When liberals talk about the bible, they usually end up embarrassing themselves. This one comes from the case files of Kathleen Park who is a dime- store Maureen Dowd.
Ranting about Robertson, Parker dives into amateur biblical criticism.
Robertson’s words released an onslaught of fire and brimstone not seen since God unleashed his fury on Sodom. Speaking of which, it is tempting to note that God was rather selective in his outrage back then. Furious with homosexuals, he seemed to have no problem with Lot, whom he saved, when Lot offered his virgin daughters to townsmen who were demanding to “know” the angels hanging with Lot that God had sent to destroy Sodom.
You don’t need to know the Bible for this one. If you’ve spent any time shopping in the Middle East or at Middle Eastern stores and gotten a ridiculously generous offer that the owner had no intention of making good on, you already know how this works.
Part of the spectacle of bargaining in the Middle East is the “Show Offer”. The “Show Offer” is not a real offer, it’s there to demonstrate sincerity as a prelude to the real negotiations.
There is an example of a Show Offer in the Bible shortly afterward, when the Patriarch Abraham is looking for a burial spot for his wife.
Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying: ‘Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee; bury thy dead.’
And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. And he spoke unto Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying: ‘But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me: I will give the price of the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.’
And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him: ‘My lord, hearken unto me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.’
(Genesis 23:10-15)
Abraham clearly understands Ephron’s offer to give him the field and the cave for free as a Show Offer. Rather than offering a freebie, Ephron is really laying out the parameters of the negotiations.
Instead of selling the cave, he wants to sell the whole field. And he expects a generous price in return for his fake generosity.
Lot is not offering his daughters to a mob of homosexual rapists. (That’s politically incorrect. I know.) He is telling the mob that the guests are under his protection without making any threats. “I am as likely to turn them over to you, as I am my unmarried daughters.”
The mob obviously doesn’t take him up on the offer because there is no offer. Instead it denounces him for presuming to rule over them. That seems out of context if you take the offer seriously, but with that “Show Offer” Lot had asserted his right to extend the protection of his home to his guests. The mob was contending that their way of life, which included sodomy of foreigners, trumped his rights as a homeowner.
All this has plenty of everyday implications in the Middle East where governments frequently say things that they don’t remotely mean.
Americans tend to operate on a single layer. Europeans often operate on three or four layers. Asia and the Middle East operate on dozens. In a multi-layered culture, only fools take things at face value. Few people get directly to the point unless they are intimately involved with you or unless they have a great deal of contempt for you and no regard for your ability to protect your own interests or function in society.





















