Intricacy, Design & Cunning-Judges
by E.T.A Davidson
The Book of Judges, the 7th book of the Old Testament, is a deeply-disturbing anthology of short stories about ambushes, assassinations, murders, dismemberments, spies, deception, tricksters, lawlessness, marriage, concubines, prostitutes, and gang rapes. It is about a frontier society beset by devastating internal and external dangers. More than about religion, it is about daily life during time of war and the need of the community to get their loose cannons under control, develop cooperation among the tribes, and provide wise national leadership if Israel was to survive as a nation. Read aright, it speaks as much to us today as it once did to ancient listeners.
People normally read the stories straight through from beginning to end for their excitingly unpredictable plots, not realizing that every story and word relates to every other story and word. So unless we know how to compare and contrast the different words and stories and catch their cryptic crosscurrents, we will never be able to penetrate the more profound meanings of the book. The ancient storyteller does not interpret the stories for us. Rather, he provokes us to deep thought and consequently induces us to create our own system of laws and ethics.
There are two levels of meaning: 1) the surface meaning containing the narrative, the “action figures,” the comic book, and pulp fiction (the entertainment level for the folk) and 2) the subsurface meaning in which the stories are “law cases” to be judged by listeners and readers (the level for the more scholarly members of the community).
Judges is a wonderful microcosm, a miniature world holding an infinity of meaning. The book is a riddle, an ingenious puzzle that has waited millennia to be solved. Professor Davidson guides us through the labyrinth and unravels the covert messages of Judges which have until now lain undeciphered with Intricacy, Design, and Cunningin the Book of Judges.
When Davidson first saw Rubens’ spectacular painting in the National Gallery in London in 1990, she got permission to use it for the cover. She did not reflect at the time on the fact that people might be shocked and offended by Delilah's bare breast.
But she did not change her mind about using it. For Rubens’ painting illustrates what she learned about these ancient stories, that we all interpret stories in our own personal way. Witness how Milton treated Samson in his great play, Samson Agonistes–as a forerunner and prophecy of Christ, while Rubens illustrates the complexity, humor, horror, beauty, and also the depravity of this spellbinding tale. Samson certainly was depraved. Whether or not he was redeemed by destroying the Temple of Dagon is a conclusion that the ancient storyteller left for us to decide.
Judges is not about the greatness of Israel, but about the decline of Israel, and it predicts what would happen if the Israelites did not choose the right leader. Read the books of Samuel in the Old Testament to find out if they did. These stories are the historic background for the strife that exists in Israel to this very day.
