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About Bathsheba…
Today I’m happy to feature Lindsay Ann Nickens, a budding Old Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary, in this guest post about Bathsheba. Lust, betrayal, shame. These words often come to mind when we hear David and Bathsheba’s story. But 2 Samuel 11–12, where we find their story, is primarily—surprisingly—a war text. The story begins with a spring setting, at a time when kings customarily go to war to enlarge national boundaries and defend territories from invading kings (11:1). The Old Testament describes Yahweh as invested in defending Israel as a place solely devoted to his worship. Yet David chose to stay home during the war season instead of investing…
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What Would Jesus Really Do?
I recently met a woman who works for a major U.S. airline. She worked as a “stewardess” with them for over twenty years. She said when she first started working for them, the stewardesses wore hot pants, high boots, and cropped tops in flight. In her words, “It was Hooters in the sky.” She (we) is grateful the dress code has changed for flight attendants. We’ve heard the old saying, “The world is going to hell in a hand basket.” Maybe, but at least the #MeToo movement has made strides in the right direction. Or so I thought. Because just when I thought we were turning the corner on this…
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The Other “F” Word
While posing for a photo with some female friends at a recent professional event, a colleague announced how well-endowed we are. After my jaw dropped, one of his cronies scuttled over to assure us his friend didn’t mean anything bad by the comment—that he meant it as a compliment. Well, 1962 called. They want their ideology back. Because reducing a colleague down to body parts is the opposite of a compliment. Furthermore, a thought ought to remain inside the confines of one’s head, or else it ceases being a thought. The next morning after a meeting, Mr. Pervy Mc Perv came up behind me, put his arm around my shoulder,…
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Women, the Resurrection, and the #MeToo Movement
Do you know who consistently appears in all Gospel accounts of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection? Was it the apostle Peter? No. How about the beloved disciple, John? No. Then it must have been Jesus’s half-brother, James? No again. The person recorded to have seen it all—Jesus’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection—was not a man; it was a woman, Mary Magdalene. She not only witnessed everything, she was the first person to see the risen Lord (John 20:14–18). Thus she is “honored and revered as the first messenger of Christ’s resurrection—the apostle of the apostles.”[1] Are you shocked and surprised? Does this make you scratch your head in confusion? Are you…
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Papers Relating to Women I Heard at ETS
I spent the past week with a bunch of my theological colleagues at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. Everybody who belongs to the ETS annually signs a statement affirming their belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. And at the national conference, presenters read papers, which they often publish afterward. And I heard some interesting content. Here’s a sampling of some stuff to know: Was it really all about the alcohol? My student Dani (she has guest-posted here in the past) presented for the first time. Her topic was the woman (named Abigail) whom Jonathan Edwards publicly excommunicated. This woman's name has been known for only the past…
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“Biblical Womanhood”: What is a Woman?
What a woman is. She is an image-bearer. It was the first day of a class I was teaching on the role of women in the home, church, and society. Driving in to the seminary where I teach, I thought through the material I planned to cover, and honestly I feared that some of what I’d prepared to say was too elementary for graduate-level students. Many of them were raised in church and have heard messages all their lives. Did they really need to hear again that Genesis 1:26–27 teaches that both male and female were made in the image of God? Nevertheless, I determined I’d better make sure. So I…
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Singleness, Sex, and Cold Showers
“Boys will be boys.” “It’s not healthy to suppress those sexual urges.” “You can’t expect a person to go without it for too long.” “If she (or he) doesn’t ‘put out,’ I’ll just look elsewhere.” We’ve all heard, or been told, one of these lines. Sexual purity and fidelity seem to be values of the past. Just read the most recent headlines associated with the #MeToo (#YoTambien) movement, and you will quickly learn of yet another actor, CEO, judge, pastor, president, reporter, or news broadcaster who has fallen from grace because of his or her history of promiscuity and/or sexual harassment. Where are our role models? How can we…
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#MeToo: A Time to Believe, A Time to Disbelieve
First, we have the accused: Bill Cosby. Donald Trump. Judge Moore. Harvey Weinstein. Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Louis CK, George HW Bush, Dustin Hoffman, James Toback, Brett Ratner, Russell Simmons, Mario Batali, Harry Thomas… . On the other side are the accusers, those who have spoken up via #MeToo, #BalanceTonPorc, #YoTambien, #Ana_kaman, #churchtoo, and many others . . . millions of men and women claiming abuse. One of the surprises for me as so many good people in my life have come forward with their stories is how the initial reaction of some other good people has been to (1) discount it all as a trendy…
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Mary Magdalene = #NotAProstitute
What do you get when you mix myth, legend, incorrect interpretation, and a dose of Hollywood all together? The misrepresented life story of Mary Magdalene—shaken, not stirred. For centuries Mary Magdalene’s reputation as a reformed prostitute has lived on, despite her official Roman Catholic exoneration from bad-girl status in the 1960s. Just do a simple online search for Mary Magdalene and you’ll quickly feel overwhelmed by the plethora of books and movies that portray her not only as the penitent prostitute, but also as Jesus’s secret lover, an apostle greater than John or Peter, and the poster child of gnostic literature. Yet of the thirteen times the New Testament mentions…
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#MeToo : Just Another Trend?
A lot of people think it all started on October 5, 2017, when the New York Times first broke the story accusing Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. Actually, as far as I know, the real first “Me Too” movement started a decade ago by the African-American activist Tarana Burke. And ten years from now, we’ll probably still need one. But about the recent one… Ten days after the NYT story hit, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” Soon, the #MeToo hashtag took over social media. Twitter alone had more than 50,000 uses. But Facebook had 12…
