Why did god threaten to kill moses while he was going to egypt?

by Elsewhere 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  peacefulpete

  As many commentators have noted "feet" was often a Bibical euphamism for genitals. Circumcision was widely practiced in Palestine and Egypt as symbolic castration giving credit for fertility of the marriage to the patron god. IE. the children of the cultists are 'children of god' . Here the wife cuts here son and bloodies her husbands organ with it so as to declare him a "bridegroom of blood' while he is yet uncircumcised. Moses is never said to be circucised.

  The story appears to me to be very disconnected with not only the context but the theology of the major contributors to the OT. I suspect the piece is a very early legend, perhaps unconnected to Moses that was inserted with modification to explain why Moses was never circumcised.
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  Narkissos

  On the other hand, it is not the only place where Yhwh plays a demonic role; the closest example is Jacob's wrestling "angel," who attacks him also at night, during a trip, at a resting place, with comparable sexual features, also without any kind of logical motivation (Genesis 32). More limited parallels can be found in a number of stories (e.g. Yhwh kills Judah's first son Er, Genesis 38:3; Yhwh sends Balaam but attempts to kill him in the way, Numbers 22:20ff), not to mention the most famous examples as David's census (2 Samuel 24) or Ahab's prophets (1 Kings 22) where Yhwh uses sneaky ways to kill people. As Leolaia pointed out, later monotheist (or dualist?) readers/rewriters tend to ascribe such actions to the Devil (the Jubilees' Mastema = 2 Chronicles 21's Satan)
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  Golf

  Skully its excess flesh that's removed, what good is a headless penis? (pun intended)
  
  
  Golf
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  Scully

  Golf

  its excess flesh that's removed

  If "God" creates something that he calls "good", why does he later decide that it needs modifying?

  Besides, who says it's "excessive"? The American Pediatric Association and Canadian Paediatric Society are in agreement that circumcision is unnecessary and can actually be harmful. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.