st<\/sup> Century, and especially with the recent rise of the #ChurchToo wing of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, there\u2019s vigorous debate in print and online about whether Bathsheba intended to lure the king\u2019s attentions, or the two shared equal blame for adultery, or David alone was responsible.<\/p>\nLast week on patheos.com, Jonathan Aigner satirized an old-fashioned attitude (often the work of male writers) by listing this among mock themes for youngsters\u2019 summertime Vacation Bible School: \u201cIt Was All Her Fault: How Bathsheba Trapped David.\u201d Such was the tone of some classic paintings or Susan Hayward\u2019s portrayal opposite Gregory Peck in Hollywood\u2019s popular \u201cDavid and Bathsheba\u201d (1951).<\/p>\n
Or consider reference works favored today among conservative Protestants. The \u201cNIV Study Bible\u201d says \u201cBathsheba appears to have been an unprotesting partner\u201d in sexual sin, and Charles Ryrie\u2019s study Bible agrees that she \u201cevidently was not an unwilling participant.\u201d The \u201cESV Study Bible\u201d even brands Bathsheba someone of \u201cquestionable character.\u201d<\/p>\n
On similar lines, noted Jewish commentator Robert Alter of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in 1999 that the Hebrew text may intimate \u201can element of active participation by Bathsheba in David\u2019s sexual summons,\u201d raising the possibility of \u201copportunism, not merely passive submission,\u201d on her part.<\/p>\n
But the \u201cWomen\u2019s Study Bible\u201d (2009) states that \u201cadultery\u201d signals mutual consent \u00a0whereas this situation \u201cwas probably closer to rape.\u201d Other modern analysts insist it was \u201crape,\u201d period. What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n
The sordid biblical story, in brief: Late one afternoon King David was idly strolling on the roof of his palace when he saw a very beautiful woman bathing. He assigned an aide to learn her identity. He reported she was Bathsheba, the granddaughter, daughter and wife of men well-known and respected in royal circles. (Was this to hint that the king should therefore keep hands off?)<\/p>\n
Then comes the laconic pivotal sentence: \u201cSo David sent messengers, and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.\u201d Later, Bathsheba notified David she was pregnant. David summoned her husband Uriah from the battlefield, hoping to cover up his own sin and pin the pregnancy on her spouse. But Uriah refused to cohabit with his wife while fellow soldiers were denied this comfort, thus obeying David\u2019s own rule of chastity for soldiers. The king then ordered commanders to assign Uriah to the thick of battle, making sure he was killed. David was then free to add the widowed Bathsheba to his harem.<\/p>\n
Thus did David violate four of the Ten Commandments, against coveting a neighbor\u2019s wife, adultery, lying, and then murder. The prophet Nathan dramatically pronounced God\u2019s judgment in a confrontation with David. \u201cYou are the man!\u201d Notably, Nathan did not meet to denounce Bathsheba as a sinner.<\/p>\n
The weakness of the Bathsheba-as-wily-temptress scenario, her modern defenders note, is that the Bible says nothing about any romantic intent by her. Ancient homes lacked indoor plumbing so women would often bathe modestly upon roofs or in courtyards. Nor are we told she was fully nude or provocative in any way. (Some interpreters think she was a law-abiding Jew undergoing a ritual bath after her period at a communal mikveh<\/em>, not at her house.) Meanwhile, the king was clearly a guilty peeping Tom.<\/p>\nObviously, Bathsheba could not spurn a summons to meet her monarch, and the Bible does not tell us she knew David\u2019s sexual purpose. The fact that he sent messengers (plural) to usher her to the palace underscored his royal power and prerogatives.<\/p>\n
That brings us to the heart of the matter and how much to read into that pivotal sentence above. Was Bathsheba an aroused, flattered, and willing sexual partner? The Bible does not say so. And we might recall a warning in the Bible attributed to Solomon, the son of Bathsheba and David: \u201cThe dread wrath of a king is like the growling of a lion; he who provokes him to anger forfeits his life.\u201d (Proverbs 20:2).<\/p>\n
The \u201cWomen\u2019s Study Bible\u201d speculates on what Bathsheba might have pondered when David made his fateful move. What would the king do to Uriah or herself if she consented, or if she did not consent? \u00a0What use was there in crying out in protest, since courtiers would never enter the king\u2019s private bedchamber? Who would believe her word if she leveled an accusation against the all-powerful ruler?<\/p>\n
Seventh-day Adventist scholar Richard M. Davidson, updating the view of his church\u2019s female founder Ellen White in a 2006 article, said in modern terms this constituted \u201cpower rape.\u201d He said this Bible passage levels the strongest possible condemnation not just against David but \u201call men in positions of power\u201d who \u201cvictimize women sexually.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah Bowler (who studied at Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary), the author of \u201cBathsheba\u2019s Responsibility\u201d (2014), insists that David must be labeled as guilty of \u201crape\u201d because otherwise Bible readers will suppose she was \u201cpartly at fault.\u201d Australian Catholics Antony and Mark O\u2019Brien say much the same. Erin Moritz, a chaplain at Berry College (and divinity graduate of Liberty University) concludes that \u201cconsent under duress is not consent\u201d and Bathsheba was \u201ca victim through and through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evangelical Covenant Church Pastor Gricel Medina applies the Bible\u2019s account to the present moment: \u201cOur attitude toward abuse is reflected in how we often tell this story, in that we blame the victim and fail to see the abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bathsheba appears two other times in the Bible. She works alongside the prophet Nathan to ensure that son Solomon inherits the throne of David rather than his older half-brother. Jewish tradition often honors her for this deed. Then in the genealogy that begins the New Testament\u2019s Gospel of Matthew, the unnamed \u201cwife of Uriah\u201d is included as an ancestor of Jesus Christ, alongside David and Solomon.<\/p>\n
Footnote: It is often thought that a passage about David in Islam\u2019s Quran (38:20-25) \u00a0makes an oblique reference to the Bible\u2019s narrative about Bathsheba. But \u201cThe Study Quran\u201d says in the Muslim view adultery by David would have been \u201can abomination that could not have been committed by a prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the most notorious sexual encounter of ancient times. In a remarkably candid account in the Bible (2d Samuel chapters 11 and 12), the great King David impregnates \u00a0Bathsheba when both were married to others. In the 21st Century, and especially with the recent rise of the #ChurchToo wing of the #MeToo movement against sexual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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