Most underrated Biblical stories?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I got into a conversation about this the other week with a friend, and it kind of reinforced to me how undervalued Hebrew Bible lore is to most Christians. But my personal favorite of these would be the story of Absalom in 2 Samuel.

To summarize: Absalom was a son of David, who avenged the rape (and subsequent rejection, which would render her non-marriage material) of his sister, Tamar, by killing his brother, Amnon (who pretended to be sick in bed and had Tamar bring him hotcakes before assaulting her).

Despite killing another royal, Absalom's own life was ultimately spared and he was exiled for a few years. But despite caring very much for his sister, he was otherwise a very self-absorbed man who'd been effectively cut off from his royal inheritance. For someone like Absalom, this was a fate worse than death, and that would lead to him revolting against David by having sex with all of his concubines in public view, and declaring himself king - for what would ultimately be a very short time.

The ensuing war, between those loyal to David and those loyal to Absalom, ended with Absalom fleeing through a forest and his long hair being entangled in an oak tree. Against David's orders, his military commander Joab had Absalom killed and his body delivered to David (not explaining that this was his own doing, in order to prevent David from sparing his life again), who then cried over his fallen son and lamented that it had not been him in his place, despite everything that had happened.

The moral themes/lessons of Absalom's story are abundant and they're fairly obvious: pride and the lust for power, rape, vengeance, incest, sex with married women (though it should be noted God never endorsed David's own polygamous ways per se). But it's not exactly a story we would hear most preachers pontificate about these days, for reasons which are also obvious. And thus it is seldom told or known to most laypeople.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

One of the most famous motets of the Renaissance

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

I am impressed by the stories of the Old Testament that predict Jesus' birth, especially the Book of Isaiah:

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 50:6

I offered my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
    from mocking and spitting.

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

[Enduro]

I've always believed the story surrounding David and Absalom is infinitely more emotional than most of David's other stories, but those ones are far more famous due to their fantastical elements.

Another story I've enjoyed is King Josiah's discovery of the law and restoration of faith to his kingdom. From the New Testament, I find that The Prodigal Son, while not unknown by any means, is again a more emotionally charged story than Jesus' other parables. Of course, there lessons to be learned in all his parables, but I just find more enjoyment in this one as a story.

[Dr. MB]

The Book of Enoch. Too real so they won’t even include it.

[dead0man]

oh that one where Lot is trying to protect some angels from a mob that wants to kill and/or rape them and he offers up his daughters to the mob to rape/murder instead.

[nicholas.slaydon]

oh that one where Lot is trying to protect some angels from a mob that wants to kill and/or rape them and he offers up his daughters to the mob to rape/murder instead.

Better than that, the completely overlooked parallel story told in Judges 19-21, where the perpetrators of that type of ritual abuse are in fact Israelites. Which when read as a parallel story to Sodom and Gomorrah, robs a lot of conservative Christians of their go to verses against homosexuality, because first off, the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah were just filled with horny homosexuals who wanted to rape the angels because they thought they were hot is a pretty ridiculous interpretation to hold at the onset.

When paired with the story of the Levite and his concubine in Judges, the unwillingness of the public to offer travelers a place to stay even when they have been waiting many hours in the the public square, and then desiring to subject these travelers to mass rape at least shows to me that this practice of desiring to subject travelers to rape was a custom of the Canaanites either to weed out enemies and spies from their cities, or as a cultic religious act that the Benjamin's had adopted since being in Canaan. Thus the perpetrators may not have even been homosexual in orientation at all, but likely saw rape as an act of worship, or as an act of anti-terrorism and countering infiltrators in their city.

Thus conservatives citing the verse as being against homosexuality is ignoring why the Sodomites and the Benjamites would have engaged in such a practice in the first place, and that clearly it was the false worship of idols and false gods that caused the Sodomites and the Benjamites to engage in homosexual rape in the first place, and that was the sin and wickedness of Sodom, and the reason why the Israelites almost wiped all the Benjamites out of existence. However, I don't expect such a thorough reading of the scriptures from conservative Christian (especially conservative evangelicals).

[vitoNova]

The anime series with the robot.   Superbook. 

I'm not religious, but I love that show.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

My favorite underrated Bible story is probably the birth of Samuel.  You have a woman who is so desperate to have a child that promises God to dedicate her first son to Him for his entire life.  (In the highly patriarchal culture of the ancient Hebrews, a woman's value was mostly seen in her ability to give birth to sons.)  And not only that, but God gives her three more sons and two daughters afterwards. 

In the New Testament, I'd have to say the thief on the cross, because it shows that it's never too late to put your faith in Christ.