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Old 08-21-2004, 11:53 AM   #21
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Originally Posted by Sensei Meela
And just to spice things up, why doesn't this apply to God?

I think it is called special pleading.







Hey, my broken watch is stuck at 4:20. I think I'll keep it.
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Old 08-21-2004, 02:50 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by TriggerDan
AHEM!

You do realize that the only people ALIVE to see the whole Cain and Abel ordeal were their parents, Adam and Eve, don't you?

This makes the Bible seem even more ridiculous because in a latter part, it states that Cain populated an entire town. This means that he had to have mated with either his mother OR his sisters. Nice going, God! :notworthy
The only reason humans can't and don't mate with family members is because the genetic line is too flawed among close relatives. In Biblical times, its a non-issue. Relations with close family members wasn't banned until Leviticus.
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Old 08-21-2004, 07:04 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by Magus55
The only reason humans can't and don't mate with family members is because the genetic line is too flawed among close relatives. In Biblical times, its a non-issue. Relations with close family members wasn't banned until Leviticus.
So if you lived back in biblical times you would have no problem sleeping with your mother or sister?

This really is a serious question even if it appears to be an insult.
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Old 08-22-2004, 06:25 AM   #24
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Originally Posted by slaveofChrist
Well, Jubilees was never canonized for a reason, probably because it leads people to, pardon the blunt statement, ridiculous conclusions such as the ones you have come to. Cain was clearly cursed in Genesis and became a "vagabond". He was the first man that God cursed. He begot a nation of evil. One of his descendants even wrote a poem boasting of his murder (Genesis 9 I believe).
First off, we have no idea whether or not Jubilees actually leads to that conclusion as Offa did not cite the passages that lead him to conclude that Abraham was Cain. So we do not know if it is actually in Jubilees or merely in Offa's interpretation of Jubilees.

Second, there are more complex reasons why Jubilees was not canonized. The fact that it probably was used in a form of Judaism that was not seminal for latter Rabbinic Judaism is probably the most significant.

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God would not take somebody like that and make them the father of His chosen people. Abraham had faith, that is why he was chosen. Not because he was a cursed man.
Neither would God use an adultery, a murderer, a whore, etc., to be the ancestors of his Messiah. Oh, but wait, isn't that exactly what the Christian canon says God did? Careful with these "God would not"s...unless you're God I suspect that you do not know the mind of God.

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That conclusion is, please take no offense, simply ridiculous.
See the above.
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Old 08-22-2004, 08:14 AM   #25
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Originally Posted by DrJim
Good question

Just offhand, I'm not sure how much of Genesis or how many copies survived to be discovered at Qumran. I think it is pretty well attested however.
"The remains of possibly twenty manuscripts were unearthed at Qumran itself: one in Cave 1, one in Cave 2, perhaps as many as sixteen in Cave 4, one in cave 6 and one in Cave 8*. In addition to these manuscripts from the caves to the north of Wadi Qumran, remains of other Dead Sea Scrolls were also found--one to the south at Masada and perhaps as many as three at Wadi Murabba'at**. There is admittedly a certain degree of mystery surrounding this latter group." (_The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible_, ed. Abegg, Flint and Ulrich, p. 3)

The footnotes identify the fragments found:

*1QGen, 2QGen, 4QGen-Exoda, 4QGen-Exodb - 4QGen-Exodg, 4QGenh2, 4QGenh-title, 4QGenj, 4QGenk, 4QPaleoGen-Exodl, 4QPaleoGen-Exodm, qQGenn, and pap4QGen (4Q483), 6QGen, 8QGen

**MasGen, MurGen 1, Mur (origin questionable), and Sdeir1.

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I don't think there would be many scholars who would hold that Jubilees is a product of the Qumran community, although they sure seemed to like it. There is apparently less overt sectarianism in it than other DSS. Yet, it affirms the solar calendar also described in Enoch, and that was important to the qumran folks.
Are there any who would do so? I've never seen it even suggested.

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Old 08-22-2004, 11:33 AM   #26
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Originally Posted by Fenton Mulley
So if you lived back in biblical times you would have no problem sleeping with your mother or sister?

This really is a serious question even if it appears to be an insult.
I don't think we would look at it the same way we do today. Its a taboo today because genetics are too flawed, and to us its a gross proposition. When there isn't that much humanity on Earth, genetic flaws are very rare, and incest is an unknown concept - why wouldn't people? Wild animals do it. I would think evolutionists would support it if it weren't for the societal standards, and genetic issues.
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Old 08-22-2004, 04:36 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by Magus55
The only reason humans can't and don't mate with family members is because the genetic line is too flawed among close relatives. In Biblical times, its a non-issue. Relations with close family members wasn't banned until Leviticus.
If anthropology has shown one thing it is that incest rules are at best tangentially related to genetics. Questions about economic and politlcal relations and power generally are much more important considerations. Hence why in many cultural contexts one's first cousin is often one's ideal mate. However, in most of these contexts only certain first cousins are potential mates; depending upon whether clan endogamy or exogamy is practiced one would be forbidden to marry within or without the clan, thus meaning that any first cousin not of your clan (if endogamy is the practice) or any first cousin that is of your clan is not a potential mate (if exogamy is the practice; note that clan exogamy is far more common than clan endogamy). What ends up happening is that it entirely depends upon whether or not clan membership is acquired through the father or the mother: You want to marry a first cousin who is of your parents' two clans of which you are not a member; in that way your children will be one of your parents' clans (although not necessarily your own, depending upon whether or not one is of the appropriate sex to pass on clan membership to one's children, as defined by the cultural context). This, incidentally, is less pressing for the sex who already passes on their clan membership to their children; it is more a strategy for the sex which does not and their clan and family to be concerned about. Remember, of course, that in the cultural contexts which I am discussing here the clan is often a fundamental political unit; thus the choice of spouse (and thus the social constitution of incest taboos) are also deeply political.

This is all to say that incest taboos are very complicated cross-culturally and show little regard for our modern notions of genetics. Big surprise, since these ideas are barely a century old.
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Old 08-22-2004, 11:44 PM   #28
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Originally Posted by Magus55
I don't think we would look at it the same way we do today. Its a taboo today because genetics are too flawed, and to us its a gross proposition. When there isn't that much humanity on Earth, genetic flaws are very rare, and incest is an unknown concept - why wouldn't people? Wild animals do it. I would think evolutionists would support it if it weren't for the societal standards, and genetic issues.
Is it even outlawed by the bible?

Edit: Isnt it ironic that Maguss's apolegetics includes talk of genetics! You mean you believe in the scientific method used for genetics, but not the flood, evolution, and the miriad of other theories you reject?
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