Biblical Theology v. Prophets History

The book of Judges (along with some other of the prophets) often provides the historical kernel for the incidents in the Humash. One story that has got a lot of attention in this regard is the harrowing story of Pilegish BGibeah, juxtaposed with the story of Sodom. I will not go through all the parallel details, others have done that just as well as I can or better (not the least Ramban albeit with different conclusions). But the primary contrast, the ending; has been ignored. The ending is that the woman dies, and a civil war breaks out resulting in the near genocide of an entire tribe.

There is no reason to doubt this as historical. This is raw, real life, as we know it to this day. Justice? What justice? The innoccent women was gang raped and died; and an nearly an entire tribe was killed, in revenge for the actions of the few. 

Fast forward to Sodom. Nobody gets raped or killed and the potential male victims turn out to be angels who quickly shuttle the other would-be victims to safety. Like in Gibe'ah, they wreak vengeance on the rest of the population; but only after we are told that there absolutely not even one decent person caught in the wreckage. As the author tells us, using Abraham as his mouthpiece; Halilah for God to smite the innoccent along with the guilty; impossible that the Justice of all the earth would not practice justice.

I found another story with the same editorial slant. The Golden Calf! The golden calf seems to me a satire of the historical event; of the split of the kingdom, when Jeroboam places a golden calf in the new-old worship centers in Samaria. Not the plot that evokes the parallel, but the use of the same exact verse: אלה אלהיך ישראל. Again here; the stories have two very different endings. In the Golden Calf, Moses and the Levites engage in warfare and get rid of the perpetrators. With Jeroboam, the opposite occurs. Rehabeam's army is all set and prepared to attack the secessionists; when a prophet suddenly appears and tells them NO, don't fight, this has been pre-ordained by God.  It seems to me that this violated the authors sense of justice as well- he could not tolerate that god would turn blind eye and allow the calf worshippers to go about their way.

This indeed is the law of the 5 books. Pharoah will wind up in the Red Sea no matter what, and Isaac may be brought as far as the alter, but by hook or by crook will come down healthy and whole.

How did the author view the world? From where the intensity of his belief in a God who would enact justice and only justice? A belief so intense, and so certain, that if history contradicts it, it is history that is wrong and that must be re-written.