April 17, 2010, 1:24 pm by dc-agape.

Mark 6:14-29

This is an odd story from the Bible.  First, it is a flashback.  We know this because:

Mark 6:16-17 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”  For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison.  He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married.

This is also an odd story because we do not know when John the Baptist was beheaded.  Some say 33AD and others say 36AD (from Josephus).  But we know that Jesus was crucified on Nov 24, 29AD.  So the Gospels seem to have an error! Even correcting for the 6 year “mistake” of Jesus’ birth Josephus was wrong.  Using the date of 33AD, we can determine that John the Baptist was beheaded in the same year that Jesus started his ministry. 

From reading this “flashback” story we know that the daughter of Herodias was named Salome who was born in AD 14.  And we know that Jesus began his ministry in 27AD.  We also know that John the Baptist was beheaded at best in 27AD if we correct the 33AD date for the death of John the Baptist.  This would make Salome only 13 (and no older than 19) years old when she danced for Herod Philip (her father).

From a gay Atheist perspective I can interpret this story with one big moral.  Quit indoctrinating your children!  It is quite obvious that Salome was indoctrinated by Herodias to the point of asking for a living man’s head on a platter.  Children can be very impressionable, and Herodias used this capacity to get exactly what she wanted…John the Baptist’s death.

There is another moral to this story and it involves Herod himself.  We know from Mark 6:20 that Herod liked to listen to John the Baptist.  We also know from Mark 6:26 that Herod had blocked himself into a corner.  But this is where the moral of the story comes into play.  Herod’s pride forced him to grant his daughter her mother’s wish.  He wanted to impress his audience, but in doing so he had to do something that greatly distressed himself.  Even from a gay Atheist perspective the actions produced by pride, the Histrionic Personality Disorder, the possible over use of alcohol, and even sexual drive (from Nermeena) can have very negative effects on the lives of other people.  No wonder it is call “sin”.  But we do not need a “God” to tell us that.  We can see it for what it is all by our teeny-tiny selves!

Posted in Gospel of Mark, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

March 13, 2010, 8:56 am by dc-agape.

Luke 2:23 – 3:35

This section of the gospel has a wealth of information, but I think I can boil it down rather quickly.  The first section of this section is “Who is Lord of the Sabbath”.  Jesus talks a little about what are appropriate actions of the Sabbath.  The next section is about how popular Jesus has become.  It’s a good thing he didn’t need Secret Service Agents back then, I guess YHWH really did have a reason to protect him.  The third section is one that I will focus on the most.  It is about a “house divided”.  Jesus applied it to Satan, but it can be aptly applied to Christianity today.  The final section covers how Jesus treats his own mother (the Virgin Mary) as an equal to everyone listening that day.

In my last post I mentioned that the phrase “Son of Man” in Aramaic means us…humanity.  So with that in mind, Jesus is saying that not only he, but all of us, is “Lord of the Sabbath”.  He even says as much:

Luke 2:27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Reading the “Son of Man” as Jesus meant it has profound meaning to most of what is written in the four Gospels.  When Jesus throws out demons and when he calls himself the “Son of Man”, he is not referring to his divinity.  He is claiming that all humanity can do the same things he did.

In the next section in Chapter 3 the crowds follow Jesus from the village of Capernaum to the “lake” (Sea of Galilee?).  Remember the size of Capernaum…basically Jesus walks about 3 city blocks to the “lake”. He is still overwhelmed by the crowd and must retreat to a boat near the shore.  The main reason he has to do this is the pressure to heal the sick and throw out demons.  I guess at some point even the Most Holy gets tired of helping people.  The odd thing about this “throwing out of demons” is this:

Mark 3:11-12 Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

If crying out “You are the Son of God” is not telling everyone in the crowd at the “lake” who was Jesus, what is?  It also shows that Jesus did not have control over demons…they told everyone who Jesus was…“the Son of God”.  I am having some trouble, as well, with the switch from Sea of Galilee to the “lake”.  It seems odd to me, and makes me wonder if some things have not been garbled over the millennia.  Luke does call it the Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1).  So is this a problem of the people at the time of Jesus (mostly Israelites) not having a standard naming of places they have possessed for thousands of years, or is this confusion over where the event took place, or is it just that only certain audiences called the Sea of Galilee by this name.  This last case would imply that each of the Gospels was truly meant for different people.

My favorite part of this section is where Jesus describes a “house divided”. 

Luke 3:24-25 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

Here he is referring to the power of Satan, because the Pharisees think that he is possessed by Beelzebub.  So here we have an ancient religion that is “God inspired” that believes not just in YHWH, Jesus, Satan, but also in the Prince of demons (a separate entity from Satan).  But Jesus counters them with the concept that if he were “of Satan” how and why would he throw out other members of his team.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what many Christian sects do this very day!  The Kingdom of God on earth is divided against itself, and Jesus declares that in this condition the Kingdom of God will not stand!  It is estimated that there are over 28,700 denominations as of right now and by 2025 it will have grown to 55,000.  This is a house/kingdom divided.  Your own “Lord and Savor” has warned you about this condition, yet nothing is being done to bring the Kingdom of God back to Jesus’ original plan.  Christianity will fail directly because of the fact that you ignore what your source of Salvation tells you!

I almost forgot the interesting part of this section:

Luke 3:28-29 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.  But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”

So go ahead and cure YHWH and Jesus, that’s just fine with the creator.  But don’t you dare say a single bad thing about the Holy Spirit.  I guess the Trinity is not quite what we expect.  Since the Holy Spirit is supposed to guide us here on earth, and we know how well that’s working out, Jesus wants to protect the weakest link from our verbal abuse.  Is it not odd how we can blasphemy the great creator and our salvation, but not the guiding force of the Trinity?  So don’t forget to take the Blasphemy Challenge!

The final section is about how Jesus treats his own mother, the Virgin Mary.  We also get to a glimpse into his family life before the ministry.  He had brothers and a mother that:

Luke 3:21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

This was not just his “brothers” this included his Virgin Mother:

Luke 3:32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

The Catholic venerated “Virgin Mother” who was certainly not a virgin after Jesus, believed he was “out of his mind”.  Yet somehow she has become second to Jesus in their faith!  A funny thought just occurred to me: where is Joseph, Jesus’ adopted father after YHWH deserts him.  But Jesus’ response is even more telling about Mary’s part in the story:

Luke 3:33-35 Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asks.  Then he looked at those seated in the circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

He basically lays it on the line…Mary and his biological brothers are NOT his spiritual family.  It would even seem from these verses that the Biblical family was not even doing the will of YHWH!  Do you not believe that Jesus would invite his own family in and introduce them to his new friends?  Instead he completely ignores his “virgin mother” and the rest of his family.  Now this is Biblical Family Values!

Posted in Gospel of Mark, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

January 30, 2010, 2:07 pm by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 50:15 – 26

Here ends the exploits of YHWH in the Book of Genesis.  This is also the end of the Patriarchs of the Israelites.  Before I did into the Book of Exodus, I want to devote some time to the TrueChristianTM part of the Word of God as well.  My next posts will be in the Book of Matthew.  My plan is to continue flipping back and forth between the Old and New Testaments.  One reason for this is that I don’t want to get bored!  A second is that I don’t want you to get bored.  I also want to provide equal efforts to both Judaism and Christianity.  If I continue to poke holes in the Old Testament it might look as if I am focusing on Judaism, which is not the point of this experiment. 

But let me finish up with the last few verses of Genesis.  In these verses Joseph’s brothers come to him in a panic.  They are afraid he holds a grudge against them for his own slavery.  I can certainly see why they would be worried.  But Joseph reassures them that everything that has happen was because of YHWH and not his brothers.  Here is another example of YHWH interrupting our own freewill.  You see his brothers had to sell Joseph into slavery or none of this would have happened the way YHWH had planned!  So now we understand that YHWH made Joseph’s brothers jealous of him, YHWH gave Judah the idea to sell Joseph into slavery, YHWH made sure that the Ishmaelites where close by to purchase Joseph, and YHWH even made Potiphar purchase Joseph!  So how many people did YHWH take freewill away from in this story?  If we continue with this trend…even the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife onto Joseph were controlled by YHWH.  YHWH made Potiphar’s wife sin!  How does this make YHWH a good god, loving god, or even a god to be worshipped?

The brothers of Joseph have another thing to worry about as well.  Joseph has sold all the peoples of Egypt and Canaan into slavery.  Does this include his brothers?  If so he is there master!  Not only can he take his grudge out on them as a powerful Egyptian second-in-command, but even worse he can take his grudge out on them as their slave owner!  Now this may not be the case, we know that the priests of Egypt were not sold into slavery, maybe Joseph provided free food to all his relatives.  But if this happened, it would only strengthen the case for the famine to be due to corruption and not to a natural occurring event!  Can you imagine living in during a famine as great as this seven year famine and know that certain people were being provided for without being sold into slavery?  We start to see why the Israelites were hated by the Egyptians.  Either Joseph sold his brothers into slavery or the people of Egypt forced slavery onto the Israelites for the corruption that Joseph perpetrated!

An interesting thing occurs is how his brothers approach Joseph about their fears.  They lie to him!  This is a great example of “godliness”!  The patriarchs of the Jewish and Christian religion cannot help themselves; they cannot “live righteously before the Lord”. Here is the lie:

Gen 50:16-17 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.  Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.”  When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

You can tell this is a lie for a number of reasons.  First, they do not go to Joseph, they send him a message.  You can always lie better is the person cannot see your face.  Second, Joseph was with his father during the “Blessing of Jacob” and at his death bed.  Israel had plenty of time to make the instructions directly to Joseph!  But it was a very effective lie, it caused Joseph to weep.  Joseph realized that he was negligent in his treatment of his entire family.  This is a Biblical family value?

Years later Joseph is preparing to die.  But before he dies he gets to see the great grandchildren: the sons of Makir, who is the son of Manasseh.  He pleads with his living relatives that when they leave Egypt to take his body and be buried in Canaan!  He does not request where his bones to be buried, he just does not want to be buried in Egypt. 

There is one thing that as a gay Atheist I cannot forget to bring up.  It is about the “christian” interpretation of a never-changing trust-worthy YHWH.  Joseph is the first character in the entire Word of God that fulfills YHWH decree that man’s life will be 120 years (Gen 6:3). After only 650 years YHWH has finally gotten around to being consistent.  This never changing, truthful god has been inconsistent and lying for 650 years!  I guess he gets better at those qualities as he matures.

Posted in YHWH & slavery, Joseph, Family Values?, Genesis, Freewill, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

January 16, 2010, 8:04 am by dc-agape.

Genesis 49:1 – 28

Here is the “Blessings of Jacob Israel” to his 12 sons.  If you remember he “adopted” Joseph’s first two sons, but they are not blesses with their “brothers”.  I guess that on his death bed, Israel forgot about that!  He remembers everything that his sons (Ruben, Simeon, and Levi) did in the past, yet leaves out the exploits of Judah.  His blessings on his slave wives sons are by far the shortest and the most vague.  But for Joseph, his blessing is long and full of good things.  I guess when you’re the favorite, it does not matter that you are just like your brothers, or worse.

Reuben

Israel starts off saying wonderful things about Reuben.  He says how great Ruben’s honor and power was.  But then he remembers that Reuben slept with Bilhah, Israel’s slave wife.  He ends the blessing with a curse.  He tells his first born son that Ruben’s will be a failure and will no longer excel.  But this is not just of Reuben; no this is a curse on all of Reuben’s offspring as well.  What a loving dad!  Can I have a dad like this?  Is this the Biblical Role model of a loving father?  Reuben makes one stinking bad move, and all the descendants of Reuben are cursed.

Simeon & Levi

Israel’s blessing on these two brothers is the same.  Because of their great anger over Dinah and the men they killed (but Jacob accepted the pillage, and possibly even bragged about the event to Joseph), he guarantees that these two brothers’ offspring will be scattered.  He also warns anyone of entering council with these two offspring.

Judah

Israel blesses Judah with the power of the lion, the praise of his brothers, and the scepter of the ruler.  But he does say that Judah will rule until one who the leadership belongs (David and then Jesus).  He continues the blessing telling of how the offspring of Judah will have excess of wine.  Israel obviously forgot that it was Judah’s idea to sell Joseph off into slavery.  He also must have ignored the fact that it was Judah also lied to Israel about the event.  Israel also forgot about the incident with Tamar.  But Judah is special and Israel forgives all these “sins”. Unlike his older brothers, Israel blesses Judah and all of Judah’s descendants.

Zebulun

Israel blesses Zebulun with living by the seashore.  Unfortunately, we find that this blessing was a false blessing.  We know that his offspring were given land in the “promised land” that was landlocked.

Issachar

He blesses his son Issachar with a pleasant resting place.  But Israel ends it with a curse of forced labor, as in slavery.  How anyone, in their right mind, could call this chapter of Genesis the “Blessings of Jacob” is completely beyond my comprehension!  Most of these are not “blessings”.  

Dan

Israel starts off by saying that Dan’s descendants are going to be justice for all of Israel.  But then he calls Dan a serpent!  Isn’t the serpent a representative of Satan?  How is calling all of Dan’s descendants Satanic a blessing?  Israel ends the “blessing” with how Dan will attack his enemies from cover, like guerrilla warriors or even terrorists.

Gad

Israel blesses all of Gad’s descendants with attacks by raiders.  What a great blessing!  Can someone bless me with this?  I really want to be attacked by raiders for all my relatives.  At least Israel ends this “blessing” with Gad returning the attack on the raiders.

Asher

Israel does bless Asher.  He simply puts it that Asher will have “delicacies fit for a king”.  Finally, a “blessing” that really is a blessing.  And since no tales of Asher’s are recorded in Genesis maybe this blessing is fitting.

Naphtali

Israel also blesses Naphtali.  The blessing is that all of Naphtali’s descendants will be “beautiful fawns”.  That’s not the best of blessings the term fawn usually refers to being fresh, new, and weak.  But at least his offspring will be beautiful!

Joseph

Israel blesses Joseph with a great number of offspring.  He also blesses Joseph with a strong arm in battle.  The blessing continues with great things from heaven, from the depth of the waters, and from the animals in the pastures.  He claims these blessing are greater than the mountains and the hills.  Wow, now this is a blessing!  It’s a shame that all of Joseph’s brothers get the shaft from Israel.

Ben-Oni

Israel “blesses” Ben-Oni (I will continue to use Rachel’s dying request to refer to Israel’s youngest son) with the fierceness of a ravenous wolf.  He continues the blessing with how Ben-Oni’s offspring will have battles in the morning and will divide the plunder at night.  Sounds like a peaceful life for all the descendants of Ben-Oni.  This is another one of those “blessings” that sounds more like a curse.

Posted in Family Values?, Genesis, Readings | Print | 17 Comments »

January 9, 2010, 8:21 am by dc-agape.

Genesis chapter 48

It seems odd how throughout Genesis the first born does not receive the inheritance.  This theme is carried out in this chapter as well.  Seth was the third child of Adam and Eve.  Shem was the second born of Noah.  Abram was the eldest son of Terah, but this is an abnormality.  Isaac was the second born of Abraham.  Jacob was the second born of Isaac.  Joseph is not the first born of Jacob.  When we get to the sons of Joseph, Israel blesses Ephraim (the second son) over Manasseh.  How has the Traditions of Men lost sight of YHWH selection of the younger sons?  Out of seven generations, only one had the inheritance and blessing go to the oldest son.  Somehow Man has superseded the Traditions of YHWH.  It is obvious that YHWH family value was to promote the younger sons over the older son!

Immediately upon seeing Israel, Joseph has a big surprise.  Israel chooses to take Joseph’s sons as his own!  Since Israel did not have enough sons he took Josephs sons away from him.  Joseph would have to have more sons from his Egyptian idolater wife! 

Another odd part of this story is that:

Gen 48:1 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.

Obviously, selling the entire nation of Egypt into slavery was a taxing job that kept Joseph away from the father he had not seen in over 21 years.  You would think that having not seen your father, not even knowing if you would ever see your father again, for over 21 year…he might have spent some time with the man that fathered him.  But we know that this is not the case:

Gen 48:8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he said, “Who are these?”

This is the type of question you ask when you have never met the people involved.  This is not the type of question asked when you recognize the size, shape, voice, or other characteristics of someone you know.  Joseph had never brought his sons to Israel. 

We know that Jacob has not been introduced to his grandsons here:

Gen 48:11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”

Is this some type of Biblical family value?  Joseph not spending time with his father or introducing his grandsons to him for “some time” is a Biblical family value?

Israel blesses both sons with the same blessing, but he puts his right hand on the younger son.  He knows he put his right hand on the younger son, proving that his vision was not that bad! 

So in this chapter of Genesis, a gay Atheist can interpret that the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian faiths have forgotten the Traditions of YHWH.  The Biblical family values that are displayed in this chapter are not in practice today by the very people who claim to want to enforce Biblical values on those who do not follow their faith!  Joseph did not honor his father; he did exactly what most people do today…leave an elderly family member in the care of someone else.  Joseph did exactly what most people do today…visit with family minimally at best.  This is in complete contradiction to the Ten Commandments!  Whatever happened to?

Ex 20:12 “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God has given you.”

Finally, my favorite part of the story:

Gen 48:22 And to you, as one who is over your brothers, I give the ridge of land I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

Israel is claiming that he is the one who destroyed Shechem!  And he is giving Shechem to Joseph, not the two brothers who actually did do the lying, thieving, murderous acts that took the “ridge”.  We know that Israel was distraught over what Levi and Simeon did:

Gen 34:30 Then Jacob Israel said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land.  We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed”

And we know that this is the same Shechem that Simeon and Levi destroyed because:

Joshua 24:32 And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.  This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

Gen 33:19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamon, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent.

Isn’t interesting that the Word of God refers to this plot of land as the one bought by Jacob and not the exact same plot of land that Ruben and Levi shed the blood of an entire town?  To the victors history is rewritten, mostly to make them look better!  Here is a modern day attempt at re-writing history by the conquerors. 

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Posted in Family Values?, Genesis, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

December 26, 2009, 10:08 am by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 46 – 47:12

In this story from Genesis it is the original Beverly Hillbillies, I used the theme song in the last post from Genesis.  This section is rather long, but after considering it more closely, I believe I can sum it up in one post.  I did not post yesterday, because I was debating how to split this section up, and well, I ran out of time.  My research at UTK is speeding up and I had three consultation yesterday, starting at 11:30 and ending at 5pm.  Maybe one day I will fill you in on the research, after I have published!  Anyway, I ran out of time yesterday to deal with such a large chunk of Genesis.

Israel packs up his family, in the newly minted carts from Pharaoh.  When the family has traveled ~ 40 miles towards Goshen, they stopped at Beersheba.  YHWH speaks to Israel there and tells him that Israel will die there but YHWH will bring him out of Egypt.  Here is the first example of fuzzy math.  “I’m with you”, and “I’ll bring you out of Egypt” are part of the conversation.  YHWH did not bring Israel out of Egypt, Joseph did!  But that’s what fuzzy math is all about.  And the whole:

^{Gen 46:3} “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

Well now that is just a hoot!  “Don’t be afraid”, even though YHWH plans on making all of Israel’s descendants slaves for over 430 years (4 generations – Gen 15:16)!  This is the second case of fuzzy math.  400 years is not 4 generations!  It’s closer to 4 full life-times, if you count men’s life at 120 years (Gen 6:3).  That does not work either since all the men named in the Bible lived for at least 147 years (Israel, himself, being the shortest lifespan).  YHWH is not to be trusted.  His math is fuzzy, he is inconsistent, he does not keep his promises, and his plans, in general, are horrific.

The next section is all the fuzzy math you could ever stand!  Here the sons and grandsons of Israel are listed.  First, in no way, shape, or form, can three generations of mankind have only one daughter!  And yes, in Gen 46:8 the author says the “sons of Jacob Israel”, but in Gen 46:26 it claims that this is all the people who went with him to Egypt, plus the slave wives from Shechem.  More fuzzy math is involved with the numbers of men.  In Gen 46:15 it claims that there were 33 sons of Leah, yet 34 names are listed.  This is explained in the study notes that a scribe somewhere in the future added a name by mistake!  YHWH, could you please keep your infallible text, well, infallible!

The total number of people who went with Jacob Israel (I really wish the infallible YHWH would remember that his name is not Jacob!) becomes 70 (Gen 46:27). But to get to this number…all the woman have to be left out, Joseph and his sons (already in Egypt) must be added, and add Er and Onan back in!  Er and Onan died in Gen 38:6-10 and were left out of the Gen 46:26.  As I said, it’s all the fuzzy math you could ever want, and a bit complicated.  This is a great example of Biblical family values: misogyny!

Joseph and Israel are reunited and it is a tearful experience.  Joseph must have lived many years wondering if he would ever see his father again, and Israel had believed his son was dead due to the lie Joseph’s brothers told.  Here is a great Biblical family value: lying!

Now because these men were shepherds, Joseph knew the Egyptians would despise them.  But he coached his brothers on what to say to the Pharaoh about being shepherds.  The Pharaoh gave the sons of Israel the best of the land (during a famine).  I’m sure it was a great place to have herds!  Jacob Israel blesses the Pharaoh twice, once on entering and once upon leaving the Pharaoh’s presence.  During this interview we find out that Israel is already 130 years old.  I guess those that YHWH blesses live longer than anyone else, but of course we have no proof of this because: we don’t know what calendar they used nor do we have any recorded maximum age of non-favored people! 

In the end all of Israel’s family is settled in the best part of the land.  I hope this was not like present day Israel where the Palestinians had to be removed from their ancestral homes.  But since this was the best property in Egypt, I would have to assume that this is exactly what happened.  Then Joseph makes sure that his brothers have enough food, for free, to ensure that they do not starve.  This must include food for the herds as well, since in a famine nothing is growing that is eatable.  I wonder how many Egyptians had to starve to death to ensure that the sons of Israel survived.

Posted in Family Values?, Genesis, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

October 24, 2009, 4:39 pm by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 38

In this chapter we are told that Judah leaves his brothers.  We are told that he went to a city that was southwest of Jerusalem (which of course did not exist yet).  The brothers were located in Hebron, which is about 20 miles south of “Jerusalem”.  Judah went to different town than this that was also southwest of “Jerusalem”.  Basically, he went across the street, compared to keeping the flocks in Dothan (80 miles way).

So just like Dinah going out with the Canaanite woman, Judah goes out with the Canaanite men.  He befriends a man by the name of Hirah.  During this time he meets a woman and marries her.  He also has three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah.

When Er was old enough to marry Judah got a wife for him named Tamar.  YHWH did not like Er, we have no idea why.  The Word says that Er was wicked in the sight of YHWH, just like all the Canaanites.  For some reason YHWH picked out Er to kill.  The only reason that makes any sense is that Er was born into the Chosen Family.  YHWH was not ready for evil children yet.  See the entire book of Judges; YHWH has to deal with a bunch of wicked people in that Book.  But YHWH was naive in Genesis and did not put up with this type of behavior, except in the case of Levi, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

Well there just happens to be a practice that YHWH does not have an opinion on:  levirate marriage.  This is the practice of a brother-in-law being responsible for producing offspring for a dead brother.  Since this was a traditional marriage in the Word of God, I wonder why we don’t practice it today.  It seems that since so many TrueChristiansTM want to have traditional marriages protected; shouldn’t levirate marriage also be protected?  Polygamy was also a traditional Biblical marriage; I wonder why that is not protected as well.

Onan is required to sleep with his dead brother’s wife because of the Biblical levirate marriage tradition.  He cheats, knowing that it will not be his children, and OMG…spills his seed.  Well, this piss-off YHWH and in a temper tantrum YHWH kills Onan as well.  Judah has only one young son left and is not ready to marry Shelah to Tamar. 

Judah sends Tamar back to her father, with a lie that she should wait there until Shelah is old enough to marry.  After some time, Tamar learns that she will not be wed to Shelah.  She decides to trick Judah into sleeping with her.  She dresses with a veil to disguise her face and waits for Judah to pass by on the way to sheer his flocks.  Judah, ready to get his rocks off, sees her and thinks that he has found a prostitute.

Tamar and Judah begin the bargaining process of the cost of having sex outside of marriage.  She requires his seal and his staff as promise that he will give her a young goat.  Judah is so ready to have sex that he agrees.  Later he sends Hirah back to the spot where he met Tamar with the goat, but Tamar is not there.  Judah finds out that no prostitute has been in the area for a long time. 

In pride, he decides not to hunt down Tamar to pay for the sex he had with her outside of marriage.  Three months later he finds out that Tamar is pregnant.  He is furious, and wants her to be burned to death.  She counters with the presentation of his seal and staff.  Judah recognizes that the Canaanites can be more righteous than the Chosen Family.  The people without YHWH are more righteous than those who do have YHWH, what a surprise!  Soon Tamar has twins.  The story ends with a detail about how the two boys struggle to get out of the womb and the name of the boys are: Perez and Zerah.  Even though this birth of the two sons seems isolated, these are the firstborn tribes of Israel.  Throughout the Book of Numbers these names will reappear.

From a gay Atheist point of view I cannot see why anyone would think that this Word of God was a good guide to how to live your life.  Judah committed the sins of adultery, anger, pride, false witness, and attempted to not pay for services rendered!  How is this an example of how to live?  He neither fears, nor worships YHWH.   Judah even admits that a Canaanite woman, that commits adultery, is more righteous than himself.  Reading this Book without the for-determined attitude that it is “God-breathed” makes all the difference.  Without making the assumption that YHWH was involved does make this an interesting read, but that is all the Book is: an interesting read.  No morality for the human race exists in this Word of God.  If anything we are learning from other peoples back choices, but YHWH is not required for that.

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October 17, 2009, 9:29 am by dc-agape.

Genesis 37:12-36

This is the story about Joseph being sold into slavery by his jealous and angry brothers.  Jacob Israel sends Joseph to Shechem (were Levi and Simeon) murdered all those people.  Jacob Israel heads out, alone, from Kiriath Arba (Hebron) to Shechem, which is over a 50 mile trip, one way.  No wonder Esau and Israel could not live together, if the shepherds of the time required that much land, Esau would have to move over 100 miles away!  Joseph cannot find them at Shechem because they have moved further north, an additional 20 miles from Kiriath Arba! 

Joseph’s brothers see him coming and hatch a plot to get rid of him.  Reuben talks them out of directly killing him.  Rueben hopes that he will be able to rescue Joseph from the cistern that they trough him in.  But while Rueben was gone, (where did he go?) Judah talks the remaining eight brothers into selling Joseph to some Ishmaelite slave traders.  They earn a whopping 20 shekels of silver.   So each brother gets about 2 shekels for selling their own brother into slavery!

When Reuben returns he discovers that Joseph is no longer in the cistern.  All ten brothers decide to use goat’s blood and stain Joseph’s ornamented robe.  They return to Jacob Israel and dishonor him by giving false witness about the death of Joseph. 

Jacob Israel is horrified, and tore his cloths in mourning and wore sackcloth (symbol of mourning in the Traditions of Men).  Jacob’s Israel’s entire family tries to comfort him but be declares that he will mourn until he dies.  Some of the family that attempt to comfort Jacob Israel are his daughters, since the Word only mentions one daughter, we can assume that these are the kidnapped woman of Shechem that have been forced to marry Israel’s sons.

When Joseph gets to Egypt he is sold into slavery.  But not to just anyone, he is sold into slavery to Potiphar, the captain of the Pharaoh’s guard.  Why Potiphar chooses Joseph is a complete mystery, the Word does not say. 

From an Atheist point of view, this story can be interpreted to have several meanings.  No is something that most Humanist recognize.  Lying to someone never works.  Does no one ever realize that when you lie, someone will catch you at sometime in the future?  Lying gets to complex very rapidly.  After lying to their own father, the brothers had to attempt to console him.  I am amazed that not a single one of them broke down and told their father the truth!  This story also tells an Atheist how even being chosen by YHWH does not mean that a person will be honorable or good!  These men were the Chosen Ones of YHWH, yet they get angry and jealous, they murder, steal, kidnap, lie, dishonor their parents, have multiple wives, and sell/buy slaves.  And TrueChristianTM think that Atheists are evil!  I’m also getting really tired of correcting YHWH.  Jacob’s name is ISRAEL!!  Why can’t YHWH remember that he gave him that name!

Gen 32:28 Then the man (who is YHWH) said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel. Because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

The moment YHWH changed Abram’s name to Abraham it stuck.  We never read the name Abram again.  But this verse says that Israel’s name is no longer Jacob.  YHWH has decreed it, why does the Word of God not follow his own decree?  The more I read the Bible the more I am certain that YHWH has dementia, or maybe Alzheimer’s.  We know that YHWH is an old man, by the Traditions of Men, so maybe that’s why he keeps forgetting things.

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