David and Bathsheba

At the beginning of the Sunday school lesson I mentioned yesterday, the teacher read from the material that the author called the story of David and Bathsheba one of rape.  The teacher was started by this, and had never thought of it before.

Read the story.  It is rape.

Most of my notes following are based on the comments in my study Bible (The New Interpreter's Study Bible) which I highly recommend.

1. David is standing on his roof, and he sees Bathsheba bathing.  She is probably in an inner courtyard bathing - a totally normal thing for a woman of her day to do. 
2. He sees that she is beautiful, and he finds out that her husband is away.  David sends people (more than one messenger) to get her, and to bring her to him.
3. According to Tikva Frymer-Kensky, another telling sign about the situation is that the Scripture does not say he loves her. "For him it is enough that she is beautiful."
4. He knows she is married, and that to give into the temptation as he desires, is to commit adultery.  Adultery is a serious transgression in David's time.  Again, according to Frymer-Kensky, "...all subjects belong to the king.  And whatever the king desires should be his."
5. She came to him, and he lay with her.  She is alone; her husband is away.  She has been summoned by the king.  She has no choice, and no power in this situation. 

When choice is taken away from someone, the action of "laying with her" becomes rape.  She can't say no.  

Which brings us back to the original statement.  Why was the Sunday school teacher surprised? I think, in our culture, and in our Bible study, we see the man's action as "men will be men" or "boys will be boys."  Bathsheba, in our culture, is often seem as a temptation - she must have wanted David to send for her.  Its purity culture as seen in some modern evangelical churches.

Let's stop blaming Bathsheba when we don't have any evidence that she was to blame.  Nathan speaks the truth.