Reflections On Today's Bible Readings

Today's Bible Readings

I read some Bible passages today, prompted by some Facebook posts from a Christian friend that contained only citations to Bible passages without their text, forcing me to look them up to understand them.

Reading the Bible was the first things that put me on the path to not believing in god. Some of it is just whacky. 

For example, in one of the less hackney'd examples, from the Torah, the Amalekites were smitten before Amalek (the son of Esau, from whom they are descended) was born. See Genesis 14:7 and Genesis 36:12.

But before reading the Bible put me on that path, reading the Bible put me on the path of not wanting to worship that God, even if that God existed, even post-Jesus. (I make that distinction, by the way, because doctrinally, most Christians seek to side step the ugly bits of the Hebrew Bible in their theology, by asserting that the death of Jesus gave rise to a "New Covenant" that repealed the Biblical laws of the Hebrew Bible, at least for Christians, in favor of the updated, more general, more humane, and less petty divine laws espoused by Jesus Christ in the Gospels.)

For example, the Bible, even post-Jesus, in a passage that I read today, is certainly not advocating in any clear way for the abolition of slavery. Consider, for example, Ephesians 6:5 which states:

Slaves, obey your owners, with fear and trembling, as though they were Christ. When you serve them, you are serving God.

The Torah isn't any better on the issue of slavery, of course. Abraham, for example, whom Jews, Christians and Muslims alike recognize as the first person to worship God and their patriarch of all of their faiths, had 318 slaves. Genesis 14:14. The Torah also explains that the children of a female slave belong to her master even if her master has allowed her to marry someone else. Exodus 21:4. It also provides that a man may sell his daughter into slavery and if she doesn't please her new master she should be sold again to a foreign land. Exodus 21:7-8. Similarly, Biblical law set forth in the Torah provides that if a man beats his slave so badly that the slave dies after a day or two, this should be punished because his slave is his property. Exodus 21:20-21.

The post-Jesus part of the Bible certainly isn't a fan of gender equality in marriage (or outside of marriage, for that matter) either. 

Consider, for example, Ephesians 5:22-24 and 5:33 (part), which I was reading today to provide context for one of my Christian friend's Bible citation from the same New Testament epistle, which states:

Wives, submit to you husbands, as you would to God. Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. So wives must obey their husbands in everything. . . . let every woman revere her husband.

The Torah's take on marriage itself, of course, is also more than a little bit off. 

Consider, for example, the marriage of Abraham and Sarah, his half-sister, which God blesses, even though God later condemns incestuous marriages, which is discussed, for example, in Genesis 12:13, 16:1-6, 17:15-16, 21:10-14. Sarah can't manage to get pregnant, so she tells her husband to have sex with her handmaid, Hagar, whenever he wants and to have children through her, which he successfully does. Sarah, however, gets jealous when Abraham does what his wife told him to do, causing Sarah to treat Hagar so harshly that Hagar flees their home. Once Sarah manages to give birth to Isaac on her own, however, Sarah cast out Hagar (now described as a "bondwoman") and Abraham's eldest son with Hagar, Ishmael, so Abraham takes them into the wilderness to die. 

Four decades or so later, I am led to the same conclusions and wonder why more people don't react the same way. Indeed, the further away you get from being a church goer who hears these passages and the doctrines woven from them on a weekly basis, the more absurd they seem.

The Disconnect Between Scripture And Lived Culture

It took much longer, until I was in college, to realize that what the sacred writings of a faith say, and how that translates into the living culture of people who adhere to a particular religious faith feel their religion tells them to act, have virtually nothing to do with each other. At a minimum, it is impossible to discern what lived faith will look like from scriptures and holy writings.

For example, why are so few Rabbinical Jews polygamous?

You would certain assume that this was the norm for Jews from reading the Hebrew Bible, including the Torah, in which many, if not most of the main figures and secondary figures in the narrative, are polygamous. 

Consider one random example that I noted in my reading today (to provide context for one of my friend's citations to a verse in the Second Book of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible). Rehoboam, the son of Solomon strong, took 18 wives and 60 concubines with whom he had 28 sons and 60 daughters. Second Chronicles 11:17-21.

Yeah, Rehoboam was a king, and it's good to be the king. But these practices certainly weren't confined to royalty in the Hebrew Bible. 

For example, Abraham, the first Jew, for example, in addition to having his first child Ishmael, with his wife's "bondservant" also has several concubines. Genesis 25:6. Abraham's grandson Easu, has three wives. Genesis 26:34 and 28:9. Easu's brother (also Abraham's grandson) Jacob, has two wives (who are sisters of each other), and also has children with each of his wives' handmaids. Genesis 29:18-30:9.  In general, the Torah approves of taking a second wife so long as a man continues to feed and cloth and have sex with his first wife too. Exodus 21:10-11.

One of the wonders of the fact that the Bible is a written document is that practices from the Iron Age and Antiquity are frozen in time, with God's sacred stamp of approval. And, one of the wonders of lived religion is how billions of people have no problem collectively and selectively ignore these facts, and yet claim that their scriptures are a source of absolute unchanging truth.