Hi Tactitus,

Quote Originally Posted by Tacitus View Post
I think that a lot of Christians live in a state of denial about these Scriptures. They just pretend that the atrocities don’t exist in the “inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God.” Fact is these things DO exist in the Bible. Probably because it is the word of man, not God—in particular, the word of an ancient barbaric people who used “God” or “Yaweh” to justify their genocide and blood lust.
On the whole, I think you are right about the glossing over of many of these passages. There is even the "convenient" out brought around by the "New Covenant" in the NT . I should also note that it is pretty wel known, in academic circles at least, that the Hebrew tribes plagiarized at least one book (Job) from Ugarit (no citations - what would Dr. P. say !!).

At the same time, you should keep in mind that the bloodthirstyness you mention is pretty much a characteristic of a lot of Gods (and Goddesses) at that time (say ~1850-550 bce). It had a tendency to be exacerbated, to some degree, in later iterations in duotheistic and monotheistic religions.