What duties and powers were given to a Roman governor?

Anyone who has read or heard about the proceedings leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion knows about Pilate. He was the Roman governor of Judea at the time of Jesus’ ministry and execution. After reading about him for the third time (and soon a fourth when we get to John), I began wondering what it meant to be a Roman governor, and I thought it would be interesting to research what his powers and duties would have been. So, I guess my official question question/title is: What duties and powers did a Roman governor have?

Rome had few officials in its provinces; an imperial province would be administered by only the governor and a small number of personal staff. The governor’s concerns, therefore, had to be limited to essentials, principally the maintenance of law and order, judicial matters and the collection of taxes. To enable him to carry out his duties, the governor possessed imperium, or the supreme administrative power in the province.

Although this seemed extremely obvious, I wanted to find a kind of general definition for Roman governors. One source defined them as senators (or knights) who ruled the provinces of the Roman empire. 

As it turns out, there were more than just one type of Roman governor: (1) Proconsuls, (2) Legati Augusti pro praetore (which translates as “Representatives of the August propraetor”), and (3) Prefects. 

Pontius Pilate fell into the third categorie. (When I saw that he was a prefect, I immediately imagined him at Hogwarts yelling, “10 Points from the Sanhedrin!”)

There was a third group of governors. In several unimportant provinces, prefects were appointed. Usually, these military men governed parts of larger provinces. The best known example is Pontius Pilate, who governed Judaea, an annex to Syria. Prefects were not senators but knights.

When looking up how someone became a governor/prefect, one sources noted that some governors were specifically appointed by the Emperor, but others were appointed by the consuls to act in the consuls’ absence from Rome. 

This seemed a bit confusing when it came to figuring out who they had to answer to. Which ones were appointed directly by the emperor to an area? And which ones were appointed by someone who was appointed by the emperor? In hindsight, I think that they should have done a much better job about writing things like this down, so as not to confuse History majors as much.

Thankfully, amongst the confusing, one source very convieniently gave an in-depth description of a governor’s responsibilities:

-To start with, he was responsible for the taxes. As the Senate’s financial agent, he had to supervise the local authorities and the private tax collectors, the notorious publicans. To facilitate things, a governor could mint coins and negotiate with wealthy institutions (e.g., temples) that could advance the money.

-His second job was also that of accountant: he inspected the books and supervised large scale building projects.

-Next to these financial tasks, the governor was the province’s supreme judge. Appeal was not impossible, but the voyage to Rome was expensive. He was supposed to travel through the main districts of his province to administer justice in the assize towns. 

-Finally, he commanded an army. In the more important provinces, this could consist of legions; but elsewhere, there were only auxiliaries.

Another source echoed this (in condensed form): As a Roman prefect, he was granted the power of a supreme judge, which meant that he had the sole authority to order a criminal’s execution. His duties as a prefect included such mundane tasks as tax collection and managing construction projects. But, perhaps his most crucial responsibility was that of maintaining law and order. 

I think that this is the first blog that I’ve done where I did not come up with any surprising facts about what I was researching. All of the sources gave very straightforward answers as to what a governor (prefect, etc.) could do.

Something that I found very frustrating and confusing was the fact that so many of the sources used the terms “consul”, “governor”, “prefect”, etc. interchangeably, so in reading about their different duties, it was hard to keep check on which position held with powers.

So I decided to do an allusion this week instead of a normal blog on the Book of Mark, and not only do I get to discuss one of my favorite televisions series, The Simpsons, but I get to talk about another member of the “Bad Girls of the Bible” club, Delilah.

The story being alluded to:

In the Old Testament, Delilah is approached by the Philistines, who offer to pay her if she can discover the secret to his strength. The first three times she asks, he gives her a false answer, but the fourth time, he tells her the truth: that his hair is the secret to his power. When Samson fell asleep, Delilah called the men to shave off his hair, taking all of his strength.

In my Game of Thrones allusion, I spent some time describing just what the series is about, but I honestly don’t feel like I have to explain to anyone what The Simpsons are, right? Everyone has yellow skin, dad likes beer and donuts, mom has some really big hair?

The allusion:

This specific allusion takes place in the episode called “Simpson and Delilah” from the second season. One day, Homer sees a commercial for Dimoxinil, a hair tonic. Homer, who is very bald except for a couple stray hairs on the side of his head, sees a doctor hoping to get some Dimoxinil, but learns that it’s way to expensive for him to afford. One of Homer’s friends suggests that he use Springfield Nuclear Power Plant’s health plan to pay for the tonic by “creatively” filling out the insurance forms.

After obtaining the tonic and applying it to his head, Homer wakes up with a full head of hair. That day at work, because of his new luscious locks, Mr. Burns chooses Homer for a promotion to be an executive. I won’t go into complete detail of everything that happens in this episode, but everything is really looking up for Homer at this point. This continues until Smithers, jealous over the attention that Mr. Burns is giving Homer, begins to snoop around in the company’s record and realizes that Homer’s forms for charging the company’s health plan for his hair tonic were fraudulent. He confronts Homer (and his new assistant), Karl, with the charges, but Karl takes the fall for Homer.

When Homer gets home, he finds Bart using the tonic in order to try and grow a beard. Bart drops the bottle, spilling the remainder of the tonic on the floor. By the time for a meeting at work the next day, all of Homer’s hair has vanished. Even though he was technically fired, Karl shows up and helps him prepare to speak in front of the meeting, telling him that it wasn’t the hair that did everything. Unfortunately for Homer, none of the executives are willing to take him seriously with no hair, even though he did very well in front of them. Voicing his displeasure, Mr. Burns takes away his position as an executive but gives him his old job back.

I feel like this is an allusion because of where both men’s success and power came from. Just as Samson derived all of his strength and power from his hair, Homer achieved all of his success because of his newly re-grown mane. But once the hair was gone, Samson was left powerless, and Homer lost everything he had gained since trying the hair tonic.

(All information about the episode was taken from http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Simpson_and_Delilah and from the area of my brain where I store generally useless junk from television shows)

Who was Herodias?

I would like to begin this blog with a quote that I feel is pretty relevant: “A woman’s responsible for original sin. A woman cuts Samson’s coif of power. A woman asks for the head of John the Baptist. Read that book again sometime. Women are painted as bigger antagonists than the Egyptians and Romans combined. It stinks.” -Serendipity, Dogma

Whenever I am introduced to a set of characters, whether in movies, books, etc, there is always one type that is my favorite to read about: what some would call “wicked women”. Powerful, ambitious, manipulative… the “bad guys” (or girls in this case.) Which is one reason why the Bible is so interesting to me now, because it’s absolutely chock full of them. I love reading about women who know what they want and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to get it. (Don’t give me Catelyn Stark, give me Cersei Lannister.)

Well, the 14th chapter of Matthew gave me Herodias.

It’s a story that many who are at least partially acquainted with the New Testament know. John the Baptist is already in prison. Herod is having a large feast, and at the feast, Herodias’ daughter dances for him. He is so pleased with her dancing, that he offers her anything she wants. Her request, prompted by her mother, is the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

I immediately wanted to know more about this woman. I wanted to find out more of her background, more about the whole “head on a platter” situation, and what exactly happened to her afterward. So my first question from the New Testament, in simpler terms, is: Who was Herodias?

Firstly, I would like to say that when I was doing my research, it was blatantly obvious which websites were religiously slanted and which were not. From the point of view of Christian scholars, she is (apparently) the vilest, cruelest, more horrendously evil creature to ever exist. (One of them literally refers to her as a “hyena”, y’all) 

Okay, one of the first things that I wondered about her was about her name, since it literally has “Herod” in it, and I found out that “as a member of the Herodian dynasty, the name ‘Herodias’ is but the female form of Herod, the royal name for the political rulers during the time of Christ and the apostles.”

The only site that had a date of birth for her (which was technically Wikipedia– I know, I know…) says that she was born in 14 BC, and Britannica has her death set in AD 39, so she lived about 53 years.

On the surface, she was “the wife of Herod Antipas, who was tetrarch (ruler appointed by Rome) of Galilee, in northern Palestine, from 4 bc to ad 39.” But there was more to their marriage than meets the eye. Their union was viewed as both adulterous and incestuous: “her marriage to Herod Antipas (himself divorced), after her divorce from his half-brother, was censured by John [the Baptist] as a transgression of Mosaic Law.”

His criticism of their relationship is what eventually led to his arrest:

For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”
(Matthew 14:3-4 ESV)

According to most of the sources, as well as the Book of Matthew, Herod was at first unwilling to put John to death because the people held him in very high regard as a prophet. So Herodias, being the evil villainess that she is, comes up with her own plan to have John executed.

“On the day when drink freely flowed, Herodias used her own daughter to inflame Herod’s passions. She was willing to sacrifice her child’s modesty in order to bend Herod to her will. Herod was overcome by Salome’s form seen through the flowing flimsy garment she wore, and influenced by the act of the dancing girl took a rash and foolish oath to give her whatever she asked, even to half of his kingdom.”

After he makes this oath to Salome, she goes to Mommy Dearest and asks her what she should request. Herodias tells her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod realizes that he has made a very stupid decision, since he is now bound by oath to give the girl whatever she requests, even if it’s to make John a bit shorter.

But even though Herodias’ desire is to have John beheaded, I began to wonder, how much did her request really influence Herod into chopping off John’s head? Most (if not all) of the religiously slanted sites place full blame on Herodias, however, one source says: “Josephus gives the main facts, but adds that John was put to death because Herod feared his influence over the people. [Scholars admit] that here both the Evangelists and Josephus may be right; since all the motives mentioned may have urged Herod to imprison and murder John.”

Although there is no way of determining just how much influence she had over Herod when it came to the death of John the Baptist, there is one more noted incident of her manipulation:

“When Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, became king, she persuaded Antipas to go to Rome in search of the royal title, as his claim to it was far greater than that of her brother. Instead of a crown, however, he found awaiting him a charge of treason against the Romans, with Agrippa as chief accuser, who in advance had sent messengers to defeat the ambitious plans of Antipas. He was therefore banished to Lyons in Gaul. At the same time Herodias, spurning the kind offers of the emperor, preferred exile with Antipas to a life of splendor in the palace of her brother Agrippa.”

Her decision to go into exile with her husband is really interesting to me. From the descriptions of her, both in the Bible and in the other sources, she seems like the kind of person who would be looking out for #1, and wouldn’t really give too much thought into what happened to anyone else as long as she got what she wanted. But this definitely challenged this idea for me. Did she divorce her first husband just to gain more power for herself, or did she actually love Antipas? If she was only concerned with power, then why wouldn’t she rather spend the rest of her days living the life of luxury with her brother? Of course, there is no way of knowing anything for sure, but it definitely adds a new spin to her “character”. I was able to answer my questions, but in truth, all my research did was make me want to look even further into her life.

Allusion Assignment

A while back, I was listening to an old CD that a friend left in my car that had a bunch of songs from random artists. I didn’t have a paper or anything that said what the song title or the band name was, but after hearing a little bit of one song, images from the story of Cain and Abel immediately sprung up in my mind. It was a heavier song in some parts, so I didn’t exactly catch all of the words, but when I checked some of the lyrics online and found that the song was called “Chapter Four” by Avenged Sevenfold. Being the attentive Bible student that I am, I at first had no idea why the song was called that, until I looked in Genesis and saw that the story the song is referencing is found in… *drumroll* chapter four.

Although the lyrics make no mention of any names, after reading and hearing them it is very clear that the entire song is an allusion to the story of Cain and Abel from the Book of Genesis. The only thing that specifically can be tied to the Bible is the song title itself, which is the chapter in which the story takes place.

“Chapter Four” by Avenged Sevenfold from the album Waking the Fallen

Give me your hand, (Conceived and born was one of light)
blood is spilt and man will follow
Infernal man, (Rain and dark, the other born black night)
punishment too great to bear

Raise your head and taste the courage
(The one of light)
Fall from grace, unholy night

I’ve come here to kill you
won’t leave until you’ve died
Murder born of vengeance
I closed my brothers eyes tonight…

[Repeat from the beginning]

It’s cold tonight as the clouds turn grey
and from my hands to my brothers grave
You took his side, you took his gift
feel the power of a fallen man
crestfallen man…

Far away in this land I must go
out of the sight of the One
A punishment sent from His hand
a hardship that no one should know
Now go out of the sight of the One
away in this land you must go

Where has he gone? What have you done?
A voice commands from high above this earth
From the soil his blood cries out to me
Murder, liar, vengeance, deceit

Far away in this land I must go
out of the sight of the One
A punishment sent from His hand
a hardship that no one should know
Now go out of the sight of the One
away in this land you must go

Note: This song does get kinda heavy & loud at some points (what my Grandma would have called “senseless screaming”), so if you get headaches easily from loud noises, or if your head is already hurting, you might not want to press the “play” button.

Even if someone has only a very, very basic understanding of Bible stories, he or she is bound to know this one. Two brothers, the offspring of Adam and Eve, each offer a sacrifice to the Protagonist. He prefers Abel’s offering over Cain’s, and in an act of anger, Cain kills his brother, committing the first murder in human history.

Instead of writing one long paragraph explaining the Biblical significance of the lyrics, I thought that I would break them up into shorter segments and do them one at a time:

“Conceived and born was one of light”
This line speaks of Abel’s character, being the “good sibling.”

“Rain and dark, the other born black night”
Then, you have this line, which speaks of Cain, the “bad sibling.”

“Punishment too great to bear”
This one of the very first lines in the song. In Genesis, upon hearing his sentence from the Protagonist, Cain says “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” (Genesis 4:13)

“Murder born of vengeance,
I closed my brothers eyes tonight”
This line speaks of Cain’s reasoning for murdering his brother. The reason being because it was not his own offering that pleased the Protagonist.

“You took his side, you took his gift”
Spoken about or to Yahweh, this line is referencing His preference for Abel’s gift over Cain’s.

“Far away in this land I must go
out of the sight of the One
A punishment sent from His hand
a hardship that no one should know”
These lines speak about Cain’s punishment for the murder of Abel. The Protagonist sends him out of His sight to live in the wilderness.

“Where has he gone? What have you done?
A voice commands from high above this earth
From the soil his blood cries out to me”
These lines reference what The Protagonist says to Cain after her kills Abel. Yahweh asks Cain where his brother is, prompting the famous “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to which The Protagonist responds: “The voice of your brother is crying to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10)

Where was the Land of Uz?

When I first started reading the Book of Job, something in the very first verse caught my attention:

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. (Job 1:1)

Hmm… Land of Uz, huh? First off, the dumb part of my brain said, “Pssh, what kind of name is Uz?” Then, the part of my brain that gets very frustrated if it doesn’t know the correct/accepted pronunciation of something went, “WAIT! Is it ‘ooze’ or ‘uhz’?” But, the most important thing that stood out for me was that Uz was a place, so naturally, my question was: “Where exactly was the Land of Uz?”

It is mentioned in the Bible in these three verses: Job 1:1; Jeremiah 25:20; Lamentations 4:21, and the verses offered some clues about the land, but no specific information as to where it actually was.

“The precise location of the land of Uz is uncertain, although The Bible record does provide some clues. The land may have originally been named after Uz, who was the son of Aram, and grandson of Shem. One of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, came from Teman, which is in Idumea. Uz was subject to attacks from Sabeans and Chaldeans. It had to have fertile pastures, since Job had many thousands of animals. It had at least one major city, since Job sat at the city gate.” 

“An eastern location is supported by the fact that Job was referred to as ‘the greatest of all the people of the East'” 

“The native land and home of Job, and so situated as to be in more or less proximity to the tribe of the Temanites, the Shuhites, the Naamathites, the Buzites, and open to the inroads of the Chaldeans, and the Sabeans, as well as exposed to the great Arabian Desert.”

The two main “suspects” for the location of Uz are: 1) the Land of Aram in present-day Syria, and 2) the Land of Edom, in present-day Jordan.

Aram (Syria):

“Some scholars locate Uz northeast of Palestine in the land of Aram. They do this because Genesis 10:23 states that Uz was the son of Aram.”

Edom (Jordan):

“Biblical scholars have located the Land of Uz in either northern or southern Jordan… the rich biblical description in the Book of Job perfectly describes the varied natural environment, pastoral economy, and patriarchal social structures of ancient southern Jordan, known as Edom in the Old Testament. Job’s three friends are identified as being from Teman, Shuh and Naamah, areas located in and near southern Jordan.”

“Scholars, […] citing Lamentations 4:21, place Uz south of Palestine in Edom. They also point out that Eliphaz, one of Job’s three friends, was from Teman, a city in Edom.”

As usual, there is no way of knowing 100% where Uz was located. It could have been in Aram… or it could very well have been in Edom. But between the two, the evidence does seem to lean more towards the latter, since the descriptions of the land are very similar to that of Edom from the Old Testament.

Who were the eunuchs?

I always had a very simple view of eunuchs’ roles in the royal palaces. I pictured them as just average servants who were more easily trusted to watch over the king’s harem, since they didn’t have the necessary “equipment” to rape or have sex with the women of the palace.

But then I came across these verses in the book of Daniel:

Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.( Daniel 1:3-4 ESV)

This makes it sound as if they were not simply servants, but held more important positions in serving the king. So my question was, who exactly are the eunuchs and what other jobs did they perform during this time period?

One of the first sources I came upon gave a better explanation of who they were (as people) and where they came from saying “prisoners of war, especially “boys of unusual beauty,” were often castrated and sold to the “barbarians”, who considered them more trustworthy than other males.”

Some of the easier information I found pretty much just reiterated my original thought:

“If castration occurs in a child before puberty or he damages his male gonads, he will not develop the ability to procreate, nor perform sexually and therefore is generally safe to guard the women of the king or high official’s harem.” 

“One might expect this [the use of eunuchs] to be the case since, among other things, the harem was an important part of Babylonian culture.”

But other sources began to expand on their roles in life at the royal palaces:

“On the one hand, the eunuchs played a role as officials at the royal court, and on the other hand, they formed an essential component of the cultic personnel.”

Of all the information that I found concerning the eunuchs’ lives and duties, I think that this serves as the best description of who the eunuchs were:

“In the world of the Bible and in the Bible itself, eunuchs were trusted members of rulers’ inner circles of advisers.  In exchange for this position of trust, eunuchs have waived their right to challenge the rulers they serve and take over their authority.  They were a ruler’s defenders. “

All of the information that I was finding was building a pretty good picture of the eunuchs in the ancient world, but eventually, I came upon one source that completely turned my original assumption on its head:

“Eunuchs were not castrated to prevent them from having intercourse with their rulers’ women in the harem.  They were entrusted with these diplomatic wives because they had sworn unconditional allegiance to their rulers, and would not compete with their rulers for the covenants their marriages to their women had ratified.” 

I thought that this was very interesting, considering my initial assumptions about their roles in the palace.

“Eunuchs are also depicted as musicians playing lyres and harps; as scribes writing letters for their rulers, recording plunder and prisoners from battle, drafting the annals of their rulers on the battlefield.”

“Often Eunuchs were recognized for their spiritual sensitivity and wisdom and were chosen to advise the king.”

After gathering all this information on them, I had to smile, because it all made the eunuchs sound more like the character Varys from Game of Thrones. He is a eunuch who serves on the King’s Small Council in King’s Landing and is known as the “Master of Whisperers.”

I never thought that I would actually find myself specifically doing research to find out more about the role of eunuchs in the ancient Near East, but I really did learn a lot. They weren’t just servants looking after women in a harem, they served the king and royal officials in a very wide variety of ways, from assisting them in communications with other officials, to advising them on important matters, to accompanying them on the battlefield and while hunting. They served a very important (and interesting) role in the lives of those whom the served.

Why did the Israelites worship the Bronze Serpent?

In a large part of the Old Testament that we have read so far, there has been a well-established pattern of Yahweh saying, “DO NOT DO THIS.” And the Israelites responding, “WE ARE GOING TO DO THIS.” Upon entering the Promised Land, Yahweh’s chosen people have proven to be very easily tempted in adopting the ways of the Canaanites. This is especially true when it comes to worshiping other gods, which contradicts the first two Commandments stated in Exodus:

“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:3-6 ESV)

Pretty straight forward, right? Well, not to the Israelites, apparently. They continuously stray to other gods, even sacrificing their own children. Eventually, in the 18th chapter of 2 Kings, it does seem t be looking up for the them, as Hezekiah begins to reign in Judah:
And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
(2 Kings 18:3-4 ESV)

When I first read this verse, I had to go back and re-read it to make sure that I had it right. The new king goes and destroys something that had been made by Moses? I had to think about that, but seeing as it had become a kind of “golden calf”, it’s clear that it would have to be destroyed with all the other idols in the kingdom. But that led me to my real question: Why were they worshiping the bronze serpent in the first place?

Okay, so back in Exodus 21, the incident with the “fiery serpents” occurred. The Israelites were complaining again, so Yahweh sends a bunch of poisonous snakes to harass them in the wilderness. (That’s totally what I’d do.) They appeal to Moses, and he speaks to Yahweh on their behalf:
And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall
live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21:8-9 ESV)

The Old Testament never really mentioned what happened to the bronze serpent, and the next time I saw it mentioned was in 2 Kings. It really struck me as odd that they would worship a serpent, considering the negative image that it conjures up, from the deception in the Garden of Eden to the serpents that plagued the Israelites in the wilderness.

Of course, if it was a uninfluenced decision by the Israelites to just suddenly begin worshiping the bronze serpent, it was probably more because it was THE bronze serpent used by Moses in the wilderness, not just a snake in general. It held a important place in the story of how Yahweh’s people were delivered out of Egypt.

I did a little research, and I found out that “there is abundant evidence of widespread serpent cults in Bronze Age Canaan and
Mesopotamia in pre-Israelite settlement times. Serpents were symbols of divine spirits or divine essence (pure ego spirits)”

So, it’s very possible that the pre-existing worship of snakes in the Promised Land helped influence the worship of the bronze serpent. This made a lot of sense, because not only were the Israelites easily tempted into worshiping other gods, but they actually had their own already-made idol! They could have easily adopted the cult practices of already existing serpent worship and added their own groovy relic into the mix.

“The bronze serpent cult must have been borrowed from the popular serpent cults of Canaan and was of Bronze Age origins.”

So, that kind of answered why they would worship the bronze snake, but then from a literary perspective, I thought, “Why
would the author of these books have them specifically worship a snake?” Yes, it could fall into the categories of the
writers simply commenting on the Israelites adopting practices that already existed in Canaan, but what if it was a way to display just how far they had fallen?

Back in Genesis, when Yahweh is speaking to the serpent that tempted Eve he says:
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
 (Genesis 3:14-15 ESV)

The snake was not regarded highly among animals, at least from the Israelites perspective. I think that if the worshiping
of a serpent was meant to represent something, it was a way to show that the Israelites had strayed so far from their
path, that they were not only worshiping an idol, but the idol was of a creature that slithers on the ground. I mean, there are a few good kings in these books that try to follow what The Protagonist’s commandments, but that doesn’t seem to pull them out of their downward spiral.

Allusion to Genesis in Game of Thrones

Admittedly, before taking the class on the Old Testament as Literature, I had read next to nothing in that part of the Bible. When I got to the story of Jacob and Esau’s birth, how one came out holding the others heel, it immediately made me think of the the twins, Cersei and Jaime Lannister, in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series and the HBO TV series based off of them, Game of Thrones.

In Genesis, before Rebekah even gave birth to her sons, she could feels the children struggling inside her womb.

And the LORD said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”
(Genesis 25:23 ESV)

Esau was born first, quickly followed by Jacob, who left the womb holding on to his brother’s heel. As they grew older, their father, Isaac, favored Esau while their mother favored Jacob.

Jacob stealing Esau’s blessing.

Following along with what Yahweh said to Rebekah before their birth, Jacob comes to overtake his older brother. Firstly, by making Esau sell him his birthright as the oldest for a bowl of soup, and secondly by dressing up as Esau and stealing his blessing from their dying father.

Upon learning that he blessed Jacob instead of his oldest son, Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” (Genesis 27:37 ESV)

After his father’s death, Rebekah warns Jacob that his brother means to kill him, and Jacob flees for his life.

Many years, and two wives, later, the brothers meet again, but Esau has forgotten his anger and embraces his younger brother.

Now on to the second set of twins…

The ASoIaF/Game of Thrones is a fantasy series that takes place on the continent of Westeros and surrounding landmasses, Martin’s “Middle-Earth”. The main story lines revolve around the noble houses of Westeros and the figures who, as the title of the first book (A Game of Thrones) suggests, are vying for power. House Lannister is the richest house in the Seven Kingdoms.

Just as the Biblical twins were born, so were the Lannister twins. Cersei was born moments before her brother Jaime, who, like Jacob, entered the world clutching his older sibling’s heal. Although she is Tywin Lannister’s firstborn, being a female, she is not granted the same kind of respect and power that was given to her brother, which she resents. So in a way, she believes that she has been robbed of her birthright, not because of the actions of her brother, but because of her sex. She and Jaime also have another younger brother, Tyrion, who was born when the twins were nine years old. His birth killed their mother, something that Cersei and her father Tywin do not forgive him for.

In the beginning of the series, Cersei is married to King Robert Baratheon, making her the Queen, and later Queen Regent after her husband is killed. She is known as “The Light of the West”, and is said to be the most beautiful woman in the Seven Kingdoms. She is very ambitious and willful, and she is always seeking to gain the power she feels was denied to her.

Jaime is a member of the Kingsguard, a group of elite knights that have vowed to protect the king and his family at all costs. He seems very arrogant in the beginning of the series and is an excellent warrior and commander.

The twins are very close, and began experimenting sexually with each other at a young age, carrying on their incestuous relationship into adulthood. (Genesis doesn’t say anything about Jacob and Esau doing this, so I’m going to assume that the sets of twins are different in this respect.) Jaime is also the true father of all three of Cersei’s children, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, unbeknownst to her husband, Robert.

In A Feast for Crows, Cersei becomes one of the POV characters, so the reader is able to see through her eyes for the first time. She recalls a memory from her youth where she and one of her friends went to see a fortune-teller by the name of Maggy the Frog. Maggy gives Cersei several predictions that night, detailing who she will marry, if she will be queen, and how many children she and her future husband will have. One of the ones that has haunted her for years, however, is the one describing her own fate after outliving all of her children:

“And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.” (A Feast for Crows Ch 36)

In High Valyrian, one of the languages used in the series, valonqar means “little brother.” It would be easy to automatically assume that this means Tyrion, considering the constant friction between the two, but more later events in the books show that it could be her twin, as they continue to grow further apart. This follows the theme of the younger sibling overtaking the elder.

In Genesis 32-33, the reader sees that when the brothers are re-united, that Esau has let go of his hatred of Jacob and they are reconciled. Whether Cersei will eventually have a “happy ending” with either of her brothers remains to be seen. When you look at their birth, relationship (aside from the incest, because I’m not comparing them to Lot’s daughters), and the feeling of apprehension surrounding the prophecy, both sets of twins are definitely comparable. Happy ending or not, Jaime and Cersei Lannister are definitely two of the most complex characters in the series and, in my own opinion, two of the most complex characters in any series that I have read.

This has nothing to do with the twins, but if you can’t appreciate a picture of Azula on the Iron Throne, then you need to seriously re-evaluate your life.

Why hornets?

In Deuteronomy 7, Moses addresses the people of Israel about how the Protagonist will help clear the land that He has given to His people of those who are already inhabiting it.

So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 7:19-20 ESV)

Back in Exodus, the Protagonist said: And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. (Exodus 23:28 ESV)

Generally in literature, we are taught that if something is repeated, it is important. So, my question is, if they were literal and not just representing something else: Why hornets? Wouldn’t an army of angry lions be more effective in clearing out an entire nation? I mean, I personally am inclined to put as much distance as possible from myself and anything that can fly AND sting me.

“Now hornets, unlike, say, lions or bears, nest under logs, between rocks, even underground — that is, in the smallest and most recondite of hiding places. Those Canaanites hunkered down in nooks and crannies of the landscape even may have disturbed the hornets’ nests themselves.”

So, hornets would be able to get in and route out those Canaanites still lingering in the land more easily than larger beasts would.

According to one source: Hornets will protect their nests vigorously, and will see any invasion of their space as a threat.

The Oriental Hornet (Vespa orientalis) is widely spread across the Middle East, so it could be the specific species that went ahead of the Israelites to clear the land.

Although all species are very protective of their nests, the Oriental Hornet “is said to be highly defensive and tolerate far less provocation than other species.”

So not only are you faced with a mass of of flying, stinging insects with anger issues, but you are faced with ones that are actually provoked more easily than others.

“How distressing and destructive a multitude of these fierce and severely stinging insects might be, any person may conjecture. No armour, no weapons could avail against them. A few thousands of them would be sufficient to overthrow the best disciplined army and put it into confusion and rout.”

When you think about it, a horde of angry hornets really does sound like a much more monstrous way of clearing a land. I’m sure an army of angry lions would still be extremely intimidating, but given the attributes of hornets, I think that in the end, they would be much more effective.

What were the “fiery serpents” mentioned in Numbers 21?

In Numbers 21, the Israelites are taught a very interesting lesson about what happens when you whine about the things The Protagonist has given you:

“And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”
(Numbers 21:4-6 ESV)

I had heard this story before, but I honestly could not remember hearing the word “fiery” to describe the snakes. (The dumb part of my brain said, “That means they were on fire, right?”) And as someone who actually loves snakes and reptiles, I really wanted to know what kind of species the “fiery serpents” were. (This is, of course, assuming that the serpents were literal creatures and were not meant to symbolize something in the literature.)

That part of the desert where the Israelites now were–near the head of the gulf of Akaba–is greatly infested with venomous reptiles… The exact species of serpents that caused so great mortality among the Israelites cannot be ascertained. They are said to have been “fiery,” an epithet applied to them either from their bright, vivid color, or the violent inflammation their bite occasioned.

One source that I found said that “the serpent was probably the naja haje of Egypt,” more commonly known as the Egyptian cobra.

The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) is one of the most widespread, largest, and best known of the cobras… This species ranges through most of Central and Northern Africa, as well as much of the Middle East. While not a true desert snake, it has a wide habitat range from semi-desert to human agriculture.

There is no way of proving 100% that this was the species of snake that plagued the Israelites, but if this indeed was the snake talked about in Numbers, I definitely think that it is pretty ironic that the Israelites were taken out of slavery in Egypt to be later plagued by a snake that would be known as the Egyptian cobra.

Even though Numbers specifically called the creature “serpents” one source has a different theory as to what kind of creature really plagued the Israelites:

What were the mysterious “fiery serpents” that God sent to bite the people, causing many of them to die? Well, parasitologists say it may have been the guinea worm (The nematode Dranunculus medinesis).

When I read this, I hoped that the writer was not talking about what I thought he was talking about, but, unfortunately, he was. I had heard about this little parasite before, and I will spare anyone having to look at an image (I like to think that I have a pretty strong stomach, but I honestly can’t stand to look at actual pictures of this thing), so I thought I’d just show a diagram:

Basically what happens with this particular parasite, according to the CDC’s website, is the human becomes infected by drinking contaminated water, therefore ingesting the parasites. The worm then migrates down and grows inside the person’s body for about a year. (CDC’s site)

When the Guinea worm is ready to come out of the body, it creates a painful burning blister on the skin. When the infected person immerses the blister in cool water to ease the symptoms, the Guinea worm breaks through the blister and part of the worm is exposed.

The intense burning pain attributed to being infected by the parasite is probably what led to the speculation that the Guinea worm is the “fiery serpent” being described in Numbers.

Although the Guinea worm theory is very interesting, I (personally) am inclined to lean more towards the actual snake as being the “fiery serpent” described in Numbers, as are many of the other sources I found on the subject.

Although it does not specifically say how much time passes from when the serpents are first set on the israelites, they realize that they are being punished and ask Moses to speak to Yahweh on their behalf.

“And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 21:8-9 ESV)