Lethal Love: Feminist Literary Readings of Biblical Love Stories

Why is death so often associated with love? This is the question that Professor Bal confronts in analyzing five stories of the scriptures from David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, to Adam and Eve. On the minus side, the text is plagued by too much scholarly jargon...but on the plus side, the author has written an indispensable book on the Samson and Delilah story. So, for example, we learn that "Samson involves his parents too much in his sexual relation: it is to them that he offers honey. The sexual symbolism of honey is common in the Bible. Sweetness is related to lust; the honey is in the belly." We discover "Samson is blinded, imprisoned, forced to labor. He is made to walk in circles all day long. Turning around, confined, blinded, his features are of a not-yet born fetus. No Philistine has thought to keep him bald...they simply cannot reach him because he is not yet born." These are fascinating insights into the Bible. As to Judah and Tamar, the author sees Tamar as a person helping Judah overcome his fear of sex/woman as the cultic prostitute helps men overcome their fear of defloration. These are deeply thought out Freudian analysis of the text that add greatly to the stories.