Why were the Israelites so deplorable?

by eyeuse2badub 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  eyeuse2badub

  What made the Israelites so deplorable?

  I started thinking about how the bible describes ‘god’s people’, the Israelites. Most of the time god was very pissed off at them. Most of the Old Testament, or Hebrew scriptures if you like, is about prophets sent to the Israelites to warn them or to curse them for their shitty behavior. Was that the inherent behavior of all nomadic tribes? Or was it the just them? And more importantly, why would ‘god’s people’ be such belligerent butt holes?

  IMHO, I think that the god that the Israelites invented, YHWH, drove them to such madness. Starting with the patriarch Abraham, “god’s friend”, he was willing to slaughter his own son because YHWH told him to do so. Bet ya Sarah was not in favor of that command!

  Then there is Lot, (not and Israelite per se) a man that the bible calls a “righteous man”, has incestuous relations with his 2 daughters and knocked them up. Daddy dearest. Wonder if the kids called him dad or grandpa, or both?

  God, supposedly, kills all the Egyptian first born and then drowns the entire Egyptian army as the Israelites, including women and young children, witness the marvelous event. Can you here the Israelites chanting, Kill, Kill, Kill!

  They enter the ‘promised land’ only to execute genocide on the other nomadic tribes. I’m sure that didn’t affect the psyche of the Israelite soldiers. What nice stories they had to share with their wives and children about how they executed innocent women and children because YHWH told them to do it.

  Then you have other meaningful events, like the inauguration of Solomon’s temple. Now that must have been a joyous occasion to witness the massive slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals. The blood must have been everywhere. I’m sure the young ones especially enjoyed that event. Ya gotta know that YHWH was well pleased. All that burning animal flesh was a “restful odor” to YHWH.

  I could go on but I think that you see where I’m going with this. When you have such a kind, loving god as YHWH it’s no wonder that the Israelites where the way they were. Why wouldn’t everyone want to be part of such a wonderful people?

  My conclusion is that the Israelites were the a**holes they were, not despite the fact that YHWH was their god, but because YHWH was there god.

  just saying?
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  Betheliesalot

  29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!” This chapter in Judges exemplifies how low minded they were, just dismembering women after sending them out to be raped by a bunch of Benjamites, and having no qualms to sleep that night knowing what you had done to your mistress . Savages is what comes to mind.
  
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  smiddy3

  Maybe God YHWH should have chosen the Amalekites or maybe the Jebusites or even the Philistines they couldn`t have been any worse could they ?

  Hang on doesn`t God see into the future ? Didn`t he foresee what was going to happen anyway ?

  Doesn`t the fact that God knows past present and future all at once make the whole history of the Bible OT/NT and it`s message irrelevant ?
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  Crazyguy

  I think these stories were written by someone other then the Jews or Hebrews. Maybe the simaritians or Greeks or some other group that didn’t like the Jews and their gods. I have read that the Greeks were known for writing a history of their family group to try and make themselves seem greater or more special as a family then they really were.

  It seems to me that someone that had access to several writings took aspects of these writings whether from Egypt or Mesopotamia or Greece and took parts of these stories to make a new Israelite story. One could ask why did one of the Greek kings Philadelphious take 72 scholars in Alexandria and have them write the Greek Septuagint bible if that’s really what happened? why would a Greek care about Jewish writings and religious ideas if they were in fact their ideas.

  The whole thing is very suspect and some say the story was all made up. I think the whole story of the Israelites/Jews in the Bible was made up taking real events and mashing them up with mythology and some real events to make it appear as if it was real. Maybe Philadelphious was trying to make up a new race of people for himself neither Greek or Egyptian.

  Anyway all we know for certain is there’s writtings in the Bible that were taken from other places as well as stories. Amenope’s wisdom sayings in the book of proverbs and the story of the flood as copied from Mesopotamia, just two examples.

  The Israelite stories we pretty much know are not really but just made up propaganda are that of the exodus , David and Solomon, Hezzekias Kingdom being saved by an angel, all the stories about the patriarchs in Genesis etc.
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  charonsdog

  Whenever my mom would decry some book or movie that I was into as "too violent for Christians", I would always point her to the scriptures like the one Betheliesalot posted. Samuel hacking Agag "to pieces". Ehud opening up Eglon's belly with a short sword so his intestines (and their contents) came spilling out. I especially liked the one where Phinehas "took a lance" and proceeded to kill Zimri and Cozbi (the Midianite chick) inside their tent while they were engaged in some hanky panky. The account (which my FATHER assigned me to read for the old #2 talk when I was TEN YEARS OLD) stated that Zimri was pierced through the head and Cozbi through "her genital parts". Anyone want to ponder about how many thrusts of the lance that took? And why?

  The Israelites' YHWH was a bloodthirsty SOB.