Ezekiel 23 (NIV)
Two Adulterous Sisters
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. 3 They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. 4 The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. 5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was still mine; and she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors 6 clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, and mounted horsemen. 7 She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. 8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.

9 “Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. 10 They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women, and punishment was inflicted on her.

11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. 12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors in full dress, mounted horsemen, all handsome young men. 13 I saw that she too defiled herself; both of them went the same way.

14 “But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans portrayed in red, 15 with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea. 16 As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her naked body, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. 19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. 21 So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

22 “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will stir up your lovers against you, those you turned away from in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side— 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, chariot officers and men of high rank, all mounted on horses. 24 They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons and with a throng of people; they will take up positions against you on every side with large and small shields and with helmets. I will turn you over to them for punishment, and they will punish you according to their standards. 25 I will direct my jealous anger against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters, and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire. 26 They will also strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry. 27 So I will put a stop to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore.

28 “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to deliver you into the hands of those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. 29 They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you stark naked, and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your lewdness and promiscuity 30 have brought this on you, because you lusted after the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. 31 You have gone the way of your sister; so I will put her cup into your hand.

32 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“You will drink your sister’s cup,
a cup large and deep;
it will bring scorn and derision,
for it holds so much.
33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
the cup of ruin and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You will drink it and drain it dry
and chew on its pieces—
and you will tear your breasts.

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.

35 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”

36 The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, 37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them. 38 They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my Sabbaths. 39 On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house.

40 “They even sent messengers for men who came from far away, and when they arrived you bathed yourself for them, applied eye makeup and put on your jewelry. 41 You sat on an elegant couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed the incense and olive oil that belonged to me.

42 “The noise of a carefree crowd was around her; drunkards were brought from the desert along with men from the rabble, and they put bracelets on the wrists of the woman and her sister and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is.’ 44 And they slept with her. As men sleep with a prostitute, so they slept with those lewd women, Oholah and Oholibah. 45 But righteous judges will sentence them to the punishment of women who commit adultery and shed blood, because they are adulterous and blood is on their hands.

46 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Bring a mob against them and give them over to terror and plunder. 47 The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.

48 “So I will put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you. 49 You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.”

Skepticon, work, family, and numerous other duties have kept me too busy to post, especially on what I promised last time, polytheism in the bible. That post will have to wait until I have more time, since that will be a difficult post.

Until then, more silliness and vulgarity, courtesy of the bible. This passage discusses two sisters, one representing Samaria and the other representing Jerusalem. The sister representing Jerusalem lusts after men “whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.” This line could have come from pornographic literature (so I am told)!

I included the whole passage for context. Apologists note that the women are described as evil and then are destroyed for being evil. While this is true, the vulgarity of this passage is striking. No wonder why this passage was never read in my presence on Sunday.

CHAPTER X.

Jude 1 (NIV)

¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for^[a] Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about^[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord^[c] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”^[d]10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”^[e]16These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.^[f]

Doxology

²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Footnotes:

1. Jude 1:1 Or by; or in
2. Jude 1:4 Or individuals who were marked out for condemnation
3. Jude 1:5 Some early manuscripts Jesus
4. Jude 1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century A.D.).
5. Jude 1:15 From the Jewish First Book of Enoch (approximately the first century B.C.)
6. Jude 1:23 The Greek manuscripts of these verses vary at several points.

The quote for today is the entire book of Jude, copied entirely from biblegateway.com with footnotes.  Jude is the shortest book of the bible by number of verses (3 John has 4 fewer words in the KJV).

Verse 9 assumes you are familiar with the story of the archangel Michael battling with the Devil over the body of Moses. Obviously you read that in Exodus somewhere, right?  Well, if you read it, then you must have read the apocryphal Testament of Moses (or the Ascension of Moses). (see http://www.textexcavation.com/testamentmoses.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_of_Moses).  We can not include this book in the bible today because we only have an incomplete 6th-century Latin translation discovered in 1861.  The document is mentioned by many early Christian fathers, and it was obviously translated into Latin. Since so little of it remains, it seems to me like the church wanted to remove all copies of it. That last part is speculation, but that is what happened to many other early Christian books later deemed heretical.

Verse 15 quotes the First Book of Enoch, written approximately 1st century BC. You can find the book online herehttp://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/ and http://www.heaven.net.nz/writings/thebookofenoch.htm.  The quote from Jude, part of the Christian New Testament, is from chapter 1 verse 9 of the First Book Of Enoch. So why is the First Book Of Enoch not included in the Bible?  Since Christians believe that Jude is the inerrant word of God and it quotes the First Book of Enoch, should not that book also be included?

Well, Enoch gets interesting in verse 6. It starts discussing the first part of Genesis 6, where the “sons of God” impregnate women of earth, creating a race of giants.  The sons of god are called Watchers, and the race of giants are called Nephilim. Here is the text from Chapter 7:

1. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3. Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, 4. the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. 5. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. 6. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.

Wow, that is much more interesting than anything else I read in Sunday School!  I wonder how they sinned against birds?  Anyway, it gets really bizarre.  Angels intercede on behalf of the earth (Ch 9 below).

1. And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. 2. And they said one to another: ‘The earth made †without inhabitant cries the voice of their crying† up to the gates of heaven. 3 ⌈⌈And now to you, the holy ones of heaven⌉⌉, the souls of men make their suit, saying, “Bring our cause before the Most High.”.’ 4. And they said to the Lord of the ages: ‘Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, 〈and God of the ages〉, the throne of Thy glory (standeth) unto all the generations of the ages, and Thy name holy and glorious and blessed unto all the ages! 5. Thou hast made all things, and power over all things hast Thou: and all things are naked and open in Thy sight, and Thou seest all things, and nothing can hide itself from Thee. 6. Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were (preserved) in heaven, which men were striving to learn: 7. And Semjâzâ, to whom Thou hast given authority to bear rule over his associates. 8. And they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. 9. And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has thereby been filled with blood and unrighteousness. 10. And now, behold, the souls of those who have died are crying and making their suit to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have ascended: and cannot cease because of the lawless deeds which are wrought on the earth. 11. And Thou knowest all things before they come to pass, and Thou seest these things and Thou dost suffer them, and Thou dost not say to us what we are to do to them in regard to these.’

God responds by warning Noah of the flood and having the Archangels take action against the Watchers.

1. Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him: 2. ‘〈Go to Noah〉 and tell him in my name “Hide thyself!” and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it. 3. And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.’ 4. And again the Lord said to Raphael: ‘Bind Azâzêl hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dûdâêl, and cast him therein. 5. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light. 6. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire. And heal the earth which the angels have corrupted, and proclaim the healing of the earth, that they may heal the plague, and that all the children of men may not perish through all the secret things that the Watchers havedisclosed and have taught their sons. 8. And the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azâzêl: to him ascribe all sin.’ 9. And to Gabriel said the Lord: ‘Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy [the children of fornication and] the children of the Watchers from amongst men [and cause them to go forth]: send them one against the other that they may destroy each other in battle: for length of days shall they not have. 10. And no request that they (i.e.their fathers) make of thee shall be granted unto their fathers on their behalf; for they hope to live an eternal life, and that each one of them will live five hundred years.’…

The stories of the Watchers and Nephilim is entertaining, but I wanted to point out Chapter 20, which explains the function of the Seven Archangels:

XX. Name and Functions of the Seven Archangels.

CHAPTER XX.

1. And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. 2. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. 3. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over the spirits of men. 4. Raguel, one of the holy angels who †takes vengeance on† the world of the luminaries. 5. Michael, one of the holy angels, to wit, he that is set over the best part of mankind ⌈⌈and⌉⌉ over chaos. 6. Saraqâêl, one of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit. 7. Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim. 8. Remiel, one of the holy angels, whom God set over those who rise.

Once again, we have a reference to Tartarus, a specific place in Greek mythology below Hades where the Titans are bound. This is in a book that is quoted by the New Testament, which is supposedly the literal word of a perfect God. There is a definite link between ancient mythologies and modern Christianity.  Any Christian who claims the quote from Enoch in Jude is the literal word of God but that the other sections of Enoch are mere writings from mankind is being inconsistent.

My Sunday school teachers made it sound like the Peter and Paul were carrying around the 66 book King James Version in the year 34 AD.  Nothing could be further from the truth (yes, I am joking about the KJV, but not about the impression from the teachers).  There were hundreds of books that were considered Christian and Jewish texts in early Christianity. Most of these books would be considered heretical by orthodox Christians today. There was proto-orthodox editing of scripture until 325 AD, there was Catholic editing from 325 – 367 AD (and beyond). Protestant editing started with Martin Luther putting 14 books into the apocrypha (doubtful) section of his bible in 1534, a tradition that was followed in the KJV 1611. Luther wanted to exclude Maccabees, so he excluded all books in the Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Masoretic text. Luther also wanted to remove Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation, but was not permitted to do so by his followers, but he did move them to the very end of his bible. The King James Version of the bible did not officially remove the 14 apocrypha books until 1885.

But the Jews were editing the texts long before the Christians. That will be my topic next time.

2 Peter 2 (NIV)

False Teachers and Their Destruction

 ¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

 ⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,^[a] putting them in chains of darkness^[b] to be held for judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Peter 2:4Greek Tartarus
2. 2 Peter 2:4 Some manuscripts in gloomy dungeons

2 Peter 2 (Young’s Literal Translation)

⁴For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast [them] down to Tartarus, did deliver [them] to judgment, having been reserved,

 There are four different words translated as Hell in the bible: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus (spellings vary). The Hebrew word Sheol appears in the Old Testament over 60 times and is translated as Hell, Grave, and Pit (counts vary in different versions).  In some verses (i.e. Psalm 49:14) bodies are said to be decomposing in Sheol or (i.e. Psalm 141:7) bones are in Sheol. This implies a grave. Other verses imply that Sheol is deep (and therefore a pit).  The Greek word Hades is translated as Hell about 10 times in the New Testament. There is a Greek mythology definition of Hades, but most Christians view Hades and Sheol as the same, pointing to verses like Acts 2:27 in which in Greek the word Hades is used for the quoting of the Hebrew Sheol from Psalm 16:10. Some use examples like this to simply state that Hades and Sheol are one and the same in all situations (claiming both agree with their definition). 

Then there is Gehenna as shown in Mark 9:43-44, Young’s Literal Translation:

⁴³`And if thy hand may cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is better for thee maimed to enter into the life, than having the two hands, to go away to the gehenna, to the fire — the unquenchable –

 ⁴⁴where there worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched.

Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnon, was a deep valley outside of Jerusalem, known as a sight of child sacrifice to Baal and Moleck, and known as a place where fires were constantly burning bodies of animals and executed criminals.

Due to the nature of the definitions of the words, I know Christians who believe (1) Hell is a real place of eternal fire and torture reserved for all non-Christians; (2) Hell is a real place of eternal fire, but non-Christians’ souls are killed in the fire rather than tortured eternally; (3) Hell is the grave and is not eternal; (4) Hell is a metaphor.  There are countless websites promoting various definitions of hell (none of which are supported by any scientific evidence). Rather than get into a discussion on what the bible says on hell, I want to look at the one instance of Tartarus.

2 Peter 2:4 is the only reference to Tartarus in the bible. In Greek mythology, Tartarus is described as a place lower than Hades where most of  the Titans have been imprisoned after Zeus came to power (it is also the name of a god). 2 Peter 2:4 describes Tartarus (tartaroo) as a place where sinful angels have been imprisoned. The use of the word Tartarus in this instance appears to reflect more than a simple equivalence of Hades and Sheol. The writer of 2 Peter definitely knew the difference between Hades and Tartarus. Choosing the word Tartarus implies that there is another place of punishment other than Hades and Hell. It also is evidence of how Greek mythology influenced the writing of the New Testament.

Also in this passage, 2 Peter 2:7 describes Lot as “righteous.”  Lot was a man who offered up his daughters for rape to an unruly mob. After that, he got drunk on at least two occasions and had sex with both his daughters (Genesis 19). That is a man described as “righteous” in the New Testament!

2 Peter 2:5 describes Noah as righteous. He would later get drunk, lie around naked, and curse the descendants of his grandson Canaan  into slavery for something he did not do (it was his father Ham who did the horrible sin of telling his brothers his father was naked – Genesis 9)!

I do not consider these two individuals righteous!

Malachi 2 (NIV)
Additional Warning to the Priests
1 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.

3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD Almighty. 5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.

7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the LORD Almighty. 9 “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

I can never remember any preacher, Sunday School teacher, or my mother telling me about God threatening to smear dung in the faces of his priests. This is one example of the very coarse language often found in the bible and often in direct quotes from God.

Some apologists claim that God will not really rub literal dung into the priests faces, but that it is a threat of some type of punishment. I even had one Christian tell me that this is just like someone saying “eat shit.” Others note that verse two begins with “If you do not listen…”, noting that it is OK for God to rub dung into the faces of his priests because he warns them.

Normally I post an entire chapter from a book of the bible, highlighting a few verses. In this post, I will highlight verses from all 8 chapters of the Song of Solomon (aka the Song of Songs). Therefore, I will not post the entire text of all 8 chapters. Please read the entire book if you feel verses are taken out of context.

Song of Solomon 1 (NIV)

⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.

¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.

Song of Solomon 4

⁵ Your breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle

¹⁶ Awake, north wind,
and come, south wind!
Blow on my garden,
that its fragrance may spread everywhere.
Let my beloved come into his garden
and taste its choice fruits.

Song of Solomon 7

³ Your breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle.

⁷ Your stature is like that of the palm,
and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
⁸ I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apples,
⁹ and your mouth like the best wine.

Song of Solomon 8

⁸ We have a little sister,
and her breasts are not yet grown.

¹⁰I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.

Despite regularly attending church services and Sunday school 3 times a week for years, I can only remember Song of Solomon mentioned one time. This was when I was attending a Church of Christ Wednesday night service while working for Foster Home for Children, supported by the Churches of Christ. The Wednesday night services were entitled something like “Through The Bible in A Year.”  The preacher said something like, “The Song of Solomon is a unique book. You should read it at home. Perhaps it is evidence that not all authors knew they were writing books of the bible while they were writing.”

Here are PDF files from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. This is from the local mega church’s ”Read Through The Bible in 2010″ section of their magazine, Southeast Christian Outlook. You will notice that many of the verses in this blog are omitted. You will also notice that verses of almost every book of the bible are omitted. In particular, you can notice that there are absolutely no verses from the Song of Solomon in their lists at all!  Here is week 21 at http://www.southeastoutlook.org/uploads/devotions/devotion20100527.pdf.  They go from Ecclesiastes to Kings and Chronicles.  I looked at weeks 19 through 25, and I did not see one verse from the Song of Solomon! The chapters beyond these are far removed from this book. Why does Southeast Christian Church not want its readers to read the entire bible? Do they fear that readers will become atheists, as I (and countless others) did, by doing so?

I regularly look at apologist websites before writing a post. I did so with this one. Here is the link to Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry http://carm.org/bible-difficulties/job-song-solomon.  Notice that this webpage is supposed to have apologies for all the books from Job through Song of Solomon. However, there is nothing listed for Song of Solomon!

According to most scholars, Song of Solomon describes a conjugal love between a bride and bridegroom. Because of the erotic nature of the verses, Jewish and Christian scholars often took an allegorical view of the book. Jews claimed that the bride represents Israel, and the bridegroom represents Yahweh. Christians such as Hippolytus, Origen, and Jerome claim the poem is about the love of Christ for his church.  This is the problem with allegory: it can mean anything to anybody! Furthermore, the bible does not tell you when verses are allegory and when they are literal! Who decides whether verses are allegory or literal? However, I have problems with the allegory approach. Does the following phrase sound like the relationship between Christ and his church?

 ”Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.  I said, “I will climb the palm tree;I will take hold of its fruit.” 

The predominant view since the 19th century is the literal approach. Some theologians claim the verses represent a healthy marriage. I think this is just a love poem that somehow wound up mixed in with theological books. Nobody is really sure. However, most preachers agree that the lack of theological content in this book warrants its omission from sermons and Sunday school lessons.

Exodus 34
The New Stone Tablets
1 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

10 Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

15 “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

17 “Do not make cast idols.

18 “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

19 “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

21 “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

22 “Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [b] 23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.

25 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

26 “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

There is much discussion about the 10 commandments, but I decided to highlight one of the verses that struck me as funny in Exodus 34.

First of all, there are different versions (Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, etc) of the 10 commandments, also known as the Decalogue. These lists are based on Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The differences between the Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, etc. lists are discussed on many websites, including these two below.

http://www.biblicalheritage.org/Bible%20Studies/10%20Commandments.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

Moses smashes the 10 commandments in Exodus 32, then he gets a new set of tablets in Exodus 34. I do not really want to dwell on the differences between the second set of commandments, also known as the Ritual Decalogue, and the Decalogue. If you wish to send me reasons why there are apparent differences, I may not post them.

I only wish to point out the commandment “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” This is a ridiculous commandment. I will never be tempted to break this commandment. I can think of no logical reason as to why this commandment is here, nor can I think of any reason why it would be immoral or harmful to anyone to cook a young goat in its mother’s mile.

Matthew 2
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Matthew claims that the prophets said Jesus would be a Nazarene. However, the words Nazarene and Nazareth are not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament or apocryphal texts!

The following shows just how outrageous and irrational Christian apologists will become in order to excuse the bible’s obvious errors.

Look at this text from http://www.carm.org/bible-difficulties/matthew-mark/did-ot-prophesy-jesus-coming-nazareth.

There is no direct Old Testament citation that prophesies the Messiah would be called a Nazarene. In fact, Nazareth (approx 1800 people at the time of Christ) is not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament or in the apocrypha. But, we have two possible explanations:

So far so good, the apologists admit that Nazarene is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. However, the two “explanations” that follow are mind-boggling.

First, Matthew does not say ‘prophet,’ singular. He says ‘prophets,’ plural. It could be that Matthew was referring to several Old Testament references to the despised character of Jesus (i.e., Psalm 22:6, 13; 69:10; Isaiah 49:7; 53:3; Micah 5:1). Nazareth held the Roman garrison for the northern areas of Galilee.1 Therefore, the Jews would have little to do with this place and largely despised it. Perhaps this is why it says in John 1:46, “And Nathanael said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’” So, it could be a reference not to an actual location, but the maligned character of the Messiah even as Nazareth was maligned for housing the Roman garrison, and Matthew was using it in reference to the implied hatred of Christ.

In the first explanation, Nazarene is not a place, but it is a reference to maligned character! Notice that this is at odds with Matthew 22:23, who says Jesus would fulfill the prophecy by living in Nazareth. But this stretch of imagination is nothing compared with the second explanation!

Second, there could be a play on words that Matthew was referring to. In Isaiah 11:1 it says, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” In Hebrew, the word for “branch” is netzer, “NZR” which letters are included in NaZaReth. It seems that Matthew was referring to the branch, the Nazarene, in turn a reference to God’s raising up of the Messiah. Clearly, Matthew was not exegeting Isaiah, but it seems he was referring to the Branch.

The apologist finds the word “branch” in Isaiah 11:1. Then he notices that “branch” in Hebrew has the letters NZR. Nazareth has the letters NZR. Therefore, we have a prophecy fulfilled! This is an extremely low standard for evaluating prophecies. Using this standard, almost any religion or psychic could claim fulfilled prophecies for almost any event.

If these explanations are true, then the Church of the Nazarene should changes its name to either the Church of Maligned Character or the Church of the Branch. I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.

Leviticus 21

16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the LORD by fire. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.

This verse speaks for itself and shows that the God of the Old Testament is nothing more than an invention of the people of that time. This law would discriminate against Franklin Roosevelt, Stephen Hawking, Benjamin Franklin, Hellen Keller, Louis Braille, Galileo Galilei and all people who wear glasses, Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman, and many others that can be found here: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_0060.shtml.

It is a shame that so many Christians still willingly worship an invisible being that is so obviously a product of the imaginations of the men of ancient times.

Joshua 17(New International Version)

16 The people of Joseph replied, “The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live in the plain have iron chariots, both those in Beth Shan and its settlements and those in the Valley of Jezreel.” 17 But Joshua said to the house of Joseph—to Ephraim and Manasseh-”You are numerous and very powerful. You will have not only one allotment 18 but the forested hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have iron chariots and though they are strong, you can drive them out.”

Judges 1
Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites

1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?”

2 The LORD answered, “Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands.”

3 Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them.

4 When Judah attacked, the LORD gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. 5 It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. 6 Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

…

17 Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their brothers and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed the city. Therefore it was called Hormah. 18 The men of Judah also took Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory.

19 The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots.

The LORD was able to drive out people from Canaan, except for those with iron chariots? Iron chariots are therefore more powerful than God! Imagine how even more powerful this God would be against tanks, airplanes, and missiles. Furhtermore this contradicts what was said in Joshua 17.

I looked at http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/561, and they admit that it appears to be a contradiction. But then they use some bizarre logic to come up with two (really three) possible apologies. Although they are unable (and unwilling) to claim which is correct, they conclude that because they can imagine possible solutions that there is therefore no contradiction.

After reading the two verses, it may look like they contradict one another.

These two passages have several plausible ways of reconciliation. And, please remember that the exact way to reconcile any contradiction need not be pinpointed, as long as a possible way can be provided. The rest of this brief answer will deal with only two of the many possible ways to reconcile the passages.

Using this absurd logic, anyone can make any book contradiction free. Would these Christians permit the Muslims to use the same logic on the Koran?

The apologists then list two possible apologies and conclude there is no contradiction. However, anyone who reads these passages honestly can only conclude that there is a clear contradiction. Verse 19 above gives the ONLY REASON LISTED: “because they had iron chariots.” Any other reasons are due to IMAGINATION and not due to what is written in this passage.

Genesis 8 (New International Version)
²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma…

Exodus 29

¹⁵ “Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. ¹⁶ Slaughter it and take the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides. ¹⁷ Cut the ram into pieces and wash the inner parts and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces. ¹⁸ Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

 ¹⁹ “Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. ²⁰ Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides. ²¹ And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.

 ²² “Take from this ram the fat, the fat tail, the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh. (This is the ram for the ordination.) ²³ From the basket of bread made without yeast, which is before the LORD, take a loaf, and a cake made with oil, and a wafer. ²⁴ Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. ²⁵ Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the LORD, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

⁴⁰ With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. ⁴¹ Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

Leviticus 1

¹ The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.

 ³ ” ‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD. ⁴ He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. ⁵ He is to slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁶ He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. ⁷ The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. ⁸ Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. ⁹ He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

 ¹⁰ ” ‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, he is to offer a male without defect. ¹¹ He is to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides. ¹² He is to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. ¹³ He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

 ¹⁴ ” ‘If the offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds, he is to offer a dove or a young pigeon. ¹⁵ The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. ¹⁶ He is to remove the crop with its contents  and throw it to the east side of the altar, where the ashes are. ¹⁷ He shall tear it open by the wings, not severing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

Leviticus 2

The Grain Offering

 ¹ ” ‘When someone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it ² and take it to Aaron’s sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ³ The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.

 ⁴ ” ‘If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or  wafers made without yeast and spread with oil. ⁵ If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. ⁶ Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. ⁷ If your grain offering is cooked in a pan, it is to be made of fine flour and oil. ⁸ Bring the grain offering made of these things to the LORD; present it to the priest, who shall take it to the altar. ⁹ He shall take out the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ¹⁰ The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.

Leviticus 3

The Fellowship Offering

 ¹ ” ‘If someone’s offering is a fellowship offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he is to present before the LORD an animal without defect. ² He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood against the altar on all sides. ³ From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to the LORD by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, ⁴ both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. ⁵ Then Aaron’s sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering that is on the burning wood, as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

 ¹² ” ‘If his offering is a goat, he is to present it before the LORD. ¹³ He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides. ¹⁴ From what he offers he is to make this offering to the LORD by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, ¹⁵ both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. ¹⁶ The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD’s.

Leviticus 4

 ²⁷ ” ‘If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, he is guilty. ²⁸ When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. ²⁹ He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. ³⁰ Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ³¹ He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

Leviticus 6

The Grain Offering

 ¹⁴ ” ‘These are the regulations for the grain offering: Aaron’s sons are to bring it before the LORD, in front of the altar. ¹⁵ The priest is to take a handful of fine flour and oil, together with all the incense on the grain offering, and burn the memorial portion on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ¹⁶ Aaron and his sons shall eat the rest of it, but it is to be eaten without yeast in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁷ It must not be baked with yeast; I have given it as their share of the offerings made to me by fire. Like the sin offering and the guilt offering, it is most holy. ¹⁸ Any male descendant of Aaron may eat it. It is his regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire for the generations to come. Whatever touches them will become holy.  ‘ “

 ¹⁹ The LORD also said to Moses, ²⁰ ”This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the LORD on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah  of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening. ²¹ Prepare it with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ²² The son who is to succeed him as anointed priest shall prepare it. It is the LORD’s regular share and is to be burned completely. ²³ Every grain offering of a priest shall be burned completely; it must not be eaten.”

Leviticus 8

¹⁹ Then Moses slaughtered the ram and sprinkled the blood against the altar on all sides. ²⁰ He cut the ram into pieces and burned the head, the pieces and the fat. ²¹ He washed the inner parts and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire, as the LORD commanded Moses.

²⁶ Then from the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the LORD, he took a cake of bread, and one made with oil, and a wafer; he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh. ²⁷ He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved them before the LORD as a wave offering. ²⁸ Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

Leviticus 17

 ⁶ The priest is to sprinkle the blood against the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

Leviticus 23

 ⁹ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. ¹¹ He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. ¹² On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, ¹³ together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to the LORD by fire, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine.

Numbers 15

Supplementary Offerings

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘After you enter the land I am giving you as a home ³ and you present to the LORD offerings made by fire, from the herd or the flock, as an aroma pleasing to the LORD -whether burnt offerings or sacrifices, for special vows or freewill offerings or festival offerings- ⁴ then the one who brings his offering shall present to the LORD a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil. ⁵ With each lamb for the burnt offering or the sacrifice, prepare a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering.

 ⁶ ” ‘With a ram prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil, ⁷ and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Offer it as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

 ⁸ ” ‘When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, for a special vow or a fellowship offering to the LORD, ⁹ bring with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil. ¹⁰ Also bring half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It will be an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ¹¹ Each bull or ram, each lamb or young goat, is to be prepared in this manner. ¹² Do this for each one, for as many as you prepare.

 ¹³ ” ‘Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ¹⁴ For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, he must do exactly as you do. ¹⁵ The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD : ¹⁶ The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.’ “

 ¹⁷ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land to which I am taking you ¹⁹ and you eat the food of the land, present a portion as an offering to the LORD. ²⁰ Present a cake from the first of your ground meal and present it as an offering from the threshing floor. ²¹ Throughout the generations to come you are to give this offering to the LORD from the first of your ground meal.

Offerings for Unintentional Sins

 ²² ” ‘Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses- ²³ any of the LORD’s commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come- ²⁴ and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering.

Numbers 18

 ¹⁷ ”But you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep or a goat; they are holy. Sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. 

Numbers 28

Daily Offerings

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Give this command to the Israelites and say to them: ‘See that you present to me at the appointed time the food for my offerings made by fire, as an aroma pleasing to me.’ ³ Say to them: ‘This is the offering made by fire that you are to present to the LORD : two lambs a year old without defect, as a regular burnt offering each day. ⁴ Prepare one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight, ⁵ together with a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives. ⁶ This is the regular burnt offering instituted at Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire. ⁷ The accompanying drink offering is to be a quarter of a hin of fermented drink with each lamb. Pour out the drink offering to the LORD at the sanctuary. ⁸ Prepare the second lamb at twilight, along with the same kind of grain offering and drink offering that you prepare in the morning. This is an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

Monthly Offerings

 ¹¹ ” ‘On the first of every month, present to the LORD a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ¹² With each bull there is to be a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; ¹³ and with each lamb, a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. This is for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire. ¹⁴ With each bull there is to be a drink offering of half a hin of wine; with the ram, a third of a hin; and with each lamb, a quarter of a hin. This is the monthly burnt offering to be made at each new moon during the year. ¹⁵ Besides the regular burnt offering with its drink offering, one male goat is to be presented to the LORD as a sin offering.

The Passover

 ¹⁶ ” ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month the LORD’s Passover is to be held. ¹⁷ On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast. ¹⁸ On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ¹⁹ Present to the LORD an offering made by fire, a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ²⁰ With each bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; ²¹ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. ²² Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. ²³ Prepare these in addition to the regular morning burnt offering. ²⁴ In this way prepare the food for the offering made by fire every day for seven days as an aroma pleasing to the LORD; it is to be prepared in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. ²⁵ On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.

Feast of Weeks

 ²⁶ ” ‘On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Feast of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ²⁷ Present a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

Numbers 29

Feast of Trumpets

 ¹ ” ‘On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets. ² As an aroma pleasing to the LORD, prepare a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ³ With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; ⁴ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth.  ⁵ Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. ⁶ These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and drink offerings as specified. They are offerings made to the LORD by fire—a pleasing aroma.

Day of Atonement

 ⁷ ” ‘On the tenth day of this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work. ⁸ Present as an aroma pleasing to the LORD a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ⁹ With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; ¹⁰ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. ¹¹ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering for atonement and the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

Feast of Tabernacles

 ¹² ” ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days. ¹³ Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect.

 ³⁵ ” ‘On the eighth day hold an assembly and do no regular work. ³⁶ Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, a burnt offering of one bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect.

Imagine for a minute that the above passages were in the Koran and not in the Bible.  I would criticize these verses as examples of primitive and barbaric practices. Animal sacrifice is something we would never practice at the Baptist churches in Texas.

Imagine that someone were to knock on your door and tell you that the way to please God was to follow the above verses. You would probably think they were members of some cult or a member of a primitive society in some distant country. They certainly could not be American Christians!

However, all the above verses are in the Bible. They were rarely read or discussed in any of my Sunday school classes. Occasionally it was mentioned that Jesus was the replacement for such sacrifices, but most of the time ancient Israel was presented as the most advanced civilization of its time with the greatest buildings (wrong), greatest knowledge (wrong) and greatest of everything until they lost it all by failing to follow God. However, these verses show how primitive the ancient Jewish religion was. 

The Old Testament did not start out as a perfect book written by or about a perfect God. It was a product of its time. Thousands of years ago, many civilizations practiced animal sacrifice. The Old Testament reflects the practices of many religions of the time in which it was written. We would call many of the religions that advocated animal sacrifice as “primitive.”  Primitive religions offered sacrifices to their gods in order to prevent natural catastrophes, such as the eruption of a volcano. The sacrifices mentioned in the Old Testament are just as primitive.

An all-perfect God would not find the “aroma” of burning animals and grain “pleasing.” However, the central concepts of Judaism and Christianity are dependent on these verses.