Does God Hate Women? Poisoned Bible Project Episode 1

Unpacking an Old Testament "Trial by Ordeal"

No matter how much I get excited reading about Jesus and his scandalous, transgressive, and liberative actions in his time on earth, there are just some texts in scripture I’d rather not think about. I see liberation and freedom and justice and equality in everything Jesus does, meeting the culture of his time where they are, and then pushing them to do and be better. But do these arcs of liberation and freedom start with Jesus or is there space to see them earlier in Scripture? 

As someone who thinks the gospel pretty much starts with Hagar--an enslaved, immigrant, woman of color, who was a rape survivor--being the only person in Scripture to name God, I can’t just ignore other texts in the Old Testament that are uncomfortable or worse--downright triggering or hurtful. And of course, the Old Testament doesn’t have a monopoly on hurtful and confusing texts either, but it’s safe to say that more of them are probably there than in the New Testament. 

One of the first texts submitted to the project survey is one I’d forgotten about completely. It is a difficult and unjust passage on first read, and often on second and third reads as well. As such I think it is a good passage to start off our discussions of texts that have often been misunderstood and more frequently misused and therefore are triggering to read because they seem so harsh. 

This is also a good text to discuss the methodology I intend to use when it comes to this project and which I think is ultimately the most helpful way to approach the texts of Scripture. 

In Numbers chapter 5, we find that a man who suspects his wife of adultery can drag her before a priest at the temple for a trial by ordeal (we’ll circle back to this). This is so unjust and one-sided that it would seem the Bible is just blatantly promoting injustice, and those of us on the side of justice and equality and the thriving of all people automatically recoil at such a suggestion.