The Apostle Paul says all women have inferior judgment to men
The Apostle Paul says women should be silent in church
Jesus calls a begging woman a dog
Jesus says to abandon your family for him
King Solomon has his competition murdered
Jesus says it is ok to castrate yourself for the kingdom of heaven
Samson loses a bet and kills thirty men to pay it off
A woman is given to be raped by a mob and upon returning her husband slices her to pieces
Elijah burns 51 men to death to show he is a man of God
Barbaric punishment for women who interfere with their husband’s brawling
Samson kills 3000 men and women with God’s strength
King Solomon enslaves 30,000 men to build his temple
Moses is angry because not all of the women are killed in a raid
A whole tribe is killed when they fail to show up for roll call
Elisha has jeering children mauled by bears
King Saul is jealous of the magnitude of David’s killing
King David impregnates a man’s wife and sends him off to be killed
God kills an innocent baby for King David’s adultery
A man is stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath
Israelites are instructed on how to treat their slaves
Joab’s killings (servant of King David)
Jael kills a guest with a tent peg
A man burns his daughter as a sacrifice to God
Noah curses Ham’s descendants for Ham seeing him
naked
Disrespectful children are to be killed
The Apostle Paul claimed that women have inferior judgment.
(1 Tim 2:9-12 NRSV) also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, …
Let a woman learn in silence with full submission.
I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.
(1 Tim 2:13-14 NRSV) For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was *not deceived*, but the woman *was deceived* and became a transgressor.
So Eve was deceived, therefore the judgments of all descendent women are inferior according to the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul says that women should be silent in church and learn at home from their husbands.
(1 Cor 14:34 NRSV) women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.
(1 Cor 14:35 NRSV) If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
(1 Tim 2:11 NRSV) Let a woman learn in silence with full submission.
(1 Tim 2:12 NRSV) I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.
(1 Cor 11:5 NRSV) but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head–it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved.
(1 Cor 11:7 NRSV) For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man.
A poor gentile mother begs at Jesus’ feet for her little daughter and Jesus’ response is to refer to her and her daughter as dogs because they weren’t Jewish.
(Mark 7:25 NRSV) but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.
(Mark 7:26 NRSV) Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
(Mark 7:27 NRSV) He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs."
Note: Jesus did eventually help, but he didn’t need to be so rude to a mother begging at his feet for her little daughter. This is inconsistent with a "loving" Jesus.
Jesus says you will be rewarded if you abandon your wife and kids for for the "kingdom of God".
(Luke 18:28-30 NRSV) Then Peter said, "Look, we have left our homes and followed you."
And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life."
Solomon has his competition (his brother Adonijah), his competition’s sympathizer, and an old turncoat murdered to ensure his rule.
Solomon who was supposed to have "divine right" to the throne, feels the need to execute his possible rivals immediately after ascending to it.
(First Adonijah)
(1 Ki 2:24 NRSV) Now therefore as the LORD lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of my father David, and who has made me a house as he promised, today Adonijah shall be put to death."
(Then Joab)
(1 Ki 2:29 NRSV) When it was told King Solomon, "Joab has fled to the tent of the LORD and now is beside the altar," Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, strike him down."
(Finally Shimei)
(1 Ki 2:46 NRSV) Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada; and he went out and struck him (Shimei) down, and he died. So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
Here Jesus says it’s ok to castrate yourself for the kingdom of heaven.
(Mat 19:12 NRSV) For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the *kingdom of heaven*. Let anyone accept this who can."
The Greek words for kingdom and heaven are: *basileia* and *ouranos*.
932. basileia, bas-il-i’-ah; from G935; prop. royalty, i.e. (abstr.) rule, or (concr.) a realm (lit. or fig.):–kingdom, + reign
3772. ouranos, oo-ran-os’; perh. from the same as G3735 (through the idea of elevation); the sky; by extens. heaven (as the abode of God); by impl. happiness, power, eternity; spec. the Gospel (Christianity): –air, heaven ([-ly]), sky.
Note: This passage is purposely distorted in the NIV and Living bible to appear to be dealing with marriage. There is nothing in the original Greek for this verse that has anything to do with marriage.
The Greek word in this verse specifically is eunuch:
2135. eunouchos, yoo-noo’-khos; from eune (a bed) and G2192; a castrated person (such being employed in Oriental bed-chambers); by extens. an impotent or unmarried man; by impl. a chamberlain (state-officer):–eunuch.
Samson loses a bet, the "spirit of the Lord comes upon him" and he slays 30 Philistine men to get their robes to pay off the bet.
(Judg 14:19 KJV) And the spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle…
Perverse men come banging on the door of a man of God and he gives them his guest’s concubine:
(Judg 19:22 NRSV) While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him."
(Judg 19:24 NRSV) (The old man) Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not
do such a vile thing."
(Judg 19:25 NRSV) … So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them. They wantonly raped her, and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began
to break, they let her go.
(later the poor innocent raped concubine returns and is sadistically murdered)
(Judg 19:29 NRSV) When he had entered his house, he took a knife, and grasping his concubine he cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
To prove he is a man of God, Elijah has fire come down from heaven and burn to death 51 men.
(2 Ki 1:10 NRSV) But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then fire came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
A barbaric punishment for women who interfere with their husband’s brawl.
(Deut 25:11-12 NRSV) If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals,
you shall cut off her hand; show no pity.
Samson kills 3000 men and women with the help of "God strengthening him".
(Judg 16:27-30 NRSV) Now the house was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about *three thousand men and women*, who looked on while Samson performed.
Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "Lord GOD, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes."
And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.
Then Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." He strained with all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.
King Solomon enslaves thirty thousand men to build his Temple (which has never been found by archaeologists).
.. Solomon’s biblical Temple of which, like the king who made it, not one trace has survived. – from Romer’s book "Testament"
(1 Ki 5:5 NRSV) So I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD said to my father David, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall
build the house for my name.’
(1 Ki 5:13-14 NRSV) King Solomon conscripted *forced labor* out of all Israel; the levy numbered thirty thousand men.
He sent them to the Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts; they would be a month in the Lebanon and two months at home; Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
Moses is angry because women had been allowed to live by solders in a raid. He tells the soldiers to take the virgins for yourselves and kill all the non-virgins as well as the male children.
(Num 31:14-18 NRSV) Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.
*Moses said to them, "Have you allowed all the women to live?*
These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the LORD in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.
Now therefore, kill every male among the *little ones*, and *kill every woman* who has known a man by sleeping with him.
But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves.
The Jabesh-gilead tribe of Israel failed to show up for a roll call and are all killed, men, women, and children.
(Judg 21:10 NRSV) So the congregation sent twelve thousand soldiers there and commanded them, "Go, put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, including the women and the little ones.
Elisha, angered by some children making fun of him curses them and she-bears come out of the woods and mauled the children.
(2 Ki 2:22-24 NRSV)
…Elisha spoke.
He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying,
"Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!"
When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.
King Saul is jealous because David slaughters 10 times more people.
(1 Sam 18:7-8 NRSV) And the women sang to one another as they made merry, "Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands."
Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands;
King David sees Bathsheba in the nude as she is sunbathing, impregnates her and sends her husband off to be killed at the front line of a battle. (Later God disapproves and kills the
baby that is born)
(2 Sam 11:4 NRSV) So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."
(King David thinks of a way to get rid of her husband)
(2 Sam 11:15 NRSV) In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die."
(After he had her husband killed, he added her to his harem of 6 other women)
(2 Sam 11:27 NRSV) When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.
More murder by King David:
(1 Sam 27:9-10 NRSV) David struck the land, leaving neither man nor woman alive,
When Achish asked, "Against whom have you made a raid today?" David would say,
"Against the Negeb of Judah," or "Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites," or, "Against the Negeb of the Kenites."
(2 Sam 3:14 NRSV) Then David sent messengers to Saul’s son Ishbaal, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, to whom I became engaged at the price of one hundred foreskins of the Philistines."
(2 Sam 8:13 NRSV) David won a name for himself. When he returned, he killed eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
(2 Sam 18:7 NRSV) The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men.
After King David sleeps with another man’s wife and then sends that man off to battle to die, God is not pleased, so he kills the innocent baby.
(2 Sam 12:14 NRSV) Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die."
A man is killed for picking up sticks on the Sabbath
(Num 15:32-36 NRSV)
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day.
Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation.
They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp."
The whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death,
just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
King Solomon has 1000 lovers.
(1 Ki 11:1 NRSV) King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
(1 Ki 11:3 NRSV) Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines;
The children of Israel (God’s chosen nation) had slaves. Here is a law concerning their treatment:
(Exo 21:20-21 NRSV) When a slave owner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property.
The adventures of Joab (servant of King David):
(Joab is after Amasa and Sheba, he finds the first one)
(2 Sam 20:9-10 NRSV) Joab said to Amasa, "Is it well with you, my brother?" And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
But Amasa did not notice the sword in Joab’s hand; Joab struck him in the belly so that his entrails poured out on the ground, and he died.
(Joab goes after Sheba in Abel of Bethmaacah, his forces start to batter a wall down when a woman comes up with a plan to save her city)
(2 Sam 20:21-22 NRSV) The woman said to Joab, "His head shall be thrown over the wall to you."
Then the woman went to all the people with her wise plan. And they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab.
Jael kills her guest Sisera with a tent peg
(Judg 5:24-27 NRSV) "Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent dwelling women most blessed.
He asked water and she gave him milk, she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.
She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.
He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet; at her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell dead.
An instance of human sacrifice to the God of the Bible.
A man burns his daughter as a sacrificial offering to the God of the Bible in exchange for letting him kill the Ammonites.
(Judg 11:30-31 NRSV) And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when
I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering."
(Jephthah’s daughter came out to cheer his victory and Jephthah burns her as a sacrifice to God)
Noah becomes drunk and passes out naked. Noah’s son Ham sees Noah naked and Noah curses Ham’s son (*Canaan*).
(Gen 9:21-25 NRSV) He (Noah) drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told
his two brothers outside.
Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son (Ham) had *done* to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan (Ham’s son); lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers."
It is thought that this story has been modified because it makes no sense in it’s current form. It is possible that this story originally had Ham castrating Noah, which would explain Noah’s anger.
By emasculating Noah, Ham would have deprived Noah of a fourth son who would have replaced Ham’s son as Noah’s heir.
There are many parallel castration myths (for example: Cronos castrates his father Uranus).
According to the bible, disrespectful children are to be dealt with harshly.
(Exo 21:17 NRSV) Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death.
What can I say? I allready know all that ’cause I read the Bible since I was a child; and I am an old man now. What is man? Nothin’ in face of that angry and jealous G-d. He is, in fact, a demon of the desert, thirsty of blood and merciless. Maybe the fatherhood softened YHWH; nevertheless, He is the same G-d of revenge; His policy is the punishment or the reward. What reasonable man could believe, today like yesterday, in such G-d?
Great is the Lord! But poor is the Bible! And yet, do not despise it! Because is a proof of the wandering fate of the Western mankind.
I refuse to apologize for the New Testament, as it is not of the same tradition of the Hebrew Bible. You are obviously criticising those of the Christian tradition. Also you seem to have your own standard for judging Bible characters and also for judging God. Are you trying to judge God and his people by your own conscience? Show me how the people erred according to the standard in the Bible itself! The standard by which you judge Bible characters would be the standard in the Bible itself, i.e. the Law of Moses.
No one with any Biblical knowledge has ever claimed that noteworthy Bible characters did not err, when judged by Torah, the law of Moses.
The Law of Moses permitted slavery, so why should not Solomon own slaves? Are you judging his having slaves according to a modern standard that was not included in the Bible? Judge people according to their own law! in this case, the Torah, the law of Moses.
this looks like a good place to start. I have had an idea for a satirical volume on comparative religion for some time, but it needs a team to put together properly
also, when done correctly, there will be those who won’t recognize that it’s a satire.
here it is:
remember the programmed texts? well, why not a programmed text on comparative religion (work your way through the book, and it tells you which church to join)
title: You Better Believe It!
author: GOD
is it not enough to point out that the man they claim to be a messenger of god “paul” sends even after his “conversion” regards to the person that killed one of god’s messengers john the baptist and even calls him his relative. -in the last part of the book of romans- the guy, herodian, arestiobolis.
= note: i am totally not a good speller!=
Just because it was in the Law of Moses does not make it ok. Also, just because some of these things were ok for the time does not make it ok. A just, loving, caring god, a god worth worshipping should know what is right and what is wrong. Having it ok to have slaves, sex slaves, treat women as cattle, kill little children, commit all sorts of unspeakable acts just because he says it is alright is ridiculous and extreme lunacy.
How you and others could serve and love a god like this is beyond me, whats more is how you people make insane excuses for him too. The good lord could slowly pull apart little babies limb from limb and you people would still be spewing your typical “it was ok for the times”, or “he is god he can do what he wants, how dare we question him”. All the while going along and praising his name like a bunch of mindless drones!
As for judging people according to their own law, this is god’s holy word my friend, he is supposedly setting down the law and guidlines that we are supposed to adhere to till the very end. If it wasn’t like this, then god would have to create a new bible everytime the laws changed and society moved in a new direction, which clearly means that they are man’s laws, NOT gods. The entire bible was written by man and NOT inspired by some god.
Why haven’t you included Lot? In Genesis 19:8, Lot offered his two daughters to be gang-raped by the men of Sodom. Later, his daughters had intercourse with him on two consecutive nights. If Lot was so drunk that he didn’t know what was going on he was also too drunk to have an erection. Lot had sex with his daughters while drunk but not too drunk.
The daughters feared that there were no other men alive on earth although they had just come from Tzo’ar where there would have been plenty of men. Abraham, their great-uncle was situated about a day’s walk away.
I agree. That is a very bizzare story. The offering of his daughters to a perverted crowd to be gang raped and the incest certainly qualifies as deviant if not atrocious behavior so it could easily fit in this category.
Currently I have those particular verses listed under the “Peculiar Bible Verses” because as you said, the idea of a man getting drunk enough to not remember having intercourse with his daughters and yet still being able to perform is so utterly ridiculous.
I also wrote a parody piece about this called “No respect, the story of lot’s dots.”
http://www.goatstar.org/the-story-of-lots-dots/
http://www.goatstar.org/peculiar-bible-verses/
God was just dealing with people slowly,bringing them gradually to the glorious heights of the morality of the New Testament.He had to go slowly,because they were ‘men of their time’.It doesn’t mean He approves of such behaviour,but like an adult with children He had to get down on his knees as it were and go “Ga ga goo goo” until they grew up.That’s why His glorious Son Jesus called us Gentiles dogs.He had to bark at us,for we Gentiles are mere animals compared to God and His Chosen people.
Dazzler, thank you for your comment. I sense a definite tounge in cheek here, but I’d like to also point out that in the Old Testament Yahweh (God) orders many attrocities in no uncertain terms and even joins in the killing in one story, throwing bolders down from the sky (where the ancient Hebrews imagined he lived) to crush Amorites fleeing for their lives.
I’ve ofter wondered about the logistics of Num 31:14-18. If a woman has kids, they stone her, chop her up, or whatever (probably traumatizing the children in the process) along with any male kids (this includes babies and the unborn for all the Christian Pro-lifers out there). But what about female teenagers. Look at society, are we to believe that all female teens are virgins? Not now, and probably not then. So, what did they do? Strip them naked and check at each individual house, or gather them all up and do the deed in one group? And who violated them this way..the soldiers or the holy men priests? After all, the quote was But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves. So these girls watch the parents, brothers, baby brothers get slaughtered. Then they get stripped, examined, and raped. And they have to live with their rapists and bear his children. Does this sound like the act of a holy people chosen by a loving god?
i seriously doubt if most of the god-fearing christians have read, other than cherrypicked, the religious bible. science, history, geography, archeology and common sense have shown that it is at best ‘myths and legends of the ancient hebrews and islraelites’. most of them were copied or co-opted from earlier cults or religions. it survived mainly by supressing and eradicating any learning and knowledge and replacing them with puerile dogma and regressive doctrine. imagine how far advanced the world would be if not for the 1,000 plus years of christianity in the form of the squalid and depreciated Dark Ages.
If the religious right weren’t so deadly, this whole bible BS would be pretty macabre, and funny, that people in these modern times could be so ignorant as to believe in it.
RT
Dazzler, It is clear in several instances in the Judaism scriptures that God commanded, “raping, killings of inocent people and children, having slaves and even sexual slaves.”
Excusing this incredibly obvious immoral/unethical/gut-wrenching sick activity away as God having to work on teaching them basics first, doesn’t hold any water. They are just to extreme/perverse and barbaric for a loving God. I really don’t think God would command raping inocent women, or command killing inocent children to men because they couldn’t handle higher truths. Come on???? It doesn’t make any sense.
It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that these leaders/prophets (whatever ya wanna call em) in the bible are bogus in terms of legitimacy of what they claimed and taught.
If it isn’t clear that this is bullshit by now, and you are still rationalizing away such disgusting inhumanity, then you can continue to live in fantasy, but it doesn’t make it real, just because you think it is real.
Just because someone believes something to be true, doesn’t make it true in the real world.
dear capella.
still here…..i just found this new section of your site. the first story to catch my attention was good old samsom….what a guy.
what is your point? you think it is a bad thing
to eliminate bad people. the old testament shows
over & over that being an idolater is a mistake.
3000 less losers to deal with. would you rather see Godless people in charge ?
world war 2…the good guys killed thousands of bad guys. God gave samson the choice to
go out in a blaze of glory. would make a great movie….as a matter of fact, there was a great movie made of this record. awesome.
i guess you want people to think that God is bad to let people die. what if a father must defend his family…is that bad ? would you defend your family if threatened ? what say ye
You’ve just summarized the thinking that’s often used to justify wars. The other people are the “bad guys” so who cares if they, their wives, or their children die? This is called “dehumanizing” people.
These people remind me why I am not a Christian (or Schizian if ypu prefer.) It’ sall right if God allows and commands murder, stealing, lying, etc because he makes the rules. If he ever decides to keep them and thereby become a moral God, call me. (And no it hasn’t happened in the New Testament. It’s merely a new snare.)
P.S. You freaks keep away from our children. Anyone who says it’s all right to kill them or enslave them would have no problem molesting them. Am I accusing every Bible Believer of being gulity of the sins because they accept it as true? I guess I am. If you have broken one law, you have broken them all. KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN if you think it’s all right to hurt them in God’s name.
I bookmarked this website a while ago because of the good content and I have never been unsatisfied. Continue the good work.
Now THIS is an interesting list. But I think it is important to put these beliefs in context. It was a very different age back then. Some of the beliefs and thoughts expressed seem so far out simply because people compare them to today’s standards. It’s an unfair comparison. Our own founding fathers were slave owners. I think that would be a non-starter in running for political office today.
Travis, I don’t see this as an unfair comparison at all because these Biblical figures are being held up as moral standards and examples by many Christian and Jewish organizations.
If instead occasionally Christians and Jewish people appeared in front of their congregations and Sunday school classes to say that these people will have to be excused for mass murdering of men, women, children, and babies, stealing and enslaving wives, thievery, etc… because they lived in times of a much more primitive morality I would agree. But through careful picking and choosing and somewhat candy coating scriptures, these biblical figures are actually taught as examples of how to live to modern people.
It’s beyond ridiculous.
I have to also say I agree with you completely about the United States founding fathers being held up as standards and examples by modern political organizations such as the “Tea Party.” I do admire most of the constitution but as you point out, many of the people who wrote it bought, sold and owned human beings and didn’t consider women equals.
These are interesting stories in the Old Testament. I didn’t know that the concubine was murdered, all I know it was cut-off to show proof to the 12 tribes of Israel. I also didn’t know that Solomon has many lovers.
Karen C.
(Philippines)
Yes! It is an interesting story in the Old Testament. The Law of Moses regulated almost every aspect of life in Old Testament times. But with the coming of Christ, God established a new covenant of faith and love with mankind. Christians are not required to follow the Old Testament rules about crimes and punishments, warfare, slavery, diet, circumcision, sacrifice, feast days, Sabbath observance, ritual cleanness, etc. However, the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus and His apostles call for even greater self-discipline than those of the Old Testament.
Yes, the killing and brutality by the heros of the Old Testament was interesting, but the point is that these barbaric people (Moses, Joshua, King David, etc…) are held up by many Jewish and Christian faiths as somehow being moral examples for us to follow in modern times. In my church these horrible stories were candy coated or mostly just not mentioned.
When I was a believer, I took it upon myself as some others did at that time to read through the Bible myself and I stumbled on some of these stories that I hadn’t heard about in years of Sunday school and church services. For example, there was a happy little song we used to sing about the Walls of Jerico coming down. I had no idea of what that story was about until I read it for myself and discovered that Joshua and the Children of Israel slayed everyone in that city except a prostitute after their trumpets supposedly made the walls come down as we as kids sang about in that happy little song.
Funny how the BIble even Jesus never condemn slavery – if anything they condone it upon people of a different race. Some example.