Violent Deed in the Bible
Misconstrued?
Now we're getting down to where the true Gospel of Christ resides--the
real meaning of God's words. We know that the Jews went beyond the mark.
What that means is variously interpreted. But if "going beyond" ends up
in their Hebrew Bible, then our translation of the Jews' misunderstanding is transferred
to us from the ancients. We see a real conflict between Christ's admonition to "do
good to them that hate you" in the N.T. and "destroy every man, woman and child
and all the innocent animals" in the O.T.
Before we conclude that the old Hebrew is inaccurate, however, a look at Strong's
Concordance shows that our English translations often use a single Hebrew word in opposite
ways, depending on context, etc. (Forgive me for not giving examples here. This is a study
all by itself for another time.)There is evidence that circumcision was not to be taken
literally, as it was meant to mean of the heart, not a mutilation of the male body. After
all, women also need to be circumcised in the heart. So that also brings up a question
about the command to stone people, and to kill innocent animals on the altar. Agreed, the
English wording is very explicit about the literal killing of animal sacrifices. But is
that what the Lord meant, originally? What other explanation is possible? How about the
"killing" (conquering or destruction) of the beast inside us, our carnal nature,
which is frankly referred to as an enemy to God? Isn't this also the circumcision of the
heart?
I'm going to leave these questions "as is," for I can only say that there is
evidence for what I'm talking about and until these questions are proven one way or other,
at least we can have the hope that God is still Love ["live"], and that the god
of death is the god of this world.
Remember that Adam and Eve chose death for our inheritance in this world. That's a lot
of killing. On the other hand, this life is a path toward something far better, and we
really wouldn't want to stay here forever. A pure heart is the prize. But first, let's be
open and give God the benefit of our doubts. No one is going to be loyal to a god of
murder who talks out of both sides of his mouth.
David
