A nonbeliever's SECOND reading of the Bible

A nonbeliever's SECOND reading of the Bible
Hunc tu caveto.
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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

 Don't uncover your father's skirt!

Deuteronomy Chapter 27 is another quick chapter.  Here's the basic message:

  1. When you're passing Jordan and going into the land of milk and honey, build an altar of whole stones on Mount Ebal.
  2. After burning offerings at the altar, write on the stones the following commandments.
  3. First, Seimeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin should stand on Mt. Gerizim to bless the people.
  4. Then Rueben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali should stand on Mt. Ebal to curse.  Who do they curse?  I don't know.
  5. Don't make molten images, or display the works of craftsmen, or put such works in secret places.
  6. Those who set light by their parents will be cursed.
  7. Those who remove their neighbor's landmark shall be cursed.
  8. People who make blind people wander out of the way shall be cursed.
  9. Anyone who perverts a stranger's judgment shall be cursed.
  10. Anyone who has sex with their father's wife will be cursed because he "uncovered his father's skirt??".
  11. Anyone who has sex with an animal ... you guessed it.  Cursed!
  12. Sex with sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother.  Cursed!
  13. Anyone who has sex with his mother-in-law shall be cursed.
  14. Anyone who "secretly smites his neighbor" shall be cursed.
  15. Anyone who does not confirm these laws is also cursed.
Okay, big problems here.  What a incoherent group of laws!  And why carve it into some rocks at an altar on top of a mountain?

And, isn't a person who causes blind people to wander out of the way simply "an asshole"?  Cursing people doesn't do anything. 

And how is having sex with the father's wife "uncovering the father's skirt"?  Is it because the father's wife is actually the father's property?  More than likely!

Rule 15 is the clincher.  It hermetically seals the deal.  But I would argue that anyone who does not confirm these laws is actually wise. 

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