The Bible Exposed

Section: Critical Commentary

  • Messiah: Genesis 31:13

    Messiah is an ordinary Hebrew word meaning anointed one, and Christ is simply its Greek counterpart. The argument shows how widely the Old Testament uses it. In Genesis 31:13 God recalls the pillar Jacob anointed at Bethel; in Leviticus 8:10 Moses anoints the tabernacle with the anointing oil; 1 Samuel 2:10 speaks of the horn of God’s anointed king; Ezekiel 28:14 speaks of an anointed guardian cherub.

    Isaiah 45:1 goes furthest, for there the LORD calls Cyrus, a pagan king, his anointed. If the word covers a pillar, oil, a cherub and a foreign ruler, the argument says, then being called Messiah does not by itself mark anyone as divine.

    I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’”

    Genesis 31:13

    Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:

    Isaiah 45:1

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 27, p. 24).

  • God: further contradictions (f): James 1:13

    James 1:13 says God tempts no one. Genesis 22:1 says God tested Abraham by commanding him to offer his son. The argument notes that the two passages use different words, test and tempt, but treats the test of Abraham as the very thing James says God does not do.

    After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

    Genesis 22:1

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 14, p. 10).

  • Holy Ghost: Luke 1:15

    Many Christian groups claim to possess the gift of the Holy Spirit as their own. This note raises a puzzle from the Gospels. Luke 1:15 says John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, Luke 1:41 and 1:67 say the same of Elizabeth and Zechariah, and John 20:22 has Jesus breathe on his disciples and tell them to receive it. Yet Jesus himself is described as receiving the Spirit only at his baptism, in Matthew 3:16, some thirty years after his birth.

    Mark 3:29 adds a warning that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is never forgiven. The note asks what is meant by being filled with the Spirit from the womb, why the order of those who receive the Spirit appears as it does, and what exactly the unforgivable sin is. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 15, p. 12).

  • Incest: Genesis 19:33-35

    The argument defines incest as sexual relations between people too closely related, and says the Bible records several cases without condemning them. It begins with Genesis 19:33-35, where Lot’s two daughters get their father drunk and each lies with him in turn so that they may have children by him.

    It continues with Reuben lying with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, in Genesis 35:22, and Judah sleeping with his daughter-in-law Tamar, who had disguised herself as a prostitute, in Genesis 38:15-18. It adds Amnon’s assault on his half-sister Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:11-14, where she begs him not to do such an outrageous thing, and Absalom taking his father’s concubines in public in 2 Samuel 16:22.

    Leviticus 18:8-18 forbids all of these unions, which makes the narratives stand out. The question raised is why scripture reports such episodes so plainly and what lesson it draws from them.

    So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

    Genesis 19:33-35

    While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

    Genesis 35:22

    But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.

    2 Samuel 13:14

    So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

    2 Samuel 16:22

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 16, p. 13).

  • Israelites: Ezekiel 16:28

    The prophets often describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God in the language of an unfaithful wife, and this entry collects those passages. Ezekiel 16:28 says Jerusalem played the whore with the Assyrians and still was not satisfied. Ezekiel 23 retells the story as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, standing for Samaria and Jerusalem, who give themselves to foreign lovers. Hosea 4:12 says a spirit of whoredom has led the people astray so that they left their God, and the theme returns in Hosea 6:10 and 9:1.

    The argument reads these as a record of Israel’s repeated rebellion, and also asks whether such explicit imagery is fitting in a book offered as the word of God.

    You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied.

    Ezekiel 16:28

    My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

    Hosea 4:12

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 17, p. 16).

  • Jeremiah: Jeremiah 1:5

    Jeremiah 1:5 has God say that before he formed Jeremiah in the womb he knew him, and that he appointed him a prophet to the nations. The argument sets this beside Jeremiah’s complaint in Jeremiah 20:7 that the LORD has deceived him and that he was deceived. A prophet chosen before birth is hard to reconcile with a God who is said to deceive that same prophet.

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

    Jeremiah 1:5

    O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.

    Jeremiah 20:7

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 18, p. 16).

  • Jesus: John 2:9

    A string of observations about Jesus in the Gospels, gathered as questions about how the Gospels present him. His first miracle in John 2 is turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. He speaks sharply to the religious leaders in Matthew 16:4 and Matthew 23, calling them hypocrites, whitewashed tombs and a brood of vipers. He addresses his mother as “woman” in John 2:4, the same word he uses to the woman brought before him in John 8:10, and says in Luke 12:49-51 that he came to bring fire and division, not peace.

    He turns away the man who calls him good in Matthew 19:16-17, saying that only God is good. His authority is something he was given (Matthew 28:18); he says he can do nothing on his own (John 5:30); he casts out demons by the finger of God (Luke 11:20); and before raising Lazarus he thanks the Father for hearing him, saying he speaks aloud so the crowd may believe (John 11:41-43). Peter calls him a man whom God attested by the miracles God did through him (Acts 2:22). Finally, in Matthew 26:7-11 he defends the woman who poured costly ointment on him against his disciples’ complaint that it should have gone to the poor.

    Taken together, these sayings show a figure who speaks of his power as given and his words as the Father’s, which bears on how the Gospels understand his relation to God. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 19, p. 17).

  • Jesus: power and knowledge: John 5:30

    The points collected here concern the humanity of Jesus in the Gospels, and are offered as reasons to doubt that he is God. In John 5:30 he says he can do nothing on his own. In Mark 13:32 he says that no one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son, but only the Father. In Mark 11:13 he goes to a fig tree looking for fruit, and finds none because it was not the season.

    He says he is thirsty in John 19:28, he weeps in John 11:35, and in Mark 1:13 he is tempted by Satan for forty days. The argument asks how someone who lacks knowledge, tires, thirsts, weeps and is tempted can be the all-knowing God who cannot be tempted. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 20, p. 20).

  • Jesus: the mission to Israel: Matthew 10:5-6

    In Matthew 10:5-6 Jesus sends out the twelve and tells them not to go to the Gentiles or enter a Samaritan town, but to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Matthew 15:24-26 he tells the Canaanite woman who asks him to heal her daughter that he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, and that it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

    The argument takes these sayings as plain evidence that his mission was to the Jews alone, which is hard to square with a message to all nations. (The New Testament text is not yet on this site.)

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 21, p. 21).

  • God: seeing God: John 1:18

    The Bible says in John 1:18 and 1 Timothy 6:16 that no one has seen God or can see him, and Exodus 33:20 says no man can see God’s face and live.

    Yet other passages say the opposite. In Exodus 33:11 the LORD speaks to Moses face to face as a man to his friend; in Exodus 24:10 Moses, Aaron and seventy elders saw the God of Israel; and in Genesis 32:30 Jacob says he has seen God face to face and lived. Exodus 33:23 adds that God would let Moses see his back. The argument sets these side by side as flat contradiction about God’s nature.

    But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

    Exodus 33:20

    Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

    Exodus 33:11

    and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.

    Exodus 24:10

    So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

    Genesis 32:30

    Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

    Exodus 33:23

    Source: see Credits and references (no. 12, p. 9).