Q.
176
Why are certain stories included in the Bible?
Rebecca Bowman Woods
A.
These are two of the most horrifi c stories in the Bible, especially for
women. I was talking with my friend Amy, who is in the process of
being ordained as a Reform Jewish rabbi, about the “Banned Ques-
tions” project, and I asked her opinion on this one.
Amy pointed out that many of these painful stories about women are in
the context of family, and within families, people often hurt each other. Lot
verbally offers his daughters to an angry mob of men outside his home. They
ignore Lot’s offer and try to break the door down to get to the two angels who
are inside. No thanks to Lot, his daughters are spared.
Jephthah vows that if God helps him win a battle, he will sacrifi ce to
God “whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return
victorious.” He probably expected to see an animal fi rst, not his only child. He
keeps his vow, but he allows his daughter to spend two months in the moun-
tains, “bewailing her virginity” with her friends. Without any children, she
believes that she will not be remembered.
Maybe that’s the point. Stories like these need to be remembered. They
stand alongside the stories of women who have been victims of violence down
through the ages and even today, challenging us to make the world a better,
safer place for women and girls.
Parts of the Bible paint a picture of the world as God intends the world
to be. Other parts describe the world as it is. We don’t move any closer to the
former by removing the latter.Scriptural References
Genesis 19:6–8; Judges 11:29–40; Proverbs 10:12; 17:9; 25:21–22; Luke 6:27–35;
John 13:34–35; Romans 12:9–10; Galatians 5:6; Philippians 1:9–11; 1 Peter
4:8; 1 John 3:14; 4:7–21Suggested Additional Sources for Reading
- Douglas Adams, The Prostitute in the Family Tr e e (Westminster John Knox
Press, 1997). - George Fox, The Journal of George Fox (Friends United Press, 2006).
- Phyllis Tribble, Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical
Narratives (Fortress Press, 1984).