Intricacy, Design, and Cunning in the Book of Judges

(Xlibris, 2008). Can be purchased online at xlibris.com, amazon.com, etc.)

This, like all my work on the Bible, is a secular literary criticism of the Bible and is not primarily theological. Since I always taught in secular institutions, my criticism is consistent with my teaching of ancient world literature. That is one of the things that makes my book quite different from the traditional biblical scholarship.

Intricacy, Design, and Cunning in the Book of Judges
by E. T. A. Davidson

            The Book of Judges in the Bible is a deeply-disturbing anthology of short stories about a people desperate for survival. A comedy of horrors, its dynamic interactive tales–teeming with life–display secrecy, deceptions, spying, ambushes, assassinations, murders, and dismemberments, clever, tricky underdog behavior, improvised weapons, one passionate illicit love affair, and alas, gang rapes. We can turn back to it again and again, puzzling over its kaleidoscopic turns, and at each turn, the more we study it, the more we learn about human behavior and the Israelites’ need for a code of ethics. As with all great art, it is inexhaustible. Though about an ancient world, it teaches us much about ourselves.
            As for the cover of the book, Davidson saw Rubens’ painting in the National Gallery in London in 1990 and instantly chose it for the cover. She saw, but didn't think much about the fact, that Delilah's breast is uncovered–until much later when it came to her that many people will be shocked and offended by it.
            But she won’t change it, as it illustrates many of the things that she found in Judges. Judges is not about the greatness of Israel, but about the decline of Israel, and it predicts what will happen if Israelites don’t mend their ways. The painting illustrates the complexity, depravity, humor, horror, beauty and most important, one reader’s (Rubens’) personal interpretation of a spellbinding tale. We all fill in the gaps in our own personal way–witness the differences between how Milton treated Samson in his great play and Rubens’ understanding of him in this painting.
            Judges is in one respect an intricate puzzle waiting to be solved. Learning the secrets of this ancient masterpiece of world literature and deciphering its profound messages should give pleasure to all–whether religious or not. Intricacy, Design, and Cunning in the Book of Judges penetrates its mysteries for us.
            Davidson, for many years a professor of world literature, is also a biblical scholar.