Some Oddball Books of the Hebrew Bible (Part 2)

by James Davisson

Part 1 of this post is here.

I'm discussing a few of the weirder books in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is about the relationship between God and God's people, Israel, but a few of its books are missing one or the other.

From William Russell Flint's "Song of Solomon"

SONG OF SONGS:

What it is: Song of Songs (AKA Song of Solomon) is a book of love poems (or, uh, lust poems—a sizable portion of them is devoted to the speakers' descriptions of their significant others' rockin' bods).

What it's missing: God. Song of Songs makes no mention of God, and though it is clearly set in Israel, it never mentions the Law or the covenant between God and Israel.

How it got in there: It's included in the Bible because the whole thing has been interpreted as a metaphor for God's love for Israel (and then, later, as Christ's love for the Church). While this was undoubtedly not the original intent of the book, there is certainly value in reading Biblical books in new lights and finding meanings in them beyond what their original authors intended.

Why it's interesting: The authors of the Hebrew Bible felt free to reinterpret and rethink older works, and the New Testament reinterprets and rereads the Hebrew Bible in a new light constantly. Without new interpretations for new contexts, the Bible would only be an interesting artifact of a specific time and place several thousand years ago, rather than a book that informs and shapes the lives of millions of people every day. Finding a book of sexy love poems like the Song of Songs in the Bible is certainly odd, but I think reinterpreting it as a divine message of love is beautiful and interesting.

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"Obadiah the Prophet," James Tissot

OBADIAH:

What it is: Obadiah is a book of prophecy written after Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians and some of its people were taken into exile.

What it's missing: Israel. Obadiah is (nostly) missing "Israel," but in a different way from Job. Obadiah is Jewish and is writing from Judah, but he directs the content of his book almost entirely at a foreign nation, Edom. He is really, really angry at Edom and calls down God's judgment on them because they moved into Jerusalem and took advantage of its people and possessions after the city was sacked. And that's about it, really; Obadiah's so short, it is the only book in the Hebrew Bible that hasn't been divided into chapters. (The New Testament is rife with such books, though, which include Philemon, 2 and 3 John, and Jude.)

With one other exception (it's the next item on this list), all the prophetic books of the Bible are focused squarely on Israel, calling out her people for their wrongdoings and injustice, and warning them of the coming judgment if they don't change their ways.

How it got in there: I'm not aware of any controversy in including Obadiah in the Hebrew Bible. A good bet for the reason why is Obadiah's hopeful ending, which predicts the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. (So Israel is technically in Obadiah, though again, not at all in focus like a typical Hebrew Bible book.)

Why it's interesting: The fact that Obadiah is sure God will bring justice on the wicked Edomites conveys the idea that God is the God of everywhere, not just Israel, just as the book of Job does. But it communicates that idea in a disconcertingly violent and unsettling way, and it's not the main point of the book.

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"Nahum," Russian Orthodox icon

NAHUM:

What it is: Nahum is a book of prophecy about the fall of the capital of Assyria.

What it's missing: Israel. Nahum is just like Obadiah: it's a prophetic book, written by a man from Judah, that is directed entirely at an outside nation. In this case, it's Assyria, but Nahum is even more strange to my ears than Obadiah, because he's not attacking someone over a specific injustice, but simply gloating over the doom of a long-hated enemy.

How it got in there: Like with Obadiah, I'm not aware of any controversy over including Nahum. My commentary suggests its value lies in "a belief in God's just government of world affairs," a belief that has never been easy to sustain, least of all in our own day and age. 

Why it's interesting: Assyria was a regional superpower in Nahum's day, and it had obliterated the northern nation of Israel about a century before he wrote. In Nahum's time, though, Assyria's capital city Nineveh was sacked by the Babylonians and Medes. Assyria generally had a reputation for cruelty and the people of Judah had a lot of reason to hate them, so it's unsurprising that people would be happy about another country's army crushing Nineveh. But it's pretty strange to see a Biblical book dedicated almost entirely to rejoicing over another nation getting a vicious beatdown.

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SUMMING UP:

The Hebrew Bible is a weird place, and never more so than when it's defying expectations and including books that break the mold. While none of these books is my favorite, I'm glad they're all included. Looked at together, they show us even more strongly that this idea I leaned on pretty heavily in the first post is true: the Bible is a discussion among many ideas and a dialog among many stories; it's not a single, clear narrative or unified text.

For Christians, a huge part of what makes the Hebrew Bible important is that it was Jesus' Bible, and every part of it has the potential to inform us about who he was and what he had to say. Even the parts that seem especially odd to modern readers like me. Regardless of its messiness, the Hebrew Bible is deeply valuable.

It would be great in some ways to have a Bible that was written by a single person from start to finish. It would probably have fewer internal contradictions and be clearer about what it expected from us. There are religions that have this kind of scripture, or something close to it: Mormonism and Islam both come to mind. But as Christians, the Bible is what we have. In its way, it's incredibly beautiful, and the diversity of voices, stories, and ideas can lead to more fruitful conversations about the nature of God and faith.

But only if we let it. The notion that the Bible is a frequently fictional and often contradictory book is not new, but it is still controversial in most Christian denominations, and even where it is not, we rarely discuss what it means or think about it honestly and openly. And I really think that should change.

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Photo Sources:
1. mydelineatedlife.blogspot.com
2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tissot_Obadiah.jpg
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nahum-prophet.jpg