The Other Side

August 16, 2014
The Baalist Bible – 2 Kings 18

I asked a while ago [July 18 - "One Act of One Apostle"], if it were helpful to be able to look at things from a different perspective, a story perhaps. It was a rhetorical question.  We all think it is (until we have to do it). I mentioned at the same time that I had found in my father’s papers a version of two chapters of Kings written from the point of view of a prophet or priest of Ba’al. Since then, there have come to hand — I won’t say how — two more. So, I have the events of 2 Kings 18-21 from quite a different point of view. Here they are, in four “plodcasts,” beginning today. You can decide if you want to keep listening tomorrow, Monday, and  Tuesday.

Forenote: The footnote in Oxford Annotated RSV says that these chapters in the Bible “present many exegetical problems” — will a different point of view clear them up or compound them? — the chapters present many problems for the reader devoted to Yahweh, “but the main outlines of the story seem to be clear: Hezekiah revolted against Assyria . . . and Judah was severely punished. Sennacherib himself reported that forty-six of the fortified cities and ‘countless mall villages’ were taken, while Hezekiah was shut up in Jerusalem ‘like a bird in a cage’ . . . .  Jerusalem escaped capture only by the payment of a huge sum for indemnity. Judah was forced to remain a subservient vassal of Assyria.”

 Problems with "plodcast" link?

Just whistle!