tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post652308245106355745..comments2024-03-07T02:36:52.536-08:00Comments on Can you believe?: His eye is on the collateral damageJohan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-5525357895369793222018-03-27T07:41:47.588-07:002018-03-27T07:41:47.588-07:00Thank you, Brian. I think that Girard's insigh...Thank you, Brian. I think that Girard's insights do apply here. Since Girard regarded sacred history as an expose of the sacrificial system rather than just an affirmation of it, I suppose we're allowed to wonder whether the extinction of the Korahites was a literary device than one that is strictly historical. So "inerrancy" might mean something different than biblical conservatives usually suppose!Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-12728229274133858882018-03-26T09:41:01.728-07:002018-03-26T09:41:01.728-07:00Sorry, I didn't finish a sentence there: "...Sorry, I didn't finish a sentence there: "...but at least one other member of the group could hardly read the passage due to its seeming callousness re: the lives of the Egyptians."BrianYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07893474651475899634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-87649491020073510072018-03-26T09:38:49.120-07:002018-03-26T09:38:49.120-07:00Thanks for articulating this, Johan--I have often ...Thanks for articulating this, Johan--I have often wondered this same thing about the Ex 15 passage, also when singing songs like your praise chorus ("O Mary, Don't You Cry No More" comes to mind). And I remember leading worship as part of a Christian Peacemaker Teams project where we struggled with this passage. I had selected it because of the liberative work of God that it records--but at least one other <br /><br />It seems to me that one of the things going on in (or underneath) the Num 16 passage is a struggle about who the rightful members of the priesthood were to be. The horrific deaths of the Korahites and the ensuing plague are a caution to anyone afterward who would question the primacy of Aaron and his family. I'm sure critical scholars have framed it this way.<br /><br />I guess I would opt for a modification of your option 3, that "in reality, /few/ innocent people suffered just for the sake of shock and awe." Recently I have been trying to better understand Rene Girard's concepts of scapegoating and mimetic desire. I don't have a very good grasp on them yet, but they probably apply in this case... although usually the process of scapegoating involves re-directing collective violence onto a /single/ victim rather than an entire family. It may have been that Korah became the scapegoat in a conflict between Aaron and the Levites, and that the collective punishment that the passage records was an elaboration meant to underline the gravity of the offense against the priesthood.BrianYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07893474651475899634noreply@blogger.com