Crime and punishment in the Bible
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The Hebrew Bible is the holy text of most abrahamic religions. It records many events and laws that are endorsed or prescribed by Yahweh or carried out by certain people. Judaism teaches that the Torah contains 613 eternal commandments, many of which deal with law and punishment, on the personal, national and global scales. Christianity has also adapted and adopted many of these directives. To illustrate Yahweh's power, the text openly records what befell nations or individuals as lessons.
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[edit] In the Book of Exodus
Moses negotiating the Exodus from Egypt with Pharaoh leading up to the Ten plagues: First Pharaoh enslaves the Children of Israel: "[The Egyptians] appointed conscription officers over [the Israelites] to crush their spirits with hard labor. [The Israelites] were to build up the cities of Pithom and Ra'amses as supply centers for Pharaoh...The Egyptians started to make the Israelites do labor designated to break their bodies. They made the lives of [the Israelites] miserable with harsh labor involving mortar and bricks, as well as all kinds of work in the field. All the work they made them do was intended to break them." (Exodus 1:11-14 [1], then he issues decress to kill all the Israelite males (Exodus 1:15-16) (Moses is saved by his mother putting him into an ark of bulrushes), and after first being the option of freely letting the Israelite slaves go, God hardens Pharaoh's heart, so that Pharaoh does not agree to let the Hebrews leave, then God sends various disasters onto the whole of Egypt, the cycle ends with the story of the killing of every firstborn child in Egypt as the final punishment for having afflicted the Israelites with deathly punishments. (Exodus 6-14)
[edit] In the Book of Numbers
The people of Midian together with Moab began to interact with the people of Israel, including sexual relationships: "Israel was staying in Shittim when the people began to behave immorally with the Moabite girls. [The girls] invited the people to their religious sacrifices, and the people ate and worshipped the [Moabite] gods." Numbers 25:1-2 [2]
For these alleged transgrations, the Midianties were attacked by Moses and his followers (Num 31:1-54). When Moses learns that some of the Midianties are left alive (Num 31:15), he orders all males and non-virgin females killed, and all the virgin females to be taken captive (Num 31:17,18). Of the 32,000 virgins taken captive, 32 were sacrificed to God (Num 31:40). The rest of the virgins were considered booty (Num 31:32-35), for what purpose is not stated, but generally presumed to be sexual slavery.
For the alleged transgration of not initially killing all the males and non-virgins females, God brought a plague upon the people of Moses (Num 31:16)
[edit] Other punishments
- Canaan was cursed to become a slave ("servant of a servant") by Noah. That was a punishment for Ham (Canaan's father) accidentally seeing Noah "naked" (Genesis 9.20-9.25) (which some believe is a Biblical euphemism meaning rape. Most scholars dispute this.)
- Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back when fleeing Sodom (Genesis 19:26) (They were all explicitly warned by God not to look at the destruction of the wicked people of Sodom.)
- Onan was killed by God for his refusal to marry his brother's widow and carry on his brother's family line. (Genesis 38:5)
[edit] Examples of the death penalty
The Bible prescribes the death penalty for the following activities
- Violating the Sabbath (by working, for example, see Exodus 31:14).
- Men having sex with men, animals, or someone else's wife (Leviticus 20)
- Rape (Deuteronomy 22)
- Worshipping other gods (Deuteronomy 13:6-13:10)
[edit] Challenge to modernity
It is true that in an environment of wide spread literacy, those imbued modern culture and values will see such stories of mutilation, rape, various curses, slavery, capital punishment, animal cruelty, misogyny, child abuse, homophobia, and so forth as being a challenge to the moral authority of the bible.
These events are sometimes labelled "Bible atrocities and absurdities" by critics of Christianity (fundamentalist Christianity in particular), and presented as examples of ridiculousness, inconsistency and hypocrisy in those who subscribe to a literal interpretation of Scripture. One website summarises the argument: "Myth: The Bible is morally pure and free from atrocity. Fact: The Bible is filled with countless acts of barbarism and tyranny." [3] The argument dates back at least as far as 1795, voiced by Thomas Paine in The Age Of Reason.
"Bible difficulties" is an alternative term used by believers and apologists to describe these passages, although the phrase also covers alleged or apparent contradictions in the Bible.
[edit] Reference
- Thomas Paine, Age of Reason, 1795.
