Friday, August 6, 2010

Deuteronomy

1
Previously, the Bible contained direct quotes from the mouth of God. In Deuteronomy, we now have God's word as Moses tells it. This is a curious and significant transition, and has much bearing upon reasonableness, for words from the mouth of a supreme being should perhaps be judged with a different set of standards than those spoken by fallible humans. One could reasonably counter-argue that every word of a "divinely-inspired" text must be subject to the same scrutiny, but i'll allow this new distinction nonetheless.
22:12
(WARNING: SARCASM) Previous protests notwithstanding, it is of course entirely reasonable that the Lord might be partial to a good tassel.
22:13-30
It seems strange to propose that the divine sanctification of a mating union would be contingent upon procedural particulars rather than spiritual dynamics. Also, these verses contain the suspect assertion that it is the male who is by nature the sexual aggressor. We all know that it's usually the case that males only THINK they are the sexual initiator. We do know that, don't we?
24:16
This is reasonable. It's interesting however, to note that it's a direct contradiction of the spirit of many of the Lord's earlier commands (the most recent a mere 39 verses past).
25:11-12
Logically then, if a man saw his wife engaged in a fight with another woman, and he intervened by grabbing the other woman's genitals, he would also then be required to have his hand cut off. Just thinking aloud here…
31:21
It is interesting that in this verse the Lord states that It has full knowledge of all that will ever be. Throughout the Bible thus far, there are instances of the Lord being surprised at human actions. Such instances are inconsistent with omniscience in general, and this verse in particular.
32:4
Many of the words I've spoken thus far have been a protest that the Lord of the Bible has simply NOT manifested the very righteous and just qualities described in this verse. In Its elevation of the Israelites, in Its inconsistent (see the Joshua 7:24-25 entry) punishments...
33:9
This seems a contradiction of the Lord's earlier unqualified command to honor thy mother and father.

No comments: