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

Myths of the Heroes 259
Tabor located either in the territory of Issachar, Zebulun or perhaps Naphtali, somewhere
near the conjunction of all three tribes.
The older poetic version has a role call of the various tribes that did or didn’t take
part; the prose version names only Zebulun and Naphtali. While both versions name
Sisera as the opposing general, the poetic version describes the enemy as a coalition of
Canaanite kings; the prose version specifically names Jabin, King of Hazor, as the
powerful Canaanite king against whom Israel rebelled.“Jabin, King of Hazor” is the
same name as that of the ruler defeated earlier by Joshua, at which time Joshua supposedly
destroyed the city of Hazor. (The city of Hazor was located in the northern
tip of Naphtali, by the northern border of Israel.)
Another difference between the two versions is that in the poetic version Barak is
unquestionably heroic whereas the prose version makes him somewhat wishy-washy and
requires that he be aided by Deborah in order to shore up his courage against the enemy.
The later prose version is a loose adaptation of the earlier poetic version and modified
to enhance the prestige of Zebulun and Naphtali vis-à-vis Ephraim, the territory
where Deborah came from. Our focus here will be on the poetic version.
The various names and poetic images in the story indicate an underlying mythological
source for the story. The name Deborah means “bee.” Her husband’s name,
Lapidoth, means“flashes” or“lights.” Barak’s name means“lightning.”
In Lower Egypt, where Israel was held captive, the bee was the symbol of kingship,
and one of the most important goddesses in Lower Egypt was Neith, who had a temple
known as the “House of the Bee.” The Egyptians identified Neith as both a warrior
goddess and a nurturer. They portrayed her with a pair of crossed arrows over a
shield but she also appeared as the patroness of weaving and as a mortuary goddess
associated with the mummy shroud. For these reasons, the Greeks identified her with
the goddess Athena. Herodotus tells us that a feature of Neith worship involved a
great festival known as the Feast of Lamps, during which her devotees kept numerous
lamps burning through the night. Her association with a Festival of Lamps reminds
us that Deborah was married to“lights.”
Neith also functioned on occasion as a judge. In The Contendings of Horus and Set,
Neith appears twice in a judiciary role. Early in the story, we are told that the struggle