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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

 

 

Part I

The "God" of the Bible reflects common views of deity in the ancient world:

the atrocity of sexually brutalizing young girls as the spoils of war

 

 

return to the main-page article on "God"

 

Editor’s note: The following was originally written for the “Bible” page, however it's relevant to the discussion here, as well.

In our twenty-first century world, most civilized people in the West would shake their heads in disgust at the thought of collecting truckloads of middle-school girls as sexual largesse, the spoils of war. Classical scholar, Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver states that people at that time accepted this wholesale exploitation as normal; that, for them, there could be no other way for conquering armies to conduct themselves - It’s the way the universe works, was the general view.

In the Iliad, written close to 800 BC, we find Hector and his wife and baby son behind the walls of Troy. Outside are the invading Greek soldiers. They’ve been there for about ten years, with neither side having been able to score decisively. However, Hector and his wife are well aware that, if the enemy should win, he will be put to the sword, the baby will be killed, and the young wife will be taken as sex-slave to a foreign land.

And within the Greek camp there’s a discussion. Agamemnon, leader of the army, had offended his greatest warrior, Achilles. Stung by personal insult, Achilles is now sulking in his tent, refusing to fight. The cause of the miff? Agamemnon had taken Briseis, the favorite concubine of Achilles. However, with Achilles on the bench, things aren’t going so well for the Greeks on the battlefield, and Agamemnon is about to do some fancy back-stepping. He sends three emissaries, well-respected soldiers, to plead with Achilles to return to the fight. “If you’ll only come back,” the message begs, “you can have whatever you want. I’ll give you so much gold, I’ll return your favorite concubine right now, untouched, as good as new. And even more, when we finally break through the walls of the Trojans, you can have as many girls as you want, a whole shipload just for you, take them back home with you.”

The ancient world wreaks with an entrenched misogyny. In the classical Greek myths, man was created, but without woman. Later, she made her unwelcomed entrance, almost as an afterthought, a grudging sop to nature, tolerated as virtually less than human, a concession to the male desire for legacy – How do you expect me to have sons to give the farm to without a female?

There are thousands of such heartless references regarding the treatment of women in the classical writings. My point is this:

In the Bible, not everywhere, but far too often, women are viewed in exactly the same expendable way as in other worldly literature. The Bible, not all the time, but far too many times, reflects the unenlightened views of the ancient world.

 

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Preview and Summary: The "God" of the Old Testament, part of the "infallible" Bible, readily condones bestial atrocity, even the sexual violation of young girls - further evidence that these writings are man-made, reflecting the times in which they were written, and not the spirit of Universal Intelligence and Love.

 

Historian Will Durant, in his Story of Civilization, observes, regarding the "God" of Israel:

... this god makes no claim to omniscience: he asks the Jews to identify their homes by sprinkling them with the blood of the sacrificial lamb, lest he should destroy their children inadvertently along with the first-born of the Egyptians; he is not above making mistakes, of which man is his worst; he regrets, too late, that he created Adam, or allowed Saul to become king. He is, now and then, greedy, irascible, capricious, petulant: "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." He approves Jacob's use of deceit in revenging himself upon Laban; his conscience is as flexible as that of a bishop in politics. He is talkative, and likes to make long speeches; but he is shy, and will not allow men to see anything of him but his hind parts... He will have no pacifist nonsense; he knows that even a Promised Land can be won, and held, only by the sword... To gain successes for his people, he commits or commands brutalities [in wholesale quantities, atrocities repugnant to the sensibilities of any cultured mind; he cannot see cause for uptightness regarding smashing babies' skulls against rocks] ... he slaughters whole nations with the naive pleasure of a Gulliver fighting for Lilliput. Because the Jews "commit whoredom" with the daughters of Moab he bids Moses: "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun"; it is the morality of Ashurbanipal and Ashur. He offers to show mercy to those who love him... but, like some resolute germ, he will punish children for the sins of their fathers, their grandfathers, even their great-great-grandfathers. He is so ferocious that he thinks of destroying all the Jews for the worshipping of the Golden Calf...

 

  • Editor's note: Durant is very tongue-in-cheek sarastic: "this god ... is not above making mistakes, of which man is his worst... as flexible as a bishop in politics."

 

this Old Testament "God" of the "infallible" Bible commands the troops: "Kill everyone! - except for the little middle-school girls! Keep them aside as your sex-object play-things!"

Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy:

... Jehovah destroys all living things on the Earth by flood, but somehow manages to also find the time to specifically execute one individual man for letting his semen spill on the ground when having sex... he inflicts hideous plagues on Egypt for not letting the Israelites leave, despite the fact that it was he himself who "hardened Pharaoh's heart" ... [he] makes it allowable to beat a slave to death and, after rumors that Israelites have worshipped a rival god, orders faithful Israelites to kill their friends and relatives, leading to the death of 3,000 people... [he] takes vengeance on the people of Gath by giving all the men a fatal dose of hemorrhoids. In the Book of Leviticus he condones human sacrifice. In Deuteronomy he orders the Israelites to utterly destroy the people of the cities that he bequeaths to them as their "inheritance," commanding them "not to leave anything that breathes alive" ... He also gives the Israelites power to utterly destroy the Canaanites and exterminate the people of Og, advising with regard to captured women and children [thus]:

"Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. But keep alive for yourself all the young girls who have not known a man intimately."  (Numbers 31:17,18)

The troops are offered, as perk for battle victories, captured little girls of middle-school age as sex-object play-things - but all the rest can be quickly disposed of.

These things are so repugnant to any educated and civilized mind that one cannot joke or make light of this travesty. Yet...

this is the kind of buffoonery-mess, and de facto endorsement of it, one finds oneself agreeing to in support of biblical "infallibility"

I remember sermons of this sort in the distant past. The speaker, as self-appointed "spin-meister" of the biblical "God's" checkered actions, in solemn and grave tones, desperately tried to justify brutal and sexual atrocity. The speaker's best answer became: "God is testing our loyalty with these things."

transforming atrocity into the socially acceptable; indeed, the divine will

 

Editor's note: In other articles, I present research of the great psychologists; particularly, that of the "inner-child seeking for a strong father-figure." This sordid dynamic explains why people "go mad in herds."

By means of this pathology, we find a "redistilling of everyday reality," a "transforming of atrocity into the acceptable." It happens regularly in our world, even from pulpits in our neighborhoods.

under the patriarchal numen, a nod from on high, all is sanitized and blessed

The great psychologists speak of the "numen" - literally, an approving "nod" from an aloof father-figure. Once the cultish patriarchal numen is issued, reality is transformed, individual responsibility fades, and all actions, no matter how socio-pathic, are cleansed under the aegis of the protecting-father's nod.

 

 

Editor's note: I received a phone call this morning from two friends, Judy and Mark; each has severe health issues, each is a retired minister; Judy, with a master's degree in theology. I mentioned to her that I'd recently written this article. She laughed and, before I could comment too much, as fruit of her own thought, rehearsed for me the essence of the above information. She laughed again and said, as she recalled many past conversations with various church members, "Whenever people would say to me that they're certain that every word of the Bible is directly from God, I would immediately know that they hadn't read the Bible!" She went on to explain that she and Mark had a conversation with Mark's 90 year-old father, a scholar and former minister. Their discussion touched on much of what I say in this article. My point is this: Any person well-read in the field of theology knows the things of which I speak here. But most people on-the-street have not heard this information. Why is that? Mark and Judy would readily tell you that the clergy is under severe pressure not to offend parishioners with, shall we say, upsetting information... that would be the truth, I think. We wouldn't want to disturb the tithe-payers, now would we?
 

Editor's note: These past months I have been slowly making my way through Will and Ariel Durant's "Story Of Civilization." I think they are incredibly capable and knowledgeable writers and researchers; moreover, their findings are poetically and felicitously delivered, sprinkled with wry wit and well-placed dash of humor. But let me share with you two points among the thousands of bejeweled wisdom-nuggets they offer: When you read of the ancient civilizations you will learn that the real power behind-the-throne was the high-priest. He controlled the uneducated people, including the soldiers and the king, by manipulating fears of death. Not much has changed in these thousands of years.

We must understand that the scruples of the "God" of the Old Testament find resonance with every cheap blood-lust dictator of the ancient world.

The writer of these ancient biblical documents reflects the zeitgeist, the attitude of the times. Speaking of Ashurbanipal's tactics of cutting off the heads of enemies and hoisting them up on high-poles, that all might heed and fear, Will Durant draws parallel with the policies of Israel's YWVH, who did the same thing. For those writing in that ancient milieu, it all seemed reasonable - "this is what leaders do, be they national king or God of heaven." 

We must come to know this: The war chronicles of Israel reflect a bestial mentality of "God," exactly in line with ideas extant in surrounding nation-states. These are not authentic words of Universal Intelligence but those of some ancient military-leader or church-politician doing his best to keep his troops and people on a short leash via an inculcated terror of "God."

 

 

Editor's last word:

See the extensive writing, "30 Art Masterpieces of the Ancient World," for further discussion on how long-ago military leaders invented religious fables to solidify their power.