re: #9 SanFranciscoZionist

I know something about how the passage is interpreted and understood by Jews. I’m not surprised that it’s interpreted as a passage about unquestioning obedience by some Christian fundamentalists. (For those of you who haven’t read it recently, Saul, then king of Israel, screws up not by failing to wipe out the tribe, but by sparing the Amalekite king, as an act of professional courtesy, and trying to keep the cattle. I would like Saul better if he’d spared the kids and killed the king.)

But teaching the Book of Samuel to kids is not incitement to genocide, any more than teaching kids Pam’s Favorite Verses means they will all become suicide bombers. There’s a lot more to religious education than just the text, or even how the text is interpreted.

As I understand it, the biggest purpose of the passage on the war against the Amalekites is to make the point that Saul served his own interests rather than God’s will, resulting in Samuel (after hacking the captive Amalekite king to pieces (the Bible at times describes very violent events, and this is one of those times)) looking for a better man to replace Saul as king. Samuel finds that better man in David.