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| memegenerator.com |
Read the book of Judges in the Old Testament and you will come across the idea of left handed Benjaminites. Genetics show us that right-handedness is the dominant trait in the modern world, but why is
Ehud's handedness so important? Is it simply a fun-fact that he is left-handed man in a right-handed man's world? Was it just to be seen as a weird phenomena when
the Benjaminites had 700 warriors using the sling? Ancient History seems to tell us a different story. Ehud's left-handedness tells the ancient Hebrew people reading this something very special about the protagonist of this story.
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| gunme.me |
Elaine Costas and
Alhassan AB make it seem clear that throughout the Hebrew narrative left-handedness has a poor reputation throughout the Old Testament. They both point out thoroughly the difference in use of the left hand and right hand in the entire span of Old Testament times. The right hand is a often reference to the exercise of righteousness and strength. The left-hand is often portrayed as the hand of ill-craftiness and deviousness. This may be a message that the Hebrew people were trying to get across to their readers at the time they wrote it. An idea that Ehud's leniency toward's his crafty hand could have been used by YHWH to bring freedom to the Israelites. This would be shocking to many ancient Israelistes as throughout the Old Testament, there is a negative picture of the left hand. As it is written in Ecclesiastes,
"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
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| memegenerator.com |
Alhassan AB talks about the the Benjaminites left-handedness possibly being a means of strategic advantage. He points out that when it comes to combat, left-handedness is seen as an advantage more than a curse. The belief could be that the Benjaminites had trained their people to restrict the use of the right hand in order to be great left-handed warriors with a strategic advantage in combat. This would make sense, as
Boyd Seevers and Joanna Klein point out that the Hebrew word for left-handed literally means "restricted at the right hand." One of their theories is that the Benjaminite children could have been physically restricted at their right hand as they physically matured in order to encourage them to use their left hand as their natural hand. The texts in
Judges 20:16 would seem to have more explanation from this theory rather than genetics because of the slim chances that many people would genetically inherit left-handedness. Seevers and Klein also point out (in the same article) that a study showed the chances of two left-handed people have a left-handed child is only rounded to 25%.
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| memegenerator.com |
Suzie Park
makes a very convincing argument that the literary picture the Hebrew
people are trying to paint is this: the Benjaminites left-handedness
points out the future downfall of the kingdom of Israel under their
first monarch, Saul (a Benjaminite who would ultimately be turned away by YHWH and be killed in battle). It is interesting to think about this picture because one would have to follow the whole Deuteronomistic narrative to gain this full-arch picture. The idea of a left-handed leader (Ehud) who brings power could represent that YHWH works in the worst segment of Jewish history but that ultimately the craftiness of Israel (700 Left-Handed Warriors in the Benjaminite army) would only lead to their downfall (as the tribe of Benjamin sinned and ultimately failed in the
Battle of Gibeah)
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| memegenerator.com |
As for what theory I can gather from all of this information, it seems to all connect when the story is read through again. It is more likely that the people of Benjamin were trained with the left-hand, for strategic advantages, rather than a genetic phenomena. However, as a Judeo-Christian, I would put faith that if there was such a phenomena, YHWH (in his providince) made it happen for a reason that is equally credible in the literary message behind this. In regards to genetics against hand-training, I believe it could have been both. It could have been that the Benjaminites took great pride in left-handedness after hearing of their great leader, Ehud and so trained soldiers to be left-handed as a memorial and advantage. The Benjaminites also could have just been more likely to genetically birth left-handed children than the other 11 tribes. This would make sense in how in the whole army of the Benjaminites, only 700 of them were sling-archers. The Benjaminites could have believed a superstition behind the left-handedness of their army. The idea of the left-handed Benjaminites more than likely could have been to paint an illustrious picture that YHWH can use the crafty of Israel to bring freedom and salvation (
Ehud as a prime example, who could have been genetically left-handed); and yet also use the crafty of his people to lead to their downfall and defeat (
Battle of Gibeah).
If you have a different opionion or better resources please feel free to share in the comments below! If you like what you read please like and subscribe as I'll have a few more of these coming this semester!
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