Grabbing a guy’s package = Off with her hand?? (Part 1)
Hi Dojo readers,
I’ve been reading through the book of Deuteronomy the past few weeks, this time using my friend Daniel Block’s commentary on it as I go. Some of you may remember a few posts here in the Dojo I wrote last year as I did the same with Christopher Wright’s wonderful commentary (Wrights is by far the best non-technical commentary out there on Deuteronomy and worth every penny for anyone seeking to understand the overall message of this overlooked book of the Bible!).
Occasionally I’ve shared excerpts which I find especially insightful from Block’s volume on my Facebook timeline.
A few weeks ago I posted a quote and received the following comment from a friend in the comments section:
Here’s a tough one. What do you do with Deut 25: 11,12 ? How can chopping off a woman’s hand ever be seen as a gracious gift, a shadow of the substance of Christ, or a moral response to the situation described? You would expect to read something like this in the Koran but I’ve read the Koran and I’ve never read anything there this brutal or sexist. I asked a Rabbi about this once and he couldn’t come up with a good answer for me. And most Christian theologians I know are surprised when I show this verse to them. There are a few other verses like this in Deuteronomy that almost ruin the book for me. And I don’t want them to. I’m not looking for “gotcha” verses. I just can’t think of any situation where a woman deserves to be treated like this–particularly a woman who’s intent is to protect her husband. And if this really is “the Word of God” it does indeed cause a problem for me in trying to reconcile this with the God revealed to me by Jesus in the gospels. This is a sincere question.
This question is one that anyone who studies Torah has likely heard and/or wrestled with before, of course.
But since few Christians actually read and study the Hebrew Bible–particularly the stuff between Exodus 20 and Joshua 1–many are surprised, or rather, horrified when they stumble upon Deuteronomy 25:11-12:
When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her. (KJV)
If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity. (NRSV)
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. (NIV)
This passage, while often ignored or overlooked by Christians, is readily seized upon by skeptics and those hostile to the Abrahamic religions in order to show that the Bible is really an evil, twisted, bloodthirsty book written by savages who knew nothing but violence and superstition.
Sometimes, such critics even make well-produced and clever videos to convince others of this fact…
So, what do serious readers of Scripture do with passages like Deuteronomy’s “anti-junk-grabbing-during-a-fist-fight” prohibition?
Are these really the words of an Inspired holy book by a loving God?
Furthermore, what possible relevance could this passage have for followers of Jesus today??
Stay tuned in coming days as I look at this passage in a bit more detail and offer some thoughts on it that the skeptics rarely stop to consider.
In the meantime, feel free to share your own thoughts in the comment section below!
-JM
Categories: Biblical Scholarship, Biblical Theology, Blog, Hebrew Bible
[…] a video by an atheist group called “Hands Off.” If you haven’t watched the video, go check it out so you’ll know what I’m talking […]
by Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » Grabbing a guy’s package = Off with her hand?? (Part 2) on Feb 13, 2013 at 7:38 pm