Prostituting themselves to Molek

Leviticus

Leviticus carries on in the similarly instructional tone that lingered for large parts of Exodus. Seemingly one of the core 'rule books,' we get more litigation, justification and concerns over cleanliness. The subject matter is rabelaisian, dealing with the visceral issues of the intestines of animals, the disgrace of childbirth, and the emission of semen. Key highlights include: the meaning of sacrifice, the origin of the scapegoat, clean and unclean animals, discharge, and the turban.

Sacrifice

The opening chapters deal with the meaning of sacrifice, lending some reasoning to the act of slaughtering your livestock and offering grain to the lord. While a cynical mind might see offering up these foodstuffs as a bit of a strange and even pointless gesture, the meaning of these acts is given some weight if we consider that these fellows were living in fragile times, when chickens were not ten a penny and the landscape wasn't awash with supermarkets offering six varieties of quorn mince. For a nomadic people wandering the desert, every possession a person owned was geared for survival in its strictest sense. You might consider limiting yourself to a 20kg backpack and selecting all your most vital possessions and consider how it might feel if you were to sacrifice an item to the lord every time you sinned. Also, consider that the LORD expects strict procedures to be followed each time a sacrifice is made. The LORD is exacting; you don't just chuck your goats on the fire. For example:

"You are to slaugher it (the sheep or goat) at the north side of the alter before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall splash its blood against the sides of the alter." (1:11)

or

"5 If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of the finest flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. 6 Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering." (2:5-6)

Also, these sacrifices must be carried out each time anyone sins, intentionally or not. The sacrifice atones for sin.

Furthermore, there are rights and wrongs when it comes to dealing with your carcass

"Where you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people." (7:26)

Also, "you may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. There are some that only chew the cud, or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them."(11:4)

You are not allowed to eat 'camel', 'hydrax', 'rabbit', 'pig', 'eagle,' 'vulture', 'kite', 'owl', 'hawk', 'stork', 'heron', 'hoopoe', 'bat,', 'all flying insects that walk on all fours', 'those (animals) that walk on their paws', 'weasel', 'rat', 'any kind of great lizard (presumably this rules out dinosaur)', 'gecko', 'monitor lizard', 'skink', 'chameleon', and 'anything that moves on its belly'. (11:4-46)

Unclean

Leviticus is keen on hammering home the point about pure/unpure, clean/unclean. However, rather unfashionably, women seem to be more liable to uncleanliness than men. If a lady gives birth to a boy, she is unclean for forty days (12:2) and eighty days if its a girl. A lamb then has to be sacrificed to atone for the whole sordid business.

There are a whole host of details about how to atone for your skin diseases and molds. Leviticus also introduces us to this timeless classic:

(13:45-46) "Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair become unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp."

You hear the deity: 'outside the camp.' Imagine, the swells of unkempt, uncleans loitering outside the camp, wailing and beating their heads as their molds and diseases eat away at their bodies under the burning desert sun. To be honest though, while it seems inhumane, you'd do the same things. In fact, why not use them for target practice while you're there, to get some vital military training in at the same time.

On a more amusing note, the lord also has some guidance on the uncleanliness of 'discharge' (snigger) Any unusual discharge is to be regarded as unclean. When you are unclean, the uncleanliness contaminates any bed you sleep in, people you touch, clothes you wear, pots you use and things you sit on. You also have a 7 day cooling off period until you are clean following the last discharge you emitted. Also, consider this next time you are emitting some semen:

"When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body in waterm and he will be unclean till evening." (15:16)

"When a man has sexual relations with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both of them must bathe in water, and they will be unclean til evening."(15:18)

Women are unclean during their 'monthly period'.(15:19) Also, following the period, she has to sacrifice two pigeons to atone for her unclean ways.

SCAPEGOAT

Following this section, there is a nice explication on the origins of the term 'scapegoat'. On the day of atonement, Aaron is to bring a goat to the altar:

"He is then to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Isrealites - all their sin - and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed to the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness." (16:21-22)

Two good, Too bad.

The remaining highlights in Leviticus include:

Unlawful sexual relations - Chapter 18
This includes the expected stuff about doing the deed with your father's mother or wife's sister etc. The best lines include:

'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek.' (21)

'Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.'(22)

'Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it .' (23) (One or the other please)

'If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomitted out the nations that were before you.'(28)

From a folkore/historical point of view, we can find here an ancient reason to the timeless tradition of insulting your neighbouring people (Rotherham, Barnsley, Shelbyville) by suggesting they are all inbred half-wits:

'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.'(24)

Obscure laws:

'Do not clip the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.'(19:27)

'Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.'(19:28)

'If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire.'(20:14)

Tabernacle

Exodus 14 - 40

After the excitement of the escape from Egypt, what could the remainder of Exodus possibly deliver in terms of drama? Moses and his people will roam the deserts for 40 years complaining about God and winding him up, discovering the ten commandments on the way, but, for all this, there is a distinct absence of action penetrating the remaining 26 chapters of the book of Exodus.

This is the kind of section of the Old Testament that gives the bible a bad name. Loaded with lists and repeated details about laws and robes, its an onslaught of tedium very lightly peppered with flashpoints. Its a foreboding task revisiting such dull matter, but the show must go on.

The journey of Exodus comprises of: Red Desert, Desert of Shur, Elim, Desert of Sin, Rephidim, Desert of Sinai, Mount Horeb.

The Tests.

The first thing that happens when the Israelites escape Egypt is that they sing a song, then they realise they haven't got any water. "What are we to Drink?"(15:24) they grumble. But God tells them to persevere and they arrive at Elim to discover springs and palm trees. On the fifteenth day, they are in the Desert of Sin where they start to complain again saying, 'If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt!'(16:3). Then God sends down manna: 'It was like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey,'(16:31). The Israelites then put the manna in jars and 'ate the manna for forty years.'(16:35).

The Israelites have a brief and successful war with the Amalekites (17:8-16) 'As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hand, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady til sunset.'(17:10-13)

Following these tests, the gang soon arrive at Mount Sinai.

'On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood t the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.'(19: 16-18)

Here we are told the Ten Commandments:

1. No other Gods than me
2. Don't make images of God or bow to any other gods
3. Do not misuse the name of God
4. Keep the Sabbath holy
5. Honour your ma and pa
6. Do not murder
7. No adultery
8. No stealing
9. No lying
10. Do not covet your neighbours ass.

Then the lists and details of rules about how everything from how to sell your daughter into slavery to how to borrow an animal are all mapped out. The ones that stand out for me are:

21: 23-24 "If there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, foot for foot."
22:18 "Do not allow a sorceress to live"
22:19 "Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death."
22:21 and 23:9 "Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt."

The Land:
God says, 'I will establish your borders from the Red Sea, to the Mediterranean Sea, and the the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.'(23:31)

These illuminating rulings aside, Exodus then takes a turn for the worse with an in depth description of details of how to construct a Tabernacle, Ark, Lampstand, Priestly Garments, etc. 26:2 "All the curtains are to be the same size - twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide." The list of how to build the materials needed for ritual are repeated from 25-31 and 35-40.

Moses takes all of God's orders during a Christ-like 40 day/night stint up on Mount Sinai and then comes down to deliver the news to the people baring a 'radiant face.' By the end of the book, they have an establish rubric of rules and legislation and a good solid Tabernacle to accompany them on their journey. The Israelites are well prepared. Next is Leviticus, which is more Moses, and looks like it contains a lot of details about how to be a priest.

In summary: The woes of travel test the Israelites. God and Moses manifest great leadership on Mount Sinai and the legislation of Judeo-Christianity begins to build.

I AM WHO I AM

Exodus 1 - 14

Moses: fleeing Egypt

This section features the well known story, documented by the film Prince of Egypt, where Moses frees the enslaved Israelites from Egypt. Bullrushes - rescued by the Egyptians princess - burning bush - seven plagues – rescue – waters.

Following Joseph becoming the Don in Egypt, his family settles and the Israelites establish themselves as a people in the land of the Pharaohs. The people grow and become numerous to the point where the Egyptians forget about the legacy of Joseph and, intimidated by their numbers, decide the best thing to do is enslave them lest they rise up. Exodus picks up where the rulers have decided to put to death every Hebrew boy born.

The boy with no identity

Moses is a pleasingly disenfranchised character, rootless and multicultural. We are told very little about his mother and sister and nothing of his father Amram. He is given up in the reeds, rescued by the Egyptian princess but cunningly returned to his mother who the princess assumes is just a Hebrew nurse (2:9). Moses is then returned to the princess once nursed. How does he feel?

He knows he is Hebrew though as he is moved by the enslavery, murdering an Egyptian guard in defence of an Israelite. However, he is rejected by the Israelites and the Egyptians who are both nonplussed but this act. Thus, rejected by his home land, he flees.

However, in the reader’s mind, he is quickly establishing himself as a bit of a hero and a Charlie big potatoes as he carries out further vigilante justice defending a bevy of Midian beauties from some marauding shepherds down by the well. In turn he wins the lady Zipporah’s heart, has a baby, and sets up a rather idyllic lifestyle tending to the flocks. So, the man Moses is a hero for all the ages, a frontiersman, an ubermensch driven by his own ethics and sense of justice.

But God is not dead, and won’t let his ubermensch lie low for long. Much like the Tower of Babylon, God is not going to let his charges sit around inventing their own morality out of the godless vacuum of multi-culturalism. The Israelites need a hero and cry out to God for help and Moses is the one. (2:24)

Humility

Moses’ stock continues to rise, setting the ladies hearts all aflutter by furthering his romantic credentials with a highly impressive display of humility. God appears in the burning bush saying he needs him to go and save his people and Moses is all, ‘me?’ ‘Me?’ ‘Surely not.’

‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ (3:11)

Zen moments

The burning bush scene is the first time in the bible when God reveals a very Buddhist side to himself, baffling Moses with the utterance; “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”(3:14)

He goes on to say:

'This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.’(3:15)

So God is I and I is God. Can I go as far to suggest, I come from God, or God comes from me. Am ‘I’ God? Is everything ‘I’ see, do, think, say, believe, like, taste God? Yes. I am Moses, I am you, I am me, I am God. You come from God, we are all connected.

Taken to school

God then teaches Moses to be a Jedi in the wilderness, and Moses teams up with Brother Aaron who is also a master of the dark arts and a wiz with the old staff and they head to Egypt to rescue the people. Aaron actually pulls off all the stunts during the plaguing of the Egyptians. He’s the one who actually waves the stick. Moses is just the messenger telling Aaron to do what God tells Moses. (‘The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.7:1)The plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death on the first born, all work together to reduce Egypt to ruins. However, all the time the tension grows between all parties. Pharaoh gets angry, the Israelites get treated worse, and Moses gets tested, but God keeps going.

Political intrigue: the spectre of Marx

Ah, yes, but politics is complicated. The Israelites have lived in this way for 430 years (12:40) and are actually not all that unhappy about the perceived ‘slavery.’ It is gradually revealed that Moses’ campaign to take everyone to live in the wilderness eating milk and honey is not wholly supported by the people who are kept pretty well as long as they stack their daily quota of bricks(5:18). Pharaoh is well cheesed off when he hears about Moses’ liberation movement and raises the workload for the Israelites, who are in turn cheesed off with Moses.

'5:20 When (the Israelite Overseers) left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.’

You see, the Israelites have become victims of commodity fetishism. They are so wrapped up in the capitalist mode of production their bodies are merely units of work that cannot be valued outside of this system. They find Moses’ idea of going and hanging out in the desert for the sake of spiritual salvation foolish. They believe in getting up in the morning, going to work, doing a good job, going home to their families, and getting on with it again tomorrow, and the day after that, ad infinitum. You never know, they may become Israelite overseers one day. They are brainwashed, as you would be, and really can’t see any value in some proletariat uprising. What is freedom, they ask? But they don’t really ask. Ah. God is freedom.

Ending

We know how it ends up. God’s persistence pays, Moses gets his way, leads them all to ‘freedom’ and the Egyptians are all crushed in the sea. However, en route, the Israelites learn how to eat meat (12:8 ‘Roasted over a fire… Do not eat the meat raw or boiled,) and Passover in remembrance of the night God kills off the Egyptian babies, and we also learn the meaning of circumcision.

4:24 ‘At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone.’

Lesson
The freest man will save us

In the beginning

Genesis is characterised by an obsession with land and mad logic. Most conflicts and dramas revolve around land and obscure justifications for ownership. It usually involves two protagonists being equally obtuse followed by weeping and making up. From a feminist perspective, women folk are treated pretty shoddily - but then again, these were more barbaric times so maybe that's OK.

Authorship
The bible is known to be a hodgepodge of made up myths concocted by evil monks and noblemen claiming to be receiving message straight from God himself. So in a sense this is the word of God. Art can be art as long as you're calling it art. And sadly for the skeptics and the haters, there will never be a definitive 'yes this really is the word of god.' It is up to us to make the leap of faith, which Christ so often reiterated. We can never be really sure, but if it feels right, do it. So we read the stories, accept that some of them are folklore, some are history and just try and force it all together and see if we can find God pouring out of the cracks. There are no right or wrong answers.

Point
If I was looking to Genesis for guidance on spiritual living and how to become closer to God, I would assume that this would involve slaughtering animals and my enemies, pretending my wife was my sister (or vice-versa), and deceiving my brothers out of their birthrights.

Jacob and Esau are a bizarre case in point. Born as twins to Isaac, these fellows are a key point in the lineage of the Hebrew people. At birth, mother Rebekah is warned there are two nations in her belly. When they are born, Esau is Esau because he is red and hairy (like an angry clay hedgehog) and Jacob is Jacob (because he grasps his brother's heel). Straight away, I don't know who to side with. Then it is revealed that Esau is the manly outdoor type who hunts for game while Jacob sits at home with his mother baking. Then, Esau comes home hungry and says, I need some stew. Jacob says, here, have some of my stew, but only if you give me your birthright. Esau says, that's not really on, but I am really hungry, and the deal is done. The conclusion is that Esau is a bad man for giving his birthright up so easily. Yet, surely Jacob is the wrong one for exploiting his brother's hunger.

Next, aided by his mother, Jacob wears an animals pelt to appear like his hairy brother so that his dying blind father blesses him with Esau's birthright. Esau is a bit annoyed with this and Jacob runs away. But eventually comes back and they are all pals. In the mean time, God appears to Jacob in the night and they wrestle. Little is said about this bit but I quite enjoyed it. (Was a bit like when someone who's been out the story for ages in WWE suddenly reappears and you don't see it coming.) Anyway, all in all, Jacob is the winner in all this and goes on to sire the mighty Joseph.

Joseph
This character seems almost as important in the scheme of things as someone like Moses. He gets a lot of column space. Seems his position in our modern culture as a Jason Donavon impersonator seems to have mired his gravitas slightly. Again, his story is about being deceived by his brothers, going to a foreign land, becoming a powerful force in the economy, meeting his brothers, tormenting them, then forgiving them and weeping. Key phrases for me were:

43:17 They (Joseph's catering staff) served (Joseph) by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians.

48:17 When Joseph saw his father placing his hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. 18 Joseph said to him, "No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." 19 But his father refused.

Other observances from Genesis:

17:5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations.
(Much like when in Brazil, little Ronaldo becomes known as Ronaldinho)

19:34 The next day, the older daughter said to the younger, "Last night I slept with my father. Let's get him to drink wine tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through him."

30:14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." 15 But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my sons mandrakes?"

Conclusion
Do not look here for spiritual guidance. Do look here for the bizarre idiomatic foundations of Judeo-Christianity.

Welcome

Being an avid fan of Jesus and his Bedouin shamanic ways, and prompted by the incoherent blogged ramblings of some friends of mine (www.downroute66.com), I've decided it might be time to read the bible and take stock of thoughts and reflections of this oppressive but enduring tome. So this is what will be happening here. I am hoping it will take less than a year, but we are all hoping that. It is a hot May day outside and I have just finished with Genesis