justice 'texas chainsaw massacre style'

justice 'texas chainsaw massacre style'


tonite is the last class on the book of judges at Collective SJ. we end with the terrible stories in the appendix of the book. the first story in judges 17-18 is about micah, his idols, the levite, and the danites. the second story is about the levite, his concubine, the men of gibeah, and the civil war between 11 tribes vs the tribe of benjamin.

in the second story, the focus is on the levite's so-called 'righteous' action in cutting up his concubine 'texas chainsaw massacre-style' into 12 parts and sent poslaju to the elders of all the tribes to demand for justice for her death. most christians make the levite a hero in the story and sympathize with him.

the reb doesn't. the levite is the 'wan pa tan' and a totally useless fella who had the cheek to demand justice for the death of the concubine. pls re-read the story carefully:

[1] who threw the concubine out to be raped by the men of gibeah?

[2] who saw the concubine at the door's threshold and callously ask her to get up and leave?

[3] the text does not explicitly say she was dead. she may have been alive but he placed her on the donkey and insisted on returning to ephraim with her. did she die along the way? if so, was he not complicit in her death? could she not be saved while at the old man's house in gibeah?

[4] instead of giving her a proper burial, he cut her up into 12 pieces and sent parts of her to all the elders of the tribes to demand justice. 

[5] re-read the levite's version of the story told from his perspective to the elders of the tribes in chap 20. see how he twisted the story to benefit himself.

[a] the levite said it was the leaders of gibeah who rose up against him (cf. worthless fellas of gibeah or the hebrew text 'sons of Belial')

[b] the levite said they meant to kill him (although it was more of to 'know' him)

[c] the levite said they violated his concubine and she is dead (cf. who threw her out from the house? she did not answer him doesn't necessarily she was dead)

[d] the levite took hold of her and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout the country (cf. why nobody asked him why he cut his concubine instead of giving her due respect with a proper burial?)

The story ends with the levite able to muster the largest army together, 400k men. none of the previous judges could do that. and the levite stirred up a civil war which almost eliminated 1 tribe from the nation. and the levite disappears from the story after doing his part, i.e., giving a distorted version of the event which happened.

can you not see the parallels with today? people go to war based on a lie? people agitated to fight against other others? people with self-centered narcissistic interests who are only concerned with themselves? the rest of the people 'fooled' and blinded from the truth? one problem created ended up creating many subsequent problems?  #bookofjudges #leviteandconcubine #civilwar

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