The Bible- for some a source of controversy, for others, inspiration.
What both sides can agree on though is that some of literature’s greatest villains grace
its pages.
10.
We’ll start with something relatively light.
We say relatively, but in today’s world, this man could have easily stood on the top
of a tri-level podium with Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy standing next to him clutching
their respective silver and bronze medals.
His name was Abimelech.
He was partial to the odd massacre, but they are two a penny in the bible.
It’s what he did to become king that gets him a place on this list.
Abimelech had many brothers, 70 of them, which didn’t bode well for his ascension to rulership.
Those brothers were only half-brothers since his mother was his father’s slave and concubine.
One day Abimelech went to his mother and asked, “Please ask all citizens of Shechem, what
seems best to you?
Do you really want all of Gideon’s 70 sons to rule you or just one man?
Remember, I’m your own flesh and blood.”
He was given 70 pieces of silver, which he used to hire a bunch of violent thugs.
They were ok with bashing some brothers up for the right price.
They helped him kill all of the brothers, except the youngest, Jotham, who escaped.
Notably, all the brothers were slain on the same stone.
Abimelech was cursed after that, and he died in battle not quite the way he’d dreamed
of.
A woman dropped a stone on his head from a height.
Dying on the floor, Abimelech told one of his men to stab him with a spear, lest anyone
know a member of the fairest sex felled him.
According to the bible, in Judges 9, “So God paid back Abimelech for the evil he had
done to his father when he killed his 70 brothers.
God also paid back the men of Shechem for all their evil.”
Hubris, greed, vengefulness, it doesn’t often go down too well under the eyes of God.
Make no mistake, God’s wrath was hardcore, as you’ll see time again in this show.
9.
Again, we are going to discuss some brotherly friction that led one sibling to take out
the other.
Fratricide might not be very common these days, but in ancient times it was all the
rage.
Be thankful your older brother only ever pushed you off a swing.
This story is about Cain, and his older brother, Abel.
It’s one of the most well-known tales in the bible.
Here’s the abridged version.
Cain was the firstborn of the couple we all know and love, Adam and Eve.
Then Abel came along, and thus started the oldest sibling rivalry known to man.
It was when they got older that all the problems started.
Cain was a farmer, and one day he made a sacrifice to God by handing over some of his harvest.
Cain expected to be in the good books for that, receiving a pat on the back.
But that never came.
Then Abel, the shepherd, came onto the scene and did a bit of sacrificing himself.
He gave God the firstborn of his flock.
God was actually well pleased with both sacrifices, but he preferred Abel’s.
Why?
Because Abel gave of his firstborn from amongst his flocks, thinking of God before thinking
of himself- while Cain’s offering has no mention of the firstfruits, meaning he didn’t
place God, or his faith, first..
Abel had living faith, while Cain’s was stagnant, his giving merely a ceremonial ritual,
so God was more pleased with Abel.
Cain sulked and cried like a child who’d thrown his toys out of the pram.
Then God said to him, “Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast?
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?
But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have
you, but you must rule over it.”
Given that he’d just killed his brother in a jealous fit, the advice was prudent.
God then famously asked, “Where is your brother Abel?”
Cain replied with the immortal lines, “I don’t know.
Am I my brother’s keeper?”
But oh, Cain knew alright.
Out of jealousy, he’d murdered his own brother.
God said, “Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth
to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”
He cursed Cain to wander the Earth in torment, hence walk with the mark of Cain.
Cain had said, “I will be a restless wanderer on the Earth, and whoever finds me will kill
me.”
God said, nah, no deal.
No one will kill you.
That’s why he put the mark on Cain, to let people know not to kill this guy.
Cain had no love, no God, no brother, no friends, nothing!
His pitiful envy had done that.
He had to go live in the Land of Nod, which was the ancient equivalent of being blocked
from social media.
The story is very important, which is why we’ve included it.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that “Ressentiment”, resentment, can explain
much of the misery of man.
It makes us weak and sick, and it makes us attack others, even if our resentment is resentment
to life itself.
The story of Cain and Abel represents that resentment.
Just look at Twitter, it’s full of Cains.
So, Cain makes the list with just one kill because he kind of kicked off what would become
the lodestone of human hatred, envy, and suffering.
It’s a brilliant tale.
This next one is about plain cruelty.
8.
One day a guy named Herod the Great heard someone say, “Where is the one who has been
born king of the Jews?
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Wait on a minute, Herod thought, I’m the king around here.
He then asked where this king was born, to which he received the reply, “Bethlehem.”
Ok, he thought, I better rub out this ostensible king.
Tracking down a newborn without ID is hard enough now, never mind back in the day when
transport options were few and far between.
But Herod sent someone to look for the baby.
They were the Three Wise Men, and when they found this kid, Jesus, they showered him with
gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Those former two tree resins were just as valuable as gold back then.
To cut a long story short, the wise guys never returned to Herod, knowing that he would try
and kill the infant Jesus.
The bible says, “He was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem
and its vicinity who were two years old and under.”
This became known as the “Massacre of the Innocents”.
If it actually happened- and most biblical scholars merely consider it a myth- the estimated
kill count was somewhere between 14,000 and 144,000.
You see, resentment again.
This next king was arguably worse, but for different reasons.
7.
His name was Ahaz, and he was the king of Judea from 732–716 before Christ was born.
One Christian website we found called him the “evil king of Judah.”
It’s said his actions led to the destruction of the kingdom.
He worshipped idols, which was pretty much the biggest no-no in God’s eyes, but he
also sacrificed two of his own kids to a pagan deity called Moloch.
In the eyes of God, this was not cool at all.
This is from Leviticus 18:21, “And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them
apart to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.”
Ahaz even started messing with temples, restructuring bits and then setting up places of worship
around Judea where people could pray to idols.
This was a man that went to the dark side.
It would be an understatement to say God didn’t much like being forsaken by his people.
Especially when they were burning their infant children alive to foreign Gods.
Now for a really sad love story.
6.
“Why, why, why Delilah?”
goes a 1960s pop song.
Indeed, why Delilah?
The next lines are, “I could see, that girl was no good for me.
But I was lost like a slave that no man could free.”
Delilah was a Philistine, folks who settled in Palestine around the 12th century BC.
They became the enemies of the Israelites.
What you need to know is that Delilah met a really strong Israelite warrior named Samson.
This is from Judges 16, “One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute.
He went in to spend the night with her.”
A plan was made to kill him by some Israelites who knew where he was, but he pretty much
ripped the doors off the city gate and walked out like a man who’d just been crowned WWE
champion.
This was some strong dude.
Then he met Delilah, and so the Philistine rulers said to her, “See if you can lure
him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him.”
She agreed, but only when she was told eleven hundred shekels of silver was part of the
deal.
She then used her charms to make him fall in love with her, which he did, but all the
time, she was feigning reciprocity of that love.
She tried three times to get it out of him what the source of his strength was, and then
the smitten warrior told her: “It’s my hair.”
Samson said, “No razor has ever been used on my head.
If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any
other man.”
She told the Philistines and collected her bounty, after which, when Samson was asleep,
someone cut off his locks.
Delilah didn’t feel the least bit guilty.
You could do a lot back then with 1,100 silver shekels.
The Philistines gouged out Samson’s eyes, as was a la mode in those days.
They then made him a prisoner.
The Philistines made him put on a show like a circus animal, and one day he was brought
into their royal palace, where he prayed to God for forgiveness and to give him the strength
to atone for his sins by taking the Philistine leadership down with him as he toppled the
palace pillars.
The love story has been called “the archetypal story of cross-cultural love between members
of warring nations.”
This next one might be the worst promise ever kept.
5.
The star of this story was named Jephthah.
His mother was a prostitute, maybe a busy one, because the bible doesn’t say who his
father was.
Jephthah was a mighty warrior, but it seems he was also morally bankrupt.
He was driven out of his house by his brothers because he was an illegitimate child.
But later, when the Ammonites started giving the Israelites a hard time, they asked for
the help of Jephthah.
He said to them, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house?
Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”
They said, c’mon, let bygones be bygones, and he said, ok, no worries, I’ll fight.
But he said once he’d won the battle, he had to become the head, and they said if that
was the case, they’d be glad to have him as the leader.
Later, Jephthah made the sort of deal that is always going to end in tears.
We now call this kind of deal a “Faustian bargain”, although this was a pact with
the good guy, not the devil.
Jephthah said to God: “If you will give the Ammonites into my
hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace
from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
He won the battle, of course.
The next part in the bible reads, “The Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.”
But guess who should walk out of Jephthah’s house next?
His only daughter!
She was in a great mood over the victory, dancing towards him, slapping a tambourine.
She saw he looked a bit glum and, feeling confused, she put the tambourine down.
Jephthah then said, “I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.”
He allowed his daughter a trip to the mountains for a couple of months so she could “weep
her virginity,” but when she came back, he did as promised and burned her.
There is a message here, but we’ll let a scholar explain it to you.
“As a potential mother, the daughter represents the future for family and community.
Her father’s shortsightedness signifies the chaos of pre-monarchic life.”
In the biblical context, the message is even simpler: don’t make foolish vows.
Now for another evil woman.
4.
Her name was Herodias.
She was a princess of Judea around the time of the birth of Christ.
It was a strange time for sure.
Her father was Aristobulus IV.
He was murdered by his own father, Herod the Great, the guy behind the Massacre of the
Innocents.
He killed two of his sons after accusing them of treason.
With that in mind, Heriodias was always going to be a bit messed up.
She married one of the surviving sons of Herod the (not so) Great, which meant she married
her half-uncle.
His name was Herod Antipas.
Moving on, according to the gospels of Matthew and Mark, John the Baptist took a dim view
of all the inter-marrying going on in this family.
For that, he was put in prison.
Still, Herod Antipas did not want to kill John.
But then one night there was a party, and the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas put on a
wonderful dance performance.
Herod got a bit excited watching this.
The stepdaughter was the daughter of Herodias.
Herod told her, for that outstanding performance, you can have what you want.
The young girl wasn’t sure what she wanted, not until Heriodias whispered in her ear.
She told her daughter to ask for John’s head on a platter.
You see, she still had a beef with him over his incest criticism.
In Matthew 14, it’s written, “His head was brought in on a platter and given to the
girl, who carried it to her mother.”
Obviously, the evil here is shared among many people, not just Heriodias.
The next guy is said to have been the worst ever.
3.
He was King Ahab, sometimes called the most wicked king of Israel.
That’s a tall order, given the history of Israel’s kings.
In 1 Kings 16:30, It’s written, “Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord
more than all who were before him.”
But why?
Well, there are a few reasons, but one thing often brought up was the fact he was behind
the execution of a vineyard owner named Naboth.
Ahab wanted to buy the vineyard because the land was close to his own place.
Naboth didn’t want to sell.
God’s land was not for sale by law.
Basically, after colluding with his equally evil wife, the king set Naboth up.
He got witnesses to lie and say Naboth had cursed not only him but Almighty God.
Naboth was subsequently stoned to death, and dogs licked the blood from his dead body.
It’s also said that the King and his wife made sure all Naboth’s sons were killed,
so the vineyard didn’t go to them.
Now you should hear about the evil queen.
2.
Her name was Jezebel, a woman that was said to be spectacularly attractive but also monstrously
devilish.
She was a heathen, and helped spur the worship of Baal and Moloch amongst the kingdom of
Israel.
Notably, this meant the sacrifice of infants in fiery infernos- which ticked God off a
fair bit.
She was portrayed as being very cunning, materialistic, and very, very pretty.
If this helps, one source we found called her the Kim Kardashian of the bible.
It was her who was supposed to be the main force behind Naboth’s death, being able
to manipulate the king so easily.
In this respect, she was as bad as him, although feminists might have something to say about
that interpretation.
She worshipped false prophets, she connived to kill innocent men out of greed, but she
was also said to be one reason why Israel later fell into captivity.
You just can’t get away with stuff like that in the bible.
First, God made sure that Ahab died in battle, felled by a clumsily shot arrow that wasn’t
even directly aimed at him.
That was God’s work.
Jezebel’s oldest son was killed in what was made to look like an accident.
That was after he’d sat on the throne.
God’s wrath later ensured her youngest son was also killed.
She knew then that her time was up.
One day she put on a wig, her finest clothes, and jewelry, and painted her face with makeup.
She wanted to go out looking good.
Her eunuch servants then pushed her out of a window, and she splattered on the floor.
For good measure, she was trampled by horses.
Later, when she was to be buried, only her skull, feet, and hands could be found.
Wild dogs had devoured her, which was prophesied.
In 2 Kings 9:30-37, it says, “Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the
plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”
Ok, now for perhaps the most famous, baddest person of them all.
1.
No, not Satan, because Satan isn’t so much a villain but the maker of villains.
The person we are going to talk about is Judas Iscariot, a guy we guess you’ve heard of.
He’s the man that betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Ok, so you could say that without Judas, Jesus wouldn’t have ended up on the cross and
if that hadn’t happened, then the entire plot of Christianity wouldn’t have worked.
But at the time, Judas didn’t know Jesus would be resurrected.
He also received payment for his dark deed.
In the garden, Judas kissed Jesus’ hand and called him “rabbi” which was basically
a ruse so that people in the crowd would know who to arrest.
Jesus knew this would happen, of course.
He once said, “He that eateth my bread lifted up his heel against me.”
In another part of the bible, Jesus told his disciples that “a devil” was in the house,
and he was Judas.
It’s written that at the Last Supper, Jesus turned to Judas and said, "What you are about
to do, do quickly.”
That makes Judas the bad man in the bible.
What could be worse than going against the son of God?
And to do it for a fistful of cash!
This is from Matthew 27:1-10: “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned,
he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests
and the elders.
‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’”
Hence the expression, “blood money.”
We don’t know much about Judas.
Some scholars question whether he existed at all, like other characters we’ve talked
about.
The bible says the reason for the betrayal was more than just the cash.
Such greed was the work of Satan, who wasn’t so much a red devil with a pitchfork, but
the embodiment of evil, that which steers people away from their faith in God.
As for what happened to Judas, there are different stories.
In The Acts of the Apostles, it’s written, “With the payment, he received for his wickedness,
Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines
spilled out.”
That seems a bit harsh.
Let’s face it, Judas was a necessary evil.
Now you need to watch “Was Jesus Actually Resurrected.”
Or, have a look at his nemesis “The Origin Of Evil: The Devil.”