An article in “The American Thinker” on October 31 already pointed out the error in Obama’s “Brothers Keeper” schtick:
The Real Meaning of ‘My Brother’s Keeper’
By Matthew Eckel
This is such an elementary point that I fear making it will seem silly. On the other hand, so many people seem so completely in the dark about it that it is worth stating the obvious. Claiming to be “my brother’s keeper,” as President Obama is so wont to spout, is an insult to the brother!
I suppose the confusion is perfectly understandable since most of us encounter the phrase in its English translation and not the original Hebrew, and numerous otherwise-well-meaning organizations have taken it as their motto. See here, here, and here for examples. After all, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines “to keep” as “to watch over and defend esp. from danger, harm, or loss.” But Webster’s also defines “to keep” as “to restrain from departure” and “to retain or continue to have in one’s possession or power.” So which meaning does “brother’s keeper” have in its original usage?
The phrase comes, of course, from Genesis, chapter 4 — God’s devastating interrogation of Cain after Cain killed Abel out of rank jealousy. God asks Cain innocently, “Where is your brother, Abel? [i]” Cain replies, “I don’t know,” and asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Now, some of us grew up aping that catchy margarine slogan, “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” so we can immediately recognize that it is probably not a great idea to try to deceive the Creator of heaven and earth, especially just after you did something He warned you not to do. God, of course, is not amused and curses Cain, who ends up lamenting, “My punishment is more than I can bear.”
But what was Cain actually saying when he uttered those words to God? The Hebrew word used here for “keeper” means more than “protector” or “defender”; it is more akin to “overseer” or “master,” as in “keeping” sheep (1 Samuel 17:20, 22); royal wardrobes (2 Kings 22:14); the king’s forest (Nehemiah 2:3, 3:29); gates (1 Chronicles 9:19); vineyards (Song of Solomon 1:6); and the temple threshold (Jeremiah 52:24) [ii]. Although these jobs are foreign to most of us, we can get the sense of them by thinking “zookeeper” or “doorkeeper.”
Now, if you think that treating your brother like a dumb animal, a clothes collection, a tree, a gate, a vine, or a doorway is charitable, then consider the context — Cain was wise-assing God! Cain wasn’t responsibly pondering, “Am I my brother’s noble defender?” He was saying, “How the hell do I know where he is? It’s not in my job description to keep track of him!” It was meant to shame God into replying, “On no, of course you aren’t. I’m so sorry I asked.” Simply put, Cain’s rhetorical sneer is not the query of a loving, responsible brother, but the bald bluster of a brutal murderer.
Look, the pages of American Thinker are hardly the place to get into a theological debate about the meaning of obscure biblical phrases, but you need to know that when a die-hard leftist appropriates a wise-ass remark made by the archetypal murderer, he is really showing you more about himself than he would like. He’s really saying, “It’s my job (because I take it upon myself) to keep these people in line because they are unthinking, inanimate, and helpless objects which are frankly more like property than equals.” If that is what Obama really thinks of the American people, then we can only hope we escape his brotherly affections.
If that is what Obama really thinks of the American people, then we can only hope we escape his brotherly affections.
I detect the contempt for the American people every time obama speaks. kinda like a trigger for me since i read his book where he considered working in the private sector ‘behind enemy lines’
Great Post!
The phrase Obama uses actually seems to have originally emanated from his 2004 Democratic Convention speech:
A belief that we are connected as one people. If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one.
Barack Obama’s remarks at the Democratic convention
The Associated Press via USA Today
7/27/2004
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-07-27-obama-speech-text_x.htm
I think the LA Times writer may have misread Obama’s remarks as a specific reference to the bible, and that Matthew Eckel, at least insofar as Obama’s 2004 speech context is concerned, may be unnecessarily dissembling the dissembling of a dissembler :-P...
#11 Well put and exactly right.
ive come to believe that *evil* is more or less required to tip its hand to those it tries to kill...kind of a built in 'leveling of the field' that the Lord put in place to give us a chance against the awesome [but limited] power and knowledge that the father of lies posesses...he knows scripture better than we do, and the *small* untruths and distortions are often a more grand lie than the whoppers...
i also believe that he [satan and bambam] thinks its more fun, and gets his jollies by openly puttin things in our faces and getting away with it...
if we arent studying the Word and helping each other [brothers *keeper*] we [the world] will certainly miss and be inclined to believe more lies than we catch...