mwc Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Also, cain kills able and goes out of the area and gets married ??????????????? It's because Cain and Able were an older story that was incorporated into the Bible. In the original story Earth didn't have a tiny population who all descended from Cain's mother. That way Cain didn't have to marry his sister. XKCD. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 But look at the following: 2 Kings 3: 26 And when the king of Moab saw that the fight was going against him, he took with him seven hundred men armed with swords, with the idea of forcing a way through to the king of Aram, but they were not able to do so. 27 Then he took his oldest son, who would have been king after him, offering him as a burned offering on the wall. So there was great wrath against Israel; and they went away from him, back to their country. They're losing the fight. The king kills his son in a burnt sacrifice and they now win the battle. This is the exact same strategy that Jephthah takes (albeit in a slightly different way). The reason they "won" is because the heir was disposed of and the "threat" is removed. You might also see some god being "appeased" or whatnot but it's just easier to kill off your heir than have your empire laid waste. It's a type of "peace treaty" in an odd sort of way. People don't want him so if you handle it then he gets offed in some "honorable" fashion and peace is kept. If they do it then it's a slaughter with slaves and the whole nine. Best to take the high road. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Want a simple explanation? In the 5th century BCE, Ezra & company were sent from Babylon to set up a client Kingdom. They had a mystery religion that had developed in Babylon. When they got to Jerusalem they found friendly and hostile tribes. So they took material and concepts from their own religion and weaved them together with material and concepts from the various religions of the friendly locals and created the Old Testament. The goal was to give the mixed population a sense of common cultural heritage and a single religion centered around the Jerusalem Temple. That is how the Old Testament wound up with so much baggage. The tradition of "Jephthah's daughter" would have been one of the local customs that had to be incorporated and explained in a way that an Iron Age population would accept. (And of course those local tribes not welcoming Ezra wound up being the bad guys in the Bible. Ezra would make up stories about how their mother got her own father drunk and slept with him and crap like that.) Christianity did much the same thing centuries later. Christianity needed the Old Testament to give the new religion a sense of legitimacy and that is how Christianity got stuck with a bunch of old baggage. The Farce, is strong in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 The story of Jephthah's daughter is more proof that the priests demanded sacrifice offerings and vows kept at all extremes. When I was a Christian, one was taught that this story was a caution not to make vows without considering the consequence because god holds you to your vow because of the blood offering. This girl was honored because she allowed her father to save face and keep his stupid vow of sacrifice, which he never had to make. He murdered his own daughter so he could keep his standing in the community and honor his vow. What kind of a god would demand an innocent boy be sacrificed yet send an angel to stay his father's hand, but would do nothing to save an innocent girl from her father's vow to sacrifice her for an offering to the same god? A fucked up god from a fucked up religion! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 The story also helps to illustrate how much lower the female is considered by the cult, than the male who is above her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antix Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 I tried looking up some things on christian based sites and asked a minister. It appears they serious change the meaning when they give an explanation. In other words, they cannot admit that dude killed his daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Valk0010 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 As far as reading the bible, I take the keep it simple stupid (kiss) approach as much as I can. I figure if bronze age's sheepherders got the point without relying on sophisticated theology. I can too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antix Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 When a question is asked, it is important in my opinion to receive a logical answer (of which exchristian.net does a great job), once you cannot or will not answer a question (and I do not mean out of not knowing, I do not know is a logical answer). That tends to be many christians logic and it is very annoying. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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