Reading Notes: Bible Women Part B
The Story of Susannah
• Joacim takes Susanna as his wife
• Two elders observe Susanna going to walk in her husband’s garden everyday at noon and are inflamed with lust
• The elders admit being ashamed of their desires to one another but continue to watch Susanna
• The Elders leave for home but both turn back and plot to find a time when they could both be alone with Susanna
• Susanna and her two maids entered the garden while the two elders watched from a hiding place within the garden
• Susanna bathed and asked her maids to bring her oil and washing balls and shut the door to the garden.
• Elders confess love to Susanna and ask her to consent to lying with them or else they will claim she sent her maids away to lie with a young man
• Susanna decides not to lie with them and fall into their hands but avoid sin
• Susanna cries out and the elders open the door and accuse Susanna in front of her maids
• The two Elder then call Susanna before the assembly in Joacim’s house
• The Elders command Susanna’s face be uncovered so they may look at her
• The Elders accuse Susanna of lying with a young man who escaped when the elders confronted the pair
• Assembly believes elders and condemns Susanna to death
• Susanna cries out to the lord and is heard
• Daniel rose up and claimed the men had borne false witness against Susanna
• Daniel examines each of the Elders separately. One of the Elders claims to have seen Susanna and the young man under a mastic tree while the other claims to have seen them under a holm tree.
• The two Elders are convicted of bearing false witness and are put to death.
The Elders confronting Susanna in the garden (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
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