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Morality in Bible stories that you don't understand

"Even people who know little about the Bible likely can recount the story of Moses leading the Israelites from Egypt in an extraordinary exodus. In this interview, Carol Meyers, an archeologist and professor of religion at Duke University, reflects on the significance of the Moses narrative in ancient times, the role it plays in American history, and why it continues to resonate with us today.

Editor's note: Carol Meyers, like other academic scholars, uses the term B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) instead of B.C. (Before Christ)."

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/meyers.html
 
My main study in the Tanakh has been Genesis. There is so much hidden in Genesis. I did study a bit into Exodus, but not too deep. I did technically study the entire book in college though for Hebrew Scriptures.

I really have never given much thought as the design of Exodus. I was always of the mindset that Genesis was explaining the origins of the tribes that'd become the Hebrew people, as per the several gods mentioned in it. Then we get Moses. A guy that was raised by Egyptians, but was a Hebrew (how the fuck they know?!). I mean that JJ Abrams level bad scripting. He sees a soldier mistreating a slave, and kills him... (why? who knows)... then he flees, and enters the age old narrative of the Hero.

There were always two questions I had when reading about this originally. 1) Why was god hardening the heart of Pharaoh? That is just such a dick thing. But Yahweh is a dick. We know this. The other question, much more important in my mind, so important I wrote a paper on it... Moses is housed and lives with the Midians. His wife is a Midian. Out one day, Moses bumps into a burning bush and learns of the truth. We know he is talking to God, because the bush doesn't burn itself out. I mean... talk about 3rd rate miracles here. Regardless, Moses blah blah, staff in to snake, uses Pokemon to defeat the Pharaoh's magicians, levels up, he takes the people out. Yeaaaaa.

Come Numbers 31:17 and God tells Moses to wipe the Midianites. Not a fucking word. Just goes ahead and does it. Like the book of Exodus doesn't exist. That the Midianites didn't take him in, his wife wasn't one... My paper summed up in three words "WTF?!"

So clearly are narrative issues here. And some people believe that one guy (Moses) wrote the Torah. Fuck me!
 
53577762_2337392609627112_3256440226687483904_n.jpg
 
By definition, some culture has to be ranked as "most persecuted". Kudos to the Jews for maintaining some semblance of cultural memory over the millennia.

What that has to do with morality in the Bible though, I'm not sure. I've been told by evangelical Christians that the suffering that Jews have endured is proof that God exists, somehow. After all, there are German Jews and Russian Jews and American Jews, but there are no French Hittites or Spanish Philistines or Greek Moabites.

Of course, when asked if this means that I should convert to Judaism on the grounds that they have supernatural powers, I'm told not to be silly, that the Jews are dumb for not accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. <shrug>
 


What if God would have avoided all these deaths of innocent children by telling the Wise Men NOT to say anything to Herod???
 
BTW I think the Jews were originally a nomadic people and I don't think they originated in their homeland.
 
Thomas II said:


What if God would have avoided all these deaths of innocent children by telling the Wise Men NOT to say anything to Herod???
Click to expand...

I think God commanding the Jews to kill everything that breathes, including children, in the promised land is even worse.

From here:
guide4christmas.com

An Uncensored Guide to the Christmas Stories

Read the book/eBook online
guide4christmas.com guide4christmas.com
Later, wise men from the east saw a special star rise, meaning the king of the Jews was born. They wanted to worship him so they travelled to Jerusalem in Judea to look for him.

The wise men's search for the new king of the Jews disturbed King Herod the Great and the rest of Jerusalem. Chief priests and teachers of the law said that according to a prophecy, the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
Click to expand...
If the wise men hadn't asked King Herod about their search for the king of the Jews they might not have found out that he is supposed to be in Bethlehem...
Though then this happened:
The star the wise men had seen went ahead of them and stopped over the house where Jesus was.
Click to expand...
 
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excreationist said:
Thomas II said:


What if God would have avoided all these deaths of innocent children by telling the Wise Men NOT to say anything to Herod???
Click to expand...

I think God commanding the Jews to kill everything that breathes, including children, in the promised land is even worse.

From here:
guide4christmas.com

An Uncensored Guide to the Christmas Stories

Read the book/eBook online
guide4christmas.com guide4christmas.com
Later, wise men from the east saw a special star rise, meaning the king of the Jews was born. They wanted to worship him so they travelled to Jerusalem in Judea to look for him.

The wise men's search for the new king of the Jews disturbed King Herod the Great and the rest of Jerusalem. Chief priests and teachers of the law said that according to a prophecy, the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
Click to expand...
If the wise men hadn't asked King Herod about their search for the king of the Jews they might not have found out that he is supposed to be in Bethlehem...
Though then this happened:
The star the wise men had seen went ahead of them and stopped over the house where Jesus was.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

A star stopping over a house? :unsure:
 
James Brown said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Oh, a star in the sky, I thought they meant someone like Tom Cruise.
Click to expand...

That would be more likely. The temperature of the average star starts at around 4,700 degrees Fahrenheit and goes up.
Click to expand...
And their mass exceeds that of the Earth by a factor of at least 30,000, and likely dramatically more than that.

It's less nonsensical to suggest that a jumbo jet appeared over a particular blade of grass (so that an ant could determine which was the favoured blade), than it is to suggest that a star appeared over a particular house in a town (so that a person could determine which was the favoured house).

The scale is so massively and exceptionally wrong that it's impossible to even suggest such an absurdity, unless you have absolutely zero clue what a star even is.

Which is completely unsurprising in a first century Magus, but is rather an unlikely error for a universe creating God who notes the fall of every sparrow, to make.

At the very least, the existence of such a gross error has to call extreme doubt on the actual knowledge of reality on the part of the author of the story. Either they are clueless about pretty much everything (in which case, why would anyone want to read their advice about anything?) or they are hoping that their audience is clueless about pretty much everything (in which case we must assume that they are trying to mislead us). Or, quite possibly, both.

A star that appeared above a specific building would disintegrate that building by tidal and gravitational forces, perhaps before it even had time to be vaporised by the star's heat - though really both events would be so brief and so close together that they would constitute a single catastrophe.
 
bilby said:
And their mass exceeds that of the Earth by a factor of at least 30,000, and likely dramatically more than that
......
The scale is so massively and exceptionally wrong that it's impossible to even suggest such an absurdity, unless you have absolutely zero clue what a star even is.
Click to expand...
A related Bible verse is Revelation 6:13
"and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind"
 
They must obviously be much smaller than conventional stars (scale as highlighted by Bilby). Starships (Klingon) falling to earth, knocked out by powerful electro-magnetic pulses, thanks to the Enterprise.
 
12) Everything He Did to Job


Oh, Job. Other than a shit-ton of babies, no one had it worse in the Bible than Job, who was a righteous, good-hearted man who believed in God with every fiber in his being — which is when God decides to see how miserable he can make this dude before he gets upset. Note: This is a result of a bet between God and Satan. Also note: The bet is God's idea. He's literally just hanging out with Satan — which is kinda weird when you think about it — when he starting bragging about how awesome Job is. Satan points out that Job's pretty blessed — he's rich, he's got a lot of kids, etc., and he probably wouldn't be quite so thrilled with God if he didn't have that stuff. God downs his bourbon, presumably, and tells Satan he can fuck with Job all he wants. Satan does. He kills all of Job's children and animals, burns down his house, destroys his wealth, and then covers him in boils. Job doesn't not curse God, but he does wish he'd never been born (literally) and begs God to kill him, but no dice. This lasts a long time until finally Job wonders why a just God would be so shitty. This is when God pops up and basically tells him."Shut up, I don't have to explain anything to you." Job, having finally done something wrong, pleads for mercy, and God eventually gives him back animals and children — new ones, because the old ones are still dead. Because of a bet. That God made with Satan. For kicks. (Job 1)

🤔
 
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