Oh, and there was a test (Numbers? Deuteronomy?) to determine if a woman was unfaithful to her husband. The high priest would take a handful of dirt from below the altar in the temple (a tent at the time), mix it in a bowl of water and had the woman drink it. If she became ill, she was guilty of adultery and sentenced to death. Note there was no corresponding test to check for adulterous husbands.
Well, back then when they were menstruating they were "unclean" as well.
Another one i loved was the scapegoat. I wish we could do that nowadays whenever we have screwed up.
Friendly suggestion? How's about we provide reference, like Book and verse? IMO, it would add a little scholarship to the endeavor.
by the way that was the walls of Jericho. The story is in Joshua 6, Verses 1-20.
Heh heh, God is a riot...
snood,
I do not have a Bible handy and prefer to use this for fun, looking stuff up would make this less fun for me personally.
How about that Job thingy, best wind-up ever! If only it were on candid camera... :wink:
Chapter and verse would lend believability to some of the wilder story claims, but I don't have a Bible immediately handy, NOR do I have a concordance, which would be necessary to locate some of the stuff. I'm with Craven on keeping this casual.
My father, who was very religious, used to say,
"Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Jews
Sold his wife for a pair of shoes
When the shoes began to wear
Nebuchadnezzar began to swear.
--did you know that's in the Bible?"
And then he'd reveal that that doggerel is NOT in the Bible, what really is in the Bible is the word "THAT". He said this often to show that what people say is in the Bible and what actually is in the Bible are not necessarily the same thing.
Of course, everything I've said is absolutely correctly in the Bible.
Your points about "less fun" are well taken, but as far as "not having a Bible available", there's a site called Bible Gateway (and others)that lets you look up anything from the Bible you might need.
Interesting quote Equus, as typically it is Jewish wives who are interested in shoes...that may not be in the bible, but it is indeed a fact. Thankfully, this Jew married a Catholic/Muslim hybrid. Between all our families, if heaven is a reality, I have totally hedged my bets.
And THAT is the gospel truth...
cavfancier wrote:Interesting quote Equus, as typically it is Jewish wives who are interested in shoes...that may not be in the bible, but it is indeed a fact. Thankfully, this Jew married a Catholic/Muslim hybrid. Between all our families, if heaven is a reality, I have totally hedged my bets.
And THAT is the gospel truth...
that'd be true, if god was a bookie.
I especially like the schizophrenic relationship of the Israelites and the 'Lord'. After what must have been credible proof to them of the existence of the deity they wickedly turn to other gods regularly. And I mean regularly, like every full moon. Then the lord smites a whole bunch of them or even their enemies*, they get some ol' time religion and then, sure as anything, it's 'evil in the eyes of the Lord' and we're back to square one. The modern word is 'dysfunctional'.
Snood - this is mostly from 'Kings'
*go figure, the Lord is pissed with the king of the Israelites, but he kills 24,000 Assyrians in their sleep
Sex, murder, betrayal, monsters. incest, blood, miracles, good guys and bad guys, lots of action, lots of understandable -but open to different interpretations- philosophy. Should we wonder why The Bible has been a best seller during so many centuries?
It is because I can look at the Bible from a non-religious perspective, I can appreciate it for what it is, one of the masterpieces of early culture. In one book, early peoples have attempted to write history, philosophy, law, ethics and religion.
The people of the Bible wrote in terms of what they knew, from a perspective limited by knowledge in terms of what we understand today. To me, it is a stupendous work, considering these peoples' level of understanding of the world.
I find this thread very interesting, for a good reason. When I was 17, and in college, I had an instructor who loved to tear apart the stories from the Bible. Although I did not think much of him as a person, he allowed me to look at the Bible from another perspective from the way I was taught as a child. This new perspective enabled me to question the very foundation of religion. This questioning helped me along on my journey to develop my own philosophy of life.
Oy, snood is a tough room...
I find Mr. Stillwater's comments quite interesting....wish you had been my religious school teacher years ago...perhaps I would have spent more time in class, and less time in the principal's office.
Thanx Cav, though the chance of me being promoted to religious school teacher is paper-thin. A fellow sceptic, even in school, good on ya!
fbaez - sort of "Jerusalem Hills 90210"? Make a rather interesting concept for TV, the biblical kiss-and-tell, tits-and-all soapie!!
fbaezer wrote:Craven, I think dlowan's post should be read as following:
"Dear Eve, the city whose name you don't remember was Jericho".
Correct, and insightful, as ever, Fbaezer.
heehee
Craven de Kere wrote:Another one i loved was the scapegoat. I wish we could do that nowadays whenever we have screwed up.
We DO!! But they generally are not as hairy.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa............
ah - so many of these stories were NOT featured in my childhood (Anglican) church or (Presbyterian Girls') School!!!!
Now why would that be.....?
Heh heh, Stillwater, remember one time in the principal's office with a sweet young thang as the secretary, having a very interesting conversation about Robert Fripp, and what an a--hole he is in real life, and how David Byrne was cool before he got into that "African music mon"...taught me more about religion than staying in class
