The Bible is a slave manual
Religion is the opposite of freedom. God is a dictator. That’s why dictators can so easily manipulate religious fundamentalists. They’re used to it.
The Bible in a nutshell: Obey obey obey! Or you will be punished severely.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,”
Exodus 19:5
“But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.”
Jeremiah 7:23
“If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;”
Isaiah 1:19
“You are my friends if you do what I command.”
John 15:14
“Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work”
Titus 3:1
“If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed.”
Exodus 21:7
“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”
Hebrews 13:17
“Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”
Titus 2:9
“All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves. These are the things you are to teach and insist on.”
Timothy 6:1
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.”
Colossians 3:22
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.”
Ephesians 6:5
“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.”
Leviticus 25:44
“Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.”
Exodus 21:20
“Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.”
Peter 2:18
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows.”
Luke 12:47
How Christian slaveholders used the Bible to justify slavery
When evangelical snowflakes censor the Bible: The English Standard Version goes PC: How a Bible edition aimed at right-wing evangelicals has quietly scrubbed references to slavery and “the Jews”
Whitewashing Evangelical scripture: The case of slavery and antisemitism in the English standard version
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
The rightwing US textbooks that teach slavery as ‘black immigration’
This post first appeared on Malloy.rocks
This is excellent.
Okay, let me start with, I am the granddaughter of a fundamentalist Midwestern Presbyterian minister, who spent time in my 20s and 30s searching for a religion that lived up to the teachings of Jesus, but came out the sausage grinder an atheist. I spent years studying the history of religion, anthropology, history of Egypt and the Middle East, etcetera. As a result, when we look at the Bible, especially the Old Testament, we must remember that:
1. The Bible is a collection of oral histories written down centuries or decades later.
2. The Bible, and the Koran, reflect the culture of the Middle East between 2000 BCE to about 100 AD which was patriarchal, misogynistic, tribalistic, polygamous, and polytheistic, even among the Hebrew people.
3. Democracies did not exist in the Middle East during this time.
4. Slavery was the norm. Slaves were bought and sold, often came from conquered tribes, villages, city-states, towns, cities, and empires, as well as criminals, the poor, and others in the conquering societies.
5. The dominate form of government were monarchies and emperors.
6. Most modern translations of the Bible are inaccurate. Translators have made mistakes. Example first: We speak modern English. One of the earliest renown authors of modern English is Shakespeare. When you read Shakespeare, do you understand the text? When, I taught Shakespeare (I have a credential to teach secondary English) my 20th and 21st century students could not understand the many of the words. Some words, like anon, are archaic, some had changed their meaning, and my students had no frame of reference to divine contextual clues. Why should they? Shakespeare wrote in the late-15th/early-16th centuries. The same issues have perplexed translators of the Bible.
7. Jahweh was originally the Hebrew volcano and war god. Jahweh was the Hebrew Ares. War leaders, like generals, are authoritarian and everyone else is a pawn or slave.
8. Religion had two purposes: to explain the natural world, and to provide the rational for the priestly caste and monarchy, often the same person, think pharaohs, to have power over the people.