Hebrews part fifteen

We are now at Hebrews 11:17. It's time to read more about Abraham's faith. Abraham's faith was so great that he offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice when god tested him. God was being a sadistic bastard. He had previously  told Abraham that the promise of numerous offspring would be fulfilled through Isaac. The Hebrews author claims Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac because he "reasoned" that god could raise the dead. Baloney. The author of Hebrews is trying to use the old testament story to prove that belief in resurrection has always been part of Hebrew beliefs. There is actually no indication in most of the old testament that anyone of the ancient Abrahamic tradition believed in a resurrection of the dead. Sheol was the fate of every dead person. The author of Hebrews goes on to say that "figuratively speaking, he (Abraham) did receive Isaac back from the dead." Just so you know, figurative speech doesn't have any more substance than faith.

Next, the author says, that by faith Isaac blessed Jacob's and Esau's future. In other words, he said magical words at them that were supposed to have some mystical power over their lives. By faith, Jacob also "blessed" Joseph's sons. By faith, Joseph spoke of the exodus from egypt and what he wanted done with his bones. Joseph did speak of the Israelites leaving Egypt, going to the promised land, and taking his bones with them, in Genesis 50,  but there were no other specifics. We are not going to go into the fact that none of the stuff we are reading about actually happened. So, it doesn't matter what these supposed patriarchs supposedly said or did and why they did it. It's the same as if we would take the Iliad and the Odyssey seriously.

The author goes on to say, "by faith Moses's parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw that he was no ordinary child, and they were afraid of the king's edict." Any parent worth being called a parent would try to do anything they could to save their child from death. Faith has nothing to do with it.

 We are also told that "by faith, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of god rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time." Again, this never actually happened, but let's look at what Exodus says. Did Moses refuse to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter? Nope, can't find that. Did Moses choose to be mistreated along with the people of god? Nope, can't find that either. In fact, Exodus 2:11 says Moses went out and watched his people doing hard labor.

In Hebrews 11:26, the author says, Moses "regarded disgrace for the sake of christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward." This is blatant nonsense. Go back and read Exodus 2. Moses killed a man and became a fugitive, eventually going incognito as a shepherd. He had no eternal reward in mind only saving his own skin. Moses had no christ in mind.

Next, the author says, "By faith (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger, because he saw him who is invisible." At least that part is true to the Exodus story. The reader is also told,"By faith (Moses) kept the passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel." That also happened in the story. Plus, Moses never pleaded on behalf of all the innocent children that would die that night. Nice guy.

Some more things that supposedly happened by faith: the people walked through the Red Sea on dry land, the walls of Jericho fell, Rahab welcomed spies and was not killed. These are all stories that most likely never happened, so faith had nothing to do with them. Besides, if faith was a factor, it wasn't faith in Jesus or a resurrection, was it?

Till next time.

James 2 part 2

Before we continue, we need to acknowledge that the first followers of Jesus were clearly Jews and probably did not intend to leave Judaism and create a distinct religion. Nowhere in the stories of Jesus's life does he seem to expect them to do that.  The teachings ascribed to Jesus were actually not that different from those that history outside the New Testament  ascribes to the pharisees, even though the gospel accounts and modern christianity would have you believe otherwise. The Pharisees were not literalists and believed in a liberal interpretation of scripture using oral tradition. They believed in resurrection and an afterlife. They were populists not elitists. This man James strikes me as possibly being a Pharisee who lived after the destruction of Jerusalem.

*Moving on. The next section, beginning in verse 14 contrasts faith and deeds. Again James addresses "my brothers, " fellow Jews. James asks,"what good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" This is a question which has plagued christians since the reformation.  James says faith not accompanied by action is dead. How do you prove you have faith if you don't do anything to show it. Intellectual and verbal assent that there is one God means nothing, even the demons acknowledge that. The phrase "one God" (NIV) is a reference to the Shema, a Jewish mantra that says " the lord our God is one." In fact other english translations of verse James 2:19 say "God is one." This is problematic for trinitarians who say that God is three in one.

*Verses 20-24 give the example of Abraham as evidence that faith and deeds go together. Abraham showed true faith by offering his son Isaac on the altar (Genesis 15). That is what real faith does. It makes people willing to do crazy things that they otherwise would not have done. We see it happening in the world today. We also hear people say that they would kill their own children if God asked them to, as proof of the sincerity of their faith. A close relative of mine said this to me. True faith is scary stuff.

*James says this proves a person is justified by what he does, not by faith alone. Then he gives another example, Rahab the prostitute who helped the Hebrew spies in Jericho.(Joshua 2). She was considered righteous for what she did, in spite of her occupation. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." I'm guessing Rahab would have been dead if she hadn't helped the spies. Is an active faith the same thing as self preservation? What if I do all the deeds without faith, can I get by? Who will know? No one that's who. People think you are a wonderful christian if you do all the good stuff and keep your mouth shut about what you really believe. Ask me how I know.

Joshua chapter 6

After reading chapter 6:

*Jericho was tightly shut up, "No one went in, no one came out." Great story line. Yahweh told Joshua that the conquest of Jericho was a sure thing, with his help. Since we haven't done that yet, let's read about Jericho here. In spite of multiple periods of civilization, Jericho does not appear to have been inhabited at our supposed time of the Biblical story, about 1297 B.C.E. This presents a problem doesn't it? Keep in mind, there is also a history of earthquakes in the area.

*Now we have the famous tale: Yahweh told Joshua to tell the armed men of Israel (approx. 600,000) to march around the city once a day for six days, with seven priests blowing ram's horn trumpets in front of the ark of the covenant. On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times, while the priests blew the trumpets. Then the priests would blow one long blast and all the people were to shout as loud as they could. Consequently, the walls of Jericho would fall down and the armed forces could enter the city.

*The instructions of Joshua, uh, Yahweh, were followed, each day for six days. On the seventh day, they got up bright and early and marched around the city seven times. After the seventh time, the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua commanded the people to shout, reminding them that Rahab and her family were to be spared. Plus, the Israelites were not to touch any objects used in the worship of the city's gods, or they would bring about their own destruction. Besides, all the valuable objects made of metals belonged to the priests, I mean Yahweh. They must go into Yahweh's treasury. Though what he wants with them is anybody's guess.

*When the people shouted, the walls collapsed. The men charged in and destroyed every living thing: all the people, including women and children, and the animals. Joshua told the two spies from chapter 2 to get Rahab and her family to safety. They were put in a place outside the camp of the Israelites. The city was burned to the ground. The precious metal objects were saved for Yahweh. Rahab and her family live with the Israelites " to this day." Last of all, Joshua put a curse on the city of Jericho and any one who might try to rebuild it. (The study bible says the curse was fulfilled in the days of King AhabAhab, which probably means that this book was written after that.) Any way, the city of Jericho has continued to exist in many forms down through the ages, and still exists today.

For more interesting information, read: The Battle of Jericho. There we see that the historicity of the Jericho story is non- existant.

Joshua chapter 2

After reading chapter 2:

*Here we have the famous story of Rahab. Joshua secretly spent two spies to Jericho to look over the land, presumably in preparation to attack. The spies lodged in the house of a woman named Rahab, who was a prostitute or an innkeeper, depending on your source. Of course she could have been both. The king of Jericho found out about the spies and sent some men to Rahab's house to tell her to send them out. She lied and said they had left and she didn't know which way they went, but she had really hidden them on the roof under some stalks of flax. So the men went on a wild goose chase after the spies and got shut out of the city because it was after dusk, when the gates were shut.

*Before the spies went to sleep, Rahab went up to the roof to tell them that the people of Jericho had heard the stories about Yahweh, the Israelites, and their conquests. The people of Jericho were afraid. They believed that Yahweh was the almighty God over heaven and earth. Rahab asked the spies to swear to be kind to her and her family and spare them from death,  because she was kind to them. The spies promised to spare their lives after the conquest of Jericho. This is in spite of the fact that back in Deuteronomy 20  the Israelites were told not to spare anything that had the breath of life when they conquered the land that they were going to live in.

*Rahab then let the spies go out her window on a red cord, because her house was part of the city wall. The spies were to hide for three days until their pursuers had come back without them. The men told Rahab that they would keep their promise if she and her family would stay in the house during the battle and if a red cord was hung in her window as a sign to the Israelites. She was also bound to secrecy. So, they left and she tied the red cord to the window. The men hid for three days, then went back to Joshua and told him everything that had happened.

*My study bible says the Scarlett cord was a symbolic equivalent to  blood on the doorpost at passover. Death would not visit her house if it was there.