Dr Paul Allen

Bathsheba was ‘raped’ by King David — a violation that went against her will. Most Bible scholars, leave this situation vaguer and simply say David committed adultery with her, leaving her volition ambiguous, maybe even suggesting that she was a willing participant in the sin.  Is there any evidence in the Bible of whether Bathsheba was willing or unwilling?   David's power as a male king over her, a subject, would immediately classify this as a rape, even if she put up no resistance. Are there any pointers for us in the text itself?” There are pointers that David exerted a kind of pressure on her to warrant the accusation of rape. The act couldn’t be consensual given the power dynamics at play. It is possible for a woman to be sinfully complicit in committing adultery with a very powerful man. There is no evidence for that in this text. He Took Her There are two indications that David threw his weight around — threw his power, his influence, his position — in such a way as t...

Adultery or Rape? What happened between David and Bathsheba? I’ve been looking at a number of different scholarly works on this question over the last few days, and I have found a great deal of help in an article written by Alexander Abasili titled “Was It Rape?: The David and Bathsheba Pericope Re-Examined.” This article gets pretty deep into the weeds. Abisili is doing careful work in the Hebrew and Greek texts, so those trained in biblical languages are probably in the best position to benefit from Abasili’s work. In this article, Abasili argues that much of the debate among commentators is due to varying definitions of the term “rape.” He argues that modern definitions of rape differ from that found in the Old Testament. He writes: Some of the opposing views of exegetes are caused by the imposition of today’s definition of rape upon the narrative of 2 Sam 11-12. [pp. 2-3] In the Hebrew Bible, the concept of coerced sexual relationships is not as wide and all-e...

Most movies end with the bad guy falling off a cliff or being killed in a gruesome way, knowing that the audience will feel satisfaction. In fact, the movies where the bad guy wins are usually in the horror category, and fewer people walk away satisfied. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, we get a lesson about sin . We get to see it in its full glory and it is a terrible sight to behold. But what makes it even more difficult is the fact that it is that our hero, David , who plays the bad guy in this story. And just like with an incredibly twisted movie, the reader is shocked to be shown the hero’s sin, and by the time the reader is convinced that the hero must die, the Prophet Nathan , in 2 Samuel  2:13 , says some incredible words,  “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die…” Of course, this is a famous story, and one we’ve heard preached before, but I do believe that, every once in a while, we must be exposed to the dangers sin brings in the ...

I was again overcome by the story of David’s sin against Uriah (murder) and Bathsheba (adultery) and God’s response in 2 Samuel 11–12. David acknowledges that the one who has done such a thing deserves to die (2 Samuel 12:5), but in the end Nathan says, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die” ( 12:13 ). This is amazing grace. God passes over the sin and takes away the penalty of death. Although the sin is taken away and the death sentence removed, Nathan says, “Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die” ( 12:14 ). In spite of forgiveness, some “penalty” for the sin remains. Disciplinary Consequences I put  penalty  in quotes because I think we must distinguish consequences of forgiven sin (verse 13) from consequences of unforgiven sin . The latter are properly called penalties. The former we should probably call “disciplinary consequences.” That is, they are related to the ...

English: Nathan advises King David (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) One of the penitential psalms, Psalm 51 was written by David after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan . Nathan declared that David had grievously sinned against God in the taking of Bathsheba to be his wife and in the murder of her husband, Uriah. It's important to see the anguish and heartfelt remorse expressed by David, but we must also understand that repentance of the heart is the work of God the Holy Spirit . David is repentant because of the influence of the Holy Spirit upon him. Not only that, but as he writes this prayer, he is writing it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit demonstrates in Psalm 51 how He produces repentance in our hearts. Keep this in mind as we look at the psalm. Psalm 51 begins, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions" (v. 1). Here we see an element that is fundamental...

David and Bathsheba by Jan Matsys, 1562, Louvre (Photo credit: Wikipedia )  For example, in 2 Samuel 11:3, David looks from his window and sees a beautiful woman bathing in an adjacent house. He inquires of her name, and finds out: “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam ?” And from there it becomes your typical king-meets-wife-of-deployed-soldier, affair-pregnancy-murder-cover-up kind of story, and ends up costing David his kingdom. But this story can become confusing when you read in 1 Chronicles 3:5 that David had four children “by Bath-shua , the daughter of Ammiel .” So what gives? Why is Bathsheba’s name spelled differently, and was her father named Ammiel or Eliam? This question is not just simply an issue of missing the forest for the trees—although if you ask this question, please don’t neglect the larger issues of what God wants you to learn from David’s sin and how that ended up dividing the kingdom. But if you spend any time reading Samuel, Kings, and Chron...

David and Bathsheba (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) We all face temptations of many kinds. God wants us to beat them. We don’t have to sin , as powerful as temptations feel. Here are 8 ways to gain the victory. 1. Pray before you are tempted Jesus instructed his disciples to ask God to pray, “Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil .” And as he told us to pray “Give us THIS DAY” our daily bread”, it’s good to ask God to deliver us from temptation and evil THIS DAY. 2. Flee. A good run is better than a bad fall. Stay as far away sin as you can. Don’t think you won’t fall. If you hired someone to transport your most valuable possessions, you wouldn’t tell them to see how close to the edge of a cliff they could drive. In Proverbs 7 a “young man lacking sense” wanders near the house of an woman at twilight, and just “happens” to run into her. She’s dressed sensually. She says her husband’s gone and describes her perfumed bed. Eventually he follows her like an ox going ...

The Guilt of Janet Ames (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When we talk about God 's using guilt, it sounds strange to many people in our society because there's a widespread notion that guilt is something that is intrinsically destructive to human beings and that to impose guilt on anybody is wrong. The idea then emerges that God certainly would never use such a thing as guilt to bring about his will with human beings. If he did, that would be beneath the level of purity we would prefer in our deity. In biblical terms, guilt is something that is real and is objective, and I think it's very important that we distinguish between guilt and guilt feelings. Guilt feelings are emotions that I experience subjectively. Guilt is an objective state of affairs . We see that in our law courts. When a person goes on trial for having broken the law, the question before the jury and before the judge is not, Does the accused feel guilty? but, Is there a real state of affairs that we call ...

David and Bathsheba (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Psalm 51:1-19. Even in its heroes, the Bible does not cover up nor excuse sins . David was one of its heroes. The background to this psalm is found in 2 Samuel , chapters 11 and 12. It was a time of war. David should have been at the front with his army. He fell through a ‘look’. He was not the only one to do so, Gen. 3:6; 13:10, 14, 15, etc. Later, the sin he committed with Bathsheba could not be hidden. Bathsheba was pregnant and David was going to be found out. It led to Uriah ’s murder. The story would never be revealed. But David reckoned without one important factor, 2 Sam. 11:27—all was known to God . What happened in the year following is told in Psalm 32 verses 3, 4. Then Nathan is sent to David with his story of one little ewe lamb. David’s anger is aroused, but he does not see himself in the story. Oh the blinding effect of sin! We are strangely blind to our own faults and sins. We excuse sin in our own lives and are ve...