From: m23364@mwunix (James Meritt)
Subject: Re: Violence in the bible?
Organization: MITRE Corporation, McLean VA
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 17:45:26 GMT

In article <1992Dec25.165133.9059@prime.mdata.fi> iikkap@mits.mdata.fi (Iikka Paavolainen) writes:
}I remember someone saying (in this newsgroup) that in some part of the old
}(or was it new?) testament god commanded some people to kill or destroy others.
}Where was this exactly in the Bible?

Genesis 9:6
Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed...

Exodus 21:12
He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall surely be put to death.

Exodus 22:18
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live

Exodus 22:19
Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.

Exodus 22:20
He that sacreficeth unto any God, save unto the Lord only, he shall be
utterly destroyed.

Exodus 31:14
Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you. every one
that defileth it shall surely be put to death...

Exodus 35:2
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a
holy day, a sabbath of rest to the lord: whosoever doeth work therein
shall be put to death.

Leviticus 20:2
...Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that
sojurn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall
surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

Leviticus 21:9
And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the
whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

Leviticus 24:14
Bring forth him that hadth cursed without the camp; and let all that
heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation
stone him.


Deuternomy 13:10
And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die, because he hadth sought
to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God...

Deuternomy 17:5
Thou shalt bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that
wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone
them with stones. till they die.

Deuteronomy 22:20-21
...and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: then they shall
bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of the
city shall stone her with stones that she die...

Deuteronomy  22:22
If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall
both of them die...

Deuteronomy 22:23-24
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her
in the city, and lie with her; then ye shall bring them both out unto the
gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die...

Deuteronomy 22:25
BUT if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her,
and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die.


I Kings 21:10
...Thou didst blaspheme God and the King.  And then carry him out, and stone
him that he might die.

(New testiment sort of tones it down)

Matthew 15:4
...He that curseth father or mother: let him die the death

Romans 6:23
(the ever popular)
For the wages of sin is death...

Biblical injunction for large-scale impersonal killing (warfare):

Deuteronomy 20
	General instructions concerning:
	1. priests and officers in war
	2. deseiging cities
	specifically,
Deuteronmy 20:13
And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite
every male thereof with the edge of the sword

Deuteronomy 20:17
But thou shalt utterly destroy then; namely [list of cities] as the Lord hath
commanded thee.

Deuteronomy 23:14
For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to
give up thine enemies before thee...

Proverbs 20:18
Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.

Joshua 6
	Detailad instructions on how to deseign, then destroy, jerico.
	Results:
Joshua 6:21
And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, bith man and women, 
young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

(verse 24 has them burning everything except for the $$$$$ )

Joshua 8:1-2
And the Lord said unto Joshua "Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the
people of war with tee, arise, go to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the
King of Ai and his city and his land.  And thou shalt do to Ai and her king
as thou didst unto Jerico and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the
cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush
for the city behind it.

Joshua 10:8
And the Lord said unto Joshua "Fear them not: for I have delivered them into
thine hand;  there shall not a man of them stand before thee.

(slaughter follows)


Joshua 10:32
And the Lord delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the
second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that
were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah

Joshua 10:37
	[same thing, this time to Hebron]

Joshua 10:39
	[same thing, this time to Debir]

Joshua 10:40
	[same again, this time to hills and springs and all that breathed]
Joshua 11:6-9
	General God-inspired destruction by the waters of Meron.  I am really
	getting tired of this blood-thirsty genocidal individual!
	It goes on and on and on and on with "the Lord told him to
	slaughter everything, and he did".  Yech!

Samuel 30:8
... Pursue: thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all
	in 30:17 he catches up and decimates them.


He goes along with it when it is done by some(one) else...

  Job      -   On a bet, God allows Satan to kill all of Job's children.
               (Job was prolific.)

And he condones it:

  Judges   -   God accepts a human sacrifice from Jephthah; his daughter.
               (Alright, this isn't genocide.)

And he even does it himself:

  Genesis  -   God destroys the world in a flood.
               God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah.

  Exodus   -   God kills the first born of Egypt to force them
               to let his people go.  (Weren't Egyptians his people, too?)



Good enough?



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