Slavery in the BIBLE? What's up with THAT!

Aaron Minsky, author of Beyond Faith - http://www.beyondfaithbyaaronminsky.com - debunks the claims of those who say the Bible promotes slavery. He explains the Jewish interpretation of the Jewish Bible and how the inadequate modern English translations give a totally misleading idea of what the original Hebrew actually meant to the Jews of 3,500 years ago. Also keep in mind that Jewish law, like many other bodies of law, has within it the means to adapt to situations and social mores as they change over time. If biblical law were in place today, in Israel for example, there would be no need for the measures that the Torah prescribed for the situation the Jews were in when they were living as nomads in the desert in the Bronze age. However, even when compared to how many modern countries treat captives, Jewish law was amazingly compassionate and ahead of its time.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• bible
• biblical
• slavery
• torah
• law
• israel
• jewish

[voncello]

@salahhe I have a chapter in my book "Beyond Faith" that discusses the issue of vowels. I show how the Hebrew words could mean other things. Ex. "there was evening and morning, the first day" could mean "there was a flock of cattle and wild animals one day" with different vowels! So what you are calling "the word of God" was decided upon by rabbis who put in the vowels! I wish for you the increasing ability to evolve in your thinking when exposed to new ideas and information. Knowledge is good.

[voncello]

@salahhe As I said before the Torah was written without vowels. Changing the vowels of Hebrew words turns them into other words. So who determined which vowels would be put into the words in the Torah? The Rabbis! So right from the start the rabbis had total control of how the words would be interpreted. If you read an English interpretation of the rabbis words and call it "the word of God" yet you refuse to study what they said the words mean, that is inconsistent and out of touch with reality.

[voncello]

@salahhe What? You are the one who makes up whatever you want a passage in the Bible to mean and insists that YOUR opinion is a fact. To the contrary, I have argued that in studying ANY law of ANY culture the intelligent way to understand it is to learn from the writings of THAT culture and understand THEIR law the way THEY do. Now you are trying to twist my stance into something irrational but you have only proven your inability to have a rational and informed discussion on this topic.

[salahhe]

@voncello The second you stated that your interpretation of reality is different then everybody else, this discussion ended. In your fantasy world what you say might be true so no need to argue with that. I have proven my point with my first quote and ever since we are dancing around what I now understand is your point of view.

[voncello]

@salahhe If you continue using foul language I'll end this conversation. Are you Jewish? You show no understanding of Jewish Bible interpretation or the basics of Jewish theology. Your fundamentalist interpretations make me suspect you are a born again Christian or a fundamentalist Muslim. What is your background?

[voncello]

@salahhe I agree with you in principal but your words don't stand up to reality. You say no one should ever be "enslaved". So are you against imprisonment? Aren't you taking away someone's freedom and forcing them to do as you say 24/7? Are you against the army? Soldiers are essentially enslaved. They are told what to do even if it puts them in grave danger. Are you against contracts? Work place rules? The fact is all societies have laws and it is ignorant to interpret them without knowledge.

[salahhe]

@voncello If they heard this, my Jewish friends would politely ask you to suck their circumcised penises. Who the fuck gave these laws? Wasn't it Moses, the Holly prophet, after talking directly to God? Wasn't God the reason they left Egypt in the first place?

And there is still slavery in the bible, no matter how you turn it around.

[voncello]

@salahhe I don't think you understand where I am coming from. I never said any book is holy. I never said any book is from God. See my video "What I Believe" if you want to know where I stand on that. What I'm saying is the Torah (which means "Law" in Hebrew) is a book of law from the ancient Jewish culture. In any study of another culture's law the educated thing to do is study sources from that culture and seek to understand how THEY understood and practiced their law.

[salahhe]

@voncello I never mentioned US laws. I never pretended that it reflects human rights or moral standards. According to universal human rights and as much as an objective social morality we can accept on all earth, you should be allowed to pursue your happiness in ANY way (including selling yourself into slavery if that is your fetish) as long as you are not taking the same freedom from other people. That includes enslaving anyone, even if they attacked you in the first place.

[salahhe]

@voncello So what you are saying is that the bible isn't a reliable source for the word of God. That is a book made up by humans essentially and they could have gotten it all wrong. And what you are following is not the word of God but of some guys from a couple of thousands years ago. Tell me, if that book might as well be bullshit, why defend it? If the only way you CAN defend it is calling your own holly text bullshit... why call it holly in the first place?