Thomas II

Can someone explain what happened to these two sons of Aaron?

GakuseiDon

They were priests, but they made a mistake. So God fired them.

Thomas II

Yes, that's what I thought but why? :huh:
How did they die?
What was the mistake they made that merited death?

bacht

Lev.10
[1] Now Nadab and Abi'hu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unholy fire before the LORD, such as he had not commanded them.

Num.3
[4] But Nadab and Abi'hu died before the LORD when they offered unholy fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai;


...but you already knew that

GakuseiDon

According to this website:
http://members.datafast.net.au/sggram/f077.htm

We are left in no doubt about what Nadab and Ahihu did wrong. Their error is clear: They "offered profane fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them" (Lev 10:1). It was a two-fold error:

* Profanity: They offered to God something profane, something not sanctified or made holy, something ordinary and unconsecrated.
* Presumption: They presumed to do something in worship before God which God had not commanded them to do.

It's not the only time that the God in the OT did something like this:

1 Samuel 6:19

But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them.

2 Samuel 6:6-7

When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

Thomas II

And these were the sons of Aaron, brother of Moses!
Yahweh killed them because they made a mistake in a ritual!

GakuseiDon

:huh: If you're a Christian, then why do you think that this is anything more than a story? And if you are an atheist, why do you actually care?

aa5874

But, if this story is true, that is, the sons of Aaron were found dead after supposedly making some profane offerings, then it may that they were really murdered and it was said that God killed them to cover the crime.

It seems highly unusual for people to be found dead when there are no reports of them being sick.

Thomas II

The point is that this "god of the volcano" is some fucked up
dude.

OR there is NOTHING there except a fucking volcano, and these two idiots just fell into the fucking volcano while they were carelessly performing some fucking ritual...:huh:

Toto

What is the problem here?

Either we have a cautionary tale about the evil that will befall those who don't follow every little rule that God made, or we have an explanation of why two priests died in a horrible fire (they must have broken some rule, somewhere.

The God of Leviticus was not a loving or just god. He was a violent force of nature who had to be placated by following his rules exactly.