The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible 
by 

Jonathan Kirsch

 

Every Day Verses

Like all poetry, what makes the Bible great literature - and rather poorer theology - is its tremendous interpretive density. It is so chocker block full of complex symbols and arcane references that one can find solace, direction, instruction, and insightful comment about almost any situation - in a manner not unlike, I suppose, the I Ching which provokes reflection rather than providing direction. Surprisingly, when it is read as poetry rather than as divine revelation, the Bible can offer far more spiritual food for thought than either religious adherents or their opposing skeptics are likely to recognise.

So Kirsch’s re-telling of some of the most bizarre, filthy, and sometimes incomprehensible biblical tales is edifying as well as entertaining. He extracts psychological as well as literary merit from the most unexpected places - for example, from the story of Lot offering his two daughters to be gang-raped by a rowdy crowd (for which he is rewarded by God) and his intoxicated coupling with his own daughters (with no apparent divine disapproval); to the baffling tales of Abraham (Lot’s uncle) and his son Isaac pimping out their wives to local royalty (to which YHWH takes no note, much less applying his judgment). All have interesting morals that have nothing to do with morality, either when they were written or now.

That these biblical stories are serious accounts reflecting profound understanding of the strangeness of human behaviour (and a tolerance for it) is certainly alien to the fundamentalist idea of the ‘inerrancy’ of the Bible as a guide to correct living. These stories are an embarrassment that even the most casual believer would like to forget about as a trivial misunderstanding of an ancient culture. That they are neither trivial nor culturally obsolete is what Kirsch is out to show. His thoughtful exegesis is first rate, at least as good as that of the majority of biblical scholars. His exposition is wonderfully direct, a lesson in style to those same academics. And his punctuating wit is something never found at all in scholarly papers.*

As Kirsch says, “The biblical authors were master storytellers, and the Bible survives precisely because its stories are so powerful and so resonant.” Narrative mastery is the antithesis of moralistic preaching. In fact, according to Kirsch, “the Bible describes and even seems to encourage a range of human conduct that goes far beyond what is permitted in the Ten Commandments.” In a sense the Bible represents both the best and the worst of the gift of language. It simultaneously offers an expression of a wealth of human experiences, only to have that treasure stolen and made into shackles intended to prevent similar experiences. 

*Kirsch’s inclusion of a quote from Warren Kliewer’s stage play “The Daughters of Lot,” which refers to the descendants of Lot’s daughters, reported in Genesis, as the non-Jewish inhabitants of Israel is priceless: “[T]he story of Lot and his desperate daughters ought to be told in a Yiddish accent ending with: ‘So, after all that work what happened? Their kids were goyim!’”