The STEP Bible is Now Available for the iPhone

Just search for ‘Step bible’. It’s the second result.  You can download the desktop version here or use the online version here.  It is the best free bible software available.  I require it for my Biblical studies classes.

 

Judges 19, A Guest Post by Peter J. Williams of Tyndale House, Cambridge

The following originally appeared as a series of tweets that Peter posted and I was so taken by his presentation that I asked him to post it here as a guest post. He has generously agreed. Enjoy!

The Bible’s most gory story

Judges 19 contains the disturbing account of the rape and dissection of the Levite’s concubine. The whole episode covers Judges 19–21 and teaches us a lot about male violence against women.

The story is set during the time of the judges, when there’s little government. The first and last verses of the episode remind us that there was no king (Judges 19:1; 21:25), which has already become a motif in the book (17:6; 18:1).

Judges is arguably the Bible’s goriest book. Yes, other Bible books relate more deaths, but Judges, with Adoni-bezek’s thumbs and big toes cut off, Eglon’s belly stabbed, Sisera’s temple pierced, Abimelech’s skull crushed, Samson’s eyes gouged out, and the concubine dissected depicts more explicit body damage than the whole rest of the narrative sections of the Bible put together. This section is thus the final bloody climax of the Bible’s goriest book.

It’s probably no coincidence that the Bible, which relentlessly depicts human wrong, records both small government (judges) and big government (kings) as unravelling in tragedies of male sexual violence followed by civil war. Thus neither decentralised nor centralised government, nor even a great (God-given!) constitution, can restrain human evil. The Bible portrays the failure of these things so that we know that God has to come into the world personally to sort things out.

Our account begins in 19:1 with a Levite taking a concubine. This is strange, because a concubine is a second tier wife, but this man doesn’t seem to have a first tier wife. In other words, he’s in an abusive relationship towards her from the start.

Note also that she’s from Bethlehem, just like David, and like Jesus. In this story it’s no coincidence that the main victim comes from Bethlehem, the town of king David and that the main bad guys come from Gibeah, the town of king Saul. In fact, both the final stories in the Book of Judges (chapters 17–18 and 19–21) contain a Levite, Ephraim, and the town Bethlehem. If, as in some orderings of the Bible (e.g. typical Greek, Latin, and English), you put Ruth after Judges you have three stories about Bethlehem in a row.

Next, the concubine is unfaithful to her man (19:2), but this doesn’t seem to consist in her going off with someone else so much as her going home to Bethlehem. She’s there for four months during which the Levite seems to do nothing about her (cf. another four month wait in 20:47). Eventually the Levite goes to Bethlehem to find her.

What’s so striking to me is how warmly the Levite’s father-in-law receives him (19:3). They eat and drink together and her father repeatedly delays his departure: the men have a camaraderie which the Levite doesn’t share with his concubine. Later on we see a bond between the Levite and another male host which overrides their concern for the women.

After days of delay and more merriment with his father-in-law the Levite sets off with his concubine and male servant, but too late in the day for safe travel.

As it gets dark, the servant advises that they go to a Canaanite city (19:11), which resonates with when later Saul’s servant advises him to go to Ramah (1 Samuel 9:6). The Levite here wants to press on to an Israelite city like Gibeah or Ramah. So they get to Gibeah (belonging to the tribe of Benjamin) after dark, but no one welcomes them in.

Just then, an old man from out of town, from the tribe of Ephraim, arrives back from the field and welcomes them in. We like him. He seems an ideal host, and offers all the food and supplies they could want. They’re having a great time together (19:22).

But then suddenly the men of the city start banging on the door. Though the Hebrew for ‘men’ could grammatically be generic for ‘people’, I think it’s right here to take it as exclusively male. Careful readers will have already noticed many echoes of the Sodom narrative of Genesis 19 in Judges 19. In both, the locals don’t offer hospitality; there’s mention of the city square (Genesis 19:2; Judges 19:15); someone from out of town hosts. Even the phrase ‘he pressed (פצר) upon him’ (Judges 19:8) is rare enough to remind us of how the men of Sodom pressed (פצר) Lot (Genesis 19:9).

But now the echoes become unmistakable as the men of this city demand that the Levite be brought out that they might ‘know’ him. One might be tempted to read ‘know’ (19:22) innocently: they want to get to know the stranger in their midst. But the context and subsequent horror don’t allow us to dwell on this possibility for long. The men of this Israelite city are wanting the man to be brought out for sex with them just as the men of the most proverbially wicked non-Israelite city (Sodom) had wanted sex with Lot’s guests.

But parallels run deeper. The host in both goes out to say, ‘My brothers, please do not do [this] bad’ (Genesis 19:7; Judges 19:23). Lot offers his virgin daughters to protect his male guests (by the way, we know that Genesis thinks that’s a bad idea because after he’d offered them for non-consensual sex, later in the passage as his comeuppance Lot himself ends up having non-consensual sex with these same daughters.). Here the old man (whom we were just beginning to like) verbally offers his virgin daughter and the concubine up to the mob. Worse than Lot, he invites them to humble (=rape) them and ‘do what is good in your eyes’ (19:24)—a phrase which echoes the motif of this part of Judges: people doing what’s right in their own eyes.

Extraordinarily we hear him say ‘but to this man do not do this foolish thing’. So things have come to a point where a father thinks his solidarity to his male guest trumps his parental care for his daughter.  The Levite grabs hold of his concubine and thrusts her out.

Sparing us details, the narrator tells us ‘they knew her and abused her all night until morning. And when the day began to break they let her go’ (19:25). What horrors she must have undergone!

Another reason her torments are not recorded is that they are not known. Other than the perpetrators, most or all of whom are dead by the end of the episode, the victim was the only witness. She bore the pain utterly alone.

It goes on. ‘Then the woman came as the day was dawning and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, till it was light’ (19:26). She collapses while her ‘master’ (doesn’t that title say a lot about the asymmetry of the relationship?) is safe inside.

The narrator shocks us with the callousness and pathos of the next verse: ‘When her master arose in the morning [presumably after a good night’s sleep], and opened the doors of the house [which she’d been shut out from] and went out to go on his way [business as usual]… there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold’ (19:27).

The position of her hands—so close and yet so far—shows exactly where the narrator’s sympathies lie, in the personal tragedy of this poor woman.

But the juxtaposed callousness of the Levite shocks further: ‘And he said to her “Get up, and let’s go”, but there was no answer.’ And he put her on the donkey and the man arose and went to his place. And he came to his house and took a knife and took hold of his concubine and cut her up into twelve pieces and send her [sic] into all the territory of Israel’ (19:28-29).

People are shocked and respond to a call to arms.

But we have to observe the heartlessness of this Levite who thrust out his concubine to predators, expected her simply to resume travel in the morning, and then finally dismembered her body. We also notice that death through misnamed ‘rough sex’ is not new.

It is unusual (relative to biblical narrative generally) that the story never relates the concubine’s death. We don’t know when she died because the heartless Levite never checked. I hope it was before he cut her up.  Was she put on the donkey half-dead like the man in Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan—a better host than the Ephraimite host in this story? There’s also a Levite in that parable, but he doesn’t act well either.

The Levite tells her to ‘arise’ qumi (קוּמִי) linguistically like talitha qum (variant qumi) said by Jesus in Mark 5:41, but quite unlike Jesus’s saying in almost every other way.

Moving through the rest of the story rather more quickly: in chapter 20 civil war breaks out. 11 tribes fight against the one tribe of Benjamin, the tribe from which the aggressors of Gibeah came. But even if we consider the 11 tribes to be the ‘good’ side, they’re not really good because they’re following the Levite’s false report of what happened (20:5), which focusses on the mortal threat of the locals against the Levite, though it’s not clear he was ever in such danger. His report also conveniently omits his role in putting the concubine outside for the rabble. So one tenth of Israel’s 400,000 strong force is lost and almost all the tribe of Benjamin. The whole narrative is deeply reminiscent of Israel’s attack on Ai. In other words, an Israelite city has become as bad as a Canaanite one.

In the end, all of Benjamin are killed except for 600 men. Note thus that the Benjaminite men were the problem, but more women were wiped out!

Now the Israelites have another problem. They’ve made a foolish vow (as Benjaminite Saul does later). This vow was not to allow their daughters to marry men from Benjamin. The solution they now find to this problem is to destroy all of Jabesh Gilead, except 400 virgins because Jabesh Gilead hadn’t responded to the call for war. This creates a strong bond between the small tribe of Benjamin and Jabesh Gilead so that Saul is quick to come to their aid in 1 Samuel 11, after Saul cuts up oxen and sends the pieces by envoy (1 Samuel 11:7). The parallels and contrasts with the concubine’s fate are hard to miss.

Still 200 wives short, the Israelites decide that if Benjaminites ambush and abduct 200 dancing girls in Shiloh that’s alright.

That’s how the book ends. People seem to think that the solution to the problem of male violence was to abduct more women. It looks like they’ve learned nothing. The last line of the book runs like this:  ‘In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’ (21:25)   When we reflect on the story as a whole, we see that it’s a story without heroes, but with a clear victim. No character is named. This can actually aid us in connecting with the characters, which could be any one of us.

The Bible is not tone deaf to the problem of male violence against women. It’s actually a theme to which it repeatedly returns. The picture of the woman’s hands on the threshold is meant to haunt us.

The woman from Bethlehem was the involuntary victim, a substitute for others. Later the Bible tells of someone from Bethlehem who willingly gave up his life as a substitute to protect others from death. This story resonates with the big Bible theme that human evil runs deep and that’s exactly why we need someone willing to die for us.

Peter J. Williams, August 2019

 

Reminder: You Need a Commentary That Helps Make Sense of the Bible

The ‘Person in the Pew’ commentary series is the only series of Commentaries in modern history written by a single person on the entire Bible and aimed at layfolk .  Everyone needs a commentary on the Bible that they can understand and that answers their questions about the meaning of the text.  So I wrote one.

If you or someone you know wants to get a copy of the entire 42 volume collection in PDF format, you can do so from yours truly for the exceptionally reasonable price of  $75 by clicking my PayPal Link.  Leave your email in your paypal payment note so I can send it to you right away.

Should you only wish one volume, email me and we can arrange it.

***

I got the commentaries Memorial Day weekend and started with Genesis 1:1. This week I started the Book of Joshua. Never have I ever read the books of the Bible with such understanding. It has opened the scriptures in a way I’ve never before experienced. Lois told me about the commentaries ages ago. I wish I had gotten them sooner. Thank you Dr. Jim West for making them available.  – Judy Byrge

 

Today With Bullinger

In Sacrosanctum Jesu Christi Domini nostri Evangelium secundum Matthæum Commentariorum libri XII. fol. Tig. 1542, was translated by Frisius into German, with the title, “The Hope of the Faithful,” and published August 18, 1544.

The preface to the volume is lovely. Really lovely.

 

If Your Preacher Tells You It’s OK to Sin… He’s A Liar

‘Yahweh Sabaoth says this, “Do not listen to what those prophets prophesy to you; they are deluding you, they retail visions of their own, and not what comes from Yahweh’s mouth. To those who despise me, they keep saying: Yahweh has spoken: you will have peace! and to all who follow their own stubborn inclinations: No disaster will touch you.”

But who has been present in Yahweh’s council and seen, and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and listened to it?  Look, Yahweh’s hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a fearsome hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked. (Jer. 23:16-19)

 

‘Chased by a Leaf’

I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues (Lev. 26:36-37)

 

Truth

Whoever wholeheartedly serves God will be accepted, his petitions will carry to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds: and until it does, he is not to be consoled, nor will he desist until the Most High takes notice of him, acquits the upright and delivers judgement. 

And the Lord will not be slow, nor will he be dilatory on their behalf, until he has crushed the loins of the merciless and exacted vengeance on the nations, until he has eliminated the hordes of the arrogant and broken the sceptres of the wicked, until he has repaid all people as their deeds deserve and human actions as their intentions merit, until he has judged the case of his people and made them rejoice in his mercy. (Sir. 35:16-23)

 

Luther’s Bible Was Sent to the Printer on this Day in 1534…

And it was published the next day. The. Next. Day. Putting to shame all publishers today who take half a year to get a book printed.

Martin Luther started work on his famous translation of the Bible in 1521, and on August 6, 1534 permission to print was obtained from the Elector of Saxony. The first complete copy left the press of Hans Lufft at Wittenberg, the next day, August 7, 1534.

To be sure, prep work was done in the months leading up to the publication- but permission was granted one day and the volumes were out the next.  It’s astonishing what one can achieve when one has a herd of compulsive Germans on the job.

That said, it is a beautiful edition.  I have a facsimile of it and it’s just simply gorgeous.  I got it when it came out in 2011.  If you want to obtain one these days… the two volumes may be a bit harder to find.

 

Nahum

This may be it if you are looking for a commentary on the Prophet Nahum–

Das kleine Buch Nahum hat bis heute keine gute Presse, weil es gemeinhin unter die Zukunftsworte der biblischen Propheten gegen fremde Völker eingeordnet wird. Im Gegensatz dazu sind die Worte Nahums gegen die Hauptstadt des damaligen Weltreichs der Assyrer gerichtet, unter dessen Herrschaft die Einwohner Judas stöhnten, und daher von prinzipiell anderer Qualität. Zudem sind die Worte Nahums überliefert worden, weil sie sich mit dem Fall Ninives 612 v. Chr. schon erfüllt hatten. Als bestätigtes Gotteswort haben sie Jahrhunderte später Menschen, die unter Unterdrückung litten, als Stütze ihrer Hoffnung auf die Wende der Not gedient. Gewichtiger noch ist, dass die jüngeren Verfasser des Buches aus der zurückliegenden Prophetie Nahums grundsätzliche Aussagen über Gott gewonnen haben.

Jeremias arbeitet die Verwurzelung der Botschaft Nahums in der Tradition der frühen Propheten des Alten Testaments heraus und besticht dabei durch die Genauigkeit der Begründung exegetischer Entscheidungen im Gespräch mit anderen Ansichten. Zudem – so Jeremias – ist statt von mehreren literarischen Schichten im Buch nur von zweien auszugehen.

Jeremias introduces the Book of Nahum in 6 sections:

1. The State of Research
2. The Book
3. The Era
4. The Message
5. The Book as Part of the Book of the Twelve
6. The Text and its Witnesses

Then commences the commentary proper, which follows the outline of Nahum.  To wit:

1. Superscript
2. A Programmatic Hymn
3. The End of Belial
4. The Fall of Nineveh
5. The Whore Nineveh
6. The Unstoppable Judgment

Each textual unit is freshly translated and copious textual notes are provided.  And then the exegesis continues in the normal historical/ critical way.  There are also, as one would expect, plenty of bibliographic materials and supporting data to bolster Jeremias’ exposition and to include his work in the greater conversation taking place in biblical scholarship.

Included as well are illustrations along the way which pictorially represent historical evidence.  And finally, in terms of resources mustered, the author includes a couple of relevant excurses.

Now, for the benefit of the readers of this review and potential users of this commentary, a few examples of the contents:

On Nahum 3:1-7

In dem allen zeigt sich, dass der Prophet Nahum eine bemerkenswert andersartige Vorstellung als Jesaja vom Verhältnis der Weltmacht Assyrien zu Gott hat. Jesaja sah in Assyrien zunächst ein Werkzeug JHWHs, mit dem er sein schuldiges Volk strafen wollte, und warf ihm erst danach vor, eigene, widergöttliche Pläne zu verfolgen, mit dem Ziel, sich die Völker dauerhaft zu unterwerfen. Für Nahum dagegen ist Assyriens Weltmachtpolitik von allem Anfang an gegen Gott gerichtet und »Betrug« an Gott. Assyriens Macht stammt nicht von Gott, sondern es hat sich diese Macht zu Unrecht angemaßt mit unlauteren, ja gegen Gott gerichteten Mitteln (»Zauberei«).

Readers of this volume will discover that it follows the normal outline of commentaries in the historical-critical ‘tradition’ but to assume that the contents merely repeat old and well known facts would be a terrible mistake.  There is much that is new here in the sense of new insights and interpretations based not on speculation (which is so rife in the guild these days) but on well reasoned substantively demonstrated facts.  As, frankly, one would expect of Professor Jeremias.

I enjoyed reading this volume as much as I did reading his Old Testament Theology.  I love smart writers and smart writing.  I think you will agree that this work is both as well.

Tolle, lege!

 

America is Exceptional. Exceptional in its Love of Guns and Death

As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me at the time of their disaster. – Jeremiah 11:14

 

Saul’s Two Year Reign

Developing I. Provan’s observation that the kings whose reigns are under impending judgment typically reign for two years in the book of Kings, we propose that Saul’s reign of two years in the MT of 1 Samuel 13:1 can be read as indicative of his failed kingship.

It’s an essay from a few years ago but worth mentioning again.

 

How Much Would A Luther Bible Cost when It Was First Published?

Our Saxon friends write

Did you know that when Luther’s Bible was published in 1534, the Bible cost a equivalent of 17 fat geese?

So I asked- how much is that?  They replied

The September Testament one and a half Gulden. Two Gulden acht Groschen the complete Bible. (60 Gulden was a equivalent to a small farm).  One and a half Gulden was an annual salary of a maidservant. A teacher’s 3 3/4.

Concerning Luther’s own salary they remark

As preacher at the City Church Luther had been receiving an annual salary of 9 Gulden since approx. 1514. In 1523 this sum was still the only cash at his disposal, since his Augustian professorship gave him free lodgings, together with brewing rights, a claim to payment in kind, but not to a salary. It was only in 1524 that Elector Frederick granted him an annual salary of one hundred Gulden. The new elector John ultimately accorded him two hundred Gulden so that Luther would earn as much as Philipp Melanchthon. This sum was a top salary for a Wittenberg Professor at the time, but the big house, the runaway monks and nuns the Luthers took in, and the continual guests made the household expensive to run. Luther calculated his annual expenses at about five hundred Gulden (Btw Luther never earned anything from his writing, he refused to accept a penny from them).

Neat, right?!?!  And we think books are expensive today!  It cost over a year’s salary for the goodly maid to buy a single Bible.  Astonishing.

I bought a two volume facsimile of the 1534 Bible and I think it cost around $199.  So, quite a bargain!

 

On Those Who Desert the Faith

The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times some will desert the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils, seduced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are branded as though with a red-hot iron. (1 Tim. 4:1-2)

 

The Confession That Can’t Be Made By the Behind the Scenes Social Media Smear Campaigners And Manipulators

“But [we] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” —  2 Cor 4:6

 

Reckoning Time for the Tyrant

The oppressed relies on you; you are the only recourse of the orphan.  Break the arm of the wicked and evil, seek out wickedness till there is none left to be found. Yahweh is king for ever and ever, the heathen has vanished from his country. Yahweh, you listen to the laments of the poor, you give them courage, you grant them a hearing, to give judgement for the orphaned and exploited, so that earthborn humans may strike terror no more. (Ps. 10:14-18)

 

You Probably Still Need a Series of Books to Help You Understand The Bible

If you or someone you know wants to get a copy of the entire 42 volume collection in PDF format, you can do so from yours truly for the exceptionally reasonable price of  $75 by clicking my PayPal Link.  Leave your email in your paypal payment note so I can send it to you right away.

Should you only wish one volume, email me and we can arrange it.

Scholars love it.  For example, Tom Bolin writes

Jim West’s commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah, aimed at “the person in the pew,” faces a rather difficult task. By that I don’t mean the perennial challenge of trying to make biblical texts relevant to modern believers, although that is certainly part of the challenge. West’s commentary is trying to make one of the less well-known and, frankly, less exciting of the biblical books applicable to readers, and it does a fine job at it.

Moving briskly through the text, West pauses to expound essential perplexities and occasionally to provide an informative excursus, e.g., on grieving in the Old Testament, or the origins of the Samaritans. Rather than bogging down the text, these excurses come at appropriate intervals, anticipate a reader’s questions, and offer a wealth of helpful information useful beyond the reading of Ezra-Nehemiah. As far as his exposition of the text, West does a fine job of “cultural equivalence” translation of principles at work in Ezra-Nehemiah.

These are hard books of the Bible: hard to work through, a story of hard times for the returning exiles, and ultimately, books with very hard lessons for those would follow the God of Israel. With the verve and occasional sting that regular readers of his blog will recognize, West concisely points out to that person in the pew just exactly how challenging the Bible remains to modern believers, and that even something as seemingly unrelated to the 21st century as 2500 year-old genealogies and group wall-building activities have something to say to those who will listen.

Thomas M. Bolin ن, Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies
St. Norbert College
Hebrew Bible Book Editor Marginalia Review of Books

 

Listening to Jesus is More Important Than Making Lunch…

Or anything else.

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus ‘ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”  And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”  (Lk. 10:38-42)

 

Quote of the Day

Do not put your trust in princes, in any child of Adam, who has no power to save. When his spirit goes forth he returns to the earth, on that very day all his plans come to nothing. How blessed is he who has Jacob’s God to help him, his hope is in Yahweh his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. He keeps faith for ever, gives justice to the oppressed, gives food to the hungry; Yahweh sets prisoners free. Yahweh gives sight to the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down. Yahweh protects the stranger, he sustains the orphan and the widow. Yahweh loves the upright,but he frustrates the wicked.   (Ps. 146:3-9)

 

Flee, Devil, Flee

ἀντίστητε δὲ τῷ διαβόλῳ καὶ φεύξεται ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν, ἐγγίσατε τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἐγγιεῖ ὑμῖν. καθαρίσατε χεῖρας, ἁμαρτωλοί, καὶ ἁγνίσατε καρδίας, δίψυχοι.  ταλαιπωρήσατε καὶ πενθήσατε καὶ κλαύσατε· ὁ γέλως ὑμῶν εἰς πένθος μεταστραφήτω, καὶ ἡ χαρὰ εἰς κατήφειαν. ταπεινώθητε ἐνώπιον κυρίου, καὶ ὑψώσει ὑμᾶς.

(Jas. 4:7-10)

 

The Source of Conflict? Desire in the Hearts of Those who Befriend the World

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (Jas. 4:1-4)