Deborah

[TBC: Here is more evidence that the veracity of Scripture has always been challenged. Originally published January 21, 1893, this short essay points out how skeptics simply misread the scriptures.]

DEBORAH SLANDERED.

Professor Bruce, in his "Apologetics," pronounces the following harsh sentence on Deborah (p. 305):

"Deborah was a heroic woman, and a true inspired prophetess, but she could write these words, "To every man a damsel or two" (Judg. 5:30), without feeling that she was saying anything indelicate or immoral. It was not immorality as it would be to us, but it was very crude, barbarous morality."

This is a slander on Deborah; for, instead of uttering as her own the sentiment quoted, she imagines this to be the sentiment of the heathen mother of Sisera, and puts the words in her mouth. A critic writing a defense of the Bible ought to be careful not to smut the reputation of so eminent a Biblical character.

J. W. McGarvey

Short Essays in Biblical Criticism (1910)