Post by janedoe on Dec 17, 2009 14:07:31 GMT -5
"By combining the discipline of literary criticism with the hermeneutics of feminism, she reinterprets the tragic stories of four women in ancient Israel: Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed concubine, and the daughter of Jephthah. In highlighting the silence, absence, and oppostition of God, as well as human cruelty, Trible shows how these neglected stories-interpreted in memoriam-challenge both the misogyny of Scripture and its use in church, synagogue, and academy."
OK, well, lets roll here, LOL, I somewhat 'hate' to get into these discourses but this is WHY the Bible is a Spiritually 'discerned' book, and NOT a literal one,
whether its a 'fundie' who pulls out scriptures to justify such and such, or a 'Critic' who pulls out scriptures to back up such and such--
BOTH ARE OFF BASE, and they BOTH--MISS IT, ENTIRELY.
This is WHY--that one has to read the Entire Bible, not texts, reading texts, fishing in it, etc., is the most sure way, to get into a whole wrong way of thinking, and this is why I do NOT concur with Theology schools either, the 'letter kills, its as simple as that'.
The stories of Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed concubine, and the daughter of Jephthah, do NOT reveal the 'silence of God', but the Cruelty and the Danger that results when Mankind [men, esp] take matters in their own hands, do things out of presumption/usually by molding 'God' into their idea or image, do to each his own, so forth. The reason those stories are 'in' the Bible, is not to condone or to show indifference to these real horrors that btw, happen to women worldwide, on a daily basis, but to reveal that God yes, Does see the horrors and that not ONE woman, is invisible to God, nor is her pain invisible.
When I came back to my faith, I asked God, 'are you a Misogynist'? And I remember reading and coming across the story of the nameless concubine, and Throwing the Bible across the room. I was furious, but deep inside I knew, that somewhere I was missing it. [I also felt this way numerous other times when I came across other scriptures that if taken literally, are yes, misogynist, IF taken literally AND without understanding the Rest of the Bible, and understanding God's character. [BTW, I'm not even Close to a fundie--in fact, the more I read the Bible the more confirmation I got from it to be opposed to fundamentalism in ALL its forms], but anyhow,
so I went back to re-read that story of the nameless concubine, about twenty times. [and the others as well, I did the same thing] One, the 'nameless' concubine is nameless because when women are raped-gang raped, it is not because of what she has done, who she is, her class, her economics, her ethnicity, etc., meaning, its not 'her' fault, it is the Misogyny of MEN, who have zero Value or Respect for women, for her Humanity, and that is why, the concubine's name is not written, God is Showing the devalue of women in a society that if you go to the End of the book of Judges, it clearly says, 'men did as they damn well pleased, with no consideration for law, authority, or love for their neighbor.' If you take what that last chapter of Judges says [and Judges btw, is judges like you see in the courts--meaning, this was a period that there were no judgements, Right judgments, it was a time of Chaos, Anarchy, and where Power, ruled over Power, in other words, who ever has the biggest guns wins---that is another reason the concubine is 'nameless' because concubines have no status, just like women in many societies today OR the poor, like in This society, that are deemed underclass, of no value, etc., God is Showing us something, not being indifferent to this woman,
and in Fact, when the Israelis went to God, and prayed about what happened to this woman, and prayed about what to do, God said to go to war, etc and if you noticed, they didn't win immediately, numerous Israeli men were killed [and I wouldn't be surprised if those Israeli men were not too kind to women themselves--and died because of], anyway eventually the men who committed the crime were killed, and then we see how they exchanged wives, etc., and it doesn't 'say' that God approved of that, it just says what happens, and then, at the end of the book, that 'people did as they pleased, etc'. In other words, because of no laws, no respect or fear of God, of JUSTICE, there was impunity to rape, kill, violate marriage laws, violate the value of life, etc. And God didn't 'see' this nameless woman as worthless--not at all, in fact, it was by HIS arm, that those men Plus some, were killed,
that's first example here that God is not indifferent nor 'silent' when it comes to the mistreatment of women.
Hagar, another example...several things here--one, one of the most important, in NT, where Paul talks about the free woman and the bond-slave woman, Sarah and Hagar, and how God chooses the 'free woman' to be the lineage of Jesus, not the 'slave woman', that is also God saying, HE DOES IN NO WAY, APPROVE, OF SLAVERY, SEX SLAVERY, BONDAGE, of men OR of women. God is all about Freedom--freedom to choose, freedom to love, to be loved, etc., God may 'allow' or 'permit' humankind to have slavery--or to have oppression/to to commit oppression, because God allows free will [I'm obviously not Calvinist] and on the question of 'why', well, Job 31 gives one reason, as to the 'whys'. [and the oppressor, if they don't change--will get due Justice, because you see, God IS justice],
Hagar, if you go back and read about Ishmael, Isha is Female--it means, God sees, God sees 'females' and God took care of Hagar, and her descendants. God did not abandon Hagar nor did He treat her less than...it was the Pharoah btw who gave Hagar to Sarah, when Sarah was taken to be wife--[two stories there, two different cases], and on the slaves then, one has to go back and read what they call the Eved laws and the slavery codes in non-Hebrew societies of that time. Actually, in the Hebrew laws, slaves had more rights--far more, than they did in non-Hebrew societies, you couldn't even hit a slave without reparations. If you knocked out a tooth you had to repay, etc., [its in those laws, if you really study them, that you can see that God didn't condone, but He worked within the systems that MAN had created, to bind up the strongman, and to instill 'fair' laws that Showed how God wanted people, to treat each other...as well as God said, people WON"T obey His laws--love thy neighbor...and we Still don't obey those laws--every Westerner, benefits from slavery, its called sweatshop slavery--and yes, God will one day, judge that--because He is Justice. [something to ponder on when we pass Judgment onto God]
Tamar, another really tragic story about a young girl, raped and then held 'hostage' by her brother, somewhat to preserve 'family honor', a brother who if you go further in the texts, became full of pride because of his beauty, and was killed...but keep going, and you see that he had a daughter, whom he named Tamar--which was a sign of the highest honor, that is why you see the names often used such as Enoch and Tamar [which first Tamar is in Genesis] and Joseph and John, etc. Also the story of Tamar, reveals the harms caused by many marriages, the 'strife' and 'lust' for power, among brothers [fraternicide, etc] and in the story of King Solomon you see the same thing,
Jephthah, another tragic story, again, have to look at the 'epoch' of that time where in non-Hebrew societies [meaning those who worshiped Bael, Marduk, Ashtoreth, etc., they DID sacrifice children, including forced prostitution, etc., to 'appease' the 'gods' for crops, against storms, etc., and through out the Old Testament the Israelis would 'mingle' those rituals and other 'gods' with the laws of God, and these are the horrors that resulted because of...such as making 'vows' and sacrificing children [and its all in the books of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc], etc. God clearly, Demanded, that this practice was NOT done, and His punishment on the people as a nation if it was done and so forth,
Jephthah's father was not following or living by the laws of God, and the Bible says this--this story is also in the book of Judges [same thing with the nameless concubine], this was a time that the people were NOT living according to the laws God had given them through Moses--where it Clearly states, under the 'sexual moral' laws, thou shall NOT pass the children through fire. [Fire, has different meanings and sexual is one of them].
Throwing children off cliffs, into fire , to appease what they believed to be 'gods' [whom I believe are fallen angels, the book of Enoch goes into this], and out of fear. This isn't really hard to believe either because there was a tsunami and earthquake in the forties I believe, in Peru, and legend says there was a child sacrificed in the lake, to appease the 'mountain' gods then--people do desperate things out of FEAR.
But what I did see about this story, is how God once again, didn't just not see but He felt it important enough to lead by Spirit the women, to remember this young woman every year, and that I have read, still goes on today.
So, in Every case here, in Every instance, God felt these women were important enough, to make mention of them, to reveal to us what happens when human kind does not heed God's laws and ways, and that women, have Value to God--and in fact, through my study,
and this started a year ago, I have found more scriptures, not only about how God 'values' women Highly I might add, but God's 'feminine' side which is All over the Bible. God is spirit, both male AND female,
even the 'earth', God set laws that you take care of the Earth, or else...that was the 'sabbath' rest for the earth--and when the Israelis did NOT respect that--in Isaiah, when God speaks about judgment, He says, the 'earth' that SHE will get her Deserved rest, that was denied to her. God even has laws in respecting Animal rights,
in other words, God is more Feminist, than many may think. So, I sort of write this, to stand up, for God and against the 'misrepresentations' of God because in my study [and in lots of prayer] if Anything,
not only is God not a misogynist, God is feminist. ,
the thing is, its how one reads the Bible. If you really read the Bible to understand WHO God is, His/Her character, nature, Justice, then you can see through the literal,
and there are numerous other examples, God even had one king killed because of how this king ordered the 'rapes' of women, not just Israeli women either, the story of Saul, Samuel and King Agag. King Agag, said, 'the bitterness of death is passed' because he saw nothing wrong with the rapes and deaths of women--and Saul 'spared his sorry ass' to put it mildly,
God said, through Samuel, "because you have made women childless through sword [not dead, dead women can't have children--so He's referring to rapes, and they do this crap in wars and in the Congo today], God said, or the LORD GOD said,
to Agag, 'your mother shall be childless' and then Agag was cut into pieces.
That's a pretty STRONG message from the LORD GOD about how HE views the mistreatment and rapes of women. Same with the nameless concubine--God didn't mess around...look at the numbers of men who were slaughtered over that ONE WOMAN.
You see, that is where the Bible can get a bit difficult in understanding God and the Enemy--knows this, the enemy will use every dirty trick to paint a horrid picture of who God is, [he did so to Eve] and that is how the enemy works, towards humans, and the enemy, Hates women. [read Genesis] So if there is Misogyny, its NOT from God,
its from Satan.
AS for Paul--those again, are scriptures that are taken way out of context, clearly misrepresented, abused, etc., particularly on the silence of women, women's role in the church, heck, the book of Romans, over half of the church, whom Paul addressed, were WOMEN, they were WORKERS, in the church. Not doormats, not even,
Anna, was a prophetess, a very HIGH rank, within the temple. [Luke] Anyway, another time...because, it would take, a book,
to relate what I have found just this past year, if anything, as a FEMINIST, and I am somewhat of a Radical Feminist,
I have, as a woman, become more Empowered, as a woman and feminist and activist, because of God, in Jesus, not the opposite. Even in studying some of the feminists of the way, way early days, in fact, in the Bible [even in the rebuilding of the wall, in book of Nehemiah, God felt it 'important' enough to make sure that one of the daughters, who was a Brick Layer--then a very masculine job], built the wall, that example there is clearly--a strong statement of God's view on the roles of women--they sure aren't by Him, to be what these chauvinist roles are today [that are being spewed from pulpits, etc].
And there are numerous other things, words especially, using feminine Gender, that God used to describe His-Her nature, all over the Old Testament and the way Jesus treated women, with the utmost respect and kindness. [as for why wasn't there female apostles, well, could you imagine, the garbage that they would have spread about Jesus AND about the women, if there was? Misogynists, would and God knows this...God does no evil, to male or female--that includes, sexually exploiting women.]
And the more I have read the Bible and searched, to know Who God is, as HE is, not in the image of man--and God clearly says, in Old Testament "I am NOT a MAN",
as for some of the laws that would in today, seem clearly misogynist, such as if the man dies the brother takes her to wife if she doesn't have a son...I mulled over this one too, [here is the first story of Tamar btw], and you Have to look at some of these laws according to THAT TIME,
in that day, it wasn't like women could just fend for themselves--they would have starved, literally [story of Ruth, really exposes the reality of life not just for women but for men, it was a hard life], and so here I went to study those times--from secular ancient history books. Same thing for the taking of women, in war---in all the societies then, it was very common, for women to be left to starve, to die, to be trafficked as sex slaves, etc.,
this is where the Eved laws are interesting because ironically, they actually worked to 'save' and 'spare' women, not to destroy them, as well as preserving whole societies.
As for the genocides, what people miss--is that some of the people whom God destroyed, were humans mixed with 'fallen angels', the Nephalim, etc., and its all over the Old Testaments--where the 'giants' come from, and they were Giants, not just tall people,
look at the statutes in Egypt, how tall some of those 'gods' are, if you read about Noah, it wasn't that God just one day, got pissed and decided to wipe out everything, go back and read what transpired before, the days of the Nephalim, the days where VIOLENCE was in every corner of the earth and the thoughts of man were EVIL all the time--meaning, to do Evil to someone,
same with Lot--another story that if one doesn't know the whole facts, makes it look like God condones rape--it says, Lot was 'vexed' because of the Evil of that day--and to be vexed means to be tormented, in regards to evil--so yes, Lot wasn't perfect, but in 'comparison' to the evil around him, he was not as evil--it is in the incident with his daughters, that you can see just how polluted those times were--incest, that seemed somewhat 'normalized' from his Daughters, not just Lot--the Moabites,
God in His MERCY, however, continued to reach out to human kind and then, we have Jesus. So, you have to take the Whole meaning, about the evolution or you could say, the dialectics of human kind, through out history,
and, if you look--in Genesis, the 'tree of knowledge' of good AND evil, whom we all, eat off of,
the tree of Life,
in Revelations, the Books, compared to the Book of Life. The books--all the books, words [Jesus said this] claimed by human kind, about good and evil--and that, compared to the book of LIFE,
no flesh, will be 'justified' under the law--the book of knowledge of Good and Evil, because to know good and evil, one has to be a partaker of BOTH.
The Bible is a spiritual book--to be discerned by the spirit, not the natural mind. The problem we get into, is when 'unchanged' hearts, take from the Bible, whether its to 'justify' their deeds [good or evil] or to critique God,
and to close--it was the serpent, who told Eve, that God was 'withholding' and that they would be 'gods' if they took of the tree,
well, here we are, 2009, the 'gods', and we ain't doing so well, as humanity, are we? In the end--the sum of all books, compared to the Book of Life,
will clearly, show that.
Jane
OK, well, lets roll here, LOL, I somewhat 'hate' to get into these discourses but this is WHY the Bible is a Spiritually 'discerned' book, and NOT a literal one,
whether its a 'fundie' who pulls out scriptures to justify such and such, or a 'Critic' who pulls out scriptures to back up such and such--
BOTH ARE OFF BASE, and they BOTH--MISS IT, ENTIRELY.
This is WHY--that one has to read the Entire Bible, not texts, reading texts, fishing in it, etc., is the most sure way, to get into a whole wrong way of thinking, and this is why I do NOT concur with Theology schools either, the 'letter kills, its as simple as that'.
The stories of Hagar, Tamar, an unnamed concubine, and the daughter of Jephthah, do NOT reveal the 'silence of God', but the Cruelty and the Danger that results when Mankind [men, esp] take matters in their own hands, do things out of presumption/usually by molding 'God' into their idea or image, do to each his own, so forth. The reason those stories are 'in' the Bible, is not to condone or to show indifference to these real horrors that btw, happen to women worldwide, on a daily basis, but to reveal that God yes, Does see the horrors and that not ONE woman, is invisible to God, nor is her pain invisible.
When I came back to my faith, I asked God, 'are you a Misogynist'? And I remember reading and coming across the story of the nameless concubine, and Throwing the Bible across the room. I was furious, but deep inside I knew, that somewhere I was missing it. [I also felt this way numerous other times when I came across other scriptures that if taken literally, are yes, misogynist, IF taken literally AND without understanding the Rest of the Bible, and understanding God's character. [BTW, I'm not even Close to a fundie--in fact, the more I read the Bible the more confirmation I got from it to be opposed to fundamentalism in ALL its forms], but anyhow,
so I went back to re-read that story of the nameless concubine, about twenty times. [and the others as well, I did the same thing] One, the 'nameless' concubine is nameless because when women are raped-gang raped, it is not because of what she has done, who she is, her class, her economics, her ethnicity, etc., meaning, its not 'her' fault, it is the Misogyny of MEN, who have zero Value or Respect for women, for her Humanity, and that is why, the concubine's name is not written, God is Showing the devalue of women in a society that if you go to the End of the book of Judges, it clearly says, 'men did as they damn well pleased, with no consideration for law, authority, or love for their neighbor.' If you take what that last chapter of Judges says [and Judges btw, is judges like you see in the courts--meaning, this was a period that there were no judgements, Right judgments, it was a time of Chaos, Anarchy, and where Power, ruled over Power, in other words, who ever has the biggest guns wins---that is another reason the concubine is 'nameless' because concubines have no status, just like women in many societies today OR the poor, like in This society, that are deemed underclass, of no value, etc., God is Showing us something, not being indifferent to this woman,
and in Fact, when the Israelis went to God, and prayed about what happened to this woman, and prayed about what to do, God said to go to war, etc and if you noticed, they didn't win immediately, numerous Israeli men were killed [and I wouldn't be surprised if those Israeli men were not too kind to women themselves--and died because of], anyway eventually the men who committed the crime were killed, and then we see how they exchanged wives, etc., and it doesn't 'say' that God approved of that, it just says what happens, and then, at the end of the book, that 'people did as they pleased, etc'. In other words, because of no laws, no respect or fear of God, of JUSTICE, there was impunity to rape, kill, violate marriage laws, violate the value of life, etc. And God didn't 'see' this nameless woman as worthless--not at all, in fact, it was by HIS arm, that those men Plus some, were killed,
that's first example here that God is not indifferent nor 'silent' when it comes to the mistreatment of women.
Hagar, another example...several things here--one, one of the most important, in NT, where Paul talks about the free woman and the bond-slave woman, Sarah and Hagar, and how God chooses the 'free woman' to be the lineage of Jesus, not the 'slave woman', that is also God saying, HE DOES IN NO WAY, APPROVE, OF SLAVERY, SEX SLAVERY, BONDAGE, of men OR of women. God is all about Freedom--freedom to choose, freedom to love, to be loved, etc., God may 'allow' or 'permit' humankind to have slavery--or to have oppression/to to commit oppression, because God allows free will [I'm obviously not Calvinist] and on the question of 'why', well, Job 31 gives one reason, as to the 'whys'. [and the oppressor, if they don't change--will get due Justice, because you see, God IS justice],
Hagar, if you go back and read about Ishmael, Isha is Female--it means, God sees, God sees 'females' and God took care of Hagar, and her descendants. God did not abandon Hagar nor did He treat her less than...it was the Pharoah btw who gave Hagar to Sarah, when Sarah was taken to be wife--[two stories there, two different cases], and on the slaves then, one has to go back and read what they call the Eved laws and the slavery codes in non-Hebrew societies of that time. Actually, in the Hebrew laws, slaves had more rights--far more, than they did in non-Hebrew societies, you couldn't even hit a slave without reparations. If you knocked out a tooth you had to repay, etc., [its in those laws, if you really study them, that you can see that God didn't condone, but He worked within the systems that MAN had created, to bind up the strongman, and to instill 'fair' laws that Showed how God wanted people, to treat each other...as well as God said, people WON"T obey His laws--love thy neighbor...and we Still don't obey those laws--every Westerner, benefits from slavery, its called sweatshop slavery--and yes, God will one day, judge that--because He is Justice. [something to ponder on when we pass Judgment onto God]
Tamar, another really tragic story about a young girl, raped and then held 'hostage' by her brother, somewhat to preserve 'family honor', a brother who if you go further in the texts, became full of pride because of his beauty, and was killed...but keep going, and you see that he had a daughter, whom he named Tamar--which was a sign of the highest honor, that is why you see the names often used such as Enoch and Tamar [which first Tamar is in Genesis] and Joseph and John, etc. Also the story of Tamar, reveals the harms caused by many marriages, the 'strife' and 'lust' for power, among brothers [fraternicide, etc] and in the story of King Solomon you see the same thing,
Jephthah, another tragic story, again, have to look at the 'epoch' of that time where in non-Hebrew societies [meaning those who worshiped Bael, Marduk, Ashtoreth, etc., they DID sacrifice children, including forced prostitution, etc., to 'appease' the 'gods' for crops, against storms, etc., and through out the Old Testament the Israelis would 'mingle' those rituals and other 'gods' with the laws of God, and these are the horrors that resulted because of...such as making 'vows' and sacrificing children [and its all in the books of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc], etc. God clearly, Demanded, that this practice was NOT done, and His punishment on the people as a nation if it was done and so forth,
Jephthah's father was not following or living by the laws of God, and the Bible says this--this story is also in the book of Judges [same thing with the nameless concubine], this was a time that the people were NOT living according to the laws God had given them through Moses--where it Clearly states, under the 'sexual moral' laws, thou shall NOT pass the children through fire. [Fire, has different meanings and sexual is one of them].
Throwing children off cliffs, into fire , to appease what they believed to be 'gods' [whom I believe are fallen angels, the book of Enoch goes into this], and out of fear. This isn't really hard to believe either because there was a tsunami and earthquake in the forties I believe, in Peru, and legend says there was a child sacrificed in the lake, to appease the 'mountain' gods then--people do desperate things out of FEAR.
But what I did see about this story, is how God once again, didn't just not see but He felt it important enough to lead by Spirit the women, to remember this young woman every year, and that I have read, still goes on today.
So, in Every case here, in Every instance, God felt these women were important enough, to make mention of them, to reveal to us what happens when human kind does not heed God's laws and ways, and that women, have Value to God--and in fact, through my study,
and this started a year ago, I have found more scriptures, not only about how God 'values' women Highly I might add, but God's 'feminine' side which is All over the Bible. God is spirit, both male AND female,
even the 'earth', God set laws that you take care of the Earth, or else...that was the 'sabbath' rest for the earth--and when the Israelis did NOT respect that--in Isaiah, when God speaks about judgment, He says, the 'earth' that SHE will get her Deserved rest, that was denied to her. God even has laws in respecting Animal rights,
in other words, God is more Feminist, than many may think. So, I sort of write this, to stand up, for God and against the 'misrepresentations' of God because in my study [and in lots of prayer] if Anything,
not only is God not a misogynist, God is feminist. ,
the thing is, its how one reads the Bible. If you really read the Bible to understand WHO God is, His/Her character, nature, Justice, then you can see through the literal,
and there are numerous other examples, God even had one king killed because of how this king ordered the 'rapes' of women, not just Israeli women either, the story of Saul, Samuel and King Agag. King Agag, said, 'the bitterness of death is passed' because he saw nothing wrong with the rapes and deaths of women--and Saul 'spared his sorry ass' to put it mildly,
God said, through Samuel, "because you have made women childless through sword [not dead, dead women can't have children--so He's referring to rapes, and they do this crap in wars and in the Congo today], God said, or the LORD GOD said,
to Agag, 'your mother shall be childless' and then Agag was cut into pieces.
That's a pretty STRONG message from the LORD GOD about how HE views the mistreatment and rapes of women. Same with the nameless concubine--God didn't mess around...look at the numbers of men who were slaughtered over that ONE WOMAN.
You see, that is where the Bible can get a bit difficult in understanding God and the Enemy--knows this, the enemy will use every dirty trick to paint a horrid picture of who God is, [he did so to Eve] and that is how the enemy works, towards humans, and the enemy, Hates women. [read Genesis] So if there is Misogyny, its NOT from God,
its from Satan.
AS for Paul--those again, are scriptures that are taken way out of context, clearly misrepresented, abused, etc., particularly on the silence of women, women's role in the church, heck, the book of Romans, over half of the church, whom Paul addressed, were WOMEN, they were WORKERS, in the church. Not doormats, not even,
Anna, was a prophetess, a very HIGH rank, within the temple. [Luke] Anyway, another time...because, it would take, a book,
to relate what I have found just this past year, if anything, as a FEMINIST, and I am somewhat of a Radical Feminist,
I have, as a woman, become more Empowered, as a woman and feminist and activist, because of God, in Jesus, not the opposite. Even in studying some of the feminists of the way, way early days, in fact, in the Bible [even in the rebuilding of the wall, in book of Nehemiah, God felt it 'important' enough to make sure that one of the daughters, who was a Brick Layer--then a very masculine job], built the wall, that example there is clearly--a strong statement of God's view on the roles of women--they sure aren't by Him, to be what these chauvinist roles are today [that are being spewed from pulpits, etc].
And there are numerous other things, words especially, using feminine Gender, that God used to describe His-Her nature, all over the Old Testament and the way Jesus treated women, with the utmost respect and kindness. [as for why wasn't there female apostles, well, could you imagine, the garbage that they would have spread about Jesus AND about the women, if there was? Misogynists, would and God knows this...God does no evil, to male or female--that includes, sexually exploiting women.]
And the more I have read the Bible and searched, to know Who God is, as HE is, not in the image of man--and God clearly says, in Old Testament "I am NOT a MAN",
as for some of the laws that would in today, seem clearly misogynist, such as if the man dies the brother takes her to wife if she doesn't have a son...I mulled over this one too, [here is the first story of Tamar btw], and you Have to look at some of these laws according to THAT TIME,
in that day, it wasn't like women could just fend for themselves--they would have starved, literally [story of Ruth, really exposes the reality of life not just for women but for men, it was a hard life], and so here I went to study those times--from secular ancient history books. Same thing for the taking of women, in war---in all the societies then, it was very common, for women to be left to starve, to die, to be trafficked as sex slaves, etc.,
this is where the Eved laws are interesting because ironically, they actually worked to 'save' and 'spare' women, not to destroy them, as well as preserving whole societies.
As for the genocides, what people miss--is that some of the people whom God destroyed, were humans mixed with 'fallen angels', the Nephalim, etc., and its all over the Old Testaments--where the 'giants' come from, and they were Giants, not just tall people,
look at the statutes in Egypt, how tall some of those 'gods' are, if you read about Noah, it wasn't that God just one day, got pissed and decided to wipe out everything, go back and read what transpired before, the days of the Nephalim, the days where VIOLENCE was in every corner of the earth and the thoughts of man were EVIL all the time--meaning, to do Evil to someone,
same with Lot--another story that if one doesn't know the whole facts, makes it look like God condones rape--it says, Lot was 'vexed' because of the Evil of that day--and to be vexed means to be tormented, in regards to evil--so yes, Lot wasn't perfect, but in 'comparison' to the evil around him, he was not as evil--it is in the incident with his daughters, that you can see just how polluted those times were--incest, that seemed somewhat 'normalized' from his Daughters, not just Lot--the Moabites,
God in His MERCY, however, continued to reach out to human kind and then, we have Jesus. So, you have to take the Whole meaning, about the evolution or you could say, the dialectics of human kind, through out history,
and, if you look--in Genesis, the 'tree of knowledge' of good AND evil, whom we all, eat off of,
the tree of Life,
in Revelations, the Books, compared to the Book of Life. The books--all the books, words [Jesus said this] claimed by human kind, about good and evil--and that, compared to the book of LIFE,
no flesh, will be 'justified' under the law--the book of knowledge of Good and Evil, because to know good and evil, one has to be a partaker of BOTH.
The Bible is a spiritual book--to be discerned by the spirit, not the natural mind. The problem we get into, is when 'unchanged' hearts, take from the Bible, whether its to 'justify' their deeds [good or evil] or to critique God,
and to close--it was the serpent, who told Eve, that God was 'withholding' and that they would be 'gods' if they took of the tree,
well, here we are, 2009, the 'gods', and we ain't doing so well, as humanity, are we? In the end--the sum of all books, compared to the Book of Life,
will clearly, show that.
Jane