Mayhem, Shenanigans, and Hanky-Panky
February 24, 2012
In evaluating a Bible survey course, one student objected that the course included too much sex and violence. I don’t think that was only in the session I guest-taught. They must have actually read the Bible and been surprised at how much sex and violence is there. The title “Holy Bible” doesn’t entice readers by promising juicy stuff like adultery, murder, love songs, war, and mayhem. Maybe that would be “The Shocking-Truths-Revealed-and-Illustrated Bible.” (In a reversal of not promising, I discovered years ago that Augustine’s Confessions, unlike a magazine of the same name, hardly included any racy stuff at all.) Advertised or not, though, the stories of the Bible mix in more mayhem, shenanigans, and hanky-panky than you would expect.
The stories of Samson, the “judge,” have plenty of all three. (See Judges 13-16.) God used Samson to rescue the Israelites from their neighbors, the Philistines, but hardly because he was the poster boy of true devotion. One persistent theme in the Book of Judges is how God chooses and uses unlikely people to protect and lead Israel. The stories make clear, I think, that Samson tops the unlikely list.
The stories about Samson are also very entertaining. They are like many stories about folk heroes, and they are told with relish. Often using great humor, folk hero stories typically tell of the hero’s prowess, cleverness, fatal flaws, near escapes, and final victories, all of which we have in Samson. He was born to unsuspecting country folk and was given secret powers (if he kept his hair – apparently male pattern baldness was not an issue). He could rip lions in half, carry the doors of Gaza’s city gates uphill 35 miles overnight (a feat reminiscent of Paul Bunyan), and kill a thousand enemy warriors with the jawbone of an ass. (This last image has been used later, unflatteringly, to describe annoying public speakers.) He could think up puzzling riddles, and with cleverness and prowess was able to capture 300 foxes, tie pairs of them together by their tails, set their tails on fire, and turn the foxes loose in his enemies’ grain fields. These are mayhem and shenanigan stories, for sure.
For hanky-panky, we can go to the stories (yes, plural) about Samson’s fatal flaw. He found the Philistine (!) women irresistible and was a sucker for fine form and fluttering eyelashes. The dialogues of Samson trying to respond to her “If you really loved me…” pleading are priceless, sad, funny, and the stuff of thousands of plays and sitcoms since. We can still read them aloud with high humor without changing a word.
The Bible tells, sometimes playfully, the story of God’s presence in real human life, including the parts that are embarrassing, ugly, and seamy. Often, for all our sake, we have to include humor to respond to and understand the glory and failure we share.
