Genesis 24:2-3, Keep your man-parts out of harm’s way, part II of III
[Abraham] said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites …”
//Now, I don’t know exactly where that hand “under the thigh” went, but this I do recognize from linguistics: The word testify, like testimony, is rooted in the word testicles … the source of human seed. God’s promise to Abraham was that his seed would be plentiful, and in ancient times, it was believed that the source of life existed entirely in the sperm; a woman’s role in reproduction was no more than to provide a house for the seed to grow.
Dating back to the time of Abraham, then, an oath is sworn “under the thigh,” where life resides.
Yesterday, I discussed the severity of the punishment for any woman who grabs a man’s testicles in a fight. Her hand was cut off. Perhaps we should not be surprised that laws such as this cropped up, protecting the life within another man.
There is, however, another way to look at this punishment of mutilation. We’ll wrap up this discussion tomorrow with an interesting twist.
Deuteronomy 25:11-12, Keep your man-parts out of harm’s way, Part I of III
If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man, you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
//This may seem like a strange law, but it’s actually a very important deterrent. Deuteronomy 23:1 explains that if a man’s testicles are crushed, he is no longer admitted to the assembly of the LORD. Nor, adds Leviticus 21:20, may any man with such a defect approach God with a food offering.
It appears manliness is next to Godliness, and it won’t do to have women running around grabbing at stuff. Damaged man-organs rank up there on God’s list of abominations with hunchbacks, dwarves, illegitimate births, and missing eyes. In God’s world, testes are important even on animals; Leviticus 22:24 cautions against offering an animal with damaged testicles as a sacrifice.
However, it may not pay to become too richly endowed, either. Such men may prove too much of a temptation for Godly women, according to Ezekiel, chapter 23 … in language I dare not repeat here.
More on this tomorrow, on a more serious note, but for today, guys, the best advice might be to keep your jeans on.
Book review: Evolution of the Word
by Marcus Borg
★★★★
This is a big book, 593 pages, but over half of it is a reprint of scripture. After an introduction, Borg goes book-by-book through the New Testament, providing a few pages of overview for each, primarily discussing its historical context, and then presenting the Biblical text. Borg’s contributions are a little sparse and offered without much argument, so if you’re looking for exhaustive commentary, that’s not his purpose.
Also, do not imagine that scholars have some kind of universal agreement about when each of the N.T. books were written! Borg humbly admits there is no consensus, and in places, admits his opinion differs from the majority. In general, Borg dates many of the books just a little later than I do. For example, he follows the recent trendy dating of Luke/Acts well into the second century, while I remain unconvinced and still date these two books around 85-95. And, of course, we won’t agree on Revelation, since in my own book I rely heavily on a historical-critical interpretation to place its date right around the year 80 CE, which differs from almost every New Testament scholar.
But while there’s no exact consensus, that’s not really the point. The point of Borg’s book is to portray how Christianity evolved in its earliest years, as evidenced in the writings we have in our Bible. Indeed, the New Testament itself is an evolutionary outgrowth of the Old Testament. Quite a bit of the discussion centers on Paul, and on the letters written in his name, as this is where the most serious change occurs over the span of the New Testament … issues like the role of women in the church and of how to regard Christian slaves like Philemon.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but found few surprises, and the reading went fast since I didn’t take time to reread all of the scripture.
Focus on the Author: Leonard Timmons
Author of From Adam to Noah: The Numbers Game
A while back, I reviewed Leonard’s book, and gave it a three-star review, considering it a rather fantastic theory. Leonard promised a response to my review, and I’d like to share that with you now.
My response to your review follows:
What do the ages of the first humans in the Bible mean? Could people really have lived that long? Leonard Timmons has found an ancient calendar hidden in these numbers, and feels this discovery is key to understanding the Bible.
Actually, my position is that my understanding of the Bible is responsible for the discovery. “One of the things we must accept at this point is that the Bible writers did not want us to find the calendar. They hid it so well that it was almost impossible to find. Why? And why did I find the calendar when so many others failed to, even though it was hiding in plain sight? My answer is that I was willing to put in the time to figure out what the numbers meant, and I was willing to look at the world through the eyes of the people who wrote the Bible. I was trying to look at the Bible through the eyes of its writers long before I solved this puzzle. It was this willingness that allowed me to solve the riddles of Noah’s ark, the Garden of Eden, and Revelation 13. I found the solution to those riddles first, and that allowed me to almost feel the solution to this one.” Page 50.
Timmons’s calendar is constructed by charting, on a timeline, the births and deaths of the men between Adam and Noah, fudging a little here and there to create a few more meaningful points on the timeline,
I went out of my way to not change a single number. The only place where I changed anything was the life of Enoch. I show that if his age was 364 years, we would have a perfect 1×56, 2×56 and 3×56 sequence. The writers do this to introduce us to the 364-day year and to let us know that they know that the year is 365 days long. This idea is shown, but does not affect anything that follows.
So my argument is with the word “fudging” which implies that I knew that a calendar was present in the numbers before I actually discovered it. I can tell you that is not so. When I presented my early results to the monk a the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, I did not yet consider it to be a calendar puzzle. I didn’t know what it was. I did not mention that there was a calendar hidden in the ages. The monk volunteered that a calendar was hidden in the numbers. I thought this might be insightful, but certainly premature to say. This was the first time anyone mentioned a calendar. My mind was completely open (an idea that helped me solve many of the riddles of Genesis 1-11, in my opinion). I did find a calendar, but I did not intend to find one as you suggest.
and then discovering that it breaks down into four portions of 364 years plus one 5-year portion. Turn that into days, and you have a 364-day year, plus a 5-day seasonal correction after four years (think of our leap day). 364, for calendar aficionados, is the Jubilees calendar from the Qumran texts, so-liked because it plays nice, dividing neatly into 52 seven-day weeks.
Timmons’s analysis is founded on arithmetic combinations of round numbers (such as 500 or 1000) and of the number seven. Lamech’s age at his death, 777 years, appears to be a clue. For example, 56 is a nice number because it is 7×7+7. 84 is an excellent number because it is 77+7. Seven is recognized as God’s number, a perfect number
I don’t say this. Don’t know where you get this idea. Could you provide a reference?
, the number of days in the week. Readers of Revelation are quite aware of how important seven, and in particular three sevens (777), are in Biblical thinking.
Timmons is correct that numerology
Please note that my book is not about numerology, but numerical symbolism. I think you can trace the numerology of the Bible back to this puzzle, but I don’t think numerology plays a significant part in this puzzle and no part in my book. I say that I suspect that some number combinations might seem mystical to the authors (354 days of the lunar year being the sum of 123 and 231; 1461-(9×123) = 354) but that’s because it’s just amazing to me that these numbers work out just right. It may be enough reason to believe that our solar system was designed though we know these numbers have changed over the history of the earth-moon system.
was important to the ancients, often used as a means of Biblical enlightenment. Consider the 666 of Revelation, and the miraculous catch of 153 fish by Jesus’ disciples. Timmons takes a stab at solving both of these riddles, which might be a mistake on his part; while no convincing solutions to the second puzzle have been offered, making the 153 puzzle fair game for speculation, scholars are nearly unanimous and surely correct in solving the 666 puzzle.
Since you have a book on this, I did not expect that you would accept my interpretation. I did not see any mention in your link of the parallels between Revelation 13 and Daniel 7. Do you have an explanation? Does anyone?
In any case, I would not be surprised at all to discover that there is meaning in the ages of the earliest humans in the Bible. It’s far more likely that the numbers have some sort of meaning to the authors than that people actually lived that long! However, even after reading Timmons’s book, a hidden calendar code seems a bit too conspiratorial for my taste. Timmons may be on the right track with his “meaningful numbers,” but attributing the whole thing to a hidden calendar doesn’t feel right to me.
I didn’t really expect that your biblical positions were based primarily on emotion. I read a number of your reviews that were reasoned and logical. So this surprised me.
That is, however, the book’s premise: Not only is there a calendar hiding within the ages of the earliest humans, but it has been purposefully hidden. This is not just numerology, it’s a devised puzzle, and (in my opinion) an inelegant one. The authors were not content just to lay out a calendar; they carefully hid the calendar, purposefully confusing us, swapping the meaningful number 56 here and there with 65 (the reverse of its digits) to confuse us, doubling and halving numbers here and there to bewilder us.
So who imbedded these puzzles? Perhaps collators of the Bible while in Babylonian captivity, or shortly after they returned to Jerusalem? That sounds somewhat believable, but Timmons thinks not;
Actually, I did not address this, per se. It is my position, and I state this in the book, that these scriptures were edited and re-edited by people who understood them. So the final edit could have been done during the captivity in Babylon, but I don’t know this history. Why would I say?
he argues instead that the Bible should be thought of as an ancient educational textbook for the enlightened, a sort of test to divide good puzzle-readers from bad. The Bible is a book of riddles to help the initiate develop his talent for insight. We’re not just talking about the creation stories; the Bible’s authors have encapsulated hidden knowledge in its texts from Genesis to Revelation! An “insight school” that lasted a thousand years! (Timmons actually suggests thousands).
I suspect that you misunderstand me here. There are schools of thought. There are ways of doing things. Jesus had his school and that was an actual school. Elijah and Elisha had their schools that were actual schools. The “insight school” is a school of thought. I’m pretty sure I make this clear in the book. “In his book Who Wrote the Bible?, Richard Friedman makes clear that ancient Israel had two schools of thought about what our relationship with God should be. The first school believed in angels, quick wit, and direct intervention by God; the second believed in laws, plodding, and obedience to God.” Page 217. It is trivially easy for a school of thought to last a thousand years. Any “-ism” can last for a very long time. Judaism, for instance. Christianity, for instance. Platonism, for instance.
Timmons rejects the Documentary Hypothesis (which proposes that the Torah was written by at least four distinct authors, none of them Moses). I cannot help but think he commits another error by pitting his puzzle theory against the Documentary Hypothesis; it seems far more reasonable to me that the Documentary Hypothesis disproves the ancient textbook idea rather than vice-versa.
Yet the Documentary Hypothesis has been rejected throughout Europe. See “Taking Issue with the Documentary Hypothesis” at the following link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ADocumentary_hypothesis This is what I heard from my contacts in Europe as well. My contacts in Australia still hold to the hypothesis.
Anyway, the hidden calendar is not really the important thing. It’s just a discovery that should prompt us to read the Bible differently;
Again, reading the Bible differently is responsible for the discovery of the calendar. I suspect that people come to this conclusion because I present the calendar first. But it was not first. Reading the Bible differently was first.
to reveal to us the surprising intellect and understanding of its authors.
Again, the reason I found the calendar was that I read the Bible as if its authors were very intellectual and had great understanding. I did not and do not look down on them because they lived thousands of years ago. I find this to be common among people who “follow” the Bible.
Free now to explore a deeper meaning in the scriptures than a literal reading, Timmons next launches into his interpretation of the Bible’s themes; how the ancients thought of demons, angels, soul, spirit, faith, even God … and it’s nothing like what we thought they meant. This insight helps Timmons decode stories like the Flood and the Garden of Eden, and he provides two creative and fascinating interpretations. Even Jesus’ parables and Revelation’s mysteries are revealed.
Again, I figured out what the Bible writers thought of demons, angels, etc. before I discovered the calendar. I decoded the flood story in the late 90’s (I provide a link to a newsgroup post). I discovered the calendar in the early 2000’s.
I found the book to be an interesting fringe theory, and fun with numbers (right up my alley), but not something I found convincing. However, my feeling is that there is surely a 4- or even 5-star book idea here, that Timmons’s interpretations are ingenious, but that he overreaches by claiming them to be the correct interpretation … as if the Bible writers actually meant their stories to be read this way.
Would I claim that my interpretations were incorrect? I am taking a position. I am advocating that the reader see the world from my position. Someone has to have the correct interpretation. It is my position that my view of the Bible leads to a verifiable result. So that should give it and my interpretations more weight than those that just make the reader feel good about themselves.
My book is very different, so I don’t really expect traditionalists to understand it. I read the Bible without emotion. With a complete open mind. With the idea that when the Bible writers describe the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and say that they flow opposite the direction that the real rivers flow, that they were not stupid. They understood geography. When I see people put the confluence of the rivers far upstream, they cannot think much of the authors or they think the text is massively corrupt (which is the same thing). Suppose we grant that these people might have been as smart as us. Or even smarter. Do they have enough information at hand to understand the world as deeply as our greatest philosophers? I think they did. That’s how I found the calendar and the meaning of the stories—I respected the authors.
Matthew 4:1-2, Jesus Fasts
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
//According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, immediately after his baptism by John, Jesus heads off into the desert to be “tempted by the devil” for forty days. This contradicts the Gospel of John, which reports that Jesus came back to the Jordan River the very next day, but let’s not get bogged down in details.
What I find interesting is not whether Jesus fasted for one day or forty, but why he decided to fast at all. Apparently, according to Matthew, Satan wouldn’t or couldn’t show up until Jesus is delirious in his hunger. But once Jesus is properly prepared, Satan makes his entrance and tempts Jesus, first suggesting Jesus change some rocks into food. Then Satan tempts Jesus with fame and kingship over the earth, which Jesus refuses (so much for the book of Revelation).
Luke flavors his story a little differently, suggesting that Satan tempted Jesus throughout the forty days. Only Matthew and Luke tell how Jesus was tempted (Mark simply reports without elaboration that Jesus was tempted by Satan), but somehow, their stories of the temptation are similar.
Did this desert experience really happen? Was it a fast-induced hallucination? Or a series of temptations Jesus struggled with throughout his ministry, such as the time the people wanted to raise him as their king, and which Gospel writers creatively turned into one temptation experience?
Numbers 16:32-33, The First Mention of the Underworld in the Bible
And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
//Korah was a troublemaking rich Israelite who insisted everybody was equal. Especially him. He had as much right to be a priest as Aaron, God’s appointed. So Moses said okay, let Korah and his 250 followers bring their fire pans before God, with the incense burning. We shall see whether God accepts them.
God doesn’t. He opens up the mouth of the earth and swallows all 250 of them into Sheol, the Jewish underworld. Sheol was a place under the earth of shadowy subsistence where souls descended after they died. In early Jewish thought, the soul gradually wasted away there, but in the second century B.C., some Jews began to imagine the soul would return to the body in a physical resurrection (see the book of Daniel, written about 165 B.C.)
Koran, however, doesn’t die! He and his followers fall alive into the realm of the dead. The first mention of Sheol, and the first living dead. It makes me wonder … with our Gothic fascination with the underworld, why have there been no movies written about this event?
Book review: My Universe, A Transcendent Reality
by Alex Vary
★★★★
The subtitle of this book is an “Atheist-Scientist’s Guide to God.” It’s broken down into five parts of two or three dozen short essays each, which were compiled and organized by Vary over a period of six years. Each essay leads fluidly into the next, however, so it’s not as if Vary is publishing an anthology; this is, rather, a defense of his particular view of reality … a reality that transcends the material cosmos into the transcendental universe. Vary takes what he calls a “rational approach” to God, along the lines of thinkers Bernard Haisch, Paul Davies and Jacob Needleman, and much of his book details his perception of body-soul-spirit. The mind of “God” (in which we, with our limited minds, share) resides outside the physical cosmos.
Vary’s writing is intelligent and he’s extremely well-read. He is a retired research scientist with NASA, and I have to be honest, here: He’s way over my head at times. Part three, the central portion of the book, is simply incomprehensible. I can speak somewhat knowledgeably about quantum entanglement, black holes, and particle-wave duality, but if asked whether Vary adequately argues his hypotheses (among them, an explanation of how the material somethingness of the cosmos arises from nothingness) or whether he has truly formulated a convincing proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, I admit total bafflement.
A key part of Vary’s worldview includes what he refers to as Astrals, non-corporal beings that reside in the mesostratum. Spiritual manifestations with human-like traits, personalities, occupations and ambitions, who tinker in material affairs, fiddling with DNA, fine-tuning our evolution. How else do we explain how species seem to appear suddenly, fully formed and equipped with all sorts of specialized organs, then remain stable for millions of years? Yeah, I know, this stuff is out there, but once we dig below Vary’s tongue-in-cheek caricatures of our designers, he turns out to be quite serious. So, clearly, his is a controversial take.
And also a bit disturbing, since it implies that we humans, like the dinosaurs, are most likely still imperfect beings who will soon be discarded as non-working models while the DNA tinkering continues.
Honestly? I had a lot of fun reading this one. I highly recommend it for pleasurable reading and fascinating learning. But I don’t think I have room for Vary’s “religion.”
Matthew 19:3, When Is Divorce Allowed?
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason”
//One of the “eight great debates” in first-century Judaism was this matter of divorce. Under what circumstances was divorce to be permitted? Respected rabbi’s Shammai and Hillel espoused different teachings, and when the Pharisees came to “test” Jesus, they really were merely trying to nail down which side of the debate Jesus would take.
In this example, Jesus sides with Shammai … interesting, because he usually sides with Hillel. But this time, Hillel, quite lax on the matter, argued that divorce was permitted “even if she [merely] burns his soup.” Like the Pharisees ask, “Any and every reason.” Shammai’s stance was more strict, that divorce should only occur over a matter of immorality.
Thus we reach Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, who chooses Shammai in the debate:
I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery. –Matthew 19:9
It’s curious that only Matthew includes this exception about infidelity. It doesn’t exist in Mark, the text that Matthew copies from. Mark simply says divorce is a no-no. But Matthew, apparently more familiar with the two sides of the big debate than Mark, adds the clause that a person is permitted to divorce under the circumstance of infidelity.
Ruth 1:16, Your God will be my God
Your people shall be my people and your God my God.
//The book of Ruth is such a sweet little story, and this speech by Ruth is such an inspiring example of love. As Naomi heads back from Moab to the land of Israel, she instructs her daughter-in-law Ruth to turn back, go back to Moab. Ruth says, “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge.” But Ruth doesn’t stop there. She continues, “Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.”
But if other scripture is to be believed, Ruth could not have said these words, except in ignorance. Naomi could never have accepted them. No such thing should have been possible. The book of Deuteronomy is clear on the subject:
“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt” –Deuteronomy 23:3-4
Supposing this story of Ruth and Naomi were true, can you begin to imagine the heartache Naomi would feel as she led Ruth back to a land that she believed could never accept her? Supposing this story were true, then what changed when they arrived back in Israel: the Law or the Lord?
Book review: Revelation: The Way it Happened
by Lee Harmon
★★★★
A writer is forever learning. In this review by Goodreads reviewer “Phil,” I learned never to park things atop the ark (too informal, I assume), and to be more sensitive about Jewish facial features. I made both modifications in my “corrected copy.” (Seriously, I did! It’s my job to learn and avoid what offends people!)
From Phil:
It seems it has taken me a long time to read this book, but there were two factors – one, I enjoyed it so, that it gave me food for thought, and, two, a minister friend (not on Goodreads) was so captivated by my description of it, I had to lend it to him.
Pity the poor librarian who has to classify the book! It is neither exegetical commentary on the Book of Revelation nor an historical novel! (Official rules state, however, it must be classed as fiction.)
I might have given the book the full five stars, except for some “infelicities.”
For example, the Cherubim can be said to have been placed on the Ark of the Covenant, but “parked”?
And the description of Samuel’s deceased wife’s nose as “dainty … so contradictory to her Jewish heritage …” Seriously ??
Otherwise, I enjoyed this largely Preterist commentary on Revelation.
Got an opinion? 2 commentsFantasy Football, Anyone?
Put on the whole uniform of the Team, that ye may be able to stand against the blitz of oncoming linebackers. Don the hip pads of truth, the shoulder pads of righteousness, the cleats of preparation. Don’t forget the facemask of faith and the helmet of salvation. Then clutch the pigskin with much Spirit, for that is what the Play Book of your Coach in Heaven demands.The River of Life
Twice before Lee Harmon has written about Christian topics, once on the gospel of John and once on the book of Revelation. But the question people keep asking him is this: As a liberal Christian, why do you care so much about the Bible? Others wonder whether he is truly a Christian at all.
The Way It Happened
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| Revelation: A love story gone awry. | The Gospel: A love story set aright. |
What really happened 2,000 years ago? How did a persecuted minority of end-time believers known as Christians, with their dreams of Armageddon and a conquering Messiah named Jesus, evolve into the largest religion in the world? Author Lee Harmon explores the period in which the New Testament was written in his books about John's Gospel and Revelation.
(Bloggers: you may be eligible for a free review copy! Just contact us.)
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The God Show
Lee Harmon interviewed on The God Show about the History Channel's miniseries The Bible and Lee's latest book, John's Gospel: The Way It Happened.
About Lee
Hello! I'm an author, historical Jesus scholar, book reviewer, and liberal Christian, which means I appreciate and attempt to exercise the humanitarian teachings of Jesus without getting hung up on any particular supernatural or religious beliefs.
The Bible is a magnificent book that has inspired and spiritually fed generations for thousands of years, and each new century seems to bring a deeper understanding of life’s purpose. This is true of not only Christianity; through the years, our age-old religions are slowly transforming from superstitious rituals into humanitarian philosophies. In short, we are growing up, and I am thrilled to be riding the wave.
I avidly read all thought-provoking religion titles. New authors: I'd love to read and review your book!
Contact me here.
About Leslie
Hi! While Lee writes the articles and reviews the books, I edit, organize, and maintain the blog. The views expressed here are Lee's but I'm his biggest supporter! :-)
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