Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Splarnst · 07-18-2008, 12:04 PM

Hell is, by definition, infinitely worse than the death of anyone, and if you're counting up the deaths allowed by an omnimax deity, this hardly registers a blip except for the clever the title of the OP.

vicjagger · 07-19-2008, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manitoumulegirl

Probably in a cave with the gang responsible for the Red Sea Scrolls.

Red Sea Scrolls? I haven't heard of those. Did they come from Ramses' army?

John Kesler · 07-22-2008, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian St. Ian

Is it accurate to say that the innocents in the "Slaughter of the Innocents" died so that Jesus could live?

This event never occurred, but was the invention of Matthew based on the slaughter of Israelite children by the Egyptians as elaborated in Jewish Haggada. See here for a quotation from Louis Ginzberg's The Legends of the Jews, with my emphasis:

Quote:

In the one hundred and thirtieth year after Israel's going down to Egypt Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon his throne, and he lifted up his eyes, and he beheld an old man before him with a balance in his hand, and he saw him taking all the elders, nobles, and great men of Egypt, tying them together, and laying them in one scale of the balance, while he put a tender kid into the other. The kid bore down the pan in which it lay until it hung lower than the other with the bound Egyptians. Pharaoh arose early in the morning, and called together all his servants and his wise men to interpret his dream, and the men were greatly afraid on account of his vision. Balaam the son of Beor then spake, and said: "This means nothing but that a great evil will spring up against Egypt, for a son will be born unto Israel, who will destroy the whole of our land and all its inhabitants, and he will bring forth the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand. Now, therefore, O king, take counsel as to this matter, that the hope of Israel be frustrated before this evil arise against Egypt."...If it please the king, let him order all the male children that shall be born in Israel from this day forward to be thrown into the water. Thereby canst thou wipe out their name, for neither any of them nor any of their fathers was tried in this way...Pharaoh now took steps looking to the faithful execution of his decree. He sent his bailiffs into the houses of the Israelites, to discover all new-born children, wherever they might be.

As the bolded portion indicates, unlike the OT account, the reason for the slaughter was to kill the liberator of Israel, similar to Herod's desire to kill the Messiah who was to shepherd the people of Israel.

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07-18-2008, 12:04 PM	#11
Splarnst Contributor Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Jacksonville, Florida Posts: 13,161	Hell is, by definition, infinitely worse than the death of anyone, and if you're counting up the deaths allowed by an omnimax deity, this hardly registers a blip except for the clever the title of the OP.

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