Posts by peacefulpete

92

Jephthah's Daughter

by cantleave in

i have read somewhere that jephthah's daughter did not really go into temple service but was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

the bible says that after weeping over her virginity that the maidens would visit her annually.

how could they visit her if she was killed?.

To further illustrate how people's sense of decency and compassion can become derailed by religious zealotry, ancient Rabbis described/imagined the procedure for burning a person. Because the human is in God's "image" they felt it appropriate for the person to be burned from the inside.

R. Judah says: “Even he, if he died by their hand, they have not upheld the commandment of burning with respect to him. Rather, they should open his mouth with a pair of tongs against his will, and he lights the wick (later defined as molten lead) and throws it into his mouth, and it descends into his belly and burns his bowels.”
(b. Pesach. 75a; b. Sanh 7:2, 52a),

92

Jephthah's Daughter

by cantleave in

i have read somewhere that jephthah's daughter did not really go into temple service but was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

the bible says that after weeping over her virginity that the maidens would visit her annually.

how could they visit her if she was killed?.

peacefulpete

Rattigan...What is ridiculous?

A human sacrifice for good of a community thru appeasement of a god? (John 18:14 "...it would be good if one man died for the people."

How about a god sending his people to war where many are killed? (Judges 20)

Are they not human sacrifices to please a god?

Or the burning alive members of the tribe that behave in unapproved manner?

Lev 21:9 As for the daughter of a priest who profanes herself with promiscuity (liznot): it is her father whom she defiles. She shall be burned with fire.
Lev 20:14 If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is lewdness; both he and they shall be burned with fire...

Are they not also human sacrifices for the appeasement of a god?

92

Jephthah's Daughter

by cantleave in

i have read somewhere that jephthah's daughter did not really go into temple service but was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

the bible says that after weeping over her virginity that the maidens would visit her annually.

how could they visit her if she was killed?.

peacefulpete

An interesting observation by Hyam Maccoby is that the Hebrew ha`avir, "to cause to pass through" used in Exodus 13:12 is always otherwise associated with fire sacrifices to other Palestinian gods. Yes, translators have masked that with inconsistent wording, but the point being Exodus 13 promoted a similar practice of sacrificing firstborns with a later editor inserting vs 13b that insisted firstborn humans were to be redeemed like asses.

92

Jephthah's Daughter

by cantleave in

i have read somewhere that jephthah's daughter did not really go into temple service but was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

the bible says that after weeping over her virginity that the maidens would visit her annually.

how could they visit her if she was killed?.

peacefulpete

Lev 27:28-9:

No devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. No one devoted, to be destroyed from among men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

This is an example of a passage that did not get redacted by the 5th/6th century scribes. There is no provision for redeeming, present, in fact it is explicitly forbidden. Perhaps it was examples like this that left Ezekiel struggling for an explanation.

92

Jephthah's Daughter

by cantleave in

i have read somewhere that jephthah's daughter did not really go into temple service but was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

the bible says that after weeping over her virginity that the maidens would visit her annually.

how could they visit her if she was killed?.

peacefulpete

In what is often called 'pre-Biblical' Israel, human sacrifice was practiced. Some stories and legends from that era (pre-6th century BCE) included it. It has been suggested that the process of redacting those stories was incomplete in the time of Ezekiel (Ez. 20:25-6) hence the then dispute over the versions of laws that demanded it vs those that had been redacted to forbid it. (Ex 13) What surprises me is stories such as 2 Kings 3 wherein the Moabite King sacrifices his son to turn back the Israelite army is successful at invoking 'wrath against Israel'. There must have been a scribal interpretation that allowed this to slip through.

Reformers such as Ezekiel, Ezra and Jeremiah balanced the appeal of antiquity of their worship of Yahweh with progressive sensitivities. This required retaining old traditions and stories in a slightly modified form. Those modifications are often easily recognized today using text-critical methods.

So, yes, the people of the region did human sacrifice, especially child sacrifice,(as well as goddess worship and bull iconography etc.) but by the time the traditions were being collected into longer historiographical narratives the practice was no longer approved by the leading priesthood.

46

the pope has died

by stan livedeath in

most people on the planet have heard of the pope.. most people on the planet have never heard of the governing body..

peacefulpete

I vote for Rob Lowe

31

Curious? How many members of this group feel we are living in the "End Times"?

by Balaamsass2 in

i like to take a peek at the kids over on reddit every week or so.. this thread caught my eye:" curious….

do any ex jw or pimo, still believe the world is ending.

i see people who have never been witnesses think that the world will end soon and they say things like “jesus is coming soon”….

peacefulpete

The craziest part of it all is the lack of perspective. Anyone familiar with history can tell you these days are the most free, productive and indulgent of human history. It's as if, the less people have to complain about the more they do. For much of the world, our concerns revolve around getting too fat or living too long and requiring large retirement savings. As far as 'morality' the Bible is filled with stories of incest, prostitution and war crimes...and that's the good guys.

228

The point of existence and how it refutes the Trinity

by slimboyfat in

rowan williams, the former archbishop of canterbury gave an interesting answer to the somewhat stark question, what’s the point of us existing?

as a christian, my starting point is that we exist because the most fundamental form of activity, energy, call it what you like, that is there, is love.

that is, it’s a willingness that the other should be.

peacefulpete

Disagreements over minor or seemingly trivial points can become disproportionately intense because the issues are often close to people's identities, values, or self assessment of their intelligence, making them more sensitive and less willing to compromise. This is supported by reflections on how disagreements can escalate even when the factual differences are small, as people become more entrenched and emotionally invested.

7

Happy Easter!

by Sea Breeze in

jw
friends

wishing everyone a happy easter!

.

here’s to new beginnings 🥂.

peacefulpete

2

Be Moneychangers

by peacefulpete in

there were literally hundreds of 'sayings' attributed to jesus outside the 4 gospel tradition.

many of these sayings had narrow sectarian acceptance while one 'saying' especially had near universal appeal.. "be ye skillful moneychangers.".

this is the most commonly quoted of all traditional sayings.

peacefulpete

Philo of Alexandria was a first century Jewish philosopher/theologian. His work in many ways presaged Christian thought, especially in his Logos conception. His words above might have been what the earliest Christian Fathers attributed to a saying of Jesus.