, justice, and equality. We have come a long ways, but we still have far to go.
Let us read the Bible with grace, patience, and understanding–
humanity and culture are in an entirely different place
than we were thousands of years ago.
Let us take the time to understand the cultural context of the passage we read
instead of jumping to conclusions and casting it off.
Let us remember the messiness of humanity,
where we were and how far we have come.
Let us treat the word of God with respect.
Thank you for reading. I would love to continue in conversation if you have questions.
- - O V E R A N D O U T .
