Judges - Midterm Flashcards
When was the earliest the book of Judges could have come into its present form?
722 BCE after the northern kingdom was taken into exile 18:30
What Hebrew root is used interchangeably with “judge”?
Deliver
What category of author is suggested by the dark, scornful humor used as a tool of covenantal narrative in Judges?
Prophetic author
What are examples of satirical humor in Judges?
Maiming of Adoni-bezek the mutilator (1:6–7); Achsah’s bold demands of the mighty warriors Othniel and Caleb (1:14‒15); the left-handed savior from the tribe of Benjamin (“Son-of-the-right-hand”; 3:21); Eglon (“Little-calf”) the fat king of Moab (3:22); the toilet joke (3:24); the “fat” (shamen) Moabite army (3:29); the defeat of the Canaanites, who worshiped the storm god Baal by timid Barak (“Lightning”), apparently by means of a storm from Yahweh (4:8; 5:20‒21); Jael giving milk and covering to Sisera before driving a peg through his skull (5:24‒26); Deborah imagining Sisera’s women imagining two wombs (girls) for every guy (5:30); Gideon refusing kingship, then naming his son Abimelech (“My-father-is-king”; 8:23, 31); Abimelech worrying about being remembered as being killed by a woman (9:54, which is how Joab and maybe David remembers it; see 2 Sam 11:21); the illegitimate son and outlaw Jephthah ruling over the upstanding citizens who cast him out (11:1, 11); Jephthah’s errant “diplomacy” naming the wrong god in a message to the king of Ammon (11:24); the Ephraimites’ “speech impediment” (12:6); the powerful savior against the Philistines, Samson, repeatedly succumbing to Philistine females, especially the sequence of entrapments by Delilah (14:1, 17; 16:1, 4‒20); the once mighty Samson doing a lowly female job at the grinding mill (16:21); Micah’s mother dedicating silver to Yahweh for her son to disobey Yahweh and make an idol with the silver (17:3); the Levite refusing to stay with foreigners at Jebus but going on to stay with Sodom-like Israelites at Gibeah (19:12); expert left-handed slingers of the tribe of Benjamin (“Son-of-the-right-hand”; 20:16); and the formerly morally outraged opponents of the men of Gibeah for their treatment of a woman now advising them to take by force females from Shiloh (21:21).
What is a main feature of the storytelling in Judges?
Dischronological narration
What characterizes the epilogues of Judges?
Backward world
What is the message of Judges?
Israel had been in full rebellion from the beginning
Which earlier book can Judges be compared to for understanding tribal relations?
Genesis and Joshua
Which later realities shape the Judges narrative?
The later realities of the tribal fractures in the days of Israel’s first king, Saul of Gibeah (Benjamin), versus the second king, David of Bethlahem (Judah), shape the Judges narrative (p.69)
What would happen if everything in Judges were stacked end to end?
It would not fit between the exodus and the building of Solomon’s temple in 966 BCE (figure 2.1, p. 70)
What focus do the episodes in Judges maintain according to most scholars?
Most Scholars agree that the episodes maintain a regional focus (p.71)
Why are some judges considered “minor”?
Because the accounts are short (p.71)
What was the geographical sequence of the judges?
The geographical sequence moves from south to north except for the last judge (p.72)
What lines of evidence does eliminate the “problem” of too much time?
The evidence of regional focus, narrative sequence, geography, and timing elements. The major and minor judgeships relate to regional oppressions and tribal situations that could overlap chronologically with one or more of the others (p.72).
What does the narrative sequence move progressively toward? (Judges)
Greater rebellion. Even while the last two episodes are flashbacks to a time immediately after the conquest (p.72).
How do the minor judges relate to the major themes and flow of Judges as a whole?
The minor judges serve to reinforce the major themes and flow of Judges as a whole. Most importantly, the regular appearance of other judges suggests the six major judges were merely representative of a larger set of rebellions and judgements (p.72).
