The Nihil Rule

King David handing the Letter to Uriah the Hittite by Pieter Lastman "David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." - 1 Kings 15:5 The issue of David raping Bathsheba (see previous post: Bathsheba's #MeToo Moment ) has resurfaced again with an excellent perspective provided by Mr. Matthew Cochran:  “David Raped” is a Camel’s Nose  with an eye specifically at the issue of feminism: But once you eisegete faulty feminist assumptions into the text, the only conclusion is that for 2000 years, the Church couldn’t be bothered to notice something as heinous as rape. All those “church fathers” were so divorced from the plight of women that even rape was beneath their concern. This (totally invented) problem requires an obvious solution: we need more women to pose as theologians and leaders to address the unique concerns of our sisters in Christ! And s...

I'd like to examine WELS seminary professor John D Schuetze's "Bathsheba and the Nature of David's Sim" published in Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol 116, No. 4 (Fall 2019). This is a copyrighted work of five pages which of course I cannot reproduce in its entirety.  Prof. Shuetze poses the question in his opening paragraph: When people mention the account of David and Bathsheba, we usually hear them call it an "affair," a "one-night stand," or "adultery." David had an affair with Bathsheba. David had a one-night stand with Bathsheba. David committed adultery with Bathsheba. This is how most Bible commentators describe the events of 2 Samuel 11. But do these words capture what transpired that dark spring night in Jerusalem? The issue is that these ways of describing David's sin put at least some of the blame on Bathsheba." Prof. Shuetze proceeds to consult a number of commentaries and study Bibles with quotes regarding Baths...