Now, reading Mike's blog reminded me of something that bugs me about this story (and this has nothing to do with Mike or what he said). It really irritates me when people (mostly pastors who preach on this passage from 1 Samuel 17) play up the fact that little ol' David and his tiny pea shooter of a sling took out big bad Goliath who had all of the best armament of the day.
It's just not true.
First of all, David killed Goliath with the giant's own sword: "Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it" (1 Sam 17:51 NASB). He only knocked down Goliath with the sling (vs. 49). Sunday School has so kindly edited that part of the story out... for better or for worse.
Secondly, the sling was and is an efficient and deadly weapon. Click here if you care enough to read an article on the history of the sling in warfare. The fact is that, in the ancient world, slingers had better range and accuracy than most archers. Slingers were still used in European armies after the advent of firearms. There are records of slingers in the military up u
ntil the 17th century AD!
ntil the 17th century AD!Michael Curtis Ford is one of the better Historical Fiction writers of our day. In his book, "The Ten Thousand" he writes about the Greek cavalry officer, Xenophon, who leads a group of Greek mercenaries to Persia and back. Both Xenophon's actual account of the events(Anabasis) and Ford's book highlight the importance of slingers in the warfare of the Ancient Near East.
Anyway, the Bible itself lends credibility to what I say:
Judges 20:16 "Out of all these people 700 choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss" (NASB). Maybe slight exaggeration but you get the point.
1 Chronicles 12:2 "They were equipped with bows, using both the right hand and the left to sling stones and to shoot arrows from the bow" (NASB). Bows and slings on the same playing field.
So, the point is, that David knew what he was doing. He knew the capabilities of his weapon; he also knew that he didn't have a chance against Goliath up close. Also, it would seem as though Goliath knew what a sling was capable of as he sent his shield-bearer ahead of him (vs. 41) to cut off the angle. However, with God's help and a practiced hand David took down his enemy with a sling... and then killed him.
Sorry for the rant.
Please share your rants; do you have any pet peeves when it comes to the Bible, the Church, or religion?
How much should our Biblical education of children be edited?
There's a lot of violence and fornication in the Bible... what makes it and what doesn't?
What's our criteria?
10 comments:
Don't take this the wrong way Tim. I mean I learned a lot from this post and perhaps we do need to look at how we tell Bible stories to children, but, you really are a nerd. Not that I don't love it, don't get me wrong. Keep up the good work.
Tim
Yeah, I hope Juanita doesn't read this 'cause I'll really get it from her:
"Nerd alert, nerd alert" says Juanita.
"Yeah, but I know stuff about ancient slings and stuff... oh, I see your point" says Tim who then goes to sulk with a nerdy book.
I have to say I don't really want our kids learning about fornication in sunday school. The violence I am a little more okay with. Don't ask me why.
I do think there will be many surprised Veggie Tale watching kids when they grow up and learn that "King George" is really King David and he wasn't really hankering for a rubber ducky;-)
I'm not opposed to a little editing. I wish that we would teach kids more of the side stories and not the same ten every year. That was my pet peeve when I went to Bible School. Nobody had ever shown me some of these other really cool stories in the Bible. To be fair, some of them are not kid friendly (Jael and the tent peg?)
It makes me happy that Tim is such a nerd and knows these things so that he can teach our kids nerdy things too!
Hey, nothin' like raisin' the kids on the cartoon Bible. Juanita,It's all in there! My rant is: 1. those who passionately believe that the "authorized" KJV fell down from heaven directly on Perry F Rockwood's head, written in Egyptian hieroglyfics which could only be read with special white glasses provided by Bob Jones university --and that all other version are written by communists who are bent on destroying the American way of life. But I'm not bitter. My all time favorite KJV text is 1Sam. 25:22 and 34. Read that in Sunday School! 2. My second rant is about Kenneth Taylor who paraphrased the Bible for his 10 kids. I think they could have helped him with Ps 119:105 "Your words are a flashlight..." and Psalm 54:5, "He will cause the evil deeds of my enemies to boomerang upon them." Hey, he wanted Australian aborigonies to understand the Bible. Timothy, what is the word that describes when a person transfers a figure of speech from one time frame to another? Anyhow that's what he did. Juanita, my favorite Ken Taylor verse is his, "You son of a bitch", comment in 1Sam. 20:30. I wonder how his wife liked that one when papa Ken read it to his boys and girls in family devotions.
Fact: in an age (the 60s), costipated with a translation that had served for about 400 years and which churches were loth (I love that word), were loth as I say to change, the Living Bible was a breath of fresh air. Any how those are my rants today.
That word you're looking for, Dad, is ANACHRONISM: "something... that is not in its correct historical or chronological time."
So, the Living Bible is good for little more than anachronisms and cuss words. I'm not sure which I'd rather have; the KJV or TLB. I'll stick with the NASB or the ESV (NIV if I have to).
I have a bit of a pet peeve with what I will call "Christian propaganda". This is the sort of things that are sold in Christian book stores and such. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with Christian book stores, but why do we have to make the distinction? It is good that we can find all of the Christian product that we want in one place, but why can't that place just be a bookstore? And why can't music be subdivided as alternitive, rock/pop, etc instead of Chritian. The problem comes with the clientele of these stores. Probably all Christian. Many of my well educated friends have never heard of a Christian book store in Saskatoon or elsewhere. I also do not want to be judged when I go into these stores when I am with a friend who is not a Christian, who may be wearing clothing that is not deemed "appropriate". Unfortunatly, this has happened to me... this week. So this is my final point on the matter; Why, if we are called to be in the world have we created a fortress that only we access. We cannot shine the light of God's truth into the world if we store all of the lamps in the same place.
Amen! Oh, just wait... now I'm speaking Christianeze (one of my other pet peeves).
Aside from the conceptual issues I share with you about "Christian" bookstores I also abhore the fact that they make grotesque ammounts of money off their sales. As an example, I have been buying a set of commentaries bit by bit... off amazon.ca because (even though each book is only 100 pages or so) amazon sells them for approximately $10 cheaper than Scott's per book. That means that if I get the whole NT I'll save over $200 by NOT buying them at a "Christian" book store.
Unbelievable.
Well, I'll join the Christian book store rant too!
What I really hate are the "prayer of jabez" necklaces, the "inspirational" cards (that you would never be able to give to a non-Christian) and the "40 days of purpose" toilet plungers. What is with that stuff? Don't people realize that they are just being taken advantage of by stupid marketing ploys?!
I would also like to point out that Tim used the incorrect amount of "m's" in his spelling of "ammount."
Haha grammar/spelling nazi. Just wait until your dad sees that! Hehehe.
Now, Juanita, you jjjust leave my boy alone. He used the double mms in ammoount intentionally to empahaize his opinion about the exorbitant amount the Xn bookstores make on their overpriced (in his opinion) products.Cut the young preacher some slack, eh?
Hey, I say you're both wrong. His wife is too hard on him and his Dad is too soft on him. It was a simple typo. He pressed the m key a mite too long. Let's stick to the facts!
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