My parents force me (15yo atheist) to go to church, and there’s this thing called Small Sundays where we discuss the Bible in groups, there are questions asked about the Bible. What am I supposed to do when they ask?
07.06.2025 14:25
David adopts Jonathan's crippled son.
I had never heard of "Gaudium et Spes, Familiaris Consortio or post-conciliar Magisterium and I am a life long Catholic. (Laity. born & raised in American Midwest (Lutheran territory) Public School raised so not terrified of the hierarchy. Born 1964 so post Vatican II. Active in all parishes since college.) Leaving 2016.
The king sends Holofernes as the master general. Everyone is afraid of him because of the strength of the army, which is made up of several different groups. He slaughters even those who surrender to him. He especially wars against their gods so that all people will worship the king. The Israelites reach out to the Samarians and all the others they wouldn't allow to help in the rebuilding of the temple. They band together and under orders from the high priest, defend the mountain passes and pray for assistance.
Then Abraham takes a concubine on his wife's advice and has a child. Sarah and the concubine fight, even though this was Sarah's idea. Sarah demands Abraham kick Hagar into the desert. Abram is horrified but, kicks the concubine and his first born son out into the desert. (Ishmael is described elsewhere as being 13, described here as being put on his mother's back, and later as being around at Sarah's funeral.) (Sarah must have been a terrifying woman.)
Abner and David reconcile, with the price being Saul's daughter Michal. He already has six other wives. Her husband follows her to the border crying at the thought of losing her. One of David's underlings kills Abner to avenge his brother's death. David curses them and puts on a big state funeral.
Deuteronomy - Animals with cloven feet, hooves, and that chew cud (Ruminants) are clean and can be eaten, but not camels? Winged insects are unclean, yet John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey. When grasshoppers grow wings, they are locusts. Bad translation? Deuteronomy Chapter 22 13 to the end.
Psalms - I first listened to the psalms on tape while commuting. They were read by an actor I liked in Babylon 5. I was horrified how bloodthirsty they were. Re-reading them with Father Perry, they weren't so bad. Not much about families. Some of them talk of God protecting the widow and orphan. Hopefully this is not interpreted to mean that it is God's job to take care of widows and orphans and that means the rest of us can leave them to starve. If Christians are supposed to have the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is partially defined as the part of God here on Earth in our daily lives, then we all should be doing the most that we can for those least able to take care of themselves. Instead the vatican, chose to define Roman Catholicism in terms of deranged predators of children.
Israel declares war on Judea and wins. Later a military dictator takes over Israel and punishes the people, including ripping open the bellies of pregnant women.
Elisha provides oil for a widow and her children.
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A Levite marries a concubine who is unfaithful (doesn't clarify if she is an adulteress or hates her husband) and goes back to her father's house. He then goes with two asses and a servant to 'forgive' her and bring her back. Her father seems glad to see him, but tries to keep him and his daughter with him as long as possible. Going back home, the husband refuses to stay with the pagans, but presses on to an Israelite town of the tribe of Benjamin. There all but one man who wasn't raised there leave him to sleep out in the open. The non-native takes him home to his house. The rest of the town finds out he has a visitor and go to the old man's house so they can abuse his guest. The old man offers his daughter or the man's wife instead. The husband, to save his own 'neck', throws his wife into the mob. They abuse her to the point that she dies. He then cuts her body into twelve pieces and sends one piece to each tribe of Israel. The Israelites then band together against the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin rather than being horrified at the evil of their tribesmen, defend their behavior by attacking their fellow Israelites; just like the Vatican and the pedophiles. The rest of the Israelites slaughter the tribe of Benjamin, especially the women and children. They leave none of them alive. They also swear that they will kill anyone who doesn't take part in the slaughter and will not give any of their daughters to a Benjamite. After slaughtering the entire tribe, they repent saying that they can't wipe out the entire tribe. They want to find wives for the survivors. They find out one city didn't send any warriors, so they slaughter the entire city except for the young girls and give the girls to the surviving Benjamites. There still are not enough girls so they allow the Benjamites to rape their young girls during a religious festival. So much for the myth that a woman won’t get pregnant if she is raped.
Then a bunch more begetting with people(s) living very long times until we get to Noah. By that time. God is disgusted with his handiwork and destroys everyone but Noah's family. (Or at least destroys everyone in the Black Sea area.) Noah gets drunk and his youngest son sees him naked. His two older brothers cover their father and Noah curses his innocent grandson.
Then lots more begetting until Abram. Abram goes to Egypt because of drought. Since his wife is very beautiful, he has her tell everyone that she is his sister not his wife. He 'sells' her to pharaoh; who gives him LOTS of presents until he finds out she is his wife. Now being rich, he goes to the Negeb with his nephew Lot.
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Lots of bragging about Solomon's wealth. He makes friends with the cedar supplier and starts building a temple. When he finishes building the temple, he builds himself a larger palace and administrative building. Even then they didn't have 'Sharia' law. All the time of the Judges, they speak of military leaders and not religious leaders administering justice.
I think I finally see the point of this question. If the king protects those who molest the ones he should be protecting, the kingdom will collapse.
Hezekiah, king of Judah, is pleased when Isaiah tells him his children will be carried off to Babylon as it means his life will be peaceful.
Lot's family and Abram's family start quarreling, so they separate. Lot winds up in Sodom. When angels visit and the men of the town want to molest the angels, Lot offers them his virgin daughters instead. Lot tries to get his daughter's fiancés to flee the city with them, but they refuse. After God destroys the city, the two daughters, saying as there are no men around anymore, get their father drunk and have sex with him. They each have a son.
Elijah repairs an alter of the Lord, but it would have not been in Jerusalem as this was for the king of Israel. Yet the whole of the previous book rails against offerings in any place but Jerusalem. He defeats and slays the priests of Baal. The drought ends. The Lord vows to kill all but 7,000 of the Israelites who have not worshipped Baal. Jezebel vows to kill Elijah and he flees.
Psalm 137 - Rejoice smashing the heads of your enemies' children against rocks. The notes say they hope it isn't that bad, but it does repeat Kings.
Should parents force their kids to go to school when they are sick?
David takes a census of the people and 'God' gets annoyed. David was only counting how many men could fight for him? (How else do you administer a country without good data? The vatican seems to be trying to do that.) David has to choose between three punishments: Famine, fear of his life, or pestilence. Not wanting to risk his own neck, he chooses the pestilence, until he sees how bad it is. Then he regrets his decision.
David builds himself a fancy palace, but doesn't think about a temple for the Ark until later. God tells David HE doesn't want David to build him a house.
Another famine breaks out and Isaac and Rebekah head to the land of the Philistines. Taking a page from his father's book, Isaac tells them Rebekah is his sister. Again the pagans, figure out he is really her husband, are horrified and give him lots of money. Husbands pimping their wives in times of famine seems to be becoming a family tradition.
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Isaac and Rebekah have twins. Isaac likes the eldest, Esau, who hunts. Rebekah likes the younger, Jacob, who is smarter. Esau sells his birth right to Jacob for a bowl of stew. (Of course Esau is a genius compared to the vatican. The vatican can have the Keys of Heaven and the respect of the world. Instead, they tell the world pedophiles are preferable to women; thereby declaring their dicks god. They choose to and sound like depraved lunatics and become the laughing stocks of the world. ) When Esau is 40, he marries two local pagan women, whom his mother hates. When Isaac is blind and dying, Rebekah has Jacob impersonate Esau to get the inheritance. (I wouldn't let an idiot like Esau be in charge of the family either.) Esau threatens to kill his brother, so Rebekah sends Jacob back to her family to marry one of his cousins.
Micah steals money from his mother, then returns it when she curses it. She takes part of it and makes a silver idol for her son. The Danites later steal the idol and slaughter a group of peaceful people. So much for the ban on graven images.
Reuben slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah. Israel (Jacob) was furious.
Why won't Canada build their own fighter jet?
Exodus - Pharaoh orders all Hebrew male children killed. Moses' mother saves him by hiding him in a basket in the reeds along the Nile. (The crocodiles are less dangerous than mankind.) Pharaoh's daughter finds him and adopts him. He grows up to lead his people out of Egypt. If the first premise is true, the Israelites at that time must have been mostly women. They would also see dying in the dessert as the less dangerous option to protect their children. I keep thinking of this every time I read of the Central American women and children fleeing through the desert to the US to escape the gangs. Golden calf or no golden calf, they would have needed to hide out in the desert until they had enough men to fight to take over Canaan or fend off raiders while they carried the children.
The first question in the vatican’s ‘survey’ on the family asks what 3 Latin documents and the Bible had to say on the family.
He then goes into a tirade telling the children to protest against their mother as she is not his wife and he is not her husband. Nowhere does it say that Gomer or her children have done anything to deserve this abuse. Hosea sounds like a delusion paranoid. He threatens to strip his wife naked. He says he will not have any pity on her children as they are not his. The story opens acknowledging that they are his children. She flees to lovers who provide for her. Hosea says that it is he who has been giving this to her. Her threatens a scorched earth policy against everything she has. Then he reverses and tries to convince her that he will love her and take care of her and love her children.
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Moses has good relations with his father-in-law who gives him good advice. Male slaves are to be set free after 7 years. Women are slaves for life unless their master/husband doesn't want them, then they can be set free, but the master still has to provide for her. You can't kill a slave. If you maim a slave, you have to set them free.
The first children, Adam and Eve, disobeyed life or death rules and were banished from the family home. We also have the 'snake' tempting Eve to become powerful. SOP for strong arm men, i.e. Hitlers, mafia dons, 3rd world husbands etc. is to make the wife or other underling do whatever illegal thing you want done so that she/they can take the blame. This is usually on threat of death or dismemberment. They then have the weaker party under their control by threatening to expose them to the powers that be. "Orders, I didn't give them any orders, they put those people in the gas chambers on their own." Remember, the Bible has Adam standing right there when the 'snake' tempts her. Eve's response to God is the 'serpent' told me to do so. What serpent do you know of that speaks? Remember the 'snake' tempts Eve with promises of power. How many women do you know who are tempted primarily by power? You know the old saying, "I wouldn't marry him if he was the last man on earth." What if he was the ONLY man on earth?
Then we get to what must be the vatican's favorite story as it seems to be the example they most want to follow.
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Elisha removes poison from a pot of stew he was feeding to his fellow (lower ranked)prophets.
Jacob flees to his mother's brother and serves him seven years for the uncle's younger daughter Rachel. His uncle Laban gives him the elder daughter, Leah, instead. Jacob has to serve another seven years for Rachel. Leah has four sons and hopes this will make her husband love her. Rachel has no children so insists that Jacob sleep with her maid so that she can have children for herself. Her maid, Bilhah has two sons. Leah, who can no longer have children, does the same, giving Jacob her maid, Zilphah. This maid also has two sons.
Ezra - Israelites come back from Babylonian captivity and rebuild the temple and Jerusalem. The Samaritans from the north want to help. Rather than use their offer as a chance to mend bridges and reform their northern cousins, the returning Jews take a holier than though attitude and refuse to allow them to help. Ezra then orders all the men with pagan wives to divorce them and abandon the wives and their children.
What do you love to do at night when you’re alone?
You can start with this - From “Men Explain Religion to Me.”
18- The Bible Explains Family
If a man seduces a girl, he must either marry her or pay for her.
Why did we evolve to have so many nerve endings in our anuses?
The Israelites are disgusted with this period of lawlessness and insist on a king rather than having the Lord as king. They get Saul who was a good general until he lets power to his head and starts trying to kill David, who was the most promising of the next generation. (Saul is listening to that snake again.) Saul keeps offering and retracting his daughters' hands in marriage to David. David marries Saul's daughter Michal, then Saul takes her away from him and gives he to another man. Her bride price was 100 Philistine foreskins. (Lovely symbolism there. So much for the sanctity of marriage. Saul trying to kill his son-in-law)
God reiterates the Nuremburg verdicts. Following Orders is NOT a valid argument for your crimes.
Maccabees II - Writing is much better than Maccabees I - The tone is more conversational and easier to understand. Also more in the style of Tobit with 'magical' happenings -with black petrochemicals setting fires to offerings and visions of 'angels' on horses fighting with Judas Maccabee. A dishonest Israelite tells the pagan king that the temple has a huge amount of money. The king's representative goes to confiscate it. The high priest says the funds are security for widows and orphans. The official is attacked by an 'angel.' When he recovers and the king asks who should he next send to raid the Jerusalem temple, the official tells him to send his worst enemy so that they can be killed. Both books tell of the pagans killing women and their babies for having them circumcised. Lots of killing of women and children. Killing of an old man for refusing to eat the pagan sacrifices. Torture and killing of the seven brothers and their mother for refusing to eat pork. The Church later emulated this great theological argument with the Inquisition. Believe what we tell you or we will torture you death. We think our beliefs are so stupid that no one would believe them if we just explained them.
David captures Jerusalem and brings the Ark to it. Michal is disgusted with David dancing in front of the Ark. (He might have been exposing himself?) David refuses to sleep with her from then on. Apparently David only wanted her because Saul took her away from him. She was better off with her other husband. So much for the Church's insistence that only the first marriage is valid.
Gomer again has a son that Hosea names Lo-ammi – not my people / not mine / bastard.
Abraham and Sarah have Isaac when Abraham is 100 and Sarah around 87. When Sarah dies, Abraham sends one of his servants to his brother's family to get Isaac a wife to comfort him on the loss of his mother. (Sarah does not sound like the sort of woman who would lovingly welcome a daughter in law. ) He brings back Rebekah, his second cousin, and Isaac marries her when he is 40. Her family asks Rebekah first. (I also don't know why Abraham couldn't have sent Ishmael to his brother's family instead of kicking him out into the dessert.)
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David makes the rest of Saul's family convenient scapegoats for a famine and slaughters the rest of them.
Taking this as a chance to read the Bible cover to cover. Going through the examples of family in the Bible. What exactly DOES the Bible say about family? – Essentially, it is – You are lucky to survive.
Elijah the prophet flees the drought and the king of Israel and feeds a widow and raises her son from the dead. I think the widow was a non-Israelite.
David is old and a young girl is brought to keep him warm even though he already has umpteen wives. His two sons quarrel over the kingship. David crowns Solomon. Solomon 'forgives' his brother. His brother asks for the young girl who nursed David and Solomon kills him and his fellow plotters. He eventually kills the man who insulted his father. As the temple has not been built yet, the Israelites offer sacrifices in various high places.
He buys her back from her lovers. Not clear if this is something she wanted. He says will not have sex with her for while. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a reward for coming back to him or a punishment.
Manoah's wife who is not named, sees an angel who tells her she will have a son. When her husband honors the Lord with a holocaust, the angel ascends in the flames. Manoah is terrified and sure they will die. His wife matter of factly comforts him, telling him that if God wanted to kill them, he wouldn't have told them they were going to have a son. (This reaction is pretty typical throughout the Bible. The male reaction to Holy presence is fear, death and destruction. The female reaction is calm and associated with new life, healing, help in time of famine or resurrection)
Psalm 144 - God trains my hands for battle and my fingers for war. Request for beautiful children.
Holofernes and the Moabites with him do not like Achior's warning and hold him captive. Holofernes only believes in Nebuchandnezzar. Rather than allow the Israelites to stay in their mountain fortresses, he destroys their water supply. He sends Achior to the Israelites as a warning.
He goes to visit a harlot and breaks down the city gates to get out.
Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman. His parents are appalled, but arrange the marriage as he insists. He gambles with the Philistine wedding party for 30 sets of garments. When the wedding party can't guess the riddle, they threaten to burn his wife and her family. She pesters Samson until he tells her the answer to the riddle. He is furious and kills 30 Philistines and gives their clothes to the wedding party. Then he abandons his wife and she marries his "best man." Later that year he goes back to reclaim his wife. Her father offers him her sister instead. Samson ties torches to the tails of 300 foxes and burns all their crops at harvest time. The Philistines then burn his wife and her family. Samson then goes on a killing spree. When the Israelites come to take him captive to the Philistines, he breaks his bounds and kills a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. (I would have thought it would splinter with that much use.) God then miraculously provides a spring for him.
Kings 2 - Elijah calls down fire on the king's messengers when they come for him. This seems to be a favorite passage for the Disciples as they keep asking Jesus to repeat the 'trick.'
Gomoer than has a daughter he names Lo-Ruhama – She is not pitied (loved)
Maccabees I- A series of brothers lead a series of successful rebellions against Greek kings. Part of their exploits include revenge killings against a bridal party and attacking a group of Arabs when the Greeks run away when they were spoiling for a fight. They are mostly supported by the religious elite until the rebellion becomes more political than religious. When they win autonomy, the Greek kings give them the high priesthood in the temple. The true power of the Maccabees seems to be the fact that all the brothers fight together as a cohesive team rather than infighting among themselves. They are succeeded by the oldest son of the last remaining brother. Apparently, the older brothers died childless. The father peacefully turns over the kingdom to his son rather than an intergenerational coup. They are able to defeat the Greek kings with help of the Roman Republic. The big interpretation of family in this is that only those of the correct parentage are supposed to be priests, no matter what their abilities are. i.e. It is better to have thieving morons in charge as long as they are of the 'correct' parentage rather than someone who knows what they are doing. Sounds like the vatican.
The priests are given extra funds to repair the temple and instead line their own pockets. (The beginning of the vatican banking system?)
Elisha finds an ax lost in the Jordan River.
Solomon completes the temple, offers huge sacrifices, and the Lord's Cloud fills the temple.
Cursing your parents is a capital offense.
Elisha predicts a seven year drought and tells his friend the widow to flee.
Kidnapping is a capital offense if a fellow Israelite. A man can divorce a wife, but a wife can't divorce a husband.
Tobit - One of the few stories about family. A holy man goes blind and loses his money so God sends an angel to get his money back, cure his blindness, destroy a demon, and provide a wife for his son. The wife is another close relative. Promoting all this inbreeding may have religious benefits, but also leads to mental retardation, sterility, genetic mutations and other health issues.
On the advice of a captured Israelite slave girl, Naaman, the general of the king of Aram is cured of leprosy by Elisha. When his servant tries to get payment for the cure, he becomes a leper.
Meanwhile, Joseph has been put in charge of his master's household. As he is really handsome, his master's wife tries to have sex with him. When he refuses, she cries rape. Her husband is furious and throws Joseph in prison. The chief jailer is so impressed with Joseph that he puts him in charge of the prison. Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's baker and cup bearer correctly. When Pharaoh has dreams of famine, Joseph correctly interprets them and is put in charge of all of Egypt. During the famine, he forgives and feeds his brothers and their families. So ends Genesis.
Nehemiah - Variation of Ezra, coming back the Samarians and others don't offer to help build, they mock the Jews and try to attack them. Some of the builders mentioned are women. One of the prophets mentioned is a woman. The singers are both genders. The nobles and magistrates are using strong arms tactics to enslave their fellow Israelites. Nehemiah gets them to return the stolen land. Nehemiah lives on his own nickel rather than tax his subjects.
Chronicles I & II essentially repeat the previous books and pertain to family only in a genealogical sense.
David's favorite son Amnon rapes his half sister Tamar. Then immediately hates her. Her brother is furious. David doesn't punish him. The brother of his daughter, Absalom, murders his half brother Amnon. David pardons him, but he hates David and plots against his father. He is killed and David mourns him. The Israelites are annoyed because they were fighting for David against his son. The kingdom splits into Israel and Judah.
One king of Israel burns his son in sacrifice.
The early proponents of contraception lived in families where they watched their brothers and sisters die from lack of food and medicine. Also read the Irish story "Angela's Ashes." The children drop like flies.
Father keeps saying that it is the duty of men to protect women and children. Yeah, right. If you believe that, I've got a great bridge to sell you. For far, the examples are mostly that women and children are supposed to be fodder for the male ego. This kind of protection sounds like a Mafia “protection” plan. Sleep with me or you WILL have an accident. The vatican must love this.
Kings 1.
Abraham goes into the Negeb again and again tells the people living there that Sarah is his sister. The ruler there again tries to marry Sarah. He then explains that she is in truth his half sister as they both have the same father. The pagans are again horrified at this and again give Abraham large amounts of money and goods.
David kills the murders who murder Saul's son in his bed.
Aesop - The heavily laden ass when told that the enemy is near asks the messenger, "Will the enemy double the load on my back? Then let him come. It matters not to me who loads my back."
You cannot sacrifice your children to false gods. The vatican should keep this commandment and not justify its previous policy of promoting pedophilia, thereby sacrificing our children to the gods between their legs.
To escape Saul, David goes to the Philistines. The Philistines give David a city. When the Philistines go to war against Israel, the Philistine king sends David back to the land of the Philistines. While the Philistines were attacking Israel, another enemy attacks the Philistine city where David and his men's families were. Since the pagans are less blood thirsty than the Israelites, they only capture the women and children and did not kill them. David overtakes the raiders with the help of an Egyptian he rescues and rescues all the families and gets additional booty besides. He uses the spoils to bribe the people of Judah, the tribe of the king.
Esther - A righteous captive Jew rescues the Assyrian king. His queen refuses to come when summoned to a party as she is having her own party. On the advice of all his male friends, he divorces her so as to terrify all the women in the empire. He then marries the captive Jew's orphaned niece. When her uncle refuses to bow down to the second in command, the second in command convinces the king to order all the Jews to be slaughtered. The king realizes that the stubborn Jew had saved his life and his niece Esther also pleads for her people's lives. The king has the second in command slaughtered instead. The Jews are given the right to go on a killing spree one or two days a year. They happily slaughter their enemies on these days.
Psalm 127 - Sons equated to having weaponry.
The young Ammonite king insults David's messengers at the state funeral. So David slaughters them. The Ammonites had hired mercenaries to protect them. The mercenaries bailed. Machiavelli always said to never trust mercenaries. You can pay a man to fight for you, but you cannot pay him to die for you. That requires sacrifice for a higher cause.
Part of Mose's curse of the Israelites if they disobeyed God's Law: May you suffer siege and go hungry to the point that you eat your own children.
Judith - The Assyrian king starts to murder all those who did not help him in a campaign against the Medes when he drafted his slave states. The Israelites are among those who are to be slaughtered for refusing to help. The Ammonites and Moabites again side against Israel. But the leader of the Ammonites, Achior, tells them that they cannot prevail against the Israelites while they obey the laws of God. (He gives a full history of the Israelite relationship with God.) This message is repeated throughout history by Machiavelli, Aesop, Gandhi, and the Saints. You cannot overtake a free people when their society is banded together by their promotion of the common good. It is only when they have weakened themselves and the bond between them by greed and sin that you can overthrow them.
Jacob flees from the rest of the people. Rachel has a second son, Benjamin and dies in childbirth.
What does God have against linseywoolsy? Mixing linen and wool is forbidden. The Puritans survived on linsey woolsey yet conservative religions choose to keep the part about excluding homosexuals.
Judah's son marries a woman named Tamir. Her first husband dies. His brother refuses to get his sister in law pregnant and also dies. When Judah doesn't give her to his third son, she tricks Judah into sleeping with her by pretending to be a temple prostitute. When Judah finds out she is pregnant, he is going to kill her until he finds out that he is the father. ('Honor' killings were big back then, too as well as the double standard.) He says that she was more in the right than he was.
Jacob gets sick of his dishonest father in law, who continually cheats him of his wages and his daughters of their dowries. He asks his wives their opinion. They also are disgusted by their father's behavior. He goes back home and reconciles with his brother Esau. He sends his wives ahead to protect him from his brother in reverse order of how much he cares about them. (I thought Church teaching is that the husbands are supposed to protect the wives. If that were true, women's lib would never have gotten started.) Back in Canaan, his daughter is raped. The man who raped her says he loves her and wants to marry her. Her brothers are furious and insist that all the men become circumcised. While they are still in pain, the brothers slaughter all the men of the family and enslave the women.
All of this sums up that you are lucky to survive and women and children are things that exist for the benefit of the man, a view the vatican enthusiastically supports. One horror after another until you get to the miracle that is St. Joseph in the New Testament.
After Sarah's death, Abraham marries a second (third) wife and has six children. He does not give any of these children part of the inheritance, only cash settlements while alive and sends them eastward. Abraham dies at 175 years of age. Isaac and Ishmael then bury him. Only Isaac inherits. Ishmael goes on to father the Arabs. Isaac fathers the Jews. They have been fighting for millennia over the inheritance ever since. Sometimes I swear the best thing you can do for your children is to die broke.
Their children were Cain and Abel. Cain slew Abel in a jealous rage then lied about it to God. "I will put enmity between your children and the children of the serpent."
Leviticus - Women are considered unclean when they have their periods and for a longer period when they have children. The period of uncleanness is twice as long if she has a girl. So much for the sanctity of life and vocation of child bearing and worth of girls.
Then a bunch of begetting, with men only. (neat trick. Also women aren't even considered important enough to be considered parents) until we get to Lamech, who had two wives, then terrifies them by telling them he is a mass murderer and that if they disobey him; they are next.
Gelded men are not allowed in the assembly of the Lord nor are children of incest. (Yet the rest of the Old Testament promotes inbreeding.) Moabites and Ammonites are never to be allowed into the Israelite community. Others can be after prescribed numbers of generations. Boy do they hold long grudges.
He falls in love again with a woman named Delilah. She is offered a lot of money by his enemies to find out the strength. She finally wears him down. He tells her even though she tried to have him killed three times. (not very bright) His enemies blind and imprison him. He kills thousands of them when he collapses the temple on top of them.
She takes the head back home and shows the Israelites, (men and women together). She tells them to threaten the enemy and warn their allies so they will try to wake up the dead commander. When they find the commander dead, they all scatter, for the only thing holding them together was the fear of the king. All the rest of the Israelite allies chase what is left of the army out of the territory.
Jacob's and Esau's families become too big for the land to support all of them, so they separate. (Over population problems even then.) Esau seems to have had a bigger family than Jacob.
Elisha then instigates a coup against the king of Israel. The new king slaughters all of the family and supporters of the old king. The new king then slew all the worshippers of Baal. Even though this king is supposedly doing the will of the Lord, the kingdom starts to be dismantled.
Numbers - Any vow a girl or wife make to the Lord, her father or husband can render null and void. The rest is the promotion of genocide. You can keep the girls and the rest of the loot. They were arguing with their relatives also. So much for Respect for Life. This is incredibly depressing reading right before Lent.
Psalm 128 - Wife is fruitful vine - children are beautiful
Then a listing of kings. The king's mother is often mentioned by name. Israel and Judah fight periodically. An awful lot of killing off of entire families and military coups.
I remember a Lutheran friend of the family in my home town whose father forbade them from reading the Old Testament. The whole point seems to be that if you believe in the Lord, you can kill whoever you want. It certainly explains a lot of the behavior of the Muslims and Jews. This also seems to have been the mindset of a lot of the Europeans colonizing the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. Zero Population Growth Old Testament Style. This is the strongest argument I have seen yet for atheism. As the Curia is the strongest argument I have seen yet for Protestantism. Since my daughter read the Bible her CCD teacher gave her cover to cover, her atheism is a lot more understandable. So far the message of the Bible on family is - You are lucky to survive.
Elisha cleanses a spring that was causing death and miscarriage. This makes me proud to be a civil engineer and our history of providing clean water.
Wisdom itself is considered feminine.
While David is on the run from Saul, he protects the herds of an idiot named Nabal. When David asks him for food, he sends David's messenger away. Nabal's wife Abigail has sense and feeds David and pleads for her husband's life. (It is hard to imagine why. She must have been very generous. She agrees that he is a fool. Overly maternal and protecting the helpless and self centered? I've been there. It's exhausting and jeopardized the welfare of my children. ) Nabal then conveniently dies and David marries Abigail and another woman.
Elisha also multiplies loaves of bread and oil for a widow.
When David sings of his grief for the death of Saul, he tells the women to weep over Saul because he gave them fancy clothes. He also sings of loving Jonathan more than his wives. So much for David's opinion of women and marriage. The Judhites then make David king of their country while Abnor, Saul's general makes a son of Saul King over the rest of Israel. David gets a bunch more wives and has a bunch of children. At least the Bible mentions the mothers for a change. David and Saul's son (General Abner) fight for the kingship of Israel.
Part of your harvest has to be left behind for the widows and destitute.
So far it is two women and one man, (David) who rescues the whole race singlehandedly. ) Deborah and Samson are also even.
The Israelites are terrified at the size of the army, but still prepare to fight until thirst gets the better of them. They are ready to surrender and be slaves, but the priests say to give us five more days. Judith, a rich and beautiful widow, is appalled that they are trying to force God's hand and tells them that she will solve the problem. She also reminds them of previous trials by the Lord. She leaves the besieged city and 'surrenders' to the enemy troops and asks to see the leader. He is charmed by her. When they throw a party in her honor, he gets drunk and she beheads him while everyone else thinks he is sleeping with her.
Proverbs
On the death of her son, the queen mother slaughters the rest of the family and installs a reign of terror with herself as the ruler. A young son is saved by hiding in the temple until his nurse and the head priest can put him on the throne. They then slaughter all the priests of Baal. If Israel & Judea are supposed to only be worshipping God, how come all these pagan priests keep coming in?
Even with all his other wives, David sees a beautiful married woman and has her brought to him so he can have sex with her. He then has her husband murdered when she becomes pregnant. "God' punishes David by making their child sick. The boy dies and they have another child.
Job - God and Satan have an argument on why Job loves God. Satan says it is the blessings of God that Job loves. To prove to Satan that Job loves God and not just the blessings, God allows Satan to torment Job. Part of the torment is Job's three friends who all say that Job's misfortunes are his fault and to turn away from God. To further torment Job, God leaves his wife alive to also harp against him. Job holds fast to his belief. God tells Job's friends to beg Job's forgiveness, then gives Job back double what he had before.
So far, I have not been able to figure out the point of the question, other than the Vatican's belief in might makes right, especially when caught in the act of evil, or that strong arm policies are the most convincing theological argument imaginable. These policies only convince that the vatican is on a power trip and doesn't believe a word of what they are preaching. i.e. Draft God into your cause and you can commit whatever atrocity you want.
Judas Maccabee is a night raider, which makes sense when fighting forces with greater armament. The pagan kings believe they can make money by selling the Jews into slavery. The Jews win and take all the slave traders' money.
Seeing how much his father and mother hate his pagan wives, Esau then marries one of his half uncle Ishmael's daughters.
Leah's son Reuben found fertility herbs. Rachel asks for them. Leah is furious, so Rachel tells Jacob to sleep with Leah so Rachel can have the herbs. Leah then has two more sons and a daughter Dinah. Rachel finally has a son, Joseph.
Wisdom of mother & father both valued.
The handicapped are not allowed to become priests. I remember staying with a family where the unmarried brother wanted to become a priest. He was not allowed as he was an epileptic, even though he had had only a handful of seizures his whole life.
A woman and her husband provide room and board for Elisha. He then foretells of the birth of a son and later raises the son from the dead.
Joseph is a tattletale, so his brothers hate him. Then he has his famous dream about his brothers and father bowing down to him, so they plot to kill him. Instead, they sell him into slavery.
Judges - Military Leaders decide right from wrong. One of the Judges, Debora, is a woman. Abimelech killed his 70 brothers. Jephthah is the son of a harlot and a Gileadite. His legal half brothers drive him out of the area. When they are attacked by the Ammonites, they beg him to come back and save them. The Ammonites want their land back that Israel took from them when they came out of Egypt. He vows to offer up in holocaust the first thing he sees if he wins. His only daughter comes out to meet him. The text implies he murders her. Then Ephraim starts fighting against Gilead.
He confuses Aramean so that they can't recognize him and are too frightened to attack him. The king then lays siege to Samaria such that a woman and her neighbor eat her child. The king of Israel blames God and Elisha. Elisha tells the messenger that food arrives tomorrow. Four lepers desert to the enemy. The enemy had fled and the Samarians gorge.
Long list of who you can be killed or banished for if you have sex with them. Both genders usually equal punishment except for female slaves. They are considered blameless as they have no choice. Male and male sexual relations is a capital offense. No mention of woman and woman. No mention of raping children. I guess this is where the vatican got its idea that pedophilia is preferred.
The Israelites go on a scorched earth policy against Moab when they refused to pay tribute to the new king of Israel. The kings of Israel and Judah only seem to care about what the prophets say when they are predicting the outcome of battle or disease. The Moabite king sacrifices his own son.
Samuel II
Joshua - Has the battle of Jericho with the Israelites outside the walls, breaking them down to fight the people within. The archeological evidence is that the walls came down from the inside. The people within overthrew their oppressive rulers and they and the Israelites settled the countryside together. It was the story of Exodus and the knowledge of the Lord that brought down the walls. That story didn’t have enough of a power trip to make it into the Bible.
Solomon gives his famous judgment where he gives the living child to the woman who loves it. One shudders to think what kind of life the child would have had with the other woman who only wanted the child as a 'status symbol.' She is one of the best arguments in the Bible for contraception. Too many people have children only because they are able to figure out how to work a zipper. As I get older, I know of more people that I thank God never had any children. The rest of us then have to try to clean up the mess. No help from the vatican. The vatican needs to get over the myth that all people are qualified to have children simply because they are breathing.
Samuel I - Again a husband loves his barren wife more than the one who bears children. She again finally conceives and has a son she consecrates to the Lord. She then has other children. The sons of the high priest are wicked thieves who steal from the offerings to the Lord (German bishop and Barbie Doll Burke) and they lose the Ark. Eli refused to discipline them when they were young. The Philistines are terrified of the Ark and try to pass if off city to city with hemorrhoids following it. (?) They hitch it and peace offerings to a cart and send it back to the Israelites. The milch cows abandon their calves to take it home! The Israelites clean up their act for awhile.
Elisha curses boys who make fun of his bald head and they die.
Ruth - A non-Israelite loves her Israelite mother-in-law and vows to protect her. The mother-in-law knows of a decent Israelite man (apparently a rarity) and arranges for the widowed woman to marry him. King David is one of their descendents. One of the few books that is about family.
Hosea – I used to love Hosea. The premise is supposedly a husband forgiving a cheating wife. It is supposed to represent God’ Then, I read the meanings of the names of the children again in the Protestant Bible Guide. It then sounds more like a woman desperately trying to flee with her children from a sadist. Hosea marries Gomer. She bears Hosea a son whom he names Jezreel. This is the name of a serious historical defeat. It would be the same for a Georgian father to call his son, William Tecumseh Sherman, a 9/11 survivor to call his son ISIS, a Pearl Harbor survivor to call his son Tojo. This is extreme psychological abuse of his first born child.