The Tabernacle Tale
(Investigator 133, 2010
July)
Our story begins
with Yahweh (God) telling Moses to come up and see him
on the top of Mount Sinai and God would give him two tablets of stone
(Exodus 24:9,10) written by God's own finger — on it was inscribed the
laws and the ten commandments that Moses was to take to the people of
Israel, God's chosen people. (Exodus 31:17)
Before
proceeding further with this tale it must be pointed out:
1. That
Yahweh (God) was invented by the Jews in 6 b.c.
2. That
Moses was the greatest con-artist of the Old Testament, many
scholars say that he too was a mythical figure.
3. Mount
Sinai the place where Moses and God had regular chats, did not
exist, modem research cannot find its location or any other reference
to it, just another mythical mount.
4. The 10
commandments were almost word for word copied from the laws
of King Hammurabi of Babylon in 1750 b.c. which he put into the mouth
of his god Shamash. Also other civilizations such as China, India,
Egypt, had similar legal codes written long before the bible story.
As Moses
was struggling with these two heavy slabs of stone, Yahweh
said to him that the Israelites were playing-up, worshipping other gods
etc, Moses must go down immediately and sort them out. (Exodus
31:18-32:16)
Moses
rushed down Mount Sinai with the tablets, but he was too late, he
saw that the Israelites had made a golden calf and were worshipping it.
Moses flew into a rage and dashed the two tablets into pieces at the
base of the mount. (Exodus 32:19)
Also about
the time when all this was going on, Yahweh decided that he
would like to come and live among the Israelites, so after discussion,
with Moses, he ordered that Moses build him a sanctuary. He then gave
Moses the exact plans of how he wanted it done, the construction of the
Tabernacle or "Portable worshipping tent" or "Tent of meeting." (Exodus
25-28)
It was to
have a cube shaped inner room called the "Holy of Holies". In
it was to be the Ark of the Covenant, which would house the 10
commandments.
Here the
reader must be made aware, that after Moses dashed the
originals to pieces, God called Moses up into the mountain again and
gave him a second set. (Exodus 34)
The Lord
would often come down and visit Moses and speak to him face to
face inside the Tabernacle, as a man speaks to a friend. (Exodus 33:11)
God would
insist that the Israelites keep his commandments and
especially the sabbath day. No one must work on the sabbath, anyone
violating this command would be put to death. (Exodus 31:12-17) If the
Israelites kept God's commandments, God would wipe out all Israel's
enemies and take over their lands-
"…My angel
will go ahead of you and bring you into the lands of the
Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and
I will wipe them out. (Exodus 23:23)
Moses gets
worked up one fine day (Exodus 33:18) and said to the Lord
"Show me I pray thee, thy glory." This is another biblical invention,
because according to scholars, these very words were re¬cycled from
a Greek myth about the god Zeus. Anyway to get on with our fairy story
— and the Lord said to Moses "Thou cannot see my face, for man shall
not see my face and live." [Exodus 33:20)
One can
reasonably ask: What happened to all that previous talk between
God and Moses where God and Moses would speak face to face inside the
Tabernacle, as a man speaks to a friend? (Exodus 33:11)
Yahweh
continues on: "and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth
you by, I will put thee in a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with
my hand until I have passed by (Exodus 33:22)…and I will take away my
hand and thou shall see my back but my face shall not be seen." (Exodus
33:23)
This
gentle and loving God insisted that the Israelites keep the
sabbath or be put to death but he was a homicidal maniac and a mass
murderer, the evidence is there in the bible.
The body
count in Exodus alone is as follows:
•
Plagues upon the Egyptians 25,000-30,000. Exodus 6
•
Killing Egyptian first-born 1,000,000. Exodus 11
•
Wiping out the Egyptian army 5,000-8000. Exodus 14
•
Killing the Amalakites 1,500-2,500. Exodus 17
•
Killing grumbling Israelites 500. Exodus 17
•
Wipe out All men, women and children of the
Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, Canaanites and Jebusites
28,000,000. Exodus 23
Grand
total approximately 32,000,000 killed by this ever loving God.
Ha! Ha!
Brian de
Kretser.
Institute
for Research into Religions
Darwin, N.
T. Australia.
THE TABERNACLE TRUTH
Anonymous
(Investigator 134, 2010
September)
Is the
"tent of worship" or "Tabernacle" which the Israelites
constructed after their Exodus from Egypt merely a biblical "tale"?
Let's consider this and other claims that Mr De Kretser made in #133.
Firstly,
De K claimed the Jews invented God, "Yahweh" in 6BC. According
to the Bible the reverse is the case — God created Israel. Israel
started with one man Abraham near 2000BC whose descendants multiplied
and became a nation.
At present
the oldest archaeological reference to Israel is on a
two-metre stone slab recording victories of Pharoah Merneptah
(c1213-1203BC) and found in 1896 at Thebes. It reads, "Israel is laid
waste! Her seed exists no more!" and confirms that Israelites, as a
people, lived in Canaan before 1200 BC.
Ancient
inscriptions of the name of God "Yahweh" have also been found.
In 1995 Time magazine reported the discovery of two 7th-century
BCE
amulets containing rolled up silver sheets with the benediction of
Numbers 6:24-27 including the name "Yahweh" inscribed. Time commented:
"The discovery made it clear that parts of the Old Testament were being
copied long before some skeptics had believed they were even written."
De K
claims Mount Sinai "did not exist." Actually there are two
candidates for Mount Sinai, one is in the Sinai Peninsula, the other in
NW Arabia. Both are listed in atlases.
De K
claims the Ten Commandments were copied "almost word for word"
from Hammurabi (an 18th century BC Babylonian king). The fact is that
no copying has been proved. If two countries have some similar
legislation the reason might be that their citizens have similar
concerns and fears. Australia and China, for example, have penalties
for murder but that does not prove Australia copied China or vice
versa.
The
Tabernacle was, according to the Bible, in use for centuries. Its
essential features became the model or plan for Solomon's Temple and
for other Israelite shrines of worship. Solomon's Temple was destroyed
in 586BC and later replaced with a new temple, again modelled on the
Tabernacle, which lasted until 70CE.
Since
temples modelled on the
Tabernacle existed, that suggests the original had existed too. The
lack of archaeological confirmation may be due to the non-durable
construction materials (seal skins and wood) of the Tabernacle and
because nations surrounding Israel often deliberately destroyed
historical records. They sometimes altered history so extensively that
even an empire powerful enough to conquer Egypt was forgotten until
recently although remembered in the Bible. That's like erasing Russia
from 20th-century history! (See #124)
De K
claims the following are contradictory:
•
God spoke face to face with Moses. Exodus 33:11
•
You cannot see my face because no man may see my
face and live. Exodus 33:20
One answer
is the purely logical point that "face to face" does not
necessarily imply sight. A person can speak "face to face" with another
without seeing him if he is blind or if the other were invisible.
A deeper,
theological, answer is the Bible doctrine that God spoke by
proxy using angels as intermediaries. (Acts 7:53, 38; Galatians 3:19)
The few individuals who encountered angels sometimes regarded the
meeting as "seeing God face to face". (Compare Genesis 32:24-30 with
Hosea 12:4)
De K
criticised the clause in the Law of Moses that condemned to death
people who broke the Sabbath. (Exodus 31:12-17) Israel, however, voted
on whether to accept the Law of Moses — including the Sabbath — and
apparently 100% were in favour. (Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7) Israel, the
entire nation, had experienced slavery in Egypt without a Sabbath rest
and wanted no repetition of that period. In a subsistence level society
the Sabbath-rest promoted health by preventing overwork, protecting
against exploitation, and reducing stress. The Bible also teaches that,
"A little leaven ferments the whole batch" meaning that a little evil
can gradually infect everyone. Sabbath-breaking, therefore, could
potentially spread until it became the norm and hurt thousands of
people.
De K
criticised the killing of Egypt's first-born in the 10th Plague on
Egypt and the later killing of the Canaanites. Egypt previously ordered
the killing of Israel's baby boys and continued this policy for
decades. The Bible teaches that God judges by the principle, "With the
judgment by which you judge, you will be judged." Whenever God
intervenes for the greater good of humankind, and the people who
provoke his intervention also despise mercy, then evil equivalent to
what they had practiced gets thrown at them. This is also true of the
Canaanites — see Canaanite Apocalypse in #132. In Canaan's case the
future good of billions of people was at stake.
De K likes
to "Ha Ha" when making misguided claims. That's what German
geologists did in the 1930s when informed that the geology around
Nordlingen was produced by an asteroid impact. They laughed because
they considered the idea absurd. The Bible, however, shows that
"brimstone" (Genesis 19:24-25; 2 Peter 2:6) and even burning mountains
(Revelation 8:8) can drop from the sky. Nowadays nations spend
$billions to study the threat.
By
declaring the book of truth a "fairy
tail", misguided atheists promote apathy toward threats to humanity's
existence.
Can the Bible be
defended in open,
written-down, debates?
What if the debates continue for over 30 years?
Find out on this website: