Anguille
Bane of the Urbane
- Mar 8, 2008
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When people refer to "The Bible" why is it that the OT gets the guernsey? I know the original post was an OT historical reference but during the thread, which ripped along nicely, "The Bible" was discussed and most of it was the OT.
The books of the OT which I think were the Hebrew texts (?) seem to me to be embedded in a particular culture in place and time. The books that deal with the - I'll get this wrong no doubt in terms of names of people - Hebrews who came out of slavery in Egypt (?) and wandered around the desert proscribe and prescribe behaviours which seem to me to be useful to any tribal group wandering around in the desert. The dietary strictures, for example, seem to be good advice if you don't have a family doctor or a pharmacy operating out of the nearest strip mall. Don't eat shellfish, they can be very dodgy and make you crook, so give them a miss. Don't bonk your mate's sheila, that can be very dodgy for your health too, especialy if your mate finds out.
The OT is pretty fierce at times, but perhaps back then folks needed to have the shit scared out of them to comply with social mores designed to keep the group together. I mean look at the Golden Calf thing. Moses turns his back for ten minutes and there they are boozing and shagging and getting into all kinds of mischief. I bet they were eating oysters and banging each other's sheilas (and blokes, let's get a bit up to date and shift the onus around a bit, no doubt the strumpets were seducing the innocent blokes as well).
So, is it really valid to go back to a set of texts that reflected the times in which they were composed (if not actually written) as laws to guide behaviour? I mean the contrast with Christ when he turns up in the Bible Part Deux is remarkable, so different from the authoritarian OT. Okay He did His chewy with the moneylenders but he walked among the lower classes *sniff* and preached values which appear to be in some opposition to the thundering stuff in the OT.
Shouldn't we look at contemporary teachings?
Having said that, fundies give me the shits, they should leave the OT as some sort of record of previous oral histories and get with the modern programme.
Agreed on most of your points, but then why worship such a book and claim it is the word of God?