| For thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors; the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. [Exodus 22:29] |
Regardless, the key is what it has always been -- either the Bible is all correct, every word -- divinely inspired and without error or internal contradiction; or the whole book is, as mainstreamers and agnostics alike claim, simply a book of myths that has little to do with fact, though it does demonstrate the human seeking of the members of at least two different faiths for the divine.
So, does the Bible actually say abominable things? Does the command above actually mean what it appears to? Are there other verses that commend or command child sacrifice? Are there other verses with meanings that are equally appalling? Let's look at just a few, shall we?
Child and Human Sacrifice | ||||
| Judges 11:30-39 | And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering...and Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child... Jephthah did rip his clothes and said "Alas my daughter!... I have opened my mouth to the Lord and I cannot turn back..." And it came to pass at the end of the two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed. | It cannot be any clearer. I've shortened the quote, in the original, its even more horrifying. | ||
| II Samuel 21 | Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites...but the king [David] took the two sons of Rizpah... and the five sons of Michal... and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of the harvest... And after that God was intreated for the land. | The same as any pagan land sacrifice. | ||
| What more can be said? Both of these passages are extremely powerful evidence that the God of the OT (Old Testament) permitted, encouraged, and in some cases demanded child sacrifice, and other forms of human sacrifice as well. The passage from Judges particularly demands no other possible verdict, while the passage from II Samuel reveals such a standard period response to drought or famine that the whole "vision" and David's actions because of it could have occurred in any pagan cultural center of its time -- under similar duress.
There are other passages implying the same things of course, Exodus 13: 11-16 clearly reveals that the firstborn of all beings were considered to belong to God, and that the speaker offered all of his firstborn males to God, redeeming only the humans (through additional animal sacrifice it seems likely). It was the ban on worship of foreign deities that led to Leviticus 18:21 and its prohibition on offering children to Moloch -- not a ban on child sacrifice, such a ban never emerged -- as one must see from the passage in Judges above. Lastly, human sacrifice was seen as powerful even when given to a foreign god. 2 Kings 3:26-27 clearly shows that. The Moabite king, seeing that his forces were outnumbered and outpowered offered his firstborn son as a burnt offering to his god (Chemosh). Seeing this, the Israelites left the field. They respected or feared the magical power that the sacrifice would give the Moabite army, and there is no mention of God being angry with them for this lack of faith in Him -- so apparently the Biblical authors thought their fears were warranted.
I suppose that this is not surprising, considering that the Levites (the Jewish priesthood in the Old Testament) were affirmed in their power through the slaughter of about 3000 men of their own nation who were considered sinners. [Exodus 32: 26-29] What a horrific thing, what horrific things in general, and what a horrific being God would have to be if these scriptures were his divine word. Worthy of worship? A child murderer and commander of child sacrifice and human slaughter? I would say not. | ||||
Genocide and Slavery | ||||
| Joshua 10:40-42 | So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded. And Joshua smote them from Ka'desh–barne'a even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel. | Everyone in a whole land, slain... genocide | ||
| Joshua 11: 18-23 | Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle. For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses. And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the An'akim from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the An'akim left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained. So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war. [emphasis added] | so, in order to make sure even more people died, God apparently made them refuse to surrender... genocide | ||
| I Samuel 15: 2, 3 and 8 | Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Am'alek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Am'alek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass... And he took Agag the king of the Amal'ekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. | For an offense generations ago -- kill everyone... genocide | ||
| Numbers 31: 17-18 | Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. | The taking of (sex?) slaves. | ||
| Leviticus 25: 44-46 | Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor. | Foreigners may be bought as slaves and their families remain slaves. | ||
| Joel 3: 6-8 | the children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Gre'cians, that ye might remove them far from their border. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head: and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabe'ans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it. | God threatening Israel -- he will sell them as slaves. | ||
| Both genocide and slavery are clearly commanded in the Bible. The examples of genocides that I have given are only a few of those available in the text. There are also many other scriptures that discuss slavery as a natural, normal, acceptable thing -- and other places in the Old Testament where the Israelites took slaves by force.
Genocide is inexcusable. There simply is NO reason for it. All excuses, whether issued by Nazis or Fundamentalists are exactly that; thin veneers of meaningless babble to cover the slaughter of women, children, and non-combatant males. We have become adequately morally advanced so that we do not generally permit genocides -- the Holocaust assisted us in that regard. Are we more morally advanced than God? Either the Bible is an inaccurate book, portraying how things were thousands of years ago -- and taking for granted the moral standards of that day, or we are now more morally advanced than the God who "wrote" it, and who commanded genocide after genocide -- even punishing his own people for sparing the animals that belonged to murdered cities or the women and children of conquered races. I for one am thankful that we have reached the point where such ideas are repugnant to us, and I cannot imagine worshiping a being so primitive that they are not to it.
Slavery is nearly as bad, with sexual slavery being slavery's worst form. Even international evangelical leaders realize that the Bible does not condemn slavery, and within more mainstream churches, the Archbishop of Edinburgh is on record as having noted that just as we had gotten beyond the text on slavery, we were finally getting beyond the text on women's rights. I find truly abominable the idea that any human being can belong to another, and I am glad that we have gotten beyond that as well. A God of slavers? Neither that god concept or its book appeal to me. If the Bible is the Word of God however, that is exactly what we have. | ||||
| Cannibalism | ||||
| Deuteronomy 28: 53-59 | And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD | So, in this "prophecy" of the seige of Jerusalem, it is clear -- if people do not obey the Bible God, he will cause an enemy to come, and will make things so bad for them that they eat their own children, this will happen because they would not obey. He will cause cannibalism among them. | ||
| Jeremiah 19:9 | And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. | "I will cause..." could it be any clearer? | ||
| Leviticus 26: 27-29 | And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. | So, if your son disobeyed you 7 times in a row -- you'd make him boil and eat your grandson? | ||
| There are few things more frightful than cannibalism. I will never forget walking out of work to a newstand as a young retailer who had not even completed my first degree at the time, and picking up a paper with a blazing headline about "the cannibal of Milwaukee." We were going to Milwaukee the following week for a gaming convention, and I remember shuddering in horror. Everyone knows that under extreme circumstances cannibalism does occur -- and there are questions about the psychological recovery of anyone who has ever been in one of those thankfully rare situations.
| ||||
Child and human sacrifice; genocide; slavery; cannibalism... There are not a lot of things that are worse that these. These are the crimes of depraved minds, of the Jeffrey Dahlmers and the Adolf Hitlers of the world. Yet, all of them are documented in the Bible as things that God caused. These scriptures are only some of the ones that could be called on. Particularly as regards slavery and genocide there are many more than what we recount here. Is the Bible the Word of God? I don't believe so. Are we truly more moral than God? If the Bible is His word it would seem that we are. If the Bible is a book of myths that should be treated as such, then we do not have such an ethical dilemma, but the moment that we regard it as more than that, then we certainly do.
Apologists attempt to defend the Bible by saying things like "but they were disobedient," or "but those people were evil." These are more puling attempts to diffuse issues that cannot be diffused. Does it matter if they were disobedient? The note above regarding causing your child to eat your grandchild because he wouldn't listen to you is perfectly serious. If someone down the street locked their 20 year old son up with their 1 year old grandson because their (technically adult) son wasn't listening to them, and refused to feed them until the son became crazed and killed and ate his own son -- what excuse would you accept for this act? Yet, theoretically that is exactly what God himself did to his chosen people, his children -- because they weren't obeying him. It is ludicrous to excuse His supposed actions because of his children's actions -- a classic instance of blaming the victim for the crime, but exaserbated by the fact that God is supposed to be all powerful -- surely there were other routes that an all powerful being could follow -- unless He was evil incarnate.
It seems to me that perhaps what is truly ludicrous is to presume that the Bible is anything special, say nothing of God's divinely inspired Word.
Child and human sacrifice; genocide; slavery; cannibalism... These things are and always have been wrong. They are the worst of human crimes, and that is what they are, human crimes. The Bible is a book of myths, written by men and reflecting the realities of the days in which it was written. It is nothing more. If it has trapped you, or its apparent certainty is beckoning to your uncertain life -- walk away. Read it if you want, really read it -- it isn't just on these issues that it will surprise you if you fully read it. Almost no one I have ever known has read it thoroughly, and remained a "biblical" Christian afterwards. Many people know how to proof text, including I believe most evangelical and fundamentalist ministers... very few have actually read the book through for content. In fact, entire fundamentalist subgroups subsist by telling people to read the Bible - then carefully guiding what they read, and guiding them to the interpretation that they will reach by reading a mishmash of scriptures that are only related in the minds of those who write the study materials used. Read it straight through if you are going to, and consider, genuinely, what it says, not what apologists want you to think it says.
If you have additional questions please feel free to contact us. We will be issuing a spiral bound book that details Biblical fallacies in much greater detail during the winter of 2004-2005 -- watch for it on the resources page on this site.
Enjoy, and keep thinking.