Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Samson fights the Philistines

14.And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15.And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
16.And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
17.And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.

Judges 15: 14-17

Of all of the ridiculous tales of the bible, this is the one that I find to be at the top of the heap of stupidity. According to this tale Samson who is very reminiscent of the Greek Hercules who did super human feats and in the end attained godhood himself. The strongman of the bible is Samson and according to the scriptures he was chosen by God as a deliverer of the Israelites from under the dominance of the Philistines. The story that led to this fight in and of itself is beyond reason and is the dumbest tale I have ever heard that has been claimed as a true story. It states that Samson went back to claim his wife back but that his father in law would not allow it since he despised her previously. So he offered that Samson should take his younger daughter as a wife and in a fit of rage he went and took some 300 foxes and bound them together tail to tail and put firebrands between each set of tails and set them loose in the corn fields of the Philistines, as a result he managed to burn and utterly destroy those corn fields.

When the Philistines became aware of what had happened they then inquired of the Israelites as to who had caused it and they all said it was Samson, so they instructed them to go to Samson and bind him and bring him to the Philistines. According to the tale Samson agrees to be bound on the condition that the Israelites don't try to attack him themselves to which they agreed. We are now caught up and at where the tale continues in the preceding verses illustrated above at the beginning of this post. According to this tale the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he broke the ropes that bound him and picked up the jawbone of an ass and in the end slew 1.000 men!

I was curious as to why he called that place Ramathlehi so I did some digging and this is what I found in Eastons bible dictionary: 'Elevation of Lehi, or the jawbone height; i.e., the Ramah of Lehi (Judges 15:15-17). The phrase "in the jaw," ver. 19, Authorized Version, is in the margin, also in the Revised Version, "in Lehi." Here Samson slew a thousand Philistines with a jawbone.' Evidently it's a reference to Ramath (the city) Lehi (the town) I may or may not be mistaken on this. But the point is that the things that the bible does not take into consideration is that the Philistines were known to be fierce, strong, and taller than most, not to  mention that they used armor in battle. Yet despite all of this we are to believe that one man took out an entire army of 1,000 men with a jawbone of an ass!!

I said it in my youtube post regarding this matter that it takes an ass to believe this story, and many christians take this story to be literally true. The sheer impossibility of the act alone should be sufficient enough to convince anyone that this tale cannot be true nor literal but rather some more myth making which the christians and the Hebrews have shown that they are adept at doing.

6 comments:

  1. What I cannot understand is, why the Bible put praise and raised up a murderer? what happened to, "thou shalt not kill?", It's OK as long as it for g-o-d-s bidding, apparently.

    Like Saul/Paul, a murderer, but if you're a christian you can invent your own savior and become a saint.

    The Philistines were "human beings" no doubt, not savage infidels, this is where I get into it with christians about the white man killing all the savage infidel American Indians. To me, it's no different than Allah ordering the murder of infidels.

    If you want to see christians run speeding away at the speed of light, just mention the christians coming over here and killing all the Indians and stealing their land.

    They used the Bible as justification for killing all the Indians, just like Hitler used the Bible as justification for killing over 6 million Jews.

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  2. The bible on several occasions advocates and most times states that the Hebrews killed for God. They too stole the land from the previous inhabitants by order of God and even went as far as saying that God led them to victory. The wars between Israel and the Palestinians is a result of this.

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  3. Absolutely, why are not more people outraged over this??? The Bible and Quran are solely responsible for divisiveness, hatred, predjudice, and labels put upon most people "human beings" on this planet.

    There is no such thing as an infidel, there are only "human beings" on this planet. But if you have been made to think that you have been specially chosen to represent your god, then you think you are above other human beings, deserving of your god's wrath, so murder sometimes becomes a necessity in order to please your god, when all along it is really you the believer that can find justification through strong belief for your psychotic god's murdering.

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  4. K guys lets be honest for a minute,
    As someone who believes in Jesus, I admit that Hitler The Bible has been used to some awful things. Can't argue with that. Can't argue that God told his people to kill others.
    But I want to think to suggest what I suggest:

    If you're going to argue the we shouldn't believe the Bible because its a book of hatred, you also have to consider the fact that it was because of his religious convictions that William Willbforce fought for the abolition of the slave trade. History records that he was chosen because of his religious convictions this despite the fact the person who chose him for the job did not believe in God. If there were no Bible, it may have been longer before someone fought against it.
    Then you have mother Tersea who does her charity worked based upon her religious convictions. She didn't loved kids, but that love of kids was based out of the Love she felt her God had for kids. and then you have all the charity work churches do. Now I know some churches are awful mean places, to paint us all with this same brush is not rational. It is because of biblical convictions that we feel a need to do these things. Now. I know ppl have done hateful things and used the Bible to hide behind it, but if you're going to go there, you have think about the other side too to be fair pls.
    2. If I were going to make a holy book I'd do a little better job at making its saints Holy. I'd make them look perfect. The Bible doesn't do that and if you read through the story, it never actually says Samson was a good guy. It says God used him, but he was never looked upon for his holiness. He was never praised for it and if you look at it closely the Bible says he was a bit of a womanizer.
    3. You have to consider why they were attacking these other countries. Were they simply taking them for their land? Party. But if you read through the story you find something interesting about their cultures. A lot of these countries had gods like the god of Molech. Historical Secular Anthropolgy will tell you that Molech was a good that required child sacrifice. So you have these countries practicing different things in their religion that even we accuse religions of today. Now if you take the view that God is a god of love in the Bible then it means he cares for the fact that injustice is being done to these kids. In fact if you read through the Bible God sent prophets to these places and appealed them to stop. So its not like God got mad with something they were doing and without warning killed the. but they didn't stop so God sends another people into kill them and you get angry about it? Hmmm Not very intelligent. Not very just either. If a church did that now and took your child, you wouldn't fight for your child? Would you stand by and let them do that? No You wouldn't. If someone did that to your kid, you would demand the death penalty in US. Yet when God does it you condem him for it? It's like you get mad at God both ways a. If He is God of love and doesn't act against evil you get made
    b. When He does act out love and punishes evil you get mad.
    Guys thats just irrational.
    4. When Israel practiced the same things in the Bible account, God sent in Persia and Babylon to wipe them out. So my question is, it about the land or was it about the morality?(although its been made into that today)

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  5. Dan, you never fail to amaze me! Using William Wilberforce as an example of Christians doing good because of their religious convictions is a terrible example. Let's not forget that those that upheld slavery also used the bible to defend those false rights and beliefs. "If there were no Bible, it may have been longer before someone fought against it." Correction, maybe if there were no bible people would not be oppressing each other in the first place.

    The main reason your biblical God sent the Hebrews to conquer those lands was not because of what they were doing but because he had promised that land to them. Joshua 23:4,5 4Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward.
    5.And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.

    So as you can see, it was not for something as noble as saving the children from being sacrificed to false gods. Besides if you take it into perspective he never presented himself to any other nation with signs and wonders as he did with the Hebrews nor gave them a chance to repent.

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  6. Sampson is perceived by christians as a great warrior for god, yet he had a desire for women in which his strength was in his hair, are you so gullible to believe such nonsense? And then god commands, "Thou shalt not kill", Yet he was sent by god to slaughter over 1000 men??? And then committed suicide???

    Dan, you'll eventually have to give up your belief in complete nonsense.

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