{"id":1726,"date":"2018-04-22T09:57:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-22T13:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1726"},"modified":"2018-04-22T09:57:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T13:57:07","slug":"bible-is-real-rahabs-stormy-relative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1726","title":{"rendered":"Bible is Real: Rahab’s Stormy Relative"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s not history.\u201d<\/p>\n

I explain: We have no corroborating evidence. The Hebrew Bible is our sole source for the stories and tales we tell about Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob (and we can say the same thing about all the matriarchs, too). We have to reach King David\u2019s time to find texts that affirm even the smallest measure of Israelite history as Tanakh tells it.<\/p>\n

Scholars have found no trace of hundreds of thousands of ancient slaves traveling along the pathways the Israelites are supposed to have taken during the Exodus. We don\u2019t have evidence that Israelites were monotheistic \u2013 just the opposite, if you look at the archeological evidence.<\/p>\n

The Hebrew Bible (read Tanakh) is a minority report, I tell my university students. A likely all-male, educated elite wrote its books over many centuries and from many different historical and theological perspectives.<\/p>\n

Our classroom conversations are around the role of mythical narratives, and their inestimable value and power for defining the human-divine experiment. It\u2019s interesting stuff, a way to travel on the ancient wild side. And my students connect with it. They discover that it is<\/em> relevant. In our classes, bible becomes real for them in ways they never expected.<\/p>\n

Example: The recent discussion of Joshua 2 in my class on women in the Hebrew Bible. The story features a Canaanite prostitute who announces an imminent victory for the invading Israelite nation and negotiates safe passage for herself and her family. Rahab, who lives in the very walls of Jericho, manages to hide two Israelite spies sent by Joshua to scope out the city\u2019s defenses. She bluffs her way out of an interrogation conducted by the king\u2019s men and sends them into the countryside on a crazy goose chase after the spies (who are, in the meantime, sunning themselves on her roof). Afterwards, she heads upstairs to deliver an oracle to her Israelite guests in true Deuteronomist style.<\/p>\n

We have heard, Rahab tells the Israelite spies, how YHVH dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds to allow the Israelites to escape Egypt. We know how God helped the Israelites defeat powerful Amorite kings. Jericho\u2019s inhabitants are quaking in their boots, she says, \u201cfor the Lord your God is the only God in heaven above and on earth below.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on her intimate knowledge of Israelite narratives and her surety about the Israelite future, she follows her oracular prologue with hard-hitting negotiations. She\u2019s protected them; now, they owe her. She stipulates her conditions and the Israelites do the same. There are sanctions for both sides if anyone fails to meet their obligations. Rahab demands an oath to seal the deal, the spies agree, and they, in turn, give her a scarlet cord as the physical sign of their agreement.<\/p>\n

The day we discussed this story, my students spent time marveling at the way Rahab managed all the men in the story. She was tough, clever, aggressive in ways they could admire, and did.<\/p>\n

One student pointed out that a Canaanite prostitute had effectively doomed the king and his entire administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s<\/em> the ruler of Jericho,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, my,\u201d I said suddenly. I stood very still.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it, Dr. Thiede?\u201d one of my students asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had a thought,\u201d I said slowly.<\/p>\n

Everyone waited patiently. My students are Very Nice People.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how I am always reminding you that we have to treat these narratives as stories, tales with a lot of mythical elements?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d one said slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve been doing,\u201d I continued. \u201cExcept it just occurred to me that we are living in a time when a pornographic actress has been sending a lawyer who is the king\u2019s man on a wild goose chase to secure her silence.\u00a0 She has declared a contract void because the king hasn\u2019t signed it. She is posing a serious threat to the king\u2019s credibility. Who is ruling Washington, DC, these days? Or,\u201d I added, \u201cat least, CNN.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOmigosh!\u201d one of my students said. \u201cStormy Daniels!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHa,\u201d I added. \u201cThe bible says: Be careful about tangling with someone connected to sex work. It may not be history, folks, but Bible is real<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Class ended. I headed for my office, looking at the sky. Clouds were gathering. As might be expected, I thought. And just as you thought yourself. Just now.<\/p>\n

It’s another stormy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our classroom conversations are around the role of mythical narratives, and their inestimable value and power for defining the human-divine experiment. It\u2019s interesting stuff, a way to travel on the ancient wild side. And my students connect with it. They discover that it is relevant. In our classes, bible becomes real for them in ways they never expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[471,470,469],"class_list":["post-1726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-joshua-2","tag-rahab","tag-stormy-daniels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1730,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions\/1730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}