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This entry is part of the Blogging-the-Bible series. To see a list of passages, covered so far click here. |
Now that I’ve finished blogging through the entire book of Job, time to start another book of the Bible. Samuel is the next logical choice — it’s my favourite book because it is most like a novel. There’s a definite, coherent plot, it’s structured quite well and rather than copious amounts of law or poetic rambling we are treated to a true masterpiece of narrative fiction.
Other narrative books of the Bible might spend one line on a king’s entire reign, but Samuel lays out three-dimensional warts-and-all portraits of its main characters (Samuel, Saul, David, Absalom). Because of the great scope of the narrative, the book deals with a lot more of the everyday, “down to earth” details about life around the kingdom of Judah, or at least what the authors imagined it to be. So it’s worth slowing the pace down and looking in more detail, as there is much that’s interesting about the trials, tribulations, consolations and cruelties of an ancient wold. Plus it’s an interesting enough story to just try and retell using my biased 21st century spectacles.
Samuel is the closest a biblical book gets to launching straight into action. Other books of the Hebrew Bible (cough-cough…Chronicles) and the New Testament (cough-cough…Matthew+John) start with dreary genealogies. Here, the first character in question is the prophet Samuel so we get straight to Samuel’s “nativity” story. We are in the period where the Israelites have largely settled in Israel after their exodus from Egypt but haven’t conquered the whole land, so the tribes of Israel still live in their territories interspersed with the maligned Canaanites, Jebusites, Moabites etc. The temple is not built yet and the centre of worship is the portable Ark of the Covenant which is stationed in modest lodgings in a town called Shiloh.
We meet a man from the Israelite tribe of Ephraim called Elkanah. He has two wives: Hannah and Pninah. Elkanah prefers Hannah (because he is an asshole) but YHWH has “closed Hannah’s womb”, possibly to even the score. This is Pninah’s one drawcard so she taunts Hannah and makes life miserable for her. To the point that Hannah develops an eating disorder: “the other would taunt her, so that she wept and would not eat(1:7)”. Here then we finally have the traditional biblical marriage conservatives should logically be pining for, with all its family values of jealousy and psychological abuse.
However YHWH is a petty tribal god and can be bought with gifts. In her pain, Hannah makes a vow that if she gets pregnant with a male child (otherwise what’s the point?!) she’ll dedicate the son to YHWH and make sure he never cuts his hair (ie. she’ll make him a Nazirite according to the laws in Numbers 6). This sounds good to the good God, since he will now get to keep the boy for life. Hannah becomes pregnant and when the boy is weaned he’s taken to Shiloh to serve at the temple under the tutelage of Eli the elderly priest.
A side note: Hannah’s earlier prayer for the child is also in Shiloh. She moves her lips but no sound comes out so the same Eli mistakes her for a drunken woman and almost chases her out of the area around the Ark until she deferentially tells him she is stricken with grief. The author’s sympathy is clearly with Hannah and not the curmudgeonly Eli, and from this the Talmud derives that the most pious prayer is done silently. This is why Jews never ever ever pray in a loud, holier-than-thou, showy way.
Anyway, Hannah’s so happy she–[to be continued]
4 comments ↓
This is why Jews never ever ever pray in a loud, holier-than-thou, showy way.
Hm… Do I sense a kind of sarcasm here? (I watched the video…)
BTW, a couple of years ago, on a plane to NY, there were a bunch of young Orthodox Jews carrying musical instruments (violins). Before the plane took off I gave a quick phone call to a Greek friend. An Orthodox Jew turned to me and asked, smiling, if I was speaking in Hebrew. (Clearly, he was an American Jew, with no idea of what Hebrew sounds like.) I replied “no, but I am speaking to a Jew” (a true statement). He gave me a vicious look and did not reply. I tried to star a conversation, a bit later, but I was completely ignored. Clearly, he took my reply as an insult…
Weird, Orthodox Jews are exposed to hundreds of hours of Hebrew in prayer so not sure how he’d mistake it for Greek. As for your comment, maybe he took offense to the use of “a Jew” vs “Jewish”?
I know, it was weird… Also, I don’t remember if I said Jew or Jewish. I didn’t, of course, mean any offence. It was true that I was speaking to a Greek Jew/Jewish.
[...] [continued from previous post] –she sings a song of praise to YHWH. Like similar sentiments in Job, the song might sound good to believers but to me it just makes YHWH sound like a mobster. Here’s a sample: “I gloat over my enemies, I rejoice in Your deliverance…The bows of the mighty are broken and the faltering are girded with strength…The LORD deals death and gives life, casts down into Sheol and gives life(2:1b,4,6)”. Yep, he can either give you a million bucks or break your legs. [...]
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