--- Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Deborah Harrell wrote: > > > So, which do you want for Christmas - action > figures > > of David and Goliath (I didn't see a Jezebel), or > the first Bibleman adventure? > > I want Jael! I want Jael! > > Don't tell me there's no JAEL!
I had no idea who Jael was, and Googled a bit: seems she was one of the few women in the OT to take an active role in nation-building (or at least general-killing), and pre-figured Judith: http://wso.williams.edu/~cbirtche/mpm/bible1.html [Song of Deborah] "Blessed above women shall Jael be, The wife of Heber the Kenite, Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she gave him milk; She brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, And her right hand to the workmen's hammer; And with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, When she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: At her feet he bowed, he fell: Where he bowed, there he fell down dead." And hoo-boy, we have shades of Xena and Gabriel: http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~ws/ws200/fall97/grp4/part3.htm "Deborah made the song because they were friends. They had been through a lot as friends. Neither one of them had any friends before each other. They had stood side by side to each other. They raised their hands in victory. It was meant to show that they weren�t afraid. It also showed the love and joy they shared for each other. The song was about love and victory, yet men never used it. However it was a favorite with the women... ...Barak then came in pursuit of Sisera. Jael met up with him and brought Barak to his dead body. Sisera lay on the ground with a peg through his temple. Deborah has watched the entire slaughter from the top of a near by hill. She laughed. "She had looked so at her husband many times but had never before felt the freedom to laugh out loud." Deborah and Jael smile at each other. They are friends. They touch each other softly. They both know that their husbands will not want to touch them again. Deborah then takes the arms of Jael. She holds up Jael�s right arm for all the men in the army to see. "She has told them that God would deliver Sisera into the hand of the woman." (Maitland 4) The two women laugh again. The men watch them in silence... Umm, I should point out that the latter site is a student (freshman?) project, with poor grammar and an overactive imagination; there are plenty of scholarly sites which note similarities between Canaanite & Egyptian goddesses to this story; here are two: http://msawomen.org/works/deborah.html http://ggreenberg.tripod.com/writings/w-neith-deb.htm Later, William G replied: "Spoof, or do you have a humorectomy?" <hmmph!> Just for that, no Jezebel or Jael doll (excuse me, action figure) for YOU! ;) Wimmyn Of Myth Maru __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
