J. Cheryl Exum

The Theological Dimension of the Samson Saga

Theological interpretation of the Samson Saga, Judg. xiii-xvi, has posed a thorny problem for many exegetes. The strange combination of rowdy adventure stories and theological considerations which we meet in these chapters may be accounted for, at least in part, by recourse to theories about the growth of the tradition. Indeed, one may speak of a consensus among both the early source critics and later form critics that the theological dimension represents a later reflection upon the worldly exploits of the folk hero Samson.2 But serious inquiry into the theology of the saga cannot content itself with investigation of its tradition history, and the question must be posed of the present form of the saga: what theological message does it seek to convey? The message of the saga is frequently characterized in negative terms: Samson squanders his God-given powers and thus provides an example of how a charismatic should not behave.3 Not only are Samsons sexual liaisons and personal vendettas against the

Lovis Corinth's Blinded Samson

In this article, I discuss how Lovis Corinths painting of The Blinded Samson-a highly autobiographical work-led me to see a tragic aspect of the biblical character that I was previously unable to entertain seriously. The discussion is intended to provide an example of the fruitfulness of allowing for a mutual influence between the Bible and the arts. The Bible has inspired artists for centuries and will probably continue to do so; it is also the case that artistic interpretations can influence biblical interpretation in unexpected ways.

Seeing Solomon's Palanquin (Song of Songs 3:6-11)

Song 3:6-11 shares distinctive poetic features with the rest of the Song of Songs, such as the impression of immediacy, the conjuring up of the loved one, the blurring of distinctions between past and present, and the address to an audience that includes the reader. This pericope is constructed in such a way as to bring a luxurious conveyance bearing Solomon (the male lover in his royal guise) from the furthest imaginable horizon, the wilderness, closer and closer to the speaker who describes the procession, and through whose eyes we perceive the sight in greater and greater detail. The poetic analysis sheds light on three debated questions in Song of Songs interpretation: (1) who is the speaker in these verses?, (2) who or what is coming up from the wilderness—a person or an object?, (3) do these verses describe a moving means of transport or a fixed structure?

The Accusing Look: The Abjection of Hagar in Art

For all the emotional tension the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from the household of Abraham suggests, the biblical text is remarkably restrained. This is not the case in art, where the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael is a popular theme, and we find the expulsion depicted with a good deal of attention to the possible feelings of the various characters (not only Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael but often Sarah and Isaac as well, though the text does not mention their presence when Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away). In particular, when artists visualize the scene, they offer viewers what the text withholds, Hagars and Ishmaels point of view, with the result that the viewer, unlike the reader, is openly invited to feel sympathy for them. The article examines narrative transactions that reveal the biblical writerss unease (guilt?) about the treatment of Hagar and Ishmael by approaching the text in the light of selected paintings in which the apparent problematic textual lack of sympathy for Hagars and Ishmaels plight is foregrounded, even if the expulsion is accepted as necessary.

Prophetic Pornography Revisited

In the late 1990s the problem of sexual violence in prophetic texts—violence in which God is the subject and the object of his abuse is female-personified Israel or foreign nations—was widely discussed, at least among female biblical scholars.1 The texts in which God abuses his “wife” Israel or Judah or Jerusalem are different from those in which foreign cities or nations are the object because his covenant with Israel gives God ownership of his wife and control over her sexuality. In these texts, which are my focus here, perceived (essentially male) sins of social corruption and religious infidelity are sexualized and projected onto women. Sin is identified with uncontrolled female lust and unrestrained female sexuality, and it is the promiscuous and rapacious wife’s fault that she is sexually abused because she has invited it by deliberately flaunting her husband’s will. Male control is seen as necessary and desirable. As a means of correction, the woman is punished sexually for her sexual sin in the most degrading way, and this violent physical assault paves the way for the battered woman’s reconciliation with her abusive spouse. Such texts are pornographic because they involve objectification, domination, vindictiveness, pain and degradation. They raise serious ethical questions not only because they are offensive and demeaning but also because they could be seen to give biblical sanction to the sexual abuse of women. Because most readers are likely to read with the text’s ideology and privilege God, the abusive husband’s behaviour is not open to question.2 Indeed, the woman

WHY VIRTUAL HISTORY? ALTERNATIVES, COUNTERFACTUALS, AND THE BIBLE

No one knows better than a biblical historian that the millennium, so anxiously awaited by so many, is a Western, Christian construct, and an inaccurate one at that, both in terms of the probable dating of the birth of Jesus and in terms of counting, for logically the millennium begins with 2001. But as we move into what much of the world is celebrating as the new millennium, the twenty-first century, it seems fitting for those of us working in a discipline whose subject is an ancient text with considerable contemporary currency to reflect on where we are at the fin de siècle and how we got that way. What if important events in ancient