We find the deuterocanonical books where we left them last, waiting for someone to look at them. While both Protestants and Catholics love disagreeing over their authenticity, N. T. Wright reminds us in his delightful Surprised by Hope that very few have any idea what’s in them anyhow. I aim to do my little bit to change the latter. We left off after doing a chapter-by-chapter reading/naive Protestant commentary through Tobit, so let’s start the next deuterocanonical book. But first a thought to hold in your head: I’ve heard Protestants say Catholics added the books to prove Catholic doctrines, and I’ve heard Catholics say Protestants took away the books to avoid having to admit the truth of Catholicism. So far as I can remember, the book of Tobit had no pro-Catholic ideas that Protestants could object to, so at least for Tobit neither of the above accusations is true. With no further ado, Judith 1:

1 In the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned in Ninevah, the great city, in the days of Arphaxad who reigned over the Medes in Ecbatane 2 and who built walls around Ecbatane out of stones hewn three cubits wide and six cubits long, and made the height of the wall seventy cubits and its width fifty cubits, 3 and set the towers of its gates so that they were raised to a height of seventy cubits and a width of forty cubits, for the going forth of his mighty armies and for the setting in array of his foot soldiers, 5 in those days king Nebuchadnezzar made war with Arphaxad on the great plain, which is the plain on the borders of Ragau.

Nebuchadnezzar, as just about everyone knows, reigned in Babylon, not Ninevah. He destroyed Ninevah. The only Median king whose name even remotely sounds like Arphaxad (Hebrew Arpakhshad) was Cyaraxes (Old Persian Uvakhshatra), who was an ally of Nebuchadnezzar’s family, and helped Nebuchadnezzar’s family conquer the Assyrian Empire and destroy Nineveh. It looks like, in Judith, we’re dealing with a fictional account.

6 And all who lived in the hill country came to him there, and all who lived by the Euphrates and the Tigris and the Hydaspes, and on the plain of Aryok king of the Elymeans, and very many nations of the sons of Chelod assembled themselves for battle. 7 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent to all who lived in Persia, and to all who lived westward, and to those who lived in Cilicia and Damascus and Libanus and Antilibanus, and to all who lived upon the sea coast, 8 and to those among the nations who were from Carmel and Galaad and the higher Galilee and the great plain of Esdrelom, 9 and to all who were in Samaria and its cities, and beyond the Jordan to Jerusalem and Bethany and Chelus and Kadesh, and the river of Egypt, and Taphnes and Ramesse, and all the land of Gesem, 10 and even to beyond Tanis and Memphis, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt all the way to the borders of Ethiopia.

The individual names here aren’t important. The important point to take away is that what’s being set up here, or at least what Nebuchandnezzar is seekign to set up, is a massive showdown, a war so significant that Ethiopia to Babylon — all the political powers relevant to ancient Israel — are involved.

11 But the inhabitants of the land made light of the commandment of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, nor did they go into the battle with him, because they were not afraid of him. Yes, they considered him to be only one man, and they sent his ambassadors away from them with nothing to show except disgrace. 12 Therefore Nebuchadnezzar was very angry with all this country, and he swore by his throne and kingdom that he would surely be avenged on all the coasts of Cilicia and Damascus and Syria, and that he would slay with the sword all the inhabitants of the land of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all Judea, and all who were in Egypt, up to the very borders of the two seas.

So Nebuchadnezzar’s authority is slighted, and now he wants revenge. His revenge plan is to annihilate the Jews (Judeans) and all of their neighbors, the Cilicians to the far north, the Damascenes and Syrians to the north, the Moabites to the east, the Ammonites to the southeast, and the Egyptians to the south. The author appears is from a Judean (southern Israelite kingdom) perspective (northern Israel is not even mentioned at this point), and interestingly sees Judea as very small and insignificant. In contrast with Nebuchadnezzar, the gate of whose city gets a nice paragraph, and whose would-be military allies get a very large paragraph, Judea is only mentioned as a side issue after the primary conflict between Assyria and Babylon, and even then it is placed sixth in a list of seven nations. The stage is set for a David vs. Goliath conflict.

13 Then he marched in battle array with his power against king Arphaxad in the seventeenth year, and he prevailed in his battle, for he overthrew all the power of Arphaxad and all his horsemen and all his chariots, 14 and became lord of his cities. And he came to Ecbatane and took the towers and pillaged its streets and turned its beauty into shame. 15 He also overpowered Arphaxad at the mountains of Ragau and struck him through with his darts, and destroyed him utterly on that day. 16 So he returned afterward to Nineveh, both he and all his company of diverse nations, who were a very great multitude of men of war, and there he took his ease and banqueted, both he and his army, for one hundred twenty days.

Nebuchadnezzar strength is now established. He starts out as Emperor, his power is questioned, and he responds by utterly crushing the Median Empire and then goes off and parties for one hundred twenty days. What is left undone is the vengeance he promised Judea and her neighbors. We’ll have to wait till next Friday to see what he does next. Or I’ll invent deuterocanonical Tuesday or something.

Except for Eved Melek.  Eved Melek was black, and for this reason my young mind immediately took notice when he showed up.  He also seemed to me a very powerful guy with great connections.  Here’s what Eved Melek did that immortalized him in cartoon form:

Jer 38:1-13

Then Shefatiyah ben-Mattan, and Gedalyahu ben-Pashkor, and Yucal ben-Shelemyahu, and Pashkor ben-Malkiyah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, when he had said, “So says Yahweh:  Whoever stays in this city will be killed by warfare, hunger, and disease.  But whoever goes out with the Chaldeans will live, for he will have his life for a prey, and will live.  So says Yahweh:  this city will surely be handed over to the king of Babylon’s army, which will take it.”

So the rulers said to the king, “Please, have this man put to death.  For by speaking this way he is undermining the will of the soldiers in this city, and of the people.  This man is not looking out for the good of this city, but for its hurt.”

Then Zedekiah the king said, “Look:  he’s in your hands.  The king can do nothing against you.”  Then they took Jeremiah and threw him in the dungeon of Malkiyahu ben-HaMelek.  And in the dungeon there was no water, but only mud, so Jeremiah sank into the mud.

Now Eved-Melek the Kushite, one of the eunuchs who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon.  (The king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin.)  Eved-Melek went out from the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they’ve done to Jeremiah the Prophet.  They have thrown him in the dungeon, and he may die of hunger where he is because there is no more bread in the city.”

Then the king commanded Eved-Melek the Kushite, saying, “Take thirty men from here with you, and take up Jeremiah the Prophet out of the dungeon, before he dies.”

So Eved-Melek took the men with him and went to the house of the king under the treasury, and took from there old worn-out garments and old rotten rags, and lowered them by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.  And Eved-Melek the Kushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old worn-out garments and rotten rags under your armpits under the cords.  And Jeremiah did this.  So they hauled Jeremiah up with cords, and took him out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah stayed in the prison courtyard.

It may seem dry to you, but the story still excites me.  We have here a king who feels powerless to oppose his ruling class in their desire to kill God’s prophet.  Out of nowhere this foreigner named Eved-Melek walks up to the king, states his case, gets some guys together and some cloths, and rescues Jeremiah from certain death by thirst or hunger in a muddy pit.  Who is this Eved-Malek?  How could a castrato command such power as to turn a powerless king’s decision against the ruling class?  Amazing.

Eved-Melek was doubtless a fascinating fellow.  But this week, in my Jewish History 597 BC to 70 AD class, I’ve been learning a bit more about the situation with Jeremiah.  Turns out, Jeremiah was, from a Babylonian standpoint, pro-Babylonian.  That is, he taught that Judah should simply submit to the Babylonian invaders and not fight against them.  Now, the rulers of Judah knew that they weren’t powerful enough to take on the Babylonians alone, and so they wanted to team up with the Babylonians’  Egyptian enemies to fend off Nebuchadnezzar’s armies.  Jeremiah was famous for denouncing all alliance with Egypt as futile.

This, of course, made him appear quite unpatriotic, and his fellow Judahites believed his prophecies of destruction amounted to a treasonous attack on the authority of the Judahite State.  Now, Egypt did, for a little while before the Babylonian captivity, appear favorable toward Judah.  Egypt ceased aggression against its northern Judahite and Philistine neighbors, seeing them as a valuable buffer zone for holding back the growing power of Babylon.  And so Egypt channeled its aggression southward, against the Nubians, also called Kushites in Hebrew, or Ethiopians in the KJV.

So when the anti-Egyptian Jeremiah was in trouble for his anti-Egyptians prophecies, who was going to intercede on his behalf.  A Kushite, a man who worked in Israel but whose nation had recently been attacked by Egypt.  Eved-Melek was doing the logical thing for a Kushite politician to do:  helping to support anti-Egyptian factions within Judah, with the hope that a decrease in Egyptian power would lead to greater political self-determination for the Nubians/Kushites/Ethiopians.

This knowledge that Eved-Melek was almost certainly politically motivated in helping Jeremiah has deepened my appreciation for the guy.  It has underscored a few important points for me:  (1) that foreigners’ experiences help us gain a truer picture in looking at international situations,  (2) that an individual with personal courage can, simply by talking and lending a helping hand, save someone even against the will of the powerful elites of a nation, and that (3) God’s concerns for the world and for his people are international in scope and not limited to any particular chosen nation.