So . . . last night we discussed Jael for TWO HOURS!!! Well, we discussed the Medium of Endor that long as well, but that seemed much more cut and dried. We went round and round about her (as you can imagine) and whether her tent spike and hammer were part of a Divine act or whether she was simply a murderess hailed as a heroine. We would get to the point of reckoning with her, then back to Square 1 again about why she was in the REALLY Bad Girl book if she was led by God. That also got me thinking . . . would Deborah have been hailed a "really bad girl" if she was the one who killed Sisera???
I told my group I would write to you and see if you could share your thoughts on why you put her in the REALLY Bad book versus the Bad or Slighty Bad.
Thank you! Your Sisters in Christ . . . Judi and the WJTTB
THRILLED you have been studying those BGs and RBGs with me!
Your question is a good one. I actually answered it in the "Chat with Liz" section in the back of the 2007 edition of Really Bad Girls of the Bible. Here it is:
What sets apart the women in this book as Really Bad Girls, compared to the rest of the series?
The truth is, these women were remnants—chosen for Bad Girls of the Bible when I was certain I could shoehorn twenty women into one book, then put aside when I realized only ten would fit. Naturally, Bathsheba and company stood around my writing study, hands on hips, demanding a book of their own. I could have called it More Bad Girls of the Bible, but how boring is that? Besides, the eight women in this book were decidedly different than their predecessors. Their stories were more difficult, more challenging, and the dividing line between right and wrong wasn’t always as clearly drawn.
Herodias and Athaliah were “Bad and Proud of It,” making them far worse than some of the just plain Bad Girls. Jael and Tamar both flummoxed me, as they committed truly evil deeds yet contributed to God’s cause, making them “Bad for a Good Reason.” The Medium of En Dor and Bathsheba both catered to a king under the darkness of night. Their actions were indeed bad, but did they really have a choice? That moral ambiguity placed them under a “Bad Moon Rising.” And our two grace-bearers of the book, the Adulteress and the Bleeding Woman, were both “Bad, but Not Condemned” by the Lord, who came to set such women free. A really mixed bag, this group of Really Bad Girls. Even if I didn’t like them all as people, I loved the time I spent with them.
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Judi, had I planned this to be a series from the start, I would have divided the women up very differently. But one book quickly turned into four, so I had to just run with it!
Blessings to all!
Liz