After telling his disciples to be more righteous than the pharisees, who make a point of obeying the law, Jesus explains how to do that by going one step further. He also covers some points of law that are not included in the ten commandments, but are found in the broader context of the many rules and regulations god supposedly gave to Moses, apart from the ones carved in stone. He starts with a point of law, then expands the requirements necessary to avoid hell/damnation.
*First (Matt. 5:21-22), is murder, found in the ten commandments. Not murdering anyone is not enough though. You also must not get angry with anyone (some manuscripts say without cause, a little loophole.) or face judgement. This is not found in Luke.
*Second, saying "raca" (Apparently a grievous insult that insinuates someone has nothing between their ears) to anyone can land you in front of the sanhedrin, the Jewish court. However, Jesus says even calling someone a fool, presumably a lesser offense, can land you in the fires of hell (gehenna). This is not found in Luke.
*Third, it's not enough to give a sacrificial gift to god, you must first go and make sure you correct any relationship issues first. Wise advice. After that, you won't even need to go make your sacrifice. Not found in Luke.
*Fourth is practical advice to settle monetary disputes out of court if you don't want to end up in jail. Not found in Luke.
*Fifth is adultery, found in the ten commandments. It is not enough to never commit adultery physically. A man must also never look at a woman (presumably one he is not married to) lustfully. This is deemed equivalent to the actual act of adultery. It occurs in the "heart" instead of the body. The body, however, seems to take the blame. A man would be better off without eyes than to look, lust, and land in hell. He would also be better off without his right hand, too. What's his hand got to do with it? Shall we read between the lines? Have you noticed yet that these these teachings are directed primarily at men? This is not found in Luke.
*Sixth is divorce. Jesus says "It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce." The old testament law doesn't actually say that. It is what the Jews came up with from reading Deuteronomy 24:1-2. It says, "IF a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her (basically he thinks she was not a virgin Deut 22:12-14), let him write her a certificate of divorce, give it to her and sends her from his house, and after she leaves his house if she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband....writes a certificate of divorce...the first husband is not allowed to marry her again....That would be detestable in the eyes of the lord." There is no command to give certificates of divorce, unless you want to quibble with semantics, but there is an inference that certificates of divorce are the standard procedure.
Anyway, Jesus says in Matt. 5:31-32 that anyone who divorces his wife , except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. This is echoed in Luke 16:18, but is not part of the comparable sermon. There, it is more of an afterthought stuck in between two parables. Matthew reapeats himself in 19:7 and Mark also chimes in with similar words in Mark 10:4. Those last two references are in a context of Jesus having a discussion about divorce. We will not go into a broad discussion of divorce here. The basic idea is any man is an adulterer if he marries a divorced woman, and a divorced woman is an adulterer no matter who she marries. There are no guidelines for a woman who wants to divorce her husband.
More to come.
Showing posts with label adultery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adultery. Show all posts
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Numbers chapter 5
After reading chapter 5:
*Yahweh tells Moses that anyone, male or female, with a skin disease, a discharge, or who has come in contact with a dead body, must be sent outside the camp so they don't "defile" it. Supposedly, the Israelites did that.
*Next, Yahweh tells Moses that any one who has wronged another person, or God, must confess and make equal restitution plus a fifth. If there is no one to give the restitution to, it is to be given to the priest, along with a ram for atonement. Everything given to the priest belongs to the priest, another job benefit.
*Verses 11-29 is one of the most disturbing passages I have come upon so far. It is how to test to see if a wife is unfaithful, not because there reason to believe she is, but because the husband is feeling jealous.
-First the husband is to take the wife to the priest, along with an offering of barley flour for jealousy. Who wants to bet that the woman had no choice in this matter?
-The priest will make the woman stand before the lord. Presumably this means in front of the tabernacle.
-The priest will put holy water in a clay jar. There is no explanation of where he got the holy water and what makes it holy compared to regular water. Then, get this, he will scoop up dirt from the tabernacle floor and put it in the water.
-Then the priest will loosen the woman's hair, and make her hold the barley flour offering. (Humiliation?) While she is doing that, he says a magical oath over the pitcher of dirty water: If the woman has been faithful to her husband, may the bitter water not harm her; BUT if she has been unfaithful, may she be under a curse that causes her abdomen to swell and any child she is carrying to be miscarried. How's that for the sanctity of life in the womb?
-The woman is required to say, "Amen, so be it."
-The priest then writes the above curses on a scroll and washes the curses off the scroll into the water in the pitcher. One wonders what the ink was made from.
-Next, the priest takes the grain offering, waves it in front of the lord, and burns a handful of it. After that, he makes the woman drink the " bitter," cursed, dirty water. Again, do you think she had a choice?
-If the woman was not unfaithful, nothing would happen to her. She would be declared clean and would be able to have children. If she was unfaithful, her abdomen would swell, her womb would miscarry, and she would become a bitter curse. This would be proof of her guilt. Of course it would have nothing to do with the filthy poisoned water she was given. How many times do you think a woman would have been proven faithful using this method? (What happened to the woman after she was proved "guilty" of adultery?)
-No matter what the result, the husband would not be considered guilty of any wrong doing. One wonders what the test for an unfaithful husband was, or if there even was one.
*Yahweh tells Moses that anyone, male or female, with a skin disease, a discharge, or who has come in contact with a dead body, must be sent outside the camp so they don't "defile" it. Supposedly, the Israelites did that.
*Next, Yahweh tells Moses that any one who has wronged another person, or God, must confess and make equal restitution plus a fifth. If there is no one to give the restitution to, it is to be given to the priest, along with a ram for atonement. Everything given to the priest belongs to the priest, another job benefit.
*Verses 11-29 is one of the most disturbing passages I have come upon so far. It is how to test to see if a wife is unfaithful, not because there reason to believe she is, but because the husband is feeling jealous.
-First the husband is to take the wife to the priest, along with an offering of barley flour for jealousy. Who wants to bet that the woman had no choice in this matter?
-The priest will make the woman stand before the lord. Presumably this means in front of the tabernacle.
-The priest will put holy water in a clay jar. There is no explanation of where he got the holy water and what makes it holy compared to regular water. Then, get this, he will scoop up dirt from the tabernacle floor and put it in the water.
-Then the priest will loosen the woman's hair, and make her hold the barley flour offering. (Humiliation?) While she is doing that, he says a magical oath over the pitcher of dirty water: If the woman has been faithful to her husband, may the bitter water not harm her; BUT if she has been unfaithful, may she be under a curse that causes her abdomen to swell and any child she is carrying to be miscarried. How's that for the sanctity of life in the womb?
-The woman is required to say, "Amen, so be it."
-The priest then writes the above curses on a scroll and washes the curses off the scroll into the water in the pitcher. One wonders what the ink was made from.
-Next, the priest takes the grain offering, waves it in front of the lord, and burns a handful of it. After that, he makes the woman drink the " bitter," cursed, dirty water. Again, do you think she had a choice?
-If the woman was not unfaithful, nothing would happen to her. She would be declared clean and would be able to have children. If she was unfaithful, her abdomen would swell, her womb would miscarry, and she would become a bitter curse. This would be proof of her guilt. Of course it would have nothing to do with the filthy poisoned water she was given. How many times do you think a woman would have been proven faithful using this method? (What happened to the woman after she was proved "guilty" of adultery?)
-No matter what the result, the husband would not be considered guilty of any wrong doing. One wonders what the test for an unfaithful husband was, or if there even was one.
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