Bible Contradiction: Whoring and Adultery

by JosephAlward 3 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  JosephAlward

  The Bible writers contradict one another in the matter of adultery and whoring; some of them say that God forbids it, while others claim that God encouraged it in some cases. Here is the evidence:

  God Forbids Adultery and Whoremongering

  "Thou shalt not commit adultery." (Ex.20:14, Dt.5:18)

  "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Heb.13:4)

  These verses are quite clear, and seem to be universal. Nobody is to commit adultery or consort with whores. However, the verses below contradict these teachings.

  God Encourages Adultery and Whoring

  "But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." (Numbers 31:18)

  This is Moses talking above, God’s most righteous representative on earth, telling the men to keep the virgin girls for themselves. (Evidently the older virgin women would not be a sufficient prize for the victorious soldiers, so they were presumably killed.) The point is that Moses does not say, “Those of you who are not married may take the virgin girls for yourselves, but you married men must stay away from them.”

  Thus, Moses is encouraging adultery, and this contradicts the teaching in Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18, and this makes the authors who put these words in Moses mouth untrustworthy.

  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.(Hosea 1:2)

  The author of Hosea above contradicts the author of Hebrew 13:4, who believes that God is opposed to whoremongers. Thus, one or the other, or both, of these authors is wrong, and the Bible is in error.

  "Then said the Lord unto me, God yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress." (Hosea 3:1)

  The Hosea author above thinks the Lord gave a command to a man to love an adulteress, but this is impossible to reconcile with the statements of the authors of Genesis and Deuteronomy (Exodus 20:14, Deuteronomy 5:18), who tell us that God forbids adultery. Thus, we have yet another example of the Bible being in error; either the Exodus and Deuteronomy authors were wrong, or the author of Hosea was wrong, or they all were wrong.

  Joseph F. Alward
  "Skeptical Views of Christianity and the Bible"

  http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html
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  Bang

  So we shouldn't help a sinner?
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  Moxy

  wasnt hosea's wife supposed to be his own wife who had left him and had borne children with another man. god then instructs him to purchase her back to create a symbolic type of israel. all kinds of issues here with the bibles view of women--but im not sure about the contradiction with the law, seems a little too speculative.

  i would say the same about moses command to take the girls alive. it raises all kinds of other questions about human rights and womens rights but just by itself, it doesnt indicate adultery at all. the concept of adultery in the culture of the time definitely did not extend to taking more than one wife. im not sure how you would think it does. (neither does it necessarilly indicate raping of children, another contention raised.)

  wouldnt judah's exploits with his daughter-in-law have made a much better example, if contradictions regarding prostitution was the topic?

  mox
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  JosephAlward

  In a previous post, I provided a passage which seemed to show that Moses was telling his men to rape the virgin girls, thereby encouraging adultery, and this contradicts the teaching in Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18 ("Thou shalt not commit adultery"), and this makes the authors who put these words in Moses mouth untrustworthy.

  "But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." (Numbers 31:18)

  
  Moxy responded,

  the concept of adultery in the culture of the time definitely did not extend to taking more than one wife.

  Thanks for the comments, Moxy. Taking of more than one wife was not the "adultery" I had in mind; in the case of Moses' instruction to the soldiers to take the young virgin girls for themselves, but evidently not take the older virgin women, it seems clear that marriage was not was Moses had in mind. In time of war, the spoils go to the victors, and this seems to be an example of that. I think if the author wanted us to know that the girls weren’t intended to be sexually exploited, but were to be married, then “marry,” or “marriage,” or “wife” probably would have appeared to make clear to the reader what Moses had in mind for his men.

  This doesn’t prove, of course, that Moses did not mean for the men to marry the virgin girls. There is no alleged contradiction in the Bible that can be proved; all skeptics can do is pile one alleged contradiction, inconsistency, or error on top of another until the mountain is unclimbably high.

  Now, as far as the meaning of “adultery” goes: if it didn’t mean then what it means today, then that’s fine with me, because the god of the Bible seems still be in trouble. In order to defend against this allegation involving Moses--assuming that Moses expected his men to rape the virgin girls, the Bible believer would have to agree that their god was not opposed to men having sex with women who were not among his wives, and such a defense amounts to condemning the god described in the Bible. Nevertheless, it seems to me the Bible writers had in mind the current understanding of adultery. For example, Matthew understood adultery even to include having lustful thoughts of women not your wife, so imagine what this God-inspired writer would have said about men raping virgin girls:

  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

  
  I recall a comment by someone in another thread which noted that the command against “adultery” referred to adulteration, or alteration; perhaps that was you, Moxy. Either way, I would like to see verses which support the view that “adultery” doesn’t mean having sex with a women not one of your wives.

  Joseph F. Alward
  "Skeptical Views of Christianity and the Bible"

  http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html