‘No’ to the Old Testament
Michael Oppenheim blames the Old Testament for creating injustice in the Middle East
A literal reading of the Old Testament is seriously damaging the Palestinian people. For it is written within the Old Testament, clearly and repeatedly, that God has given the whole of Palestine – and more – to Abraham’s seed. Here is the text of the covenant made with Abraham (Genesis 15:18): ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land…’ Other pertinent references in Genesis include 12:7 and 17:8. The religious settlers in Israel, accordingly, believe that they are exercising their full rights, if not an obligation, in settling within Palestine.
You and I might say that the reference to Abraham’s seed should include Ishmael, the offspring of Hagar, Abraham’s second wife. But that is not the interpretation accepted by the settlers. For in Genesis 18, whereas Ishmael is to be made a great nation, it is only with Isaac that God’s covenant is to be established. From the settlers’ viewpoint, accordingly, establishing settlements beyond the 1967 border is an execution of God’s will.
We might regard the treatment of the Palestinians, in that their land is appropriated by settlers, to be rather rough. But this is nothing compared to what happened when the Children of Israel returned to their Promised Land forty years after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt! Joshua 1:4 defines the extent of this territory, eretz yisrael in Hebrew. But eretz yisrael is already occupied by Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. Ethnic cleansing of a very thorough nature ensues, summarised in Joshua 10:40: ‘So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings; he left none remaining but utterly destroyed all that breathe as the Lord God of Israel commanded’. Deuteronomy 20:16-17 clearly decrees that this is what has to be done!
I regard the Old Testament as a rather distasteful work. And unlikely to have been written by God, or through His guidance.
Comments
Michael Oppenheim should not blame the Hebrew Bible, he should blame those who interpret things literally that were written long ago for who knows what reasons? The events described in Joshua for example didn’t actually happen (archeologists have discovered). More likely these are Assyrian war myths expressing the frustration of the Israelites with a super-power” that had overwhelmed their culture. It would better serve the cause of world peace if Mr. Oppenheim would first educate himself in biblical criticism and focus his attacks on those who deserve them: the fundamentalists who, like Mr. Oppenheimer are ignorant of biblical scholarship and use the ‘words’ to justify what is nothing more than their own political views.”
By billthequaker on 29th January 2010 - 13:47
I want to appologize to Michael Oppenheim for the way I delivered my comments above; my wife, dear Pat read them after I sent them, and she has reported me to the Quaker police. Michael I am simply so angry with some Friends, who attack the messenger and leave the guilty unscathed. However, this is no excuse to let bitterness seep into my response to you. So let me amend. The Bible is a great literature. The only reason it has survived is that it has allowed people to experience God directly through stories that shake our souls to the core. In 19th century America, a Protestant movement began that completely overturned thousands of years of tradition in scriptural reading begun by the teachers of all of us, the Hebrew people. These Protestants admitted only a literal understanding of scripture, which of course eliminates the possibility of any real encounter with truth. The Bible records the struggle of men and women to understand what God wants of them. It is nothing more than that. Imperfect therefore is that understanding, but it is the struggle that is inspirational. When we ‘get over’ the fact that God (evidently) has asked Abraham to kill his beloved son, we see that here are the beginnings of a testimony against war, the killing of anyone for a ‘sacred cause’. The testimonies we live by as Quakers are all to be found in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. The Catholics have always understood that the Bible is a complex and ‘dumb’ book (that is it cannot speak for itself). The Protestant fundamentalists ignore this. The Bible, thousands of years old, some of the stories, cannot be understood without hard work, and an article in this issue (above) gives some excellent modern writers who can help Friends expand their understanding of the writings that undergird the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is I feel the responsibility of all Friends to have this understanding, otherwise we are left only to our own devices without the aid of the wisdom of the ancients who struggled with the same issues we struggle with today.
By billthequaker on 29th January 2010 - 15:00
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