Morals Don’T Come From God: For This I Know Because The Bible Tells Me So

[srd44]

The title of this post is the title of another book I’m currently working on. Its thesis is that despite fervent claims made by fundamentalists, when one studies the Bible’s many different legislations, law codes, and moral precepts comparatively, the biblical texts themselves tell us that its morals were shaped by ever-changing cultural and subjective perspectives, worldviews, and even ideologies. In other words although the Bible rhetorically presents Yahweh giving laws and statues—“Thus saith Yahweh…”—when studied more closely and contextually the Bible’s texts reveal that their moral precepts are subjective, cultural creations. It is the Bible itself that informs us that morals do not come from god Yahweh! Here is an excerpt from chapter 1, entitled:

 

Yahweh and the Moral Ideology of an Elite Priestly Guild

There’s a story in 1 Samuel 6 that recounts how the ark of Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews, came back to Israel and was placed in the hands of Levite priests after having passed through the town of Beth-shemesh. Here is an excerpt from that story.

And the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. And the cart [upon which the ark was placed] came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there, where there was a great stone. And they cleaved the wood of the cart and offered up the cows for a burnt-offering unto Yahweh. . . Then Yahweh smote the men of Beth-shemesh because they had gazed upon the ark of Yahweh. He smote 50,070 men of the people, and the people mourned because Yahweh had smitten them with a great slaughter (1 Sam 6:13-15, 19).

What was supposed to be a joyous event, and which did in fact elicit praises and sacrifices to Yahweh, ended up being a calamity for the people of Beth-shemesh. Yahweh, their god, smote 50,070 of their men!

 

Our immediate question should not be why did Yahweh do this, as if a scribe were recording an historical event. But rather, why would an ancient scribe have presented Yahweh doing this? Who would have written such a story and why? What purpose could it possibly have served?

 

What do Uzzah and the men of Beth-shemesh have in common that would have elicited such a response from their deity? Besides the fact that they either gazed upon the ark of Yahweh or touched the holy relic, they were both commoners! Or more specific to the interests of these stories, they were non-Levites!

 

These are powerful stories and were undeniably written to convey a poignant, if indeed disturbing, message: that under no circumstances are non-Levites to touch, even gaze upon, Yahweh’s ark! Only the Levites were allowed this privilege. These are not historical narratives, but dramatized lessons crafted by elite priests who wrote to authenticate and legitimate their own social position, authority, beliefs, and morals. Both the Beth-shemites and Uzzah, as well as numerous other characters in the Hebrew Bible, function as literary foils to demonstrate that under no circumstances are non-Levites to minister to Yahweh’s cult, touch Yahweh’s sacred objects, or even gaze upon them. Only Levites could minister to Yahweh; all others no matter what the circumstance would be brutally struck down by Yahweh himself. That is the message behind these stories. And they were written by elite Levite priests to legitimate Levite ideology by presenting Yahweh, their deity, as a spokesperson for their own views and beliefs.

 

In other words, these stories exemplify what ancient literature is and how it was often used. Its “moral legislation”—that Yahweh will slaughter any non-Levite that touches, even gazes upon, his holy objects—is not some objective moral with a supernatural origin, but rather a carefully crafted lesson created by Levite scribes whose purpose was to endorse, legitimate, and safeguard their own authority and ideology, and often against the views and claims of rival guilds (such as the Aaronid priestly guild), by using the deity as their spokesperson. No non-Levite would claim this Yahweh with this moral dictate as their god. Rather, it is the literary creation of Levite priests... continued at http://contradictionsinthebible.com/morals-dont-come-god-know-bible-tells/

[quinntar]

50,070 is very specific, did they count every dead body? Do you have an explanation for why the scribes kept that figure.

[Jeff]

"Eli"

"Yes father"

" "A whole bunch" sounds stupid. Put an exact number in the story. Stupid, I've told you this like 20,000 times"

"Fine then. 50,000"

"Stupid head! No one will believe that number. It sounds made up"

"OK then! 50,070. Happy?!"

"Better son, better"