Jesus The Whipping Boy and Sin Eater

[steve_bank]

So god sent Jesus to be the whipping boy of the human race?

The idea of one person in a community taking the bidden of the collective guilt was not uncommon.

Jesus being sent to alleviate sins was not a unique idea.

Being cleansed by the blood of Jesus is a Christian theme.

a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others.
"I may end up as the whipping boy if things go wrong"

Sin-eater - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What was a sin-eater in the Bible?
Many funerals were attended by a professed "sin-eater," hired to take upon him the sins of the deceased. By swallowing bread and beer, with a suitable ceremony before the corpse, he was supposed to free it from every penalty for past offences, appropriating the punishment to himself.

 

[FievelJ]

So god sent Jesus to be the whipping boy of the human race?

The idea of one person in a community taking the bidden of the collective guilt was not uncommon.

Jesus being sent to alleviate sins was not a unique idea.

Being cleansed by the blood of Jesus is a Christian theme.

a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others.
"I may end up as the whipping boy if things go wrong"

Sin-eater - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What was a sin-eater in the Bible?
Many funerals were attended by a professed "sin-eater," hired to take upon him the sins of the deceased. By swallowing bread and beer, with a suitable ceremony before the corpse, he was supposed to free it from every penalty for past offences, appropriating the punishment to himself.

Some things were borrowed from Paganism though, but you probably already knew that.

 

[Janice Rael]

"Whipping boy" refers to a slave. Its use here is incendiary, but typical, especially when such language is used by atheists in reference to religious concepts. It's not a surprise to see an anonymous, presumably white atheist say this without fear of reprisal from nearby humans.

"Sin-Eater" refers to a specific Welsh funeral tradition. Its use here can only be considered as insincere internet inducement, although not as openly racist as "whipping boy."

Fortunately, few humans will suffer the indignity of reading these deliberately inflammatory words, and the anonymous and presumably white atheist who posted this absolutely atrocious bait will certainly not suffer any repercussions for what he has said here.

There can be no valid purpose for such words to be used in such a way, or for a post like this to exist. These words have no explanatory power and advance no meaningful ideas. David Silverman and Frank Zindler are not paragons of atheist thought, although they were certainly consistent in their explicit use of racist ideology as advertising for American Atheists Inc in the past.

It's appalling to wonder why such weighted words are harbored in your head, @steve_bank, and actually scary to see you go out of your way to use racially charged language on purpose, in a post about Jesus. I cringe in disgust when considering why you may have held this idea in such high regard that you felt it necessary to post, anyway.

The OP is indefensible and has no place in rational or public discourse.

 

[Tharmas]

"Whipping boy" refers to a slave. Its use here is incendiary [snip]

I really wonder where you got that idea.

I’m going to defend Steve on this one.

My understanding of “whipping boy” is merely someone who is punished for another’s transgressions, in other words a scapegoat. As far as I knew the term is completely free of racial connotations and always has been.

So I researched the term a bit and found this history of the term in Wikipedia. It was a medieval practice now considered largely a myth, but relating to social caste rather than race. Way down at the end of the article there are a couple of references of relatively recent and isolated instances of “slaves” being whipping boys.

The online dictionaries and other sources I consulted all support the Wiki definition.

 

[steve_bank]

I grew up understanding the term whipping boy in part as someone used to take out anger on.
used as metaphor.

Trump is known to take out his frustration on his whipping boys, tongue lashing.

 

[DBT]

I never thought of the term being related to race or social status, just anyone who is being punished for things they may or may not have done, perhaps due to their pecking order within a group.

 

[Janice Rael]

And when you (the above posters and steve) use the term "whipping boy" in your conversations with Black Americans, how is it taken by that audience, in your actual lived experience outside of dictionaries?

 

[ideologyhunter]

"Whipping boy" refers to a slave. Its use here is incendiary [snip]

I really wonder where you got that idea.

I’m going to defend Steve on this one.

My understanding of “whipping boy” is merely someone who is punished for another’s transgressions, in other words a scapegoat. As far as I knew the term is completely free of racial connotations and always has been.

So I researched the term a bit and found this history of the term in Wikipedia. It was a medieval practice now considered largely a myth, but relating to social caste rather than race. Way down at the end of the article there are a couple of references of relatively recent and isolated instances of “slaves” being whipping boys.

The online dictionaries and other sources I consulted all support the Wiki definition.

True. The term dates from the mid-17th century. It referred to a boy who was educated with a young prince or other royal and punished instead of him.

 

[steve_bank]

And when you (the above posters and steve) use the term "whipping boy" in your conversations with Black Americans, how is it taken by that audience, in your actual lived experience outside of dictionaries?

'Boy' in context can be a racial slur against blacks, It invokes slavery and Jim Crow. There were black guys I knew who you would not refer to as boy under any circumstances, unless you were looking for a fight.

There is no racial meaning attached to whipping boy. In general usage as I learned it being somebody's whipping boy means taking chronic verbal abuse as part of a relationship..

The thing to keep in mid is that Blacks like everybody else are diverse people. How what you say is interpreted in terms of race depends on the relationship.

 

[DBT]

And when you (the above posters and steve) use the term "whipping boy" in your conversations with Black Americans, how is it taken by that audience, in your actual lived experience outside of dictionaries?

In that case I wouldn't use the term because of the way it could be taken.