101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

256
yth #91:
Shamgar was the son of Anath.
The Myth: And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the
Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel. ( Judg. 3:31)
The Reality: Anath was not the mother of Shamgar. “Son of Anath” was a
metaphor describing someone who killed many enemies.
According to Judges, one of Israel’s earliest saviors was Shamgar, the son of Anath.
His entire story consists of only two brief passages, the one quoted above and another
from within the Song of Deborah. The second reference tells us that in the days of
Shamgar,“the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.
The inhabitants of the villages ceased” ( Judg. 5:6–7).
It is unclear from the text if Shamgar’s parent, Anath, is the mother or father, but
the name belongs to a major Canaanite goddess, a bloodthirsty warrior woman who
also happened to be a virgin. Thus, she couldn’t have been the mother of a child and in
Near Eastern mythology she has no children.
Since Shamgar delivered Israel from Canaanite oppression, it is unlikely that his
mother would be closely associated with a Canaanite deity. After all, the main reason
Israel suffered under Canaanite oppression was that it had been punished for its sin of
embracing deities other than the god of Israel. So, it wouldn’t do to have a deliverer
going around who was known as the son of a Canaanite goddess.
The name “son of Anath” is metaphorical. It simply means that Shamgar was a
mighty warrior in the brutal style of the goddess Anath, who is sometimes depicted as
wading knee-deep in the blood and gore of her victims. That this is so can be seen
from the one deed attributed to him—the slaying of six hundred men with an oxgoad
(a long metal pole), which must have left Shamgar similarly immersed in his
enemies’ remains.
The story appears to be a legend abruptly inserted between the stories of Ehud
and Deborah. The verse immediately before it says that as a result of Ehud’s victories,