Three More Error and a Catch-22

July 1, 2009, 8:13 am by dc-agape.

Exodus Chapter 12:31-51

This is the actual beginning of the exodus from Egypt.   In the middle of the night, the Pharaoh summons Moses and tells him to get out.  Four things about the exodus are again worth describing.  Three are errors; the other is more proof that humans do not have freewill.  I will follow the order that they appear in the Holy Book. 

The first point worth describing from the Atheist point of view is a verse that negates freewill:

Exodus 12:36 The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they ask for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

“YHWH made”, do I need to say more?  The Israelites plundered Egypt.  The concept of plundered is defined as “the act of robbing, despoiling, or fleecing”.  A very interesting word choice, wouldn’t you agree?  YHWH forces the Egyptians to give everything of value to the Israelites.  This would indicate that the Egyptians did not have freewill.  The entire nation of Egypt was controlled by YHWH like puppets.  Yet the word plundered is still used to describe the act.  Even this seems to be a contradiction.  You could attempt to rationalize this one, by claiming that it is poor translation from the original documents.  But even with that rationalization, you would be conceding that YHWH has no control over the perfection of his Word.

The first error is that of the unleavened bread.  Previously, YHWH had instructed them to prepare unleavened bread:

Exodus 12:8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

Yet during the Exodus this is why they did not use yeast:

Exodus 12:39 With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread.  The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

From this verse it is obvious that the Israelites were planning to leaven the bread.  This would be in direct disobedience to YHWH.  You could rationalize this with the sinful nature of humans, but then you would contradict this verse:

Exodus 12:50 All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

We again run into the error of how long the Israelites were in Egypt.  The Word of God contradicts itself in this verse:

Exodus 12:40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.

We know that Levi was the father of Kohath (Exodus 6:16), and that Kohath was the father of Amram (Exodus 6:18) and that Amram was the father of Moses (Exodus 6:20).  We also know that Kohath lived for 133 years (Exodus 6:18).  We know that Amram lived for 137 years (Exodus 6:20).  Finally we know that Moses did not return to Egypt until after he was 80 years old (Exodus 7:7) Since these men did not have their firstborn child on their deathbed, we must assume that at the very most they were middle aged when they began to sire children.  In fact, we know that Kohath was not born in Egypt (Genesis 46:11).  This would mean that the maximum time spent in Egypt was (133/2 + 137/2 +80) years = 215 years.  Here again is an error in the Word of God.  The mistake is repeated numerous times (Gen 15:13, Exodus 12:40-41, Acts 7:6, and Galatians 3:17).  How can the perfect Word of God be riddled with errors?

The last error in this section of the Word of God is:

Exodus 12:43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover: “No foreigner is to eat of it.

Yet earlier, it is commanded that foreigners must eat the same thing as the Israelites:

Exodus 12:19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses.  And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.

So basically what this says is that if a foreigner is in Israel during the Passover festive, that person will be irrevocably cut off from the community of Israel.  YHWH has created a Catch-22.  Foreigners are not allowed to participate and since they are not allowed to participate they are cut off from the Israelite community.  Further down YHWH allows a loop-hole to be created:

Exodus 12:48 An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land.

But this verse is in direct conflict with Exodus 12:43, where YHWH commands that no foreigner may eat the Passover meal.  The situation that these two verses creates is a repetitive loop.  The alien must circumcise his entire household or be cut off from the community.  There is no “who wants to celebrate”…the foreigner has no choice.  Again, YHWH has removed freewill from a person that lives near the community of Israel.

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