There are a lot of terrible things in the Old Testament. The problem with pointing out something that seems so obvious is that while nonbelievers and skeptics will superficially agree with it, many are unaware of what some of the specific laws and events actually are. This is especially true when it comes to the laws in the Old Testament because, lets face it, reading those lists of ritual laws can be really boring.
Read Article: Introduction to Problems and Issues with Ancient Laws in the Bible
Deuteronomy 14:21
You must not eat any animal that has died of itself, for you are a people sacred to the lord, Your God. But you may give it to an alien who belongs to your community, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger……… In other words what you don’t know won’t hurt you according to the Lord
An awful lot of laws are written by crooks and fools.
One of the most difficult disputes in early Christianity was about whether Gentiles were obliged to follow the Jewish laws. The naysayers won. Some fundies rationalize that by saying with the coming of Jesus, there began a “new covenant” between humanity and God. There are still some extremists, like Xian nationalists, who want to institute OT law in our society. If they ever got power, people like me would be executed.
“If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him.”
Deuteronomy 23:15-16
Ron,
Your interpretation of Deut 14:21 is charitable, almost apologetic. The intent of the admonition is blatantly obvious: “…for you are a people sacred to the Lord…”.
Eating meat from an unapproved source is simply not good enough for one of “God’s sacred,” but is quite good enough for those others who were considered by doctrine to be almost subhuman, certainly not worth the consideration an Israelite would give to another Israelite. The digestive difficulties or diseases these others might contract from contaminated meat was of no consquence to Yahweh, who considered these particular creations to be inferior to his finest work, the Ancient Israelites.
Jockaira. I usually try to avoid an overly harsh tone in my statements, Having said that, thanks for the assistance.
AdamH,
This sounds so heart-warmingly wonderful, that the Ancient Israelites would be so concerned for the “rights” of a fugitive slave, but the reality is several conditions must also have been met. First the slave’s master would have had to be Pagan, second that the slave suffered heinous physical abuse at his master’s hand and their differences be irreconcilable, and thirdly that the slave acknowledge Yahweh as the One True God and convert.
I guess this is not such a bad deal as being beat daily or forced to work from sunrise to sunset on starvation rations…but that last part about Yahweh…(a known psychopath).
This type of regulation was not unusual among the ancients and was clearly intended to further the interests of those who would give the slave refuge. Such a refugee would probably have few skills for a new life among his saviours and would probably end up in essential slavery to his new masters. Also the refusal to return the slave, if done with some frequency might be enough to weaken the foreign masters’ hold on other slaves and do significant economic harm to the former owners.
Please note also that doctrine forbade the Israelites from enslaving one another except for debts or being female, but did not prevent them from buying, capturing, keeping, and selling non-Israelites as slaves.
Again, very usual among many ancient societies.
It’s amusing to watch Christians pretend they’re rationally or even scripturally superior to other religions, – especially the the big boy and the close no. 2 Islam – if someone took a jet fighter and bombarded much of San Francisco or Boston, won’t that be what good Christians would do?
If you hear that in one of the towns which Yahweh your God has given you for a home, there are men, scoundrels from your own stock, who have led their fellow-citizens astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” hitherto unknown to you, it is your duty
to look into the matter, examine it, and inquire most carefully. If it is proved and confirmed that such a hateful thing has taken place among you, you must put the inhabitants of that town to the sword; you must lay it under the curse of destruction—the town and everything in it. You must pile up all its loot in the public square and burn the town and all its loot, offering it all to Yahweh your God. It is to be a ruin for all time and never rebuilt.
(Deuteronomy 13:12-16).
(Even the Qur’an – in its craziest parts – looks at that passage with some envy.)
Christian liberals (I don’t get making such distinctions anyway in Christianity or any other religions, if they’re anything but man-made rubbish, how Christians and other religionists explain the existence of an ideological spectrum in their religions?) view the Old Testament as their Muslim peers view Saudi Arabia, something repulsive, unjustifiable and cannot be defended reasonably, so eventually, what they do? They try to shove it under the rug or pretend that it’s not there hoping that no one will notice and call it out for what it is.