Biblical Roots Misogyny June 2, 2014

Copyright 2014, David M. Sherr Annals of a Running Dog P a g e | 1

Context
Today, in the middle of my daily 3.2-mile walk, I sat on the bench at the Mt Diablo Vista, meditating,

listening to Philharmonica Baroque render Handels Jephthas Chorus, clearing my mind in preparation
to update a technical report, scheduled in draft this week.
The music was beautiful and mournful. I then realized that this is a current Misogyny meme sweeping
Social MediaUCSB Shooting. The image from a Dore Bible Print popped into my head:

As the debate around misogyny and Roger Elliotts horrific deeds, his story emerges as a Tale of Terror.
How schooled Elliott was in Biblical attitudes about women as property? He got it somewhere!
I am holding to the position that Misogynistic Memes are a cancer on Human Psyche and need to be
contained and eliminated. I seriously dont care for a belief system in whose G-d tells them it is okay
terrorize women. Call me Crazy. Call me Humanist.
Biblical Roots Misogyny June 2, 2014
Copyright 2014, David M. Sherr Annals of a Running Dog P a g e | 2
Problem
As a Judeo-Christian based society by default, Biblical Memes pervade the United states. For men of the
Old Bible women were theirs to do as they wished. I am against this and any other kind of Sharia Law of
the Judeo-Christian or Islamic variety.
Take the story of Jephthahs daughter. If I were pitching a movie, it would be Mourning Before I die.
Tagline: Father promises G-d a gift of the first thing he sees upon return from a successful battle. (later
Greek, Agamemnon and Iphigenia, but the sacrifice of the daughter is after the battle, not to bring the
battle on). The movie would be the day of death after a year of reprieve.
The daughters mother (notice, the women are not even named!!) pleads successfully for putting it off a
year in hopes that Jephthah will soften. But no, not this devout man: A promise to God cannot be
broken without dire consequences.
Dont like that story? Okay how about Abraham turning into the desert with Ishmael and a jug of water?

Why? Well, Sarah had purportedly just given birth to Isaac in her 90s and, wanting her son to be
Number 1. It is misogyny disguised as feminine rivalry. If Abraham truly loved Ishmael, he could have
refused. Instead, he succumbed to Saras supposed will.
I can see this movie too, but a slightly different twist with Sara pretending to be pregnant and then
purchasing a baby boy from one of the shepherds women. It was good to be the Number 1 wife of the
Patriarch.
So much for Big Love and Sister Wives.
But this is not clearly a direct Misogynistic story, but a Tale of Terror nonetheless for Hagar and Ishmael.
Biblical Roots Misogyny June 2, 2014
Copyright 2014, David M. Sherr Annals of a Running Dog P a g e | 3

A coup de grace example of what I consider the worst Tale of Terror in the BibleJudges 19.

This poor woman, really a girl of about 10, was raped by the village men in the night and left on her
fathers doorstep. How could this happen? Of course, therein lays the tale.
Storyline: An unnamed Levite has a purchased concubine of about 10 years old flee back to her fathers
village. Having paid a good price of a camel for her, the Levite pursues to the girls village and confronts
the father who, of course, receives him in an hospital manner. The Levite is insistent about his chattel.
The young girl pleads with her father to not force her to return. The father demurs pitying his daughter
and offers the Levite a full refund plus a sheep. But the Levite is insistent still.
Undeterred, the father declaims that he must serve the Levite a meal before his journey back to his
village. The father then offers a great meal and libation in hopes of mollifying the Levites anger.
The day moves on to evening and the father tells the Levite that it is not safe for him to return to his
village as night is falling. Just then, the men of village having noticed the stranger, the unnamed Levite is
still in the village, call for the girls father to send him out: That we may know him. The translation of
know from the Hebrew is carnal knowledge.
The father protests that it would be a great dishonor to him if he were to treat guest thusly. And so the
Levite, still the lawful owner of the girl, sends her out instead!
All night, she is gang-raped and left on the doorstep in the morningtruly, a Tale of Extreme Terror.
Biblical Roots Misogyny June 2, 2014
Copyright 2014, David M. Sherr Annals of a Running Dog P a g e | 4
The story does not end there. Dore cannot bring himself to render the actual final disposition of the
poor girl. She was carried off whole.

And was then she was cut into 12 pieces by the unnamed Levite and spread to all the tribes.
Fade to white!

HUH?!! WTF!?

What a macabre image! What was this unnamed Levite thinking, if at all? Clearly, misogynistic in
behavior, if not also attitude. Seeing that the father was not disposed to send him out, he sacrificed the
girl to save his own sorry ass, literally. He wouldnt have been there save the fact that he considered the
girl property AND was arrogant enough to insist on a deal regardless of the fathers sellers remorse.

This could go on and on and on. But, best to stop it now.