While this degrading teaching is that of Jahveh, Manu, a mere man, with no "divine authority," but with only a human heart, taught his followers to treat every aged woman as their mother, every young woman as their sister.
It is rather odd to note in pa.s.sing that he is declared to be cursed who marries "his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother" (Deut. xxvii., 22), when we remember that Abraham said of his wife Sarah: "Indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife" (Gen. xx., 12). Thus Abraham, who is so highly blessed in one part of G.o.d"s word, is cursed in another.
The book of Joshua is taken up with the b.l.o.o.d.y wars of the Israelites; it is a mere record of savage butchery; every page reeks with slaughter.
"They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and a.s.s, with the edge of the sword"
(Josh, vi., 21). This, repeated _ad nauseam_, is the book of Joshua. The tale is varied now and then with the record of absurd miracles, as that of the falling down of the walls of Jericho, or the standing still of the sun and moon at the command of Joshua. From its ferocity and absurdity, the book is beneath contempt, yet it is of "divine authority."
In the Book of Judges we have the record of a number of utterly unimportant victories and defeats in the history of the Hebrew nation.
Why should these be accepted as "of divine authority" any more than any corresponding history of some other equally obscure and barbarous people?
Over the barbarous stories of Ehud stabbing Eglon, with its disgusting details (iii., 21, 22); of Jael murdering her guest, in defiance of all desert laws of hospitality, and receiving for her treachery the blessing of the Lord, a blessing shared only with Mary, the mother of Jesus (v.
24, compare Luke i., 28); of Gideon and of Abimelech, with the evil spirit sent by G.o.d (Judges ix., 23); of Jephthah and his vow and his sacrifice of his daughter (xi., 29-39), as Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia; of Samson with his absurd and brutal conduct (xiv., 19; xv., 4, 5; and 14- 19, etc.); of the Levite and his concubine, and the foul details thereon (xix.)-what can any say of these save that such coa.r.s.e and brutal stories belong to the childhood of every nation, and that while other peoples look back on their savage history as a thing that is past, these Hebrew stories are preserved in perennial freshness, and are placed as a burden on the consciences of the civilised nations of Europe, and, to our shame, are defended from criticism by the brutal laws of blasphemy invented in savage times and sanctioned in England to-day.
The books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah are interesting for the light they throw on the growth of the Israelitish people, but regarded as of divine authority, they give manifold occasion "for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme."
Thus we read how the "ark of G.o.d" was carried to battle, and how the Philistines were afraid, and asked: "Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty G.o.ds?" But they wisely determined to try and save themselves, and bade each other: "Quit yourselves like men, and fight."
So they overcame Israel and his "mighty G.o.ds," and took the ark itself captive (chap. iv.). Jahveh, however, if he could not fight the Philistines, was strong enough to fight their G.o.ds, and when he was offered the hospitality of Dagon"s temple, and was left quiet for the night, he knocked poor Dagon down. The Philistines put Dagon up again, and this so annoyed Jahveh that on the following night he knocked Dagon down again, and cut off his head and "the palms of his hands" on the threshold. After that Jahveh performed a miniature edition of the plagues of Egypt in the various towns to which his ark was carried, until some clever priests. .h.i.t upon the idea of putting the ark on a cart and harnessing in two milch kine, and letting them go wherever they pleased. Off marched the kine to Bethshemesh, and there they met the fate of all the unlucky creatures that did Jahveh any service, for the men of Bethshemesh took them and offered them as "a burnt offering to the Lord." Then Jahveh broke out on the poor men of Bethshemesh, and killed 50,070 of them, because they (all of them?) had peeped into the ark (chaps, v., vi.). And it is actually blasphemy to deny any detail of this absurd story.
1 Samuel xv. is a chapter that many a pious soul must wish blotted out from the Old Testament. Samuel, as bloodthirsty as Moses, gave in "the Lord"s" name the horrible command: "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and a.s.s" (v. 3). This fiendish command was not wholly obeyed, for Saul saved the king, and the best of the sheep and of the other animals. Thereupon Samuel came down and cursed Saul vigorously, and then committed the absurdity of telling Saul that the "Strength of Israel," whose change of purpose he had just announced, and who "repented that he had made Saul king" (v. 35), was "not a man that he should repent" (v. 29). After this manifest untruth, he murdered poor Agag, hewing him "in pieces before the Lord" (v. 33).
Yet it is blasphemy to deny that this tissue of bloodshed and lying is inspired by "the spirit of truth."
After this the contradictions about the connexion of Saul and David are of small moment. In chap. xvi., 18-23, David is brought to play the harp to Saul, and he is described as "a mighty valiant man and a man of war,"
and he became Saul"s arm or-bearer as well as musician. In the next chapter David leaves him (v. 15) and goes back to feed his father"s sheep, when a war breaks out; a curious proceeding for a "mighty valiant man." Six weeks later David carries some food to his brethren in the camp, and hearing the Philistine giant Goliath utter a challenge, he offers to go and fight him. Saul points out to the man who six weeks before was "mighty valiant" and "a man of war," that he could not fight the Philistine, for he was "but a youth," while Goliath was "a man of war from his youth." David then relates the story of a struggle he had with a curious composite animal, a "lion and a bear," who stole a lamb, and "I went out after him and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth, and when he arose against me I caught him by the beard and slew him." Saul then put his armor on him, but the former armor-bearer and man of war had forgotten how to use armor, and refused to wear it. He then killed the Philistine, and Saul, in whose court he had lived six weeks before, and who "loved him greatly" (xvi., 21), asked one of his captains who he was, and bade him "inquire whose son the stripling is"
(xvii., 55, 56). We can only understand the king"s loss of memory when we think how much changed David was; the "man of war" had become a "stripling," the "mighty valiant man," the armor-bearer, had changed into a "youth" who could not wear armor. No wonder poor Saul was puzzled, and if he could not understand it when he was on the spot, how cruel to threaten us with imprisonment and d.a.m.nation if we blunder about it 3,000 years afterwards. Almost immediately after David is playing away on his harp "as at other times" (xviii., 10).
The bloodthirsty, treacherous, profligate character of David is so well known that I will not deal with it here, further than to call attention to the fact that this deep-dyed criminal was the man "after G.o.d"s own heart," the man who "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hitt.i.te" (1 Kings xv., 5).
There is one grave difficulty of ident.i.ty that meets us here which we must not overlook. In 1 Sam. xxiv, 1, we read: "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say: go number Israel and Judah." In 1 Chron. xxi., 1, we _read_: "And
Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." Are "G.o.d" and "Satan" convertible terms? It is clearly blasphemy to say that they are not, since the above verses prove that they are, yet I fancy it must be blasphemy to say that they are.
The barbaric magnificence of the temple built by Solomon is fully described in 1 Kings vi.-viii., and we are bound to believe that Solomon offered up 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep! It would scarcely have been possible for him to have killed more than one animal in five minutes, for each corpse would have to be dragged away to make room for the next, and this is supposing that others prepared the dead animals for sacrifice. Yet at this rapid rate, without stopping for food or rest or sleep, it would have taken Solomon 11,833 hours and 15 minutes to complete his task, or 493 days. As he must have stopped for food and sleep we may double this time, and a pleasant 2 3/4 years poor Solomon must have pa.s.sed.
Numberless contradictions may be found in these historical books, but I pa.s.s over them all at present, as well as over the succeeding books until we come to the prophets, for to these I must devote the remainder of the s.p.a.ce allotted to this part of my subject. We may note in pa.s.sing the ludicrous absurdity of the headings, "reciprocal love of Christ and his Church," etc., put by commentators over the sensual and suggestive descriptions of male and female beauty in the amorous "Song of Solomon."
Isaiah is by far the finest and least objectionable of the seventeen prophets whose supposed productions form the latter part of the Old Testament. A distinctly higher moral tone appears in the writings called by his name, and this is especially noticeable in the "second Isaiah,"
who wrote after the Babylonish captivity. There is also much fine imagery and poetic feeling, and a distinct effort to raise the people above the brutal savagery of animal sacrifice to the recognition that justice and right-doing are more acceptable to Jahveh than dead animals.
Jahveh himself has wonderfully altered, and though there are many traces of the savage Mosaic deity, the prevailing thought is of the "High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy" (Is. lvii., 15).
It seems strange, after reading some of the more beautiful pa.s.sages, to suddenly come upon such a pa.s.sage as that in chapter x.x.xiv., 6-8. Yet all are equally inspired, and must be equally accepted as divine. It is hard to imagine that the coa.r.s.e indecency of chapter x.x.xvi., 12, is dictated by "a G.o.d of purity." Nor is it easy to see what good Isaiah did by walking about "naked and barefoot" (chap. xx., 2,3). The completeness of the nakedness is not left in doubt (v. 4). In any civilised community Isaiah would have been taken up by the police. A fresh difficulty is thrown in the believer"s way by the statement: "The grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth" (chap. x.x.xviii., 18). It is therefore blasphemy to say that there is any "hope" for the dead. Yet it is equally blasphemy to deny that the dead have hope of resurrection.
Jeremiah is a most melancholy prophet. He wails from beginning to end; he is often childish, is rarely indecent, and although it may be blasphemy to say so, he and his "Lamentations" are really not worth reading.
Ezekiel is both childish and obscene in the grossest sense. I can fancy how Sir W. V. Harcourt would characterise Ezekiel if he were not protected by law. In the first chapter we are introduced to a wonderful chariot, borne by four living creatures, each of whom had four wings and four faces, and four sides, and they had a "likeness" which was separate from them, for "it went up and down among the living creatures" (chap.
i., 18); and the chariot had four wheels, or perhaps eight, for there was "as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel" (v. 16); these wheels "went upon their four sides" (v. 17), which must have been very awkward, and they were full of eyes-what do wheels do with eyes?- and were "so high that they were dreadful" (v. 18); on the top of this conglomeration of four-faced creatures and eyed wheels was a firmament, and on the firmament a throne, and on the throne a man, amber-colored, and fire enwrapped, and the man was "the Lord." And it is blasphemy to deny the truth of this unintelligible jargon of absurdities. Then this man converses with Ezekiel, and "a hand"-apparently minus an arm and a body-brings a book (chap. ii., 9), and Ezekiel eats this "roll" (chap.
iii., 1-3), a very indigestible one, 1 should fancy. Then Ezekiel takes a tile, and sketches a town on it, and pretends to besiege the tile, and sticks up an iron pan which he makes believe is an iron wall, and then he lies before it, making a fort and a mount, and bringing battering rams to bear on his old brickbat (chap. iv., 1-4). And it is blasphemy not to believe that this midsummer madness was G.o.d-inspired. The remainder of his conduct (w. 9-15) is too disgusting to mention, and as we are not protected, to print it would bring us under Lord Campbell"s Act. The same remark applies to the unutterable nastiness of chaps, xvi.
and xxiii. And this is in a book put into the hands of little boys and girls, without one protest from the Home Secretary. After all this we are not surprised to read "the spirit" lifted Ezekiel up in the air, "the form of a hand" taking him "by a lock of mine head" (chap. viii., 3). When we read that Gabriel lifted Mahomet in this manner, we say it is an impudent fraud; when we read it of Ezekiel it is "the very truth of G.o.d."
The book of Daniel has been so utterly destroyed by criticism that it would be wasted time to dwell upon it. Yet this book is kept as one of the "prophets," although it has been proved to demonstration that the pretended prophecies were written after the event.
The "minor prophets" deserve a pamphlet to themselves, so full of absurdities are they. Hosea, judging by chap. i., 2, 3, and iv., 1, 2, must have been a man of very indifferent character. His writings have the _two_ characteristics of the minor prophets, indecency and maniacal raving; s.e.xual vice is played upon in a manner that is wearisomely disgusting (see v., 1-13; iv., 12-14; v., 3, 4; vi., 10, etc., etc.).
Amos tells us how "the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a plumbline" (chap. vii., 7, 8). Amos was always seeing queer things, and "the Lord" was always asking him what he saw!
He saw some gra.s.shoppers (vii., 1, 2), and a basket of summer fruit (viii., 1), and the "Lord standing upon the altar" (ix., 1). Jonah"s adventures are famous, and it is blasphemy to deny that throwing Jonah into the sea stilled the waves, that a great fish swallowed him, that the fish was a whale (Matt, xii., 40), that he lived in the whale"s stomach for three days and three nights, said his prayers there, and was thrown up safe and sound after living for seventy-two hours inside an animal! Zechariah is as bad for vision-seeing as Amos. He sees red, speckled and white horses among myrtle trees (i., 8), and then four horns (v. 18); a friendly angel talks with him (v. 9), and explains matters in a fashion that makes them more confused. Then there is a "man with a measuring line" (ii., 1), and Joshua the high priest "in filthy garments," whom they undressed and dressed up again (iii., 1-5). And there are a candlestick, and two olive-trees, and some pipes which "empty the golden oil," and which are the "two anointed ones" (iv.).
Next comes "a flying roll," and then can anyone make sense of the following: "Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said, what is it? And he said, this is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, this is their resemblance through all the earth. And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead, and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and behold there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, to build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base." (Zech. v., 5-11.) Yet if we do not believe this we shall be dammed.
I might heap together yet more of these absurdities, but to what end?
Who but a lunatic could have written such incoherent matter? Yet this Old Testament, containing error, folly, absurdity and immorality is by English statute law declared to be of divine authority, a blasphemy -if there were anyone to be blasphemed-blacker and more insolent than any word ever written or penned by the most hotheaded Freethinker.