Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Notes from David Marcus, “Gideon’s Two-Part Tests As Signs of Assurance (Judges 6.36-40)"

  

. . . a withdrawal of dew signifies God’s displeasure, as when Elijah predicts the drought to king Ahab: ‘as the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word’ (1 Kgs. 17.1), or even the prophet Haggai explains, ‘therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew’ (Hag. 1.10). Indeed, it is because of the uncertainty of dewfall that Jewish and non-Jewish traditional commentators interpreted the dew allegorically as rain, i.e., as a symbol of God’s providence and grace. For the second century Church Father Irenaeus dew represented ‘the Spirit of God’ (Against Heresies 17.3), while according to the nineteenth century rabbinic commentator Malbim (Meir Loeb Ben Yechiel Michael) it represents ‘divine abundance which comes down from above’ (comment to v. 37). Thus, when Gideon made his requests he could not have been absolutely certain that dew would fall and so his requests for dew and its granting on two successive nights certainly can be considered a legitimate sign of divine grace.

 

In a similar vein, just as the occurrence of dew is not authentic, neither is evaporation of dew, even on stony ground, an automatic process. Evaporation clearly did not happen on the same threshing floor in the second test when Gideon requested that the fleece be dry but the surrounding land be wet. Nor was it likely that natural evaporation could have happened for the first test. Because on the morning after Gideon’s request there was an extraordinary accumulation of dew, so much that Gideon was able to wring out a cup full of water from it: ‘early the next day, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew from the fleece, a bowlful of water’ (v. 38). If such a large amount of dew fell on the fleece, then a proportionate amount of dew must have fallen on the surrounding land, making total natural evaporation extremely unlikely, if not impossible. (David Marcus, “Gideon’s Two-Part Tests As Signs of Assurance (Judges 6.36-40),” in Epigraphy, Iconography, and the Bible, ed. Meir Lubetski and Edith Lubetski [Hebrew Bible Monographs 98; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2022], 67-68)

 

The special effect of reversible signs is that the signs are effective not only in their doing but by also in their undoing. The reversal compound the wondrousness of the original act. In the plague narrative, Moses’s ability to reverse the effects of some of the plagues is considered as great a feat as the plague itself. He is able to reverse the effects of the frogs (Exod. 8.8-14), the insects (Exod. 8.25-28), the thunder and hail (Exod. 9.27-35), and the locusts (Exod. 10.16-20), and these reversals are considered to be every bit as wondrous as the actual plagues themselves. At the time of the Exodus, the waters of the sea of Reeds not only split apart but also fortuitously come back together (Exod. 14.21-30). The two events are celebrated with the grand triumphal hymn of the Song at the Sea (Exod. 15.1-9), Joshua is able to replicate the same double miracle at the River Jordan. Its waters, too split apart and later come back together (Josh. 3.15-4.18).

 

In the story of the man of God and the lying prophet at Bethel, the power of the man of God is greatly enhanced by his being able both to paralyze King Jeroboam’s hand and to undo the paralysis at the king’s request (1 Kgs 13.4-6). In the same way, Gideon’s requests confirm this common motif of reversible signs. Both requests are necessary components of the reversible signs motif, so that Gideon’s first request cannot be attributed to thoughtlessness or oversight but, on the contrary, must be considered purposeful and deliberate.

 

A demonstration of reversible signs was often sued in Mesopotamian and biblical literature by putative leaders to show that they were qualified to assume their position. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish), Marduk was asked before he was installed as leader of the gods to demonstrate that he could both destroy and create a constellation.

 

To Marduk their firstborn said they (these words),
‘Your destiny, O Lord, shall be foremost of the gods,
Command destruction or creation, they shall take place.
At your word the constellation shall be destroyed,
Command again, the constellation shall be intact.’
He commanded and at his word the constellation was destroyed, He
commanded again and the constellation was created anew. (En. El. 4.20-24)

 

In Exodus, Moses is given two such reversible signs. One of these was a rod which became a serpent, which then became a rod again.

 

The Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ And he replied, ‘A rod’. He said, ‘Cast it on the ground’. He cast it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses recoiled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put out your hand and grasp it by the tail’—he put out his hand and seized it, and it became a rod in his hand—‘that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, did appear to you’. (Exod. 4.2-4)

 

The other sign was affected on Moses’s hand, which became leprous before becoming normal.

 

The Lord said to him further, ‘Put your hand into your bosom’. He put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, his hand was encrusted with snowy scales! And He said, ‘Put your hand back into your bosom’.—He put his hand back into his bosom; and when he took it out of his bosom, there it was again like the rest of his body. (Exod. 4.6-7)

 

The purpose of reversible signs it to establish the legitimacy of these leaders. In Marduk’s case it is to show that the other gods placed the power of executive authority in his hands. In Moses’s case it is to authenticate his claims to be God’s messenger. But Gideon’s case is not the same as those of Marduk and Moses because Gideon’s had already been given divine assent as leader and savior of his people.  God had previously guaranteed Gideon that ‘I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian to a man’ (Judg. 6.16), and the spirit of God had already come upon Gideon (v. 34). So, unlike the cases of Marduk and Moses, which have to do with legitimacy and approval for a mission, Gideon requested his signs to test God for assurance of success in his mission. (Ibid., 69-71)

 

Gideon’s reversible signs have more in common with the story of Abraham’s servant, who also tested God by requesting Him to designate the bride for Isaac, via a sign. Both stories fit a pattern for a certain type of test of assurance. In this pattern an individual calls on God for a sign of assurance which will take the form of a two-part test. Both stories have an assurance which will take the form of a two-part test. Both stories have a common formal structure consisting of six separate elements which include an address to the deity (Gen. 24.12a, 42a; Judg. 6.36a, 39a) and a general request for help (Gen. 24.12b, 42b; Judg. 6.36b, 39a. The other four elements are: a description of the setting of the test [Gen. 24.13, 43; Judg. 6.37a, 39c]; the test itself [Gen. 24.14a, 43b-44a; Judg. 6.37b, 39d]; a confirmation of help by the deity [Gen. 24.14b; 44b; Judg. 6.37c, 40a]; and a fulfillment of the test [Gen. 24.15-19, 45-46; Judg. 6.38, 40b]).

 

The actual requests in both stories are introduced by clauses that have tow things in common. Firstly, they both contain the conditional particle אִם and a 2nd. person suffixed form of the particle of existence יֵשׁ (‎אִם־יֶשְׁךָ־נָּא֙ מַצְלִ֣יחַ Gen. 24.42; אִם־יֶשְׁךָ֞ מוֹשִׁ֧יעַ Judg. 6.36). Secondly, neither conditional clause has a following apodosis which would otherwise be expected. Gideon says: ‘If you will deliver (Israel) by my hand’ but there is no conclusion which we would normally introduce by the English word ‘then’. Similarly, Abraham’s servant says: ‘if you will prosper my way’ but here too there is no apodosis, no fulfillment of the condition, no ‘then’ clause. Given the lack of an apodosis, translators are pressed to render these clauses in a variety of ways. Typical are the renderings of the NJPS and the NRSV. The NPJS translated both clauses as emphatics: ‘if You really intend to deliver’ (Judg. 6.36) and ‘if You would indeed grant success to the errand on which I am engaged!’ (Gen. 24.42). For its part the NRSV resorted to a purpose clause in the Judges passage ‘in order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand’, and to a declarative clause in the Genesis one: ‘if now you will only make successful the way I am going’!

 

However, the most important feature both the Genesis and the Judges accounts share is one not found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, namely the motif of a two-part test. . . . Both narratives then use a two-part test as signs of assurance from God. (Ibid., 71-72)

 

Further Reading:


“Testing God,” Gideon, and Praying about the Book of Mormon


Gideon and the Dry Fleece, God giving "signs" to His people, and Praying about the Book of Mormon


Roger Ryan on Gideon and the Fleece