Alternative Views of Bathsheba in the David and Bathsheba Story

Review of the previous post

The previous post, post number 1 of 23, was the first post in the series the story of David and Bathsheba as it might be viewed through the lens of modern society.

Preview of this post

This post, post number 2 of 23, provides a definition of the term “victim”.

1. Definition of “victim^[1]”

According to the dictionary, a victim is one who is injured or who suffers a loss because of actions which they did not desire or authorize or one who was taken advantage of by another.

The Bible’s view of victims

Since the story of David and Bathsheba appears in the Bible, it might be instructive to see what the Hebrew Bible has to say about victims before beginning an analysis of whether or not Bathsheba was a victim or a proactive participant in the episode.

It appears that a potential victim has several options. The potential victim can: fight back (as per Susanna); surrender (as per the slaves in Egypt prior to Moses); flee (as per some who fled Jerusalem during the Roman siege), outsmart the foe (as per Esther and Tamar); or take action which allows them to fight another day (as per Abraham, Joseph, Esau, David (vis a vis Saul); Hagar and Ishmael; Jacob).  Based on the stories in the Hebrew Bible, it appears that God favors those who either fight back or outsmart the foe, or take action which allows them to fight another day (which includes regrouping or tactically retreating to fight when the situation is more propitious). Because the Bible appears to suggest dire consequences for surrender, capitulation as evidenced by the slaves in Egypt prior to Moses or surrender as advocated by many Jews in Jerusalem during the Roman siege of Jerusalem or flight (as opposed to a tactical retreat, because flight in such an instance is tantamount to surrender, also as evidenced by the Jews who fled Jerusalem during the Roman siege) do not appear to be a desired courses of action. At any rate, being proactive for one’s own defense on some level appears to be the course of action desired by the Bible.

Based on the above, it would seem that the Bible would favor Bathsheba taking some proactive steps to avoid being a surrendering victim. Such proactive steps would also fit the role of women as proposed in the essays of this book. This essay will further explore the story to either confirm of refute this view.

Preview of the next post

The next post, post number 3 of 23 provides a short summary of the story as it will be discussed in this series of posts so the reader and the author of these posts will be viewing the same story.

^[1] It might be noted that the concept of a victim has always been important and remains important today with bullying, abuse, stalking, crime and even aggressive driving all being part of our lives.