Thegod versus each: empire, killing people, and bad choices
Preface
Dear reader, the footnotes, especially early ones that
explain my words, are critical to understanding my conjecture about ancient
opinion. We have the conundrum that I don’t know enough to appeal to your
opinion, and you don’t know if you are interested in mine. I write opinion
because I do not know the ineluctable[1]
truth and seek your aid toward understanding what humankind has discovered so
far.
Blue letters indicate quotation of
the cited Bible passage. Grey highlights killing humans to sacrifice them.
Yellow highlights my direct comments on quoted scripture. White letters on mauve
highlight events ordered as number of years before 2024. I use names from the
Complete Jewish Bible for reliability to one source.
Merely accepting that I wanted to
write this essay was a challenge, yet I knew I must undertake it. Little did I
expect today’s discovery. I previously searched the Internet for statistics on
Jesus’ impact to thegood[2].
I had guessed that, while only 1/3 of inhabitants claim Christianity, 80
percent of the world’s population appreciates Jesus’ influence to thegood,
based on religious categories. However, the number of translations allow a
growing 91% of inhabitants to pursue the Bible.[3]
Introduction
Does the theme “thegod[4]
versus empire” parallel thegood versus killing humans[5]
and thegood versus bad behavior? Is thegod a construct humankind experiences
and observes, in order to imagine and pursue thegood? Among these themes, it
seems the complete Bible[6]
abstractly rebukes humankind’s bemusement to kill humans – conduct people on
people war. Generations heretofore[7]
have left to “ourselves and our Posterity”[8]
the opportunity to establish responsible appreciation to human life; for
example, to end global accommodation of killing. It is my privilege to accept
the challenge, and I hope fellow citizens will join the cause.
When I was a child, my parents and
their community expressed that the Bible was the word of God. They wanted me to
master it, so as to save my soul. I soon accepted that I can choose thegood in
living but cannot impact the mystery of soul. In the year 2024, Bible readers
seem to be asking what salvation means. I hope to show that Jesus said, “Do not
wrong.”
In my early
80s, just 2 years’ into return to University Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, LA --
given 27 years’ hiatus for self-directed study and experience, I accept that
the UBC body of believers, past and present, empower astonishing discoveries/suggestions.
The most recent epiphany to me is that among other functions the Bible
abstractly reflects humankind’s struggle to stop accommodating the killing of
innocent human beings. This essay presents “human sacrifice” as killing the
innocent and merely suggests, for a subsequent essay, that it’s alright for
humankind to pursue Jesus’s civic influence more than his body and blood. Even
if he is the Messiah, Jesus’ civic influence is to thegood.
Before Jesus’ I am[a],
Avram’s Semitic ancestors worshipped idols in Sumerian Ur
Sumer[9],
the polytheistic civilization understood as the first to write grammatically,
had all-powerful kings. Accepting polytheism’s neglect of the world, they invented
and developed primitive human responsibility to thegood through codes of law, perhaps
beginning with the code of Ur-Nammu.[10]
But sometimes, a king arrogantly killed servants for, or in, a royal tomb.
Research and collaboration, accelerated by the Internet, continues, regarding
how and when each “sacrificed” servant was killed. “Our
best-sourced occurrences are the archaeological remains from the royal death
pits at Early Dynastic Ur (c. 2600–2450 BCE).”[11]
I express the time, 5500 years ago (YA). Perhaps
that era predates Avram.
The Sumerian law codes, perhaps unintentionally, imply that
the gods, busy in their world, leave humankind responsible for order to the
earth. The codes primitively authorize the civic faction to constrain dissidents,
rebels, and villains, where “civic”
means reliable responsibility to thegood in human connections and transactions.
Successive Sumerian kings improved the codes and civic citizens collaborated
until the Babylonians (Amorites) conquered them[12], 3774 YA.
Semites[b], drawn to competitive monotheism[c] expressed the Sumerian political philosophy in Genesis 1:26-28: humankind may and can rule to thegood on
earth. “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image,
in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the
birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling
creature that crawls on the earth.” So God created
humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female
he created them. God blessed them: God said to them, “Be
fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the
sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.”[d]
I think it is instructive to delete modifiers to produce one sentence from
three: Let us make humankind in our image . . . and let them rule . . .
male and female “. . . fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over [life on
earth]”. If this is thegod’s message, how may and can each a person, a
society, and humankind respond? What does the Bible suggest?
We understand, 3984 YA, Avram, a Semite, was born to Terach, who later had 2 more sons, Nahor
and Haran. “Haran died before his father Terach in
the land where he was born, in Ur of the Kasdim.”[e] Hebrew
debate suggests Haran had been burnt in “the fire of the Chaldeans”[13] and
that Avram, in Ur, started the fire, in order to destroy Terah’s idol shop.[14] Perhaps their departure was during
the reign of King Ur-Nammu or Ibbi-Sin[15] and a declining Ur -- before
Hammurabi ruled Sumer. “The mighty
king, king of Babylon, king of the Four Regions of the World, king of Sumer and
Akkad, into whose power the god Bel has given over land and people, in whose
hand [Bel] has placed the reins of government.”[16]
Afterwards, “Terach took his son Avram, his son
Haran’s son Lot, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Avram’s wife; and they
left Ur of the Kasdim to go to the land of Kena‘an. But when they came to
Haran, they stayed there. Terach . . . died in
Haran.”[f] Hebrew debate cited above questions
Avram leaving an aging, idol-worshipping (some say morally dead) father in
Haran.
If Terach with Avram left Ur because kings sacrificed
people to royal burials, it suggests creative movement away from empire toward
personal choice. But independent Terach, after leaving polytheistic
Mesopotamia, continued idol worship despite Avram’s curiosity about the laws of
physics, so called nature’s god.[17] “In antiquity
your ancestors lived on the other side of the [Euphrates] River — Terach the
father of Avraham and Nachor — and they served other gods.”[g]
The pointlessness of idolatry is to imagine personal advantage by appealing to
egocentric mystery; it’s an internal, circular self-defeat. Avram pursued self-reliance
and later changed his name to Avraham, to celebrate “progress”, not recognizing
that monotheism is competitive.
Transitioning to competitive
monotheism
As
we saw above, Avram was reared an idolater. But his adult transitioned to
competitive monotheism. Ambitious but barren and destined to leave his fortune
to civil rules -- “Eli‘ezer from Dammesek inherits my
possessions”[h],
Avram, 3909 YA, imagined achieving the wealth and power his ancestors
enjoyed, so he left Haran to move on to Kena‘an. He would forego
belief in polytheism. He worshipped his
god without killing humans in the fire. “He
believed in Adonai,
[who] credited it to him as righteousness.”[i]
However, hereditary belief in bargaining with the gods was so strong Avram employed
alternative fire-sacrifices. He would kill and burn “a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a
three-year-old ram, a dove and a young pigeon”[j]
to provide “sweet smells” to Adonai. Killing so many domestic animals is expensive,
even if the family consumes the meat. Avarm may have deemed the animal
slaughter equivalent to killing a human. [About 3034 YA, King
David continued the tradition of animal sacrifice. “So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for one-and-a-quarter
pounds of silver shekels. David
built an altar to Adonai there and offered burnt offerings and
peace offerings. After this, Adonai took pity on the
land and lifted the plague from Isra’el.”[k]
Yet David “sacrificed” a man to take his wife; see below.
Returning
to Avram, soon, there was famine, so he took his family to Egypt but created shame
and had to flee. They ended up south of the Dead Sea. There, Avram, 3898 YA, chose to impregnate his wife’s maid. “Avram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she conceived.”[l]
The infidelity so conflicted spousal unity that when Sarai later became
pregnant, she cast out the maid and her son, blaming Avram. His infidelity so
burdened Avram that when Sarai’s son was 15 years old, Avram plotted secretly
to kill their son, Yitz’chak. On the
way, “Yitz’chak . . . said, “I see the
fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”[m]
When they reached the high place, “Avraham built the altar . . . set
the wood in order, bound Yitz’chak his son and laid him on the altar, on the
wood. Then Avraham put out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.”[n] Yitz’chak
was screaming! “Dad, this will be murder!” Avraham stopped and murmured, “The horror!
The horror!”
Avram’s innovation, animal and bird
sacrifice to end human sacrifice is a first event in the Bible’s suggestion
that bargaining with thegod is futile. In circumstances that weakened his
resolve, Avram reconsidered human killing for sacrifice. His son helped him
realize it would be murder: Avram responded. Yet the shared horror lived on.
Unexpected consequences from Avraham’s failure
Avraham’s ancestors were Semites
whose descendants became Israelites, and an actual human sacrifice occurred to
an Israelite in Avraham’s fourth generation. “Avraham fathered Yitz’chak. The sons of
Yitz’chak: ‘Esav and Isra’el.”[o] “These are the sons of Isra’el:
Re’uven, Shim‘on, Levi, Y’hudah, Yissakhar, Z’vulun, Dan, Yosef, Binyamin,
Naftali, Gad and Asher.”[p] “Two sons were born to Yosef [who] called the
firstborn M’nasheh [causing to forget], ‘Because God has caused me to forget
all the troubles I suffered at the hands of my family.’ The second he
called Efrayim [fruit], ‘For God has made me fruitful in the land of my
misfortune.’”[q] “M’nasheh was twelve years old when he began his
reign, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Yerushalayim.. . . . He
made his son pass through the fire [as a sacrifice].”[r] Note: 3687 YA Isra’el died then 3623 YA Josef died.
I’ve
never heard this story preached but am not everywhere all the time. Perhaps
seminaries pass over it because it does not have the details like in Avraham’s
temptation to murder his son. However, it is tragic that only 4 generations
later, an ancestor of Jesus effected obsolete killing to bargain with “a
strange god”. M’nasheh reformed: “He removed the foreign gods and the idol from
the house of Adonai and all the altars he had
built on the hill of the house of Adonai and in Yerushalayim, and
threw them out of the city. He repaired the altar of Adonai and offered on it sacrifices
as peace offerings and for thanksgiving; and he ordered Y’hudah to serve Adonai the God of
Isra’el. However, the people continued sacrificing on the high places,
although only to Adonai their God.”[s] I think “high places” refers to
idolatry altars. If so, it implies that elites learn from mistakes but don’t
share the lessons. Empires are like that. Churches are like that. Jesus
resisted church and competitive theism resists his influence to thegood.
Burning women and infants: a hard-to-break, ancient-Mesopotamian habit
Mr. Kenneth Way, in “The Horror and Splendor of Human Sacrifice”,
2012[18], perhaps reliably lists Old Testament incidents of human killing
for sacrifices in competitive theism. I use Way’s references and categories to
further develop the shocking human killing cited therein. If we missed an
incident (I added one), please let me know.
1. Major lessons against bargaining/negotiating with thegod:
a. Judges 11:30-40 CJB; Yiftach [Jephthah] made a vow to Adonai: If you will hand the people of ‘Amon over to me, then whatever comes out the
doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the people of
‘Amon will belong to Adonai; I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” So Yiftach
crossed over to fight the people of ‘Amon, and Adonai handed them over to him. He killed them from
‘Aro‘er until you reach Minnit, twenty cities, all the way to Avel-K’ramim; it
was a massacre. So the people of ‘Amon were defeated before the people of
Isra’el. [Note: this story expresses a
man bargaining to kill his daughter for favor from a mystery he believes. The
silent mystery plays no role in the negotiation. Would Yiftach’s advice in Judges
11: 24 hold? “You should just keep the territory your god
K’mosh has given you; while we . . .hold onto whatever Adonai our
God has given us.”This is competitive monotheism in action. Polytheism may
have fared better, because nature’s gods, such as the sun, yield to discovery
of the laws of physics. Those mythical gods were shared by most civilizations
and fell into history’s trashing.]
As Yiftach was
returning to his house in Mitzpah, his daughter came dancing out to meet him with tambourines. She was his only child; he had no
other son or daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Oh, no,
my daughter! You’re breaking my heart! Why must you be the cause of such pain
to me? I made a vow to Adonai, and I can’t go back on my word.” She said to him,
“Father, you made a vow to Adonai; so do whatever you said you would do to me;
because Adonai did take vengeance on your enemies the people of ‘Amon. [Typically,
the man blames the woman for his folly.]
Then she said to her father, “Just do this one thing for me —
let me be alone for two months. I’ll go away into the mountains with my friends
and mourn, because I will die without getting married.” “You may go,” he
answered, and he sent her away for two months. She left, she and her friends,
and mourned in the mountains that she would die unmarried. After two months she
returned to her father, and he did with her what he had vowed; she had remained
a virgin. [That marriage to woman is more important than life is
male folly.]
So it became a law in Isra’el that the women of Isra’el would go
every year for four days to lament the daughter of Yiftach from Gil‘ad. [Unintentionally
celebrating her father’s folly. Tolerating injustice bemuses a society. Unjust
law taints the Torah.]
b. Deuteronomy 20:16-20 (suggested by PRB); “As for the towns of these peoples,
which Adonai your God is giving you as your
inheritance, you are not to allow anything that breathes to live. Rather
you must destroy them completely — the Hitti, the Emori, the Kena‘ani, the
P’rizi, the Hivi and the Y’vusi — as Adonai your God has ordered
you; so that they won’t teach you to follow their abominable practices,
which they do for their gods, thus causing you to sin against Adonai your God.” [This abject tyranny is offered by its author as an
excuse for his villany and in no way represents Genesis 1:26-28’s call to
pursue order to the earth. Human being (noun modifying verb)[19] rejects a writer’s tyranny and rebukes the unrepentant villain.]
2. Forbidden to Semites -- before Jacob
(was re-named) Israel
a.
Leviticus 18:21; You
are not to let any of your children be sacrificed to Molekh, thereby profaning the name
of your God; I am Adonai. [It does not
follow that sacrificing children to Adonai is good.]
b. Leviticus 20:1-5; Adonai said to Moshe, “Say to
the people of Isra’el, ‘If someone from the people of Isra’el or one of the
foreigners living in Isra’el sacrifices one of his children to Molekh, he must be put to
death; the people of the land are to stone him to death. I too will set myself
against him and cut him off from his people, because he has sacrificed his child to
Molekh, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. If the people
of the land look the other way when that man sacrifices his child to Molekh and
fail to put him to death, then I will set myself against him, his family and
everyone who follows him to go fornicating after Molekh, and cut them off from
their people. [The writer
portrays Adonai
more concerned with god competition than with child sacrifice.]
c.
Deuteronomy 12:29-31; When Adonai your God has cut off ahead of
you the nations you are entering in order to dispossess, and when you have
dispossessed them and are living in their land; be careful, after they have
been destroyed ahead of you, not to be trapped into following them; so that you
inquire after their gods and ask, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I
want to do the same.’ You must not do this to Adonai your God! For they have done
to their gods all the abominations that Adonai hates! They even burn up their sons
and daughters in the fire for their gods!
d. Deuteronomy 18:9-11; When you enter the land Adonai your God is giving you, you
are not to learn how to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There
must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, a
diviner, a soothsayer, an enchanter, a sorcerer, a spell-caster, a consulter of
ghosts or spirits, or a necromancer.
i.
(PRB added a seeming double contradiction) Genesis
22:1-2 After these things, God tested
Avraham. He said to him, “Avraham!” and he answered, “Here I am.” He said,
“Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Yitz’chak; and go to the land of
Moriyah. There you are to offer
him as a burnt offering . . . He
said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy! Don’t do anything to him! For now I know
that you are a man who fears God, because you have not withheld your son, your
only son, from me.” [The writer depicts God as deceitful and willing for the
boy to be bound and see the father’s knife over him, which seems unseemly and
unreliable writing. Yet I don’t know
God’s justice. The Deuteronomy 18 passage casts blame on Avraham for not
responding to the test “in God’s image” per Genesis 1:26-28.]
3. Hebrew practices, settlement, 3422 YA, to exile,
2746 YA
a.
Judges 11:30-40, quoted above.
b.
1 Kings 16:34 It was during his time that Hi’el of Beit-El rebuilt Yericho.
He laid its foundation at the cost of his firstborn son Aviram and erected its
gates at the cost of his youngest son S’guv. This was in keeping with the word
of Adonai spoken
through Y’hoshua the son of Nun. See
Joshua 6, below.
i.
Joshua 6:26-27 Y’hoshua
then made the people take this oath: “A curse before Adonai on
anyone who rises up and rebuilds this city of Yericho: he will lay its
foundation with the
loss of his firstborn son and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest
son.” So Adonai was with Y’hoshua, and people heard
about him throughout the land.
c. 2 Kings 16:2-3 Achaz was twenty years old when he began to
rule, and he reigned sixteen years in Yerushalayim. But he did not do what was
right from the perspective of Adonai his God, as David his
ancestor had done. Rather, he lived in the manner of the kings of Isra’el;
he even made his son
pass through fire [as a sacrifice], in keeping with the abominable
practices of the pagans, whom Adonai had thrown out ahead of the
people of Isra’el.
d.
2 Kings 17:17-19 [The
people of Isra’el] had their sons and daughters pass through fire [as a
sacrifice]. They used divination and magic spells. And they gave
themselves over to do what was evil from Adonai’s
perspective, thereby provoking him; so that Adonai, by
now very angry with Isra’el, removed them from his sight. None was left except
the tribe of Y’hudah alone. (However, neither did Y’hudah obey the mitzvot [instruction] of Adonai their God; rather they lived
according to the customs of Isra’el.) [This implies that
Isra’el did not observe the Torah. ]
e.
2 Kings 21:1-6 M’nasheh was twelve years old when he began his
reign, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Yerushalayim . . . He did what
was evil from Adonai’s perspective, following the
disgusting practices of the nations whom Adonai had expelled ahead of the
people of Isra’el. For he rebuilt the high places Hizkiyahu his father had
destroyed; he erected altars for Ba‘al and made an asherah, as had
Ach’av king of Isra’el; and he worshipped all the army of heaven and served
them. [As though polytheism applied to
heaven rather than sheer speculation.] He erected altars in the house of Adonai, about which Adonai had said, “In Yerushalayim I
will put my name.” He erected altars for all the army of heaven in the two
courtyards of the house of Adonai. He made his son pass through the fire [as a sacrifice].
He practiced soothsaying and divination and appointed mediums and persons who
used spirit guides. He did much that was evil from Adonai’s perspective, thus provoking him
to anger. [See also 2 Chronicles 33:1, 6, below.]
f.
2 Kings 23:10 [King Yoshiyahu (Josiah, David’s son)] desecrated the Tofet fire pit in the Ben-Hinnom
Valley, so that no one could cause his son or daughter to pass through fire [as a
sacrifice] to Molekh. [The objection seems to Molekh
rather than to child sacrifice.]
g.
2 Chronicles 28:1-4 Achaz was twenty years old when he
began his reign, and he ruled sixteen years in Yerushalayim. But he did not do
what was right from the perspective of Adonai, as David his ancestor had done.
Rather, he lived in the manner of the kings of Isra’el and made cast metal
images for the ba‘alim. Moreover, he made offerings in the
Ben-Hinnom Valley and even burned up his own children as sacrifices, in keeping with the
horrible practices of the pagans, whom Adonai had thrown out ahead of the
people of Isra’el. He also sacrificed and offered on the high places, on the
hills and under any green tree. [Achaz was the 12th
king of Judah and in the genealogy of Jesus. He died 2751 YA.]
h.
2 Chronicles 33:1,6 M’nasheh was twelve years old when he began his
reign, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Yerushalayim. He made his children pass
through the fire [as a sacrifice] in the Ben-Hinnom Valley. [Reported above.]
i.
Ps 106:37-38, lamenting failures of the people
rescued from exile in Egypt and descendants. “They even sacrificed their sons and their
daughters to demons. Yes, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons
and daughters, whom they sacrificed to Kena‘an’s [Cannan’s] false gods, polluting the land with
blood.” [A theorist beyond JEDP[20] might suggest why this author admits that killing and blood precede
“sacrifice”, usually in the fire.]
j.
Isaiah 57:5 You go into heat among the oak trees, under
every spreading tree. You
kill the children in the valleys under the cracks in the rocks. [Suggests ancient late-term-abortion-on-demand.]
k.
Jeremiah 7:30-31 For the people of Y’hudah have done what is
evil from my perspective,” says Adonai; “they have set up their
detestable things in the house which bears my name, to defile it. They have
built the high places of Tofet in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn their sons and
daughters in the fire, something I never ordered; in fact, such a thing
never even entered my mind! [This
passage laments the Hebrew culture.]
l.
Jeremiah 19:5-7 They have built the high places of Ba‘al, in order to burn up their children in
the fire as burnt offerings to Ba‘al — something I never ordered or
said; it never even entered my mind. “Therefore the time is coming,” says Adonai, “when this place will no longer be called either
Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter. I will
nullify the plans of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim in this place. I will have them
fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hand of those seeking their
lives, and I will give their corpses as food for the birds in the air and the
wild animals.” [The objection seems to Ba‘al rather than to child sacrifice.]
m.
Jeremiah 32:35 and
they built the high places for Ba‘al which are in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn alive their sons and
daughters to Molekh — something I did not order them to do, it never
even entered my mind that they would do such an abominable thing — and thus
they caused Y’hudah to sin. [Here, burning is the killing.]
n.
Ezekiel 16:20-21, 36
[Sexual depravity] is how it was,’ says Adonai Elohim. “‘Moreover, your sons and daughters, whom you bore me,
you took and sacrificed
for them to devour. Were these fornications of yours a casual matter?
— killing my children, handing them over and setting them apart for [these
idols]? . . . Adonai Elohim says: ‘Because your filth has been poured out
and your privates exposed through your acts of fornication with your lovers,
and because of all the idols of your disgusting practices, and because of the blood of your children,
which you gave them. [This seems like ancient after-term-abortion-on-demand.
The author claims the children were born for Adonai Elohim, but to
what purpose? Typically, there seems to be no objection to sacrifice thereto.
The author takes no responsibility for any impact on the community –
encouraging the depraved faction to kill then sacrifice unwanted infants.]
o.
Ezekiel 20:26, 31 I also gave them laws which did them no good
and rulings by which they did not live; and I let them become defiled by
their own gifts, in that they
offered up their firstborn sons, so that I could fill them with
revulsion, so that they would [finally] realize that I am Adonai . . . and when offering your gifts, you make your
children pass through the fire and defile yourselves with all your idols — to
this day. So, am I supposed to allow you to consult me, house of Isra’el? As I
live,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘I swear that I won’t have you consult me. [Diabolically, the author has Adonai manipulating the law in psychological quid pro quo. Thegod knows that a person cannot go back to before
killing her/his child. Yet we’re in the year 2024 and humankind has accepted
neither thegod nor Genesis 1:26-28’s message: rule your adulthood to thegood!]
p.
Ezekiel 23:36-39 Then Adonai said to me, “Human being, are
you ready to judge Oholah and Oholivah? Then confront them with their
disgusting practices. For they committed adultery, and their hands are
dripping with blood. They committed adultery with their idols; and they offered their sons,
whom they bore to me, for these idols to eat. Moreover, they have done
this to me as well: they defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and they
profaned my shabbats [Sabbaths]. For after killing their children for their idols,
they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; this they did in my
house. [The writer perhaps unintentionally encourages
infidels to sacrifice their children to Adonai yet is culpable
for ignoring Genesis 1:26-28. The image of an idol eating a child is
disgusting.]
q. Hos 13:2 When
Efrayim spoke, there was trembling; he was a power in Isra’el. But when he
incurred guilt through Ba‘al, he died. So now they keep adding sin
to sin, casting images from their silver; idols they invent for themselves, all
of them the work of craftsmen. ‘Sacrifice to them,’ they say. Men give kisses
to calves! [I don’t perceive human sacrifice here,
but there is much discussion online that “kiss the calves” means infant
sacrifice.]
r.
Micah 6:6-8 With what can I come before Adonai to bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with burnt offerings? with calves in
their first year? Would Adonai take
delight in thousands of rams with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Could I
give my firstborn to pay for my crimes, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
Human being, you have already been told what is good, what Adonai demands of you — no more than to act justly, love grace and
walk in purity with your God. [It seems Adonai on earth
represents God in heaven. The author suggests that blood sacrifice is no good:
human being (verb) requires justice, humility, and perfection. Thanks to
Kenneth Way for this personal discovery to me.]
4. Canaanite
(Amorite) religions
a.
Deuteronomy 12:31 You must not do this to Adonai your God! For they have done to their
gods all the abominations that Adonai hates! They even burn up their sons and daughters in the fire
for their gods! [Cited above as caution to Israel.]
b.
Deuteronomy 18:12-14 For whoever does these things is detestable
to Adonai, and because of these abominations Adonai your God is driving them out
ahead of you. You must be wholehearted with Adonai your God. (v) For
these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and
diviners; but you, Adonai your God does not allow you
to do this.
i.
2 Kings 17:31 the
‘Avim [Avites of Samaria]
made Nivchaz and Tartak, and the S’farvim burned up their children in the fire as sacrifices
to Adramelekh and ‘Anamelekh the gods of S’farvayim.
c.
Isaiah 66:3 [I don’t perceive human sacrifice herein.]
5. Moabite king Mesha in 2 Kings 3:27
a.
Then he took his firstborn son, who
was to have succeeded him as king, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall.
Following this, such great anger came upon Isra’el that they left him and went
back to their own land.
i.
Amos 2:1-2 Here is what Adonai says: “For Mo’av’s three crimes,
no, four — I will not reverse it — because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom, turning them into lime; I will send fire on
Mo’av, and it will consume the palaces of K’riot.”
There may
be more Old Testament incidents of human sacrifice. I spent a lot of energy
making up my mind that I would accept any challenge to kill an innocent person,
let alone my own family member. However, until now, I had never realized the
challenges descendants of Mesopotamia face respecting the folly of bargaining
with thegod, let alone killing people as a negotiating strategy.
Kenneth Way goes on to opine about Jesus’ love, another writer’s
mystery. I prefer to pursue Jesus’ civic influence, and will
take up a second study of the New Testament regarding ceremonial human killing
for sacrifice as soon as I have the time. I will
say: The Old Testament’s negative view
of human killing for sacrifice encourages my long held opinion that each
generation keeps Jesus alive[21] by-together
expanding Jesus’ influence as time marches forward. While I don’t object to
people pursuing Christ, I don’t recommend it. I admit Jesus could judge me
wrong.
Hebrew
instructions on animal and other non-human sacrifice
The Bible presents instructions
on non-human ceremonial sacrifices.[22] The
variations are surprising to me, because I never before considered them. They seem
essential to the New Testament study.
1.
Tabernacle in the wilderness (3468 YA): You are to make an altar on which to burn incense; make it of acacia-wood. It is to be eighteen
inches square and three feet high; its horns are to be of one piece with it
. . . Place it in front of the curtain by the ark for the testimony,
in front of the ark-cover that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. Aharon
will burn fragrant incense on it as a pleasing aroma every morning; he is to
burn it when he prepares the lamps. Aharon is also to burn it when he
lights the lamps at dusk; this is the regular burning of incense before Adonai through all your generations.
You are not to offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering or a grain
offering; and you are not to pour a drink
offering on it. Aharon is to make atonement on its horns once a year — with
the blood of the sin offering of
atonement he is to make atonement for it once a year through all your
generations; it is especially holy to Adonai.[t]
2. Further modes of sacrifice
a. Burnt offering: Adonai called to Moshe and spoke to
him from the tent of meeting . . . animal offering . . . must [be] a male
without defect . . . it will be accepted . . . to make atonement for him . . .
slaughter the young bull before Adonai ; and the sons of Aharon,
the cohanim, [of priesthood] are to present the
blood . . . splash the blood against all sides of the altar, which is by the
entrance to the tent of meeting . . . skin the burnt offering and cut it in
pieces . . . arrange the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood which is on
the fire on the altar . . . wash the entrails and lower parts of the legs with
water . . . cause all of it to go up in smoke on the altar as a burnt offering;
it is an offering made by fire, a fragrant aroma for Adonai.[u]
b.
Grain offering: for the grain offering . . . take from the
grain offering a handful of its fine flour, some of its olive oil and all of
the frankincense which is on the grain offering; and he is to make this
reminder portion of it go up in smoke on the altar as a fragrant aroma
for Adonai. The rest of it Aharon and his sons are
to eat . . . I have given it as their portion of my offerings made by fire;
like the sin offering and the guilt offering, it is especially
holy. Every male descendant of Aharon may eat from it . . . Whatever
touches those offerings will become holy. [v]
c.
Drink offering: Adonai said to Moshe, “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘When you
have come into the land where you are going to live, which I am giving to
you, and want to make an offering by fire to Adonai — a burnt offering or
sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or to be a voluntary offering, or at your designated times, to make a fragrant
aroma for Adonai —
then, whether it is comes from the herd or from the flock, the person
bringing the offering is to present Adonai with
a grain offering consisting of two quarts of fine flour mixed with one quart of
olive oil, and one quart of wine for the drink offering. This is what you
are to prepare with the burnt offering or for each lamb sacrificed. For a ram,
prepare one gallon of fine flour mixed with one-and-one-third quarts of olive
oil; while for the drink offering, you are to present one-and-one-third
quarts of wine as a fragrant aroma for Adonai. [w]
d. Dough offering: When you enter the land where I am bringing
you 19 and eat bread produced in the land, you are
to set aside a portion as a gift for Adonai. 20 Set
aside from your first dough a cake as a gift; set it aside as you would set
aside a portion of the grain from the threshing-floor. [x]
e. Sin offering: the sin offering is to be slaughtered
before Adonai in the place where the burnt offering
is slaughtered; it is especially holy. The cohen who
offers it for sin is to eat it — it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the
courtyard of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches its flesh will become
holy; if any of its blood splashes on any item of clothing, you are to wash it
in a holy place . . . Any male from a family of cohanim may
eat the sin offering; it is especially holy. But no sin offering which has
had any of its blood brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the
Holy Place is to be eaten; it is to be burned up completely.[y]
f.
Guilt
or trespass offering; See all of Leviticus 5 for variations.
g. Peace offering: When you prepare a bull as a burnt offering, as
a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow or as peace offerings for Adonai, there is to be presented
with the bull a grain offering of one-and-a-half gallons of fine flour mixed with
two quarts of olive oil. For the drink offering, present two quarts of wine for an offering
made by fire, a fragrant aroma for Adonai.[z]
i.
the
fire on the altar will be kept burning and not be allowed to go out. Each
morning, the cohen is to kindle wood on it, arrange the burnt
offering and make the fat of the peace offerings go up in smoke. [aa]
h.
Mistake offering: if . . . the community [fails to observe
all these mitzvot] and was not known to them, the whole community
is to offer one young bull for a burnt offering as a fragrant aroma to Adonai,
with its grain and drink offerings, in keeping with the rule, and one male goat
as a sin offering.[bb]
i.
If
an individual sins by mistake, he is to offer a female goat in its first year
as a sin offering.[cc]
3. Anointing: on the day he is anointed . . . every grain offering of the cohen is to be
entirely made to go up in smoke — it is not to be eaten.[dd]
4.
Intentional wrong: But an individual who does something wrong intentionally,
whether a citizen or a foreigner, is blaspheming Adonai. That person will be cut off
from his people. Because he has had contempt for the word of Adonai and has disobeyed his
command, that person will be cut off completely; his offense will remain with
him. While the people of Isra’el were in the desert,
they found a man gathering wood on Shabbat . . . Then Adonai said to Moshe, “This man
must be put to death; the entire community is to stone him to death outside the
camp.”[ee]
The
animal, bird, grain, oil, wine, and incense sacrifice system was cumbersome and
expensive. I wonder what event in history suggests that thegod responds to
sacrifice.
Certainly, in my life, when I have done all I know to do and still
feel that a loved one might die, I pray. And just this week I prayed that my wife
would be able to open her eyes, and she did, after our daughter had applied
some new healing oils for a couple days. I know all these actions give hope and
comfort in bad circumstances. I pray to express my hopes, confident that thegod
know I don’t doubt best wishes. However, I don’t think thegod wants me to pray and would not imagine
sacrificing something I imagine the thegod could use.
Conclusion
I think universities, especially
law schools, abuse humankind by not developing the phrase “the ineluctable
truth”. Likewise, seminaries and other clergy-licensers fail believers by not
facilitating and encouraging or accommodating reform from sacrificial killing.
By representing the choice to kill as egocentric bargaining among competitive gods/religions,
institutions maintain elite-will to choose killing and thus war.
I understand, perhaps wrongly,
that Hebrews transitioned from blood sacrifice -- no longer support even animal
sacrifice. The Micah 6 passage, cited above, thanks to Kenneth Way for my
awareness, presents the reform. However, the reasoning that sustains war in 2024 is the same as occupied-land hostilities
4000 years ago. Meanwhile, political philosophy (or thegod’s will) that
humankind is responsible to provide order on earth, expressed in Genesis
1:26-28, goes substantially unheeded. Religious believers allow this tyranny to
prevail. It’s self-tyranny, because religion is pretense to know the facts
about a mystery. Let me repeat that: religion is pretense to know the facts
about a mystery. We, the civic faction of generation2024 may and can initiate
and accelerate reform.
This study
suggests at least three themes: thegod versus empire, thegood versus killing humans,
and the folly of bargaining with or to thegod. The laws of physics are
discoverable but thegod remains a mystery. Of the mysteries presented in the
Bible, the advisor for living I perceive reliable is Jesus, not the writers
about him. The scripture shows that individuals, primarily elites such as
kings, construct personal gods and competitive religions. But ultimately, a
civic people may and can establish responsibility over empire and killing, in
order to pursue thegood. Perhaps the topic I prefer is Jesus versus empire.
Acknowledging recent support
Nomads Sunday
school class has led my curiosity since Fall 2021, when I spoke of “the
metaphysical Jesus”. I would never have taken these studies as seriously without
Nomads. The pastors and people at University Baptist Church, beginning with Rev.
George Haile in the late 1970s, help me perceive the priesthood of the believer
-- whatever that may mean to each concerned believer. My
Louisiana-French-Catholic family, without demand, supports my work, including
church participation, perceiving only my performance with them. Some strangers
I meet share enthusiasm.
Current UBC
neither stonewalls nor “agrees to disagree” with my curiosity at age 80. On
hearing my topics – the ineluctable truth, then the metaphysical Jesus, and
Genesis 1:26-28, Pastor Andy Hale suggested either Nomads or Courage Sunday school
class. Members Vaughn Crombie (Courage) and Anne Cramer (Nomads) immediately
strengthened my assertion that the U.S. Civil war was caused by southern
Christian minister’s beliefs[23]: abolitionists opposed God’s millennial plan. Kenneth Tipton shares
concerns and collaborates to directions; class members engage the pursuits. Russell
Futrell requested the Baylor unit on the Book of James. Cortney Brown helped
me think I act promptly on perceiving opportunity to the-good. Ron Perritt aided
grounding humankind's power and authority to Genesis 1:26-28, CJB and NIV.
Missionary Keith Holmes asked, “Who most influenced you to Christ?” (Happily,
Dad taught us kids Jesus’ civic influence.) Billy King accepted, for me, my
preference for Jesus. Pastors Tanya and
Jon Parks[24] and Eric Fulcher continually excite my intentions, for example,
currently presenting conversations then between Jesus and people “on the
street”.
I expect
people to flock to UBC, because everyone – the founders, sustainers, and each
visitor knows together that unique thoughts, heartfelt concerns, and
intentions-to-institutional-reform matter to ourselves and our posterity (borrowing
words from the preamble). I think Jesus’ civic influence may spread from UBC
such that everyone understands thegod is a mystery. Perhaps in the future few neighbors
will claim that they are atheists. It isn’t easy, but the people, under Jesus’
civic influence, make it happen.
Phil Beaver, 3/9/2024, updated 3/14/2024
#USpreambler
Copyright©2024
by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the
publication of all or portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright
notice is included. Updated, March 14, 2024.
[a]
John 8:58: Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! Before
Avraham came into being, I AM!”
[b]
Merriam-Webster usage: a member of any of a number of
peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians,
Hebrews, and Arabs.
[c]
Theisms construct gods which humbly yield to thegod, whatever it is. For
example, all the sun gods yield to the discovery that the sun is a natural
nuclear reactor. Authors of Adonai in Genesis 2 accommodate God of
Genesis 1.
[d]
Genesis 1:26-28
[e]
Genesis 11:28
[f]
Genesis 11:31-32
[g]
Joshua 24:2
[h]
Genesis 15:2
[i]
Genesis 15:6
[j]
Genesis 15:9
[k] 2
Samuel 24:24-25
[l]
Genesis 16:4
[m]
Genesis 22:7
[n]
Genesis 22:9-19; note that scripture takes for granted that kill/slay is
prerequisite to sacrifice.
[o] 1
Chronicles 18:34
[p] 1
Chronicles 2:1-2
[q]
Genesis 41:50-52
[r] 2
Kings 21:1-6
[s] 2
Chronicles 20:15-17
[t]
Exodus 30:
[u]
Leviticus 1:1-9
[v]
Leviticus 6:7-11
[w]
Numbers 15:1-7
[x]
Numbers 15:18-20
[y]
Leviticus 6:18-20
[z]
Numbers 15:8-10
[aa]
Leviticus 6:5
[bb]
Numbers 15:22-24
[cc]
Numbers 15:27
[dd]
Leviticus 6:13-16
[ee]
Numbers 15:30-35
[1]
Ineluctable means “not to be avoided, changed, or resisted” (Merriam-Webster
usage).
[2]
Socrates asked if the gods love the-good because it
is the-good, or whether the-good is good because it is loved by the gods; online at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma.
[3]
Online at https://www.wycliffe.net/resources/statistics/:
7.42 billion known users of some or all books of the Bible. Complete Bible or
New Testament translations in 736 or 1658 languages to 5.96 billion and 0.82
billion people, respectively.
[4] I
write the phrase “the god” as “thegod” to express a singularity without
assuming divinity – hopefully to express personal humility to whatever entity
constrains human choices. Similarly, “thegood” represents the best choice a
human could make in a given challenge; there are always multiples of the bad.
[5] I
write “killing humans” to separate from the term “human sacrifice”, which can
apply to lesser issues, such as fasting to improve fitness, or foregoing
tradition to develop thegood.
[6] I
prefer the New International Version but quote the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
for immediate insight and to suggest research regarding the west region of
Caanan, via the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible.
[7] If
we reference the emergence of homo sapiens as the beginning of sufficient
awareness to pursue the ineluctable truth, we’re estimating 200,000 years ago.
At 19 years per generation, that’s 10,526 prior generations. If “the beginning”
is writing with grammar, that’s 10,000 years and 526 generations ago. We’re
perhaps the first generation with developed and accessible Internet: the
opportunity we have is exceptional – if and only if we accept the awesome
responsibility, power, and authority.
[8]
The United States preamble authorizes and empowers the faction “We the People
of the United States” to pursue statutory justice “to ourselves and our
Posterity”. The preamble presents no norms, admitting insufficiency of temporal
morality: only ultimate human being (noun modifying verb) can achieve
standards.
[9] “Ur was a major Sumerian city-state located in Mesopotamia,
marked today by Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq. It was founded circa 3800
BCE, and was recorded in written history from the 26th century BCE. Its patron
god was Nanna, the moon god, and the city’s name literally means “the abode of
Nanna.” Online at https://courses.lumenlearning.com.
[10]
Online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu#:~:text=The%20Code%20of%20Ur%2DNammu,2100%E2%80%932050%20BCE.
[11]
Online at https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-world-history-of-violence/ritual-killing-and-human-sacrifice-in-the-ancient-near-east/15D2059982C482750124293D29EF55BA.
[12]
Online at https://www.mometrix.com/academy/early-mesopotamia-the-babylonians.
Also see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amorite and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorites.
[13]
Online at https://carm.org/islam/abraham-and-the-fiery-furnace-the-quran-and-late-jewish-mythology/;
Here’s a fragment of an interesting story: “Thereupon he seized him and delivered him to
Nimrod. ‘Let us worship the fire!’ he [Nimrod] proposed. ‘Let us rather worship
the water, which extinguishes the fire,’ replied he. “let us worship the
water!’ ‘Let us rather worship the clouds which bear the water.’ ‘Let us
worship the clouds!’ ‘Let us rather worship the winds which disperse the
clouds.’ ‘Then let us worship the wind!’ ‘Let us rather worship human beings,
who withstand the wind.’ ‘You are just bandying with words,’ he exclaimed; ‘we
will worship nought but the fire. Behold, I will cast you into it, and let your
God whom you adore come and save you from it.’ Now Haran was standing there
undecided. If Abram is victorious, I will say that I am of Abram’s belief,
while if Nimrod is victorious I will say I am on Nimrod’s side. When Abram
descended into the fiery furnace and was saved, he [Nimrod] asked him, ‘of
whose belief are you?’ ‘Of Abram’s’ he replied. Thereupon he seized and cast
him into the fire; his inwards were scorched and he died in his father’s
presence. Hence it is written, ‘and Haran died in the presence of his father
Terah'” (Midrash Rabbah 38:13)”;
http://archive.org/stream/RabbaGenesis/midrashrabbahgen027557mbp#page/n357/mode/2up.
[14]
Teppei Kato, Ancient Chronography on Abraham’s Departure from Haran: Qumran,
Josephus, Rabbinic Literature, and Jerome, 2019, online https://www.jstor.org/stable/26675140.
[15]
Online at https://classicalwisdom.com/politics/places/abraham-boom-bust-ur/.
[16]
Online at https://www.worldhistory.org/hammurabi.
[17]
The phrase “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God” in the U.S.
Declaration of Independence has Anglo-Christian origins. Since then, some
researchers project reduction of psychology to biology, and biology to
chemistry, and chemistry to the laws of physics. For introduction, see https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/79533/why-would-laws-of-nature-not-be-reducible-to-physics-alone,
or https://www.amazon.com/Darwinian-Reductionism-Worrying-Molecular-Biology-ebook/product-reviews/B001PGXEC4/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews
or https://www.americanscientist.org/article/is-biology-reducible-to-the-laws-of-physics,
or all 3.
[18]
Online at https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2012/the-horror-and-splendor-of-human-sacrifice.
[19]
Maybe there’s a better way. However, I am trying to introduce to society the
use of “human being” as a verb rather than the customary noun. In my usage, a
person who works to comprehend and intend the image of God that is expressed in
Genesis 1:26-28 is pursuing the power and authority of a god facing death. His
or her God likeness is a state of human being. I seek to avoid the implication
that “human” modifies “being” like “kind being”. Animals and spirits cannot
pursue human being.
[20]
See bias against JEDP at https://www.gotquestions.org/JEDP-theory.html.
I prefer open heartedness.
[21]
When my family had adolescent children, I spoke the parts of Catholic liturgy I
believed and at the appointed time said, “Christ has died, Christ is Risen,
Christ has come again”, hoping someone would ask why I changed “will come
again”. No one ever asked.
[22]
Some writers ponder killing animals for clothing as sacrificial. Genesis 3:21: “Adonai, God, made garments
of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Whatever Adam and Eve
donned, discretion was consistent with Genesis 1:26-28s “rule to thegood”.
[23]
Online comment at https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/nikki-haley-to-end-2024-bid-paving-way-for-trump-to-get-gop-nod-5597025
.
[24]
Pastoring by the Parks, a spousal couple, is new for me. I relish the
experience, because of their sermons and because it seems consistent with a civic
lesson from Jesus -- his advocacy for Genesis 1:26-28. When Jesus speaks to
people on the street, we glimpse his civic influence. Reading Matthew 19:3-9: Some P’rushim came and
tried to trap [Yeshua] by asking, “Is it permitted for a man
to divorce his wife on any ground whatever?” He replied, “Haven’t you read
that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and
that he said, ‘For this reason a man should leave his father and mother
and be united with his wife, and the two are to become one flesh’? Thus
they are no longer two, but one. So then, no one should split apart what God
has joined together.” They said to him, “Then why did Moshe give the commandment that a
man should hand his wife a get and divorce
her?” He answered, “Moshe allowed you to divorce your wives because your
hearts are so hardened. But this is not how it was at the beginning. Now what I
say to you is that whoever divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual
immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery!” I think “the beginning” refers to Genesis 1 and if get to re-live
my life, I will ask Cynthia then “papa” if I can marry and take the family
name: Marionneaux. If not, it will be Beaver again.
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