August 28, 2017“Hello, friend, have you got the time?” said a young fellow with dingy Dockers on and gripping his leather-bound bible under is starched long sleeve.
“It’s about a quarter past seven,” I said slouching on the bench and watching the water fountain that flowed in the middle of the mall.
“Thank you. I’m Moses, nice to meet you.”
“Sorry to hear that–my name is Ade.”
“Sorry for what?”
“Your name is Moses, you were named after a war criminal–amongst other things.”
“I was named after the Moses in the Bible, buddy.”
“Yes, I know.”
“He was a holy man.”
“I hate to ask what you consider an unholy man.”
“I don’t think–”
“Moses is the crazy character who laid down the Ten Commandments. By today’s standards, your pal would be considered guilty of horrendous war crimes.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Really? In the book of Numbers, the “lord” orders Moses to raise an army to attack Midian to punish the people there. He raises twelve-thousand soldiers fucked up the place proper, killed the kings and left with their victorious spoils.”
“Oh, that has happened all the time all over the world throughout history. It’s still happening today. Are you sure it’s in the Old Testament?”
“Positive. And that may be true, but you did call him a ‘holy man.'”
“Well, then…I’m sure there was a good reason. Besides that doesn’t seem so bad.”
“No? Your pall Moshe became furious with all who returned from the war and asked them, ‘Why have you kept all the women alive? Do ye not remember that it was the women who followed Balaam’s instructions and at Peor led the people to be unfaithful to the Lord. That was what brought the epidemic on the Lord’s people. So now kill every boy and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse but keep alive for yourselves all the girls and all the women who are virgins.'”
“Listen, buddy, I gotta go,” he said perking up in his penny loafers.
“You gotta go, or you gotta go back into your little hole where you’re comfortable not knowing the truth about your faith?”
“That can’t be true. Where in the Bible does it say that?” he said with a challenging tone.
“Book of Numbers. Chapter thirty-something.”
“That seems like an isolated case, maybe. And Moses was a–”
“A holy man, I know. It may seem unreasonable to apply our modern standards to Moses, even though its okay to apply biblical standards to our lives today. In Biblical warfare, capturing of virgins and killing of male children was pretty typical.”
“Are you sure he didn’t do that a couple of times? Maybe it happens once.”
“Well, I’d have to question your sanity if you mean you give your buddy The Moshinator a pass if he only committed that atrocity once. What would you do if i took your virgin sister, killed your family and took your shit because you didn’t believe in what I believe. In reality, there are other instances: Judges, for example, chapter nineteen or twenty, I can’t recall. The Israeli soldiers were sent out by the assembly with orders to “Kill all the males and also every woman who is not a virgin. They returned with four-hundred virgins to give to the men of the tribe of Benjamin. That number came up short by half, mysteriously enough. The assembly gave the Benjaminites this advice: “Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to dance during the feast, you come out of the vineyards. Each of you take a wife by force from among the girls.”
He tilted his head back in defeat and exhaled so profoundly that I could hear his pain, and I heard the unholy ghost leave him. The Bible fell to the side of the bench where we were perched and he didn’t seem to care. I was tempted to regret the hand I had in his apparent horror, but he asked for it. It made me wonder how I would feel if I was named after a killer and a rapist.
And we sat there quietly and still while staring at the water fountain as it flowed as the sound of children echoed inside the mall filling the place like a song of purity and innocence.
∞
