“Heroes appear
sporadically, but
humanity remains
terribly unheroic.”
“Every picture has shadows;
every suspenseful novel has
chapters that look truly
dark.”
Judges
Linking The Poisonwood Bible to the Bible
Jeanette Cibelli & Darius Teng
Synopsis of the Book of Judges
 Dark stories of the Bible
 Israelites conquer Canaan but fail to rid the land of the
natives
 Israelites become corrupted by intermarriage & deity worship
 God sends a series of judges to Canaan to revive their lost
faith
 Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, & others
 Judges temporarily alleviate corruption, but sin restarts
after their deaths
 Cycle of sin shows God’s undying faithfulness
Judges 2:18-19
‘Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was
with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their
enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had
compassion on them as they groaned under those who
oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died,
the people returned to ways even more corrupt than
those of their fathers, following other gods and serving
and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil
practices and stubborn ways.’
“Then the Israelites did what was
evil in the sight of the Lord and
worshipped the Baals; and they
abandoned the Lord…they
followed other gods, from among
the gods of the peoples who
were all around them, and bowed
down to them; and they
provoked the Lord to anger.”
“Then the Lord raised up judges,
who delivered them out of the
power of those who plundered
them.”
“But whenever a judge died, they
would relapse and behave worse
than their ancestors…”
What’s happening in Poisonwood?
 Orleanna reveals Nathan’s past of war as explanation for
his God-fearing demeanor
 Daughters struggle with hunger, sickness, inequality, &
gradual loss of faith in God and Nathan
 Leah & Adah better understand Congolese culture
 Appearance of Brother Fowles encourages Orleanna to act
(though she does not yet rise up against Nathan)
 The ants test the village’s (& particularly the Prices’) faith
 Political struggle with Lumumba & the Republic of the
Congo
Situational Parallels
Bible
 Israel conquers Canaan but
does not defeat natives
 Allows native, non-Christian
culture to continue
 Israelites accept the culture of
the people; they succumb to
intermarriage & deity worship
of the land
Poisonwood
 Israel = Western nations (USA,
Belgium) conquer the Congo
 Do not rid land of Congolese &
their customs
 Brother Fowles intermarries &
learns to respect native customs,
Leah begins to question her faith
in her father and falls in love with
Anatole, Adah becomes fascinated
by the principles in understanding
Lingala
“Corruption” of the Colonists
 “If his decision to keep us here in the Congo wasn’t right,
then what else might he be wrong about? It has opened
up in my heart a sickening world of doubts and
possibilities, where before I had only faith in my father and
love for the Lord.” (Kingsolver 224) - Leah
 “I’ve been here so long, I’ve come to love the people here
and their ways of thinking.” (248) – Brother Fowles
Consequences of Sinning
‘And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this
people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and
have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from
before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I
may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as
their fathers did keep it, or not.’
Judges 2:20-22
“God works, as is very well known, in mysterious ways…He will send down so
much rain that all his little people are drinking from one another’s sewers and
dying of the kakakaka. Then he will organize a drought to scorch out the yam
and manoic fields, so whomever did not die of fever will double over from
hunger.” (217) - Adah
Situational Parallels Cont.
Bible
Poisonwood
 God calls for judges
 Brother Fowles and Nathan (&
possibly other unknown
missionaries) go to save the Congo
with Christianity
 When a judge falls, foreign
powers (not with Israelite
interests) rule again constant
struggle for God to rule
 Struggle with government of
Congo they want to rule
themselves
Contrasts
Bible
Poisonwood
 Judges successfully guide
Israelites back towards
worshipping God
 Brother Fowles fails by intermarrying
and respecting Congolese culture,
Nathan fails by being too stubborn to
accept Congolese culture – because of
this he becomes blind to his faults
 “Watching my father, I have seen how
you can’t learn anything when you’re
trying to look like the smartest person
in the room” (229) - Leah
 The death of corrupt kings or
enemies brings peace to the
land
 The death of Lumumba brings suffering
to the Congolese
 “For now, the only honorable
government work is the matter of
bringing it down” (466) – Anatole
through Leah
Parallel Judges
Bible:
Samson
 Strong, temperamental,
lustful, faithful
 Chosen by God to overcome
the Philistines
 Spoke in riddles that angered
people of Timnah
 Falls in love with Delilah, who
betrays him by telling the army
to cut his hair
 Takes away his strength
 Last faithful act to God was
dying with the Philistine rulers
Poisonwood: Nathan
 Strong, temperamental, lustful,
faithful
 “Nathan was made feverish by sex, and
trembled afterward, praying aloud…”
(198)
 Feels himself called to Congo
 Wasn’t necessarily chosen by God
 Does not respect native customs, so
he angers the people
 No literal fighting, but he works to
overpower the un-Christian
population
 Orleanna betrays him when she
leaves
 Takes away his strength
 Dies amongst the foreigners out of
commitment to his cause
Political Parallels
Bible
 Israelites living under foreign
power
 King Jabin of Canaan rules over
betrayal amongst his people
 Jael kills Sisera
 Jabin given too much power
too soon, so God removes him
 God allows foreign powers
(Midian, Philistines) to
periodically oppress them as
punishment for sin
 Then sends judges to deliver
them
Poisonwood
 Prices live under Congolese
power
 King Jabin= Lumumba
 Lumumba represents Congolese
interests, not Western (Israeli)
 Lumumba not necessarily in
direct fault for what happens
under his presidency
 Replaced with Western interests
 Midian & Philistines= Republic of
Congo natives attempting to
take back power
 US sends rulers to protect
Western interests, just as God
sent judges to protect
Christianity
Main Differences
Bible
Poisonwood
 the judges save the Israelites by
teaching them to stop their sinful
ways (prostitution, polygamy,
polytheism)
 the equivalents of the judges
(Nathan, Fowles, Mobutu) all fail
in some way
 Nathan and Mobutu, instead of
bringing peace to the Congo, do
the exact opposite – they disrupt
the lives of the Congolese
 Christianity=good
 Christianity= ?
Main Idea
 This section in The Poisonwood Bible is a reversal of what happens in
the Holy Bible.
 Christianity in this story is portrayed in a negative light. It harms rather
than heals.
 This is to show that the insistence on imposing a “superior” culture on
others fails and causes damage instead.
 The message is that people cannot impose their culture or beliefs on
others and expect them to react positively.
Works Cited
 Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. Harper Perennial Modern
Classics ed. NY: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.
 “The Book of Judges." King James Bible. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.kingjamesbible.com/B07C001.htm>.
 "The Message of Judges." Jesus Plus Nothing: Christ Centered Bible
Study. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/studies/online/judges1.htm>.