Answer: There is no point to the article! It is entirely an exercise in humor! We didn't write it to attack anyone. We didn't write it to make fun of anyone. We didn't write it to communicate any "message." Nevertheless we're aware that many religious people feel they must see some "practical application" to everything. So, if you insist, you can interpret it as a satirical piece on the way scholars, pseudo-scholars and just about everyone else sometimes over-interpret ancient texts. Does that make you happy? Good! For the rest of you: The truth is we were just having fun. That's all!
Question: How did IO (Israelite Obesity in the Period of Solomon's Monarchy)
come to be written as a mutli-author work?
Answer: Eric Helmer, Jeff Henderson and Ken Banner shared an apartment in
Springfield, Missouri during the Spring semester of 1982. Henderson and Banner
were in graduate school at the Assemblies of God Seminary. Helmer was finishing
his last semester at Central Bible College. Banner was also taking a course in Ancient
Near Eastern History at Southwest Missouri State University which emphasized
reading primary texts, including major selections from the Jewish Bible. He noticed
the repeated phrases in 1 Kings which said that Benaiah "fell upon" his victims and
began to think about how humorous it woud be to take them literally. In the daze of
mid-semester research he started laughing out loud and then shared the source of
his laughter with his roomates. Helmer and Henderson, both brilliantly satirical,
added their ideas and the whole thing was compiled into a short article that would
be called, "Israelite Obesity in the Period of Solomon's Monarchy."
Over the next few months this crude, original edition of IO was passed around from
person to person and even made its way to other schools around the nation. Helmer
sent a copy to old high school friend Kenneth Campbell who had attended Central Bible
College when both Helmer and Banner were there. Campbell loved the piece and, unbeknowns
to the other authors, made his own secret editorial redaction of the work. He
then sent the redacted copy to the masterminds of religious humor
at
THE DOOR MAGAZINE (at that time it was known as "The Wittenberg
Door").
At
THE DOOR MAGAZINE an individual known only as the mysterious "Unknown
Redactor" further polished the work into it's final edition. It was then
published in the magazine
for all the world to see.
A few months later Helmer and Banner were pleasantly surprised to learn that, due to the
secret efforts of Campbell, they were indeed now among those privileged few who had
authored articles for
THE DOOR
MAGAZINE. The rest is history.....
So what DOES this text mean? The Benaiah Project has repeatedly emphasized to the
scholarly world that the original life setting of the pericope had nothing to do
with apocalyptic. The saying, in its primitive setting, was an attempt to get
obese members of the early Christian community to refrain from consuming ALL of
the donuts during the regular "coffee and fellowship" times held just before their
services. No doubt a literal, practical application of the text would have
decreased calorie consumption by at least half. In line with this the textual
scholars on our team have suggested the following amendation, "Only one
pastry shall be taken and the others left."
Kenneth Banner
Eric Helmer
If the other authors (including the "unknown redactor") ever decide to come out of
hiding and reveal themselves The Benaiah Project
will be glad to include their names and email addresses here too.
Question: What is the Benaiah Project?
Answer: Hey, we had to have something to put at the top of the menu
page. Besides other articles may eventually be added to this web
site so maybe it really will become a project.
Return to the
Benaiah Project
alterity@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~alterity/
kbanner@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~kbanner
Last Modified:
Kenneth J. Banner
(kbanner@ccat.sas.upenn.edu)