I'm reading the Bible cover to cover... (page 8)

homeschool

Six, LOL

Shamus...I thought you were finished with us boring people on jwn ? Oh, and by the way...I was on beer #3 when I finished Genesis.

homeschool

Two days ago, I mentioned to my sis how impressed I was with how forgiving Joseph was of his brothers who betrayed him. (following Lou's advice for bringing out positive points)

This morning, I mentioned that I feel a little bit of anger while reading. She asked "why" of course. I just said 'it feels like I'm reading about Dad while we were growing up. God just seems very frusterated and angry with everybody". Immediately she started explaining WHY he was angry.

Jeez LouiZE can't a sista say how she FEELS without being told why she's wrong??! Probably shouldn't have even mentioned that to her, but I couldn't resist.

I got my book, WHO WROTE THE BIBLE....once I got back from vacation. Can't wait to delve in!

homeschool

I have gotten through quite a few chapters of WHO WROTE THE BIBLE....wow , so interesting. I couldn't even begin to explain what it says to you, but I could certainly understand it.

Also, if I were to live in the days when Exodus 22- was, I would NOT make it. Omigoodness, so many rules! "you must, do this, do that, you must, or die, or be cast out, you must do this exactly, you must you must you MUST". Sheesh.

homeschool

Can someone who believes in the Bible please explain Exodus 22:17?

(Exodus

<< Exodus 22:17 >>

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the dowry for virgins.

King James Bible
If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

What I was told recently is that, in those days, there was a 'bride price', and that if a woman had sex before she was married, her price would be diminished (I thought the Israelites were god's chosen people...? Wouldn't they understand the girl was taken advantage of and that it wasn't her fault?).

I find it tough to believe that god almighty had NO problem condemning people to death for very minor things in Exodus, and he supposedly HATES fornication....

But he's like "aWrighty, if her dad doesn't want her to marry you, just fork over the money & all will be cool".

OnTheWayOut

I am not the one you are looking for. I do not accept the Bible as God's Word.

As the opposite of what you are looking for, I will say that not only are these men's rules, but they are idealistic pie-in-the-sky men's rules. They were recorded after the Jews were captive in Babylon (or edited then from previous recordings) and NOBODY EVER LIVED UNDER THE MOSAIC LAW.

I used to wonder why ALL the Israelites were not stoned or put to death some way with their complicated laws. The priests of YHWH had little effect on the daily lives of these people. The history of the Bible is written as if they did have an impact.

Narkissos

OTWO: I think you are quite right about some Torah "laws" which are actually idealistic construction and were never practically applied, except perhaps in very limited circles and periods (the sabbatical year / Jubilee system in Leviticus comes to mind). However I don't think this applies to legislations such as Exodus 22:16/17 which make perfect sense in an ancient (even pre-exilic) setting. The problem here (as in most cases where ancient laws scandalise modern readers) is simply that moral standards have changed along with social, economic, political situations. From the perspective of civil law (priestly legislations are different) women are viewed as quasi-property (belonging to their father, bridegroom, husband), as the Tenth Commandment nicely illustrates ("you shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor"). Hence engagement / marriage is a transaction between a prospective "buyer" (the bridegroom) and a seller (the father); sexual relationship before marriage cancels the transaction if the girl is already engaged to someone else (it is aggravated theft, just as adultery is), and diminishes its potential "market value" if she is not (on the importance of virginity, cf. Deuteronomy 22:13ff about the "evidence of virginity," which is still reflected in popular traditions in some Muslim countries for instance); it implies financial damage.

This is only a "problem" for those who assume that moral standards are universal and intemporal (and now we have them 100 % "right," of course!) and believe that the Bible as "God's book" should reflect such (which is certainly not the case of all "believers": faith is not incompatible with a sense of history in principle).

shamus100

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

Listen,

This is all I'm going to do for you - provide you with a link to the brick testament. You can find out all about the bible from that site.

The sodom and gomorrah lego pictures are quite entertaining!

shamus100

Here is a picture from the book of Revelation.

When you actually put this story book to lego, it's suprising how violent it really is. What's really funny is when religious people call down Islam for being violent - believe me, the bible is extremely violent, we are just used to the gory pictures, etc.

(can't you just hear a JW playing with himself looking at the picture above, just wishing it was today and those people were us?)

cantleave

I'm reading the God Delusion, so much better than the bible!

homeschool

Thanks Monkey. Narkissos, with all due respect... it just feels to me like the bible was written by men & not by god (at this point of my reading, anyway. ) Let's say it was the common practice with the bride price stuff. We have all sorts of common practices today, but some Christians abstain from anything they perceive as going against god. Right? go with me for a minute... so at the time, did god say that fornication was okay? I always thought god hated fornication, except for when incest was alright to populate the earth? If god truly inspired the bible, I would think he'd make sure to add a sentence such as, "commiting fornication with a virgin is disgusting in my eyes and worth death, but I will tolerate it to prove how evil Satan is".... something to that effect. I dunno. the more I think about it, the more confused I get. Maybe I'll just stop thinking and check out the Monkey's Lego pictures.

I'm reading the Bible cover to cover...

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