Criticism of Wil Gafney’s Article

I believe that chapter 8 of Wil Gafney’s article is a little extremist in interpretation, I also think that the use of critical theory in this article doesn’t add to the dialogue but strays from any actual scholarship. Gafney admits to this, stating that “The passage does not say that David uses force against Bathsheba, as it does in other accounts of rape.” and the overuse of power structures makes me think Gafney extrapolated too much. Once again, I will defend that modern interpretations of scripture are inherently ethnocentric by nature as our cultures/ideologies are wildly different. There was also a segment (paragraph 2, page 212) that elaborates on the potential ethnic makeup of Bathsheba, I believe that this was an attempt to bring tie the final pages of how people of color in Judaic society were more likely to be raped. This sentence

has no source allocated for it, so it is unclear as to whether POC were actually systematically disenfranchised in ancient Judea. Once again, this is over extrapolation to say that our modern understanding of what the systematic oppression of “black and brown women and girls” are is in line with what the Ancient Judaic understanding of POC oppression is. Gafney then uses misogynoir,

in the United States as the final evolution of early Judaic systematic racism which seems a little far fetched to me. I think that perhaps this could even be a little anti-semitic, placing the cause of American racism on the patriarchal structure of Jewish culture.