On Jan 29, 7:26 am, Jantero <
jantero...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/27/2012 9:00 AM, bill wrote:
> > On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:53:31 +0000, Martin Edwards wrote:
> >> I didn't mean it literally. I meant that the Bible has no provenance,
> >> or more exactly, none that can be discovered with any certainty.
>
> > The bible is great literature and has acted as the bedrock of three of
> > the world's major religions.
>
> That might say more about shortcomings of the human condition than
> anything else.
>
> For example here are the rules for selling your daughter into sexual
> slavery, as laid down by Yahweh:
Try a more accurate translation. Neither "slave" nor "sexual slavery"
is accurate. The word used is amah -- handmaid, bondwoman,
maidservant.
> (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
> " When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the
> end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who
> bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not
> allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the
> contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to
> marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must
> treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes
> another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep
> with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may
> leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
More accurate translation:
"If a man sells his daughter as a maidservant [amah], she shall
not be freed as male servants are released.
[A man was allowed to sell a minor daughter ONLY if he was
destitute, with no possible means of support for his family].
"Her master should provisionally designate her as his bride,
and if she is not pleasing to him, he must let her be redeemed. He
[the master] is considered to have broken faith with her, and he
therefore does not have the right to sell her to anyone else.
[The father can't sell her again either, i.e., to anyone who
can't marry her.]
"If he [the master] designates her as a bride for his son, she
must be treated as any other girl.
"If [the master/son] marries another wife, he may not diminish
her allowance, clothing or conjugal rights.
"If none of the above three [redemption, marriage, marriage to
a son] are done, then she shall be released [when she reaches puberty]
without liability or payment."
Think that's rough? Place it in context of the times, i.e., the 2nd
millennium BCE. Then consider that the selling of daughter's into
"sexual slavery" is done around the world today.
> > Some of both testaments is certainly historically verifiable
> "some" meaning very little.
"Some" meaning quite a lot.
> Some of what you find in any novel will also be true.
In some novels, quite a lot will be factual.
> > It seems to be a set of stories set within a verifiable historical
> > context.
Correct. And they should be considered in context.