Hello, my young theologians.

My name is Ms. Marks, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

And today we're going to be looking at the song of Deborah.

And this is found in the Book of Judges in the Old Testament part of the Bible.

I will warn you that there's some depictions of violence in this story, and so just be aware of that before we get started.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain the story of Deborah, the judge, and prophetess, and explain different Christian perspectives on the impact of this.

Let's start with our keywords.

Complementarian is a view that men and women are equal in the eyes of God, but have distinct, complementary roles in the church and family.

Egalitarian.

A belief in the equality of men and women in all roles, including leadership of the church and family, with no gender-based restrictions.

Judge.

A leader in ancient Israel raised by God to deliver the people from oppression and guide them spiritually, often with military leadership.

Prophetess.

A female prophet.

Someone who speaks on behalf of God, delivering prophecy and guidance, like Deborah in the Old Testament.

So in our lesson today, we're going to have two sections.

Firstly, Deborah, the judge and prophetess, and secondly, different views on the impact of Deborah's story.

So our first section then.

Deborah, the judge and prophetess.

This is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

You might have seen a picture of her before.

She was an important lawyer in the United States, and was the second ever woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court.

She impacted many people's lives through bringing in laws that supported equality and rights for all in the country.

What could her example show us about the role of women in society? Have a think about that question.

Talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Pause the video, and off you go.

In many ways, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a real trailblazer, and set an example for many women today who have been able to follow in her footsteps, which is fantastic.

And perhaps Deborah can remind us a little bit of her too.

When we use the discipline of theology in religious education, we can look at the types of text and interpretations of them, which can then lead to different meanings.

And this can be done by analysing texts and considering the different lenses that people may view them through.

This can then lead to different interpretations, and the meaning that people take from those interpretations can inform important debates around beliefs, e.

g.

, the debate around the roles of men and women, particularly the role of women in leadership in religion.

So here I have a picture of a Bible.

Now it's not just one book, because the Bible is in fact a collection of many different books.

So sometimes it's shown in this way like a bookshelf if you had them all lined up.

And we can see which particular bit we're talking about today.

And the story of Deborah is in the Old Testament part of the Bible, in the Book of Judges, which we could see is here, in the kind of history section of books that are found in the Old Testament.

The Book of Judges tells the story of the Israelites between around 1450 B.

C.

E.

and 1150 B.

C.

E.

And this was a time when the Israelite people were not one nation ruled by a monarch, but they were different tribes, but sometimes they faced common enemy.

If the tribes faced a common enemy, they could form alliances to fight together.

And these would be led by judges, sort of bringing the tribes together to face this common issue and problem that they have.

The story of Deborah and the Song of Deborah.

Deborah ruled Israel for many years, solving problems and disputes.

Deborah was unique as she was a woman and also a prophetess.

None of the male judges were also prophets that are mentioned in this book.

The Israelite tribes had a common enemy at the time of Deborah.

And here we've got the statue depicting Deborah here.

It said that she gave judgments from under a palm tree, which we can see in the statue.

The word prophetess comes from Greek, and it has these stems. "Pro," meaning "before." So if you think of a word like proactive, it's about getting something done before, isn't it? "Phet," which comes from "phesein," meaning "to tell." So we have this idea of telling before, so perhaps making a prophecy, saying what might happen in the future.

And the suffix "ess," at the end, is showing us that this is a female.

So prophetess.

So a prophetess speaks the messages from God to humans, sometimes it foretells future events, but not always.

But in Deborah's case, we'll see.

The Old Testament in the Bible mentions Deborah, Miriam, Huldah, Noadia, and Isaiah's wife as prophetesses.

So Deborah's not the only prophetess that's mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Let's do a quick check.

Deborah was a monarch leading Israel as a queen.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false.

But why? Well, it's false because Deborah was a judge, and a prophetess.

She led the tribes of Israel at a time when there was no monarch.

So it meant there wasn't a king or a queen.

They were different tribes.

They weren't one nation under a queen.

So in the Book of Judges, the tribes of Israel are said to go through a cycle over and over, and let's look at what that cycle is together now.

So firstly, the tribes of Israel who've got God's commands and they've made the agreement and the covenant that they'll keep to God's commands, they disobey them.

This is the first step of the cycle.

And as a consequence of disobeying God's commands, God allows those tribes to be conquered and oppressed by others.

So others come and take the land or oppress the people as a consequence of the tribes disobeying God's commands, which they said they would follow.

So then, living either under oppression, or having been conquered, the tribes often call out to God, ask God for help, and ask God to come and help them.

So then God sends a judge to help the Israelite tribes.

Then we have this cycle of them disobeying God's commands, them being maybe conquered and oppressed, asking for help, and God sending a judge to help them.

And this is sometimes known as the cycle of disobedience.

And in the Book of Judges in the Bible, it tells the story of seven of these cycles of disobedience.

And within that, there are six major judges who help the tribe of Israel.

So Deborah's not the only case of this happening, it's happening as a cycle throughout the book.

And these six major judges are Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson.

Of those, Deborah is the only female judge mentioned in the book.

And there may have been many more judges, but these are the ones that were chosen to be written about.

So here's the start of the story of Deborah.

"Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan and Sisera, the commander of his army.

Because he had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they cried to the Lord for help.

Now Deborah, a prophet, was leading Israel at that time." So what problems are the Israelites facing in this text? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll come back and see what you've done in a moment.

The Israelites have had cruel oppression for 20 years.

And their enemy has 900 iron chariots.

So it's an enemy that they think they would never be able to fight and win.

And 20 years, they've been oppressed by it.

But how does this text show that cycle of disobedience that we spoke about earlier that's found constantly throughout the Book of Judges? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

While the Israelites are being oppressed because they've done evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan.

And then also they've called out to God for help because of being cruelly oppressed, and Deborah is positioned as someone to help them.

So here we can see that cycle of disobedience, and where Deborah comes in.

So time for another check.

Which of these statements about the Book of Judges is correct? The Book of Judges shows how the tribes of Israel followed all of God's teachings and lived peacefully for 300 years.

The Book of Judges shows how the tribes of Israel disobeyed God's teachings and were abandoned by God for 300 years.

Or, the Book of Judges shows how the tribes of Israel disobeyed God's teachings and were punished, but God helped them.

Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That was C.

The Book of Judges shows they disobeyed God's teachings, and were punished, but God helped them.

Whilst the Bible doesn't state which tribe of Israel Deborah was from, many scholars believe she's from the tribe of Ephraim, but respected across various tribes as a leader.

She used to make rulings and solve disputes.

And when the people of the tribes of Israel called out to God to help them, God gave Deborah a message of how they could be saved.

As a prophetess, Deborah had a message from God to give to Barak, who was a military leader.

She gave the message to him that he should gather 10,000 men from the tribes of Israel and ascend Mount Tabor.

From this vantage point, God would ensure that Sisera, the commander of their enemy's army, would lose the battle.

Barak asked Deborah to come with him into battle, and Deborah agreed.

She said, however, that a woman would have the honour of killing Sisera, and not Barak.

Some, but not all of the tribes of Israel joined the battle, and they did win.

At the end of the battle, Sisera fled to the tent of a man he thought would support him from a neighbouring tribe.

When he went there, the man was not there, but his wife Jael was.

When Sisera said he was thirsty, she offered him milk.

And as he rested from the battle, Jael took an opportunity to kill him by taking a tent peg and a hammer.

She drove the tent peg through his skull, and he died, thus fulfilling the prophecy that Deborah had made.

So in the Book of Judges, we find the story of Deborah, and the Song of Deborah, and they are different genres, or types of writing.

Judges Chapter Four tells the story through prose as a narrative and focuses on the events as they happen in a historical way.

It's like a historical story.

But Judges Chapter Five tells the story as poetry, as like a victory song, and focuses on those who supported Deborah and Barak and how the victory was won.

Many scholars believe that Chapter Five, the song of Deborah, is an older passage and was passed down already before being written down.

So maybe it was a victory song that people sang, remembering this battle that had happened in the past and that was passed down orally before it was written down.

So here's the prose version from Judges Chapter Four.

"But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted.

She drove the tent peg through his temple, and to the ground, and he died." And here's the poetry version.

"Most blessed of women be Jael most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

Her hand reached for the tent peg, she struck Sisera, she crushed his head.

She shattered and pierced his temple.

At her feet, he sank, he fell, there he lay.

At her feet, he sank, he fell, where he sank, there he fell, dead." What are some of the differences between the poetry and the prose that you can notice? Have a think about that.

You can pause the video and talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

So both of these tell the same event of the killing of Sisera by Jael with a tent peg.

The fulfilling of Deborah's prophecy that a woman would deliver the final blow.

But the poetry one, we can see that it's written in a more lyrical way.

And you can tell from hearing it, can't you, how it might have been retold as a battle victory song through different generations.

So time for another check.

Is this true or false? In the story, Barak kills Sisera, the enemy commander.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false.

But why? Well, in the story, it's Jael, isn't it? A woman who kills Sisera.

This was fulfilling the prophecy that Deborah made that the honour would not be Barak's, but a woman's.

So well done if you got that right.

So time for a practise task to see what we've learned then.

Using the images below as a prompt, explain the importance of the two women, Deborah and Jael, for the story of Deborah in a paragraph.

And you must include the following words.

Judge, prophetess, tent peg, and honour.

So pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've written in a moment.

Well done, some great work there.

So I asked you to explain the importance of two women, Deborah and Jael, for the story of Deborah in a paragraph.

Your answer may look something like this.

"In the story of Deborah, she's a judge and a prophetess who leads the people of the tribes of Israel.

Deborah has a prophecy that the tribes of Israel will win a battle against Sisera, and that a woman will deliver the final blow.

Jael is a woman in the story who uses a tent peg to deliver the final blow to Sisera by driving it through his temple when he comes to her tent.

For this, she has the honour of winning the battle." Well done for all your work there.

So onto section two of our lesson then.

Different views on the impact of Deborah's story.

So from the prose version of the event, so that's in Deborah four, the kind of historical narrative version, it says this.

"The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you 10,000 men, and lead them up to Mount Tabor.

I would lead Sisera and give him into your hands.

'" If you remember the 900 iron chariots that Sisera's army had would've meant that people might felt they wouldn't be able to win a battle like this.

So it's a promise from God that they will win if they fight the way that God is instructing them to.

"Barak then says to her, 'If you go with me, I will go.

But if you don't go with me, I won't go.

' 'Certainly I will go with you,' said Deborah.

'But because of the course you're taking, the honour will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.

'" So what does Barak ask Deborah to do in this prose? And how does Deborah respond? Pause the video, and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, Barak says he's only gonna fight if Deborah comes with him.

So here we've got, "If you go with me, I will go.

But if you don't go with me, I won't go." And Deborah says the victory will be given to a woman in the battle.

The honour will not be his.

Deborah says, "Because of the course you're taking, the honour will not be yours." So what could this suggest about the roles of men and women in the battle? Pause the video again and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Could this suggest that Deborah wasn't supposed to go to the battle with Barak and he should have gone alone? I wonder what you think? Dr.

Sandra Richter is a theologian, and she has studied the Book of Judges, and here she is.

She believes the story can encourage women into leadership roles in Christianity today.

She emphasises how important Deborah was as a victorious leader, and judge, and compares her to contemporary leaders such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who we saw at the start of this lesson.

Dr.

Sandra has analysed the story of Deborah and she says, "The fact that a man would've written the Book of Judges included Deborah, shows how important she was.

Women leaders in the Bible are unusual, but they're still unusual in the world today.

It doesn't mean they shouldn't be leaders just because Deborah's kind of the only one that's mentioned in Judges.

Deborah might not be doing the combat, but she is the commander.

She's leading the people to victory.

And it was usual for a military leader to request the prophet to come with them into battle, like Saul and Samuel, and other prophets and leaders in the Old Testament in the Bible would've wanted the prophet with them because it was God who said that God was gonna help them to win the battle." So let's do another check.

Dr.

Richter said it was normal for a military leader to ask a prophet to join them in battle, not a sign of Barak being cowardly by asking a woman to be by his side.

Was that true or false? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've written in a moment.

That is true.

But why? Other military leaders asked the prophet of God to come with them into battle.

Saul asked the prophet Samuel to do this.

Now we can read the story of Deborah through different theological lenses, a bit like the glasses we might put on when we're reading something can influence what we see.

The lens that someone views the song of Deborah through will influence how they interpret the story and the meaning they'll take from it.

Two lenses that people may view the song of Deborah through are complementarian and egalitarian views about the roles of men and women in religion.

And those are key words we had right at the start of the lesson.

So some Christians will view the roles of men and women in a complementarian way.

And we can see this word complement here.

And this comes from when something completes something else.

So you've got two different things that take it together, perfect it, or complete it and sort of help each other out.

A complementarian would view men and women as completing one another.

They're both equal in the eyes of God, but have different roles in the family and the church that support each other.

Other Christians view the roles of men and women in an egalitarian way.

And this comes from the French term "egalite," meaning "equality." An egalitarian would view men and women as being equal in the eyes of God, and that they both, men and women, can perform any roles in the family or the church.

So the gender of the person would not determine the roles that they could have.

So the Plymouth Brethren is an example of a church that views the roles of men and women through a complementarian lens.

If you remember, men and women are equal, but have different roles within the church because of their gender.

Rachel explains how she views the meaning of the story of Deborah here.

So here's Rachel, and she's part of the Plymouth Brethren Church.

She says, "Deborah is a victorious woman.

But she's an exception to the roles men and women should have to complement one another." So she's not how everyone should be.

It's kind of a one-off.

It doesn't mean that's how it should always be.

"And in the story, Barak is scolded for relying on a woman for military strength.

He should have been brave enough to fight without her.

This shows that men and women have different roles in religion and that men should lead." So Rachel understands this story as Barak being told off for not wanting to fight without a woman by his side as in Deborah.

And that his punishment for that, therefore, is that a woman is going to get the glory of the battle and not him.

In the Church of England, there are many Christians who view the roles of men and women through an egalitarian lens.

And Fiona is gonna explain to us how she views the meaning of the story of Deborah.

Deborah shows that women can be used by God as prophets, as well as in positions of leadership, as she was a victor.

There are fewer examples of women in these roles in the Bible because of the time it was written, but this story shows how God will use someone as a prophet and a leader, no matter if they're male or female.

So let's do another check.

All Christians believe that the story of Deborah shows that women can be leaders in religion.

Is this true or false? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've written in a moment.

This is false.

But why? Well, there are different views in Christianity about the impact of the story of Deborah.

Some views are that women can be leaders because of stories like Deborah's, whilst others think she was exceptional, and not what all women should be doing now.

And women should not be leaders in religion.

So well done with your work there.

So time for another practise task to see what we've learned.

For each person in the table below, who we've met in our lesson, first decide if they had a complementarian or egalitarian view of the roles of men and women.

And then give one example or explanation of the impact they said that Deborah's story could have.

And your three people are, Dr.

Sandy Richter, Rachel from the Plymouth Brethren, and Fiona from the Church of England.

For each one, are they complementarian or egalitarian when they read this text? And then what did they say the impact was? So pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've written in a moment.

Well done.

That was some really good work there.

Thinking about how we can apply lenses as theologians.

So I asked you to complete the table about the views that Dr.

Sandy Richter, Rachel and Fiona had on the story of Deborah.

What lens did they use to read the story? And then what impact did they say the story had? And your answer may look something like this.

Dr.

Sandy Richter viewed the story as an egalitarian.

And she said the impact was the story could be to encourage women to be leaders in religion, as Deborah's story was chosen by a male writer to be included in the Book of Judges.

'Cause as we said earlier, there were judges that are not mentioned in that book.

Rachel from the Plymouth Brethren had a complementarian view.

And she said the impact was showing us that Barak was wrong to ask a woman, Deborah, to join him on the battlefield, and that women shouldn't be leaders in religion but have other roles.

And Fiona from the Church of England had an egalitarian view.

She said the impact was that the story shows that Deborah was used by God as both a judge and a prophetess.

God can use people no matter if they're male or female for these roles.

So let's summarise everything we've learned in this lesson.

Deborah was a prophetess and judge who got instructed to lead the Israelite tribes against an enemy army.

They won the battle and the final blow of the battle was delivered by a woman named Jael, who killed Sisera.

There are different theological lenses we can use to view the story.

Complementarian and egalitarian.

Some view the story as supporting female leadership in religion today, as Deborah is a victorious judge and prophetess.

The story shows that Deborah's a victor, but not all Christians believe that women should be leaders in religion today.

So well done for your work today, my young theologians, and I'll see you again soon.

Bye bye!.