"Their new book, The Uncensored Bible: The Bawdy and Naughty Bits of the Good Book, in stores Monday, raises such questions as "Which 'bone' was Eve made from?"
"Or whether, in the Book of Judges, a king's assassin escapes through a latrine in a tale laden with euphemisms for feces."
That last bit is the story of Ehud, the left-handed judge (Judges 3:12-30). It is not a story you hear in church or synagogue very often, but, if you read carefully, it is funny. And, uh, the key to the Genesis story is that the "bone" may be something other than Adam's "rib."
How might this be, though? The Bible clearly states that Eve was made from one of Adam's "ribs" (Tsela'). Perhaps the next verse, "Bone (etzem) of my bones," is the relevant portion here... If you point Tsela' with a patakh instead of a kametz, however, it can mean "limping" (or "stumbling"). I hope for Adam's sake, the authors of this new book are referring to the "bone of my bones" verse, rather than Eve being made out of Adam's "limp thing."
The Bible truly is such a bawdy book! (shock to many of you, to be sure, but others, not so much)
2 comments:
Everything was bawdy until the 19th century.
I love teaching Judges (violent bloody horrific mess that it may be) and I always make time for Ehud, both because it's scatological and especially because he's left-handed :-)
Post a Comment