[ExI] Deuteronomy Chapter 13/was Re: Mary Magdelene?

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Mon, 2009-06-08 at 21:42 +0200, painlord2k at libero.it wrote:
> 
> > Someone responded off list that this was not from the Koran.  And
> > that person was right!  It's actually from Deuteronomy:

I spotted that right off but then I had read that passage years ago.

> What gave up the masquerade was the burning of the booty.

It should be pointed out that in other passages there is not a complete
burning of booty.  So to somehow imply origin of a passage can be
determined by the disposition of the booty is false.

<snip>
> > Does everyone agree that the passage calls for genocide against
> > believers of other religions?
> 
> Not.
> This is an order to the leaders for killing the people that ask a Jews
> to SECRETLY serve other gods or of Jews that SECRETELY serve other gods
> in the cities of the Land of Israel that was given to the Jews by their God.

No.  The use of the word "secretly" is several verses previous and not
in the verses Dan quoted.

<snip>

> > Is anyone here ready to use this passage -- part of both the Hebrew
> > and standard Christian Bibles -- to tar all Jews or Christians as
> > genocidal?*  I hope not!  And, if not, why not use the same logic
> > with Muslims?
> 
> The problem is that in Islam there are so many and large contradictions
> that is impossible to reconcile them.

Is there an ancient religious text which does not have contradictions or
errors of logic and knowledge?  Attempting to make one ancient religion
appear better or worse based on some counting of textual problems is
just silly.

<snip>
> 
> > My guess is most Jews and Christians
> > are unaware of the passage -- or have not focused on it.
> 
> Or maybe they understand it better than you.

Based on what I have seen so far Dan is more correct in his
understanding.

<snip>
> 
> But the inconsistencies in the Bible could be argued be due to the 
> humans that wrote it and our inability to comprehend it fully.

Why do I need to point out the obvious? There are persons alive today in
the Christian tradition who hold that the Bible was not written by
humans but is literally the "Word of God" and is without error.  Of
course I doubt that anyone on this list falls in that group but that is
no reason to act as if that group does not exist.

Fred