Forbidden Theology: Origin of Scriptural God

By Miles Augustus Navarr

Over 75% of the people who live on this planet are followers of one of the three major monotheistic religions. They all consider Abraham as the father of their race and religion. They all believe in one singular, all powerful, all knowing benevolent god. The Hebrew call him Yahweh, the Christians refer to him as Father or Lord and Muslims call him Allah, and yet millions and millions of people have been murdered, maimed and tortured by the followers of this single entity to prove that their version of this single god is better than the other two versions. Sounds ridiculous, and yet sadly enough, more people have died in the name of religion than any other cause in the history of humanity.

Each and every one of us at one time or another has asked or thought about such fundamental questions as,

Is there a God?

Where did humans come from?

Why out of millions of species on earth, only humans reached this level of sophistication?

Is there a life after death?

Is there a purpose to life?

Why are we here?

Are the scriptures truly the words of god?

More importantly, is there any way we could find answers to such questions?

The fact is, the answer to most of these questions, and many more, that we thought unanswerable, have been written down on clay tablets by our ancient ancestors who lived in Mesopotamia over 7000 years ago. These records are readily available to those who are willing to step outside the dogmatic belief system of the establishment, and are prepared, mentally and spiritually, to tolerate a totally different rendering of the oldest written historical records about mankinds origin, purpose and the truth about god, our maker.

The subject matter of this book is an attempt to investigate the circumstances under which Mankind was made, and to trace the beginning and development of such concerns as the emergence of the concept of god and the formation of what later became known as religion. This is done primarily by relying on our scriptural texts, particularly the Old Testament, as well as other ancient manuscripts such as Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian Creation and Genesis epics.

The first chapter begins by examining the behaviour, commands and instructions given by Yahweh to his chosen people. These commands and instructions are then evaluated and compared with basic accepted human rights standards practised and observed by almost all communities and societies, past and present.

The question is then asked, How could an entity, powerful enough to have created the entire universe, issue such cruel and sadistic commands against some of his own creations?

Furthermore, Yahwehs behaviour is decidedly pro Hebrew, and shows no regards or thought about non Hebrew masses. How could the universal god show such bias towards a tiny fraction of his creatures, with total disregard for the rest?

Finally the characteristics and personalities of Yahweh is analysed by scrutinising his behaviour, actions and directives as stated in the Old Testament, before examining the god of Christianity.

In investigating the role and characteristics of God in Christianity, the first thing that immediately becomes apparent is the absence of a prominent role for God the Father, as we had witnessed in Judaism. The Christians, or more specifically Saint Paul, who was the founder and designer of Christianity as we know it today, in order to distance his creation from the Hebrews and religion of Yahweh, invented a new Godhead and named him Jesus Christ (Ancient Greek: Isous). Born of a virgin, with powers to heal the sick, give sight to the blind and even raise the dead, who was crucified but resurrected three days later. These were all characteristics borrowed from various religions and cults prevalent at the time in the Levant, from Mithraism to the cult of Apoll

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Aug 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477117545

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Copyright © 2012 by Miles Augustus Navarr.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

1—God in the Scriptures

1.1 The God in Old Testament

1.2. References to Other Deeds and Judgements by God That Call for Further Investigation

1.3 Yahweh

1.4 God in the Gospels (Christianity)

1.5 God of Islam

2—Evolutionists and Their Problems

3—The Creationists and Their Problem

4—Origin of Life (Enigma of DNA)

5—Sumer

6—Sumerian Creation Epic

7—The Anunnaki (The Shining Ones)

8—Evidence of Anunnaki in the Bible and Other Apocryphal Texts

9—Evidence of Anunnaki in Other Cultures

9.1 The Piri Reis Map

9.2 The Great Pyramid

9.3 The Sphinx

9.4 Henges of Britain

9.5 South America

9.6 Baalbek

9.7 Crystal Skulls

9.8 Atlantis: Myth or Fact

10—Origins of Religion

10.1 Identity of Yahweh

10.2 Postscript

Bibliography

Source of Illustrations

Endnotes

Introduction

The thought of researching the subject matter of this book, ‘Origin of God’, occurred to me almost twenty-five years ago when I first read the Old Testament or Torah. I was born a Muslim in a family with traditional values. Knowing that almost all the stories written in the Quran were adaptations of various books and chapters of the Old Testament, I decided to read from the original source so that I may discover something more revealing and more illuminating about God, the compassionate and the merciful.

What had initially baffled me and consequently became an inscrutable dilemma was a simple puzzle. ‘How could an entity or an energy that had created this universe with an estimated 200 billion galaxies each containing an estimated one hundred billion stars (that is suns and not planets.) could care so much about a simple, out of the way planet at the edge of a far off galaxy?’

At that time, I had not even heard about ‘Quantum Theory’, ‘Parallel Universes’, ‘String Theory’, or other recent theories about how the universe was created and the state of its subsistence.

Disappointingly, reading through the Old Testament not only did not quench my thirst for a sensible, satisfactory, and coherent god, but in fact, it also added to my confusion by creating more perplexing questions, without shedding any light on my previous conundrums. I shall discuss these in detail when I explore and examine the passages of the Old Testament in Chapter 1, but as Richard Dawkins in his best seller The God Delusion asks

‘Why should a divine being, with creation and eternity on his mind, care a fig for a petty human malfunction? We humans give ourselves such air, even aggrandizing our poky little sins to the level of cosmic significance!’¹

More significantly, what I found amongst the pages of this divine book Torah, which is perhaps the oldest monotheistic book of religion (many people erroneously consider Avesta as a dualistic rather than monotheistic text), was a god whose commands and directives even surpassed the actions and behaviours of the most tyrannical and despotic of his creatures. This so-called omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent god commands his chosen people and prophets to commit such murderous and unspeakable crimes against other people (who are also supposedly his own creation and were created in his own image), and whose only crime was to be natives of lands coveted by this god or had been worshipping the gods of their fathers since before Yahweh was ever mentioned. The pillage, rape, massacre, and ethnic cleansing of the native tribes are specifically ordered by Yahweh to explicitly and utterly annihilate whole native tribes. The commands Joshua obeyed and crimes he committed are of such magnitude to be morally and humanely indistinguishable from Hitler’s Holocaust or Stalin’s genocides.

My quest for a sagacious, judicious, and prudent god pulled me towards a completely different source, ‘Ancient History’, to probe the roots of human civilisation.

To my surprise, I discovered an array of independent researchers, who by being outside the doctrinaire of the Establishment, have been able to perform their investigation freely and accurately. These pioneers had a freehand to write about their investigation simply because they were outside the bounds and shackles of an invisible and yet powerful oligarchy I call the Establishment,² whose sphere of influence, as far as our subject matter is concerned, embraces such disciplines as the academia, archaeology, religion, and historical domains.

During the past forty years, the number as well as expertise and sophistication of these free, independent researchers has grown in magnitude, and judging by the number of best-sellers under such categories as alternative history, forbidden gospels, and forbidden archaeology, so is their audience.

Nothing I have written in this book is original. I owe all my personal illumination to the previous and published investigations and breakthroughs by such authors as Zecharia Sitchin, Erich von Daniken, Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Christopher Knight, Robert Lomas, Hugh Schonfield, Laurence Gardner, Ahmed Osman, Lynn Picknett, Olive Prince, and many others whose courage and daring to sever the bonds of conventionalism and crack the monolith of conformism have enabled millions of people like me to find answers to simple and yet deep questions.

For me, one of the most perplexing of these questions is the creation of man, or Adam, in God’s own image and the consequent events resulting from the Original Sin or the Fall. It is this central feat of creation which will be the main focus of my investigation in this book.

Since the dusk of the Dark Ages and the dawn of the Age of Reason, two seemingly irreconcilable principles, ideologies, or creeds have emerged regarding God and creation. First is the traditional, Creationist school, and the other, the new scientific or Evolutionist school, more commonly known as Darwinism.

The creationists can, in general, be divided into two groups. Those who deem the scripture to be the ‘Word of God’, and regardless of scientific ‘proof’ to the contrary, believe in the literal meaning of the Genesis, namely, creation of the universe in six days, age of the world to be around six thousand years, and creation of man from clay. In the broader spectrum of terminologies, they can be labelled as fundamentalists. The second group is who believe in scripture as the Word of God, but in the face of irrefutable scientific proof, has decided to attach their own ‘interpretations’ to personally selected chapters and verses. For instance, god created the world in six days; however, the days are not earthly days but divine days of unknown duration. In general, the creationists, despite ever-increasing scientific impediments to their beliefs, are trying desperately to find ‘scientific’ methodology, such as ‘Irreducible complexity’³ and ‘Intelligent design’ to convince their adherents of the viability of the scriptures. But in courts as well as in scientific establishments, and their inept efforts are being continuously discarded. In 2005, a group of creationists in Pennsylvania tried to impose the concept of ‘Intelligent design’ on the science curriculum of a local public school. After lengthy debates and attendance of many expert witnesses, including creationist Michael Behe, the presiding judge John E. Jones in his final verdict termed the motion ‘a move of breathtaking insanity’.

Yet despite the obvious, logical, and proven lines of reasoning, the real insanity is the ever-expanding communities of religious fundamentalists across the globe from United States of America to the Middle East to eastern Asia.

On the other hand, the evolutionists or adherents to Darwinism, who speak with the authority of god in guise of science, constitute a wide spectrum that includes beliefs from absolute atheism to what is called Deism (those who believe in a supernatural god whose activities were confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe, without interfering in the running of human affairs afterwards.)⁴ The evolutionists believe that all creation, and in particular, the creation and evolution of man, can be explained by Darwin’s theory as expressed in his books Origin of Species and Descent of Man. However, so far they have failed to explain some obvious shortcomings in Darwin’s theories. The obvious being the missing link in human fossils as well as the absence of any precursor to the flowering plants or the reasons for sudden explosion of life during the Cumbrian period some 525 million years ago. As evident by the fossil remains, there was an abrupt burst of life beginning 525 million years ago, but the absolute lack of any fossils during the pre-Cumbrian rock layers dated to 535 million years ago is an enigma as yet unanswered by the scientific community. Darwin himself despaired to explain this and chose not to discuss it in public. Of course, the reason may be that fossilised evidence does exist but have not yet been discovered. Moreover, the line of argument presented by Evolutionists, namely, that in the absence of a better theory, we must all adhere to Darwinism, is as inadequate a reasoning as believing the earth to be the only planet supporting life because so far we have not discovered any life forms outside our little blue planet.

Given the fact that neither the Creationists nor the Evolutionists is unambiguous about their premises, my intention in writing this document is to submit a proposition and maintain that a far more plausible option would be to consider both propositions, (Evolutionist and Creationist) taken together as being compatible and accurate. I shall endeavour to demonstrate that both schools can be compatible if we allow for certain ancient historical records to be recognised and acknowledged as factual written history, rather than cosmogonic myth, which is the position adapted and instituted by the established historians. These records which were discovered all over Middle East and Mesopotamia are commonly known as the Sumerian or Chaldean Genesis or Creation Epics. The first of such records was discovered by Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1849 at Nineveh, as part of the library of King Ashurbanipal, became known as ‘Enuma Elish’ or ‘The Chaldean Genesis’. These together with other tablets since discovered, such as ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’, ‘Atrahasis’, and ‘Tablets of Adam and Eve’, constitute the Sumerian and Babylonian creation epic—the earliest and most accurate written record of creation of solar system and man.

I will not delve into the question of whether God is the creator of the universe or even if any creator was needed in the first place. For me, creating something out of nothing is implausible, therefore, at the very beginning, something must have existed, but what was there before the very beginning? No matter whether one is an atheist, a creationist, or anywhere in between through repeated regressions, one ultimately arrives at the incomprehensible opacity of the ‘Origin’. Scientists tell us that our universe began through a colossal explosion dubbed the ‘Big Bang’ some 14.5 to 15 billion years ago. ‘What was before Big Bang?’, ‘Where did the initial energy come from?’, ‘If only God existed before the Big Bang, where did he originate from?’, ‘Was there something before God?’. We have invented such meaningless terms as infinity, eternity, and forever to compensate for our lack of comprehension and grasp of such concepts. But since I have never read or even heard of an attempt by scientists or religious authorities to explain the ‘Origin’, I have decided to put an end to my lack of comprehension and call the very beginning ‘God’, whatever that may mean or imply.

Nor will I attempt to discuss the origin of life on this planet, although I have devoted a small chapter regarding some of the questions and opinions about complexity of the life as it first appeared on earth as a matter of interest and as far as it relates to Darwin and his theory of Origin of Species.

The main premise of this work will relate to the creation of Homo sapiens or Cro-Magnon, better known as the modern man. This led directly to the development and origin of religion which initially involved ‘service to’ rather than ‘worship’ of our creators. I will use the material in the Old Testament, specifically the Book of Genesis as well as other ancient Hebrew texts such as thebook of Enoch, book of Jasher, and book of Elijah. In addition, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Akkadian creation texts and other materials will be analysed and comparison made with the Old Testament and other Hebrew books for similitude and resemblance. I shall further quote parts of the book of Exodus, Joshua, Job, and other Jewish texts to emphasis the characteristics and the attributes of the Judo/Christian God ‘Yahweh’ as it is presented to the believers and to argue the inaptness and absurdity of these qualities with the entity or force capable of creating the entire universe.

My intention is not to disprove the existence of god as atheists propose either to change or to modify the belief system of all adherents to monotheistic religions. It is the fundamental right of each individual to believe and to worship whatever god, deity, divinity, or idol they chose to worship. All I propose to demonstrate and hopefully to accomplish is to make a distinction between the God, Lord, Yahweh, Allah, or Elohim mentioned in our holy scriptures and the energy or the entity that is responsible for the creation of the cosmos. If one separates and distinguishes the God who made⁵ us in his own image with the Creator who created the heavens and the earth, then a comprehensible conclusion may be reached.

Chapter 1

God in the Scriptures

History Has the Relation to Truth that Theology Has to Religion—None to Speak of.

Almost all followers of monotheistic prophets are of the belief that their holy books, namely, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Quran are the words of God reveal to his chosen prophets either directly or through one of his angels. The fact of the matter is neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament was directly revealed to Moses or Jesus.

These texts were written by people who had not even seen the prophets and lived at least a hundred years later, although some Jews believe that the Book of Deuteronomy or the Fifth Book of Moses came directly from and was written by Moses.

The only prophet who claimed direct revelation from God through Archangel Gabriel was Mohammad.⁶

The first five books of the Old Testament known as Sefer Torah consists of twenty-four books, each written by a different prophet or scribe during a thousand year span. The Book of Genesis, and in particular, the chapters about the creation of universe and Adam as well as the story of the Flood are taken directly from the Babylonian and Sumerian creation epics with minor adjustments to suit the Jewish audience.

The singular god of monotheism known as Jehovah or Yahweh in the Old Testament, Lord or Father in the New Testament, and Allah in the Quran are in fact so different in characteristics and attributes that they could hardly be the same entity. The God of Old Testament is a uniquely Jewish God. He does not care about other people or lands. All his prophets are Jewish and all his teachings, commands, and concerns are towards the well-being of his chosen people. He easily commits genocide, condemns the innocent, ignores other people’s rights, and performs despicable acts, simply to achieve his personal plan concerning the Israelites. He is simply not the universal God who regards humanity as his children and treats them all the same. I shall first deal with this exclusively Jewish God before turning to Christian and Muslim deity.

1.1 The God in Old Testament

If one excludes the Zoroastrian Avesta as part of the monotheistic texts, then the Old Testament is considered as the oldest monotheistic religious text available to us. It is not only an intrinsic part of the Christian Bible, it is also the source of almost all the narratives as well as fundamental canons conveyed in the Quran and basis for both Islamic and Christian teachings. Old Testament is also the first record of a divinity laying claim to be the singular and the exclusive object of worship, although this exclusivity was a later development⁷. It is for these reasons that I have chosen this book as the main source of my research into the characteristics and attributes of the entity we have come to know and to worship as ‘God’.

We have been taught that God is merciful, compassionate, and all knowing. This means that all our actions and even our thoughts are known to him⁸ and are recorded so that on a particular day in an unknown future, known as the Judgement Day, we could be answerable for all our deeds and our thoughts. Incidentally, this idea was not invented by the Hebrew divinity Yahweh or Jehovah but was borrowed from the ancient Egyptians as were many of the Judaic rites, rituals, and tenets. This is a topic I shall briefly touch upon at the end of the book in postscript.

In order to begin to have an understanding of God, I shall commence with passages from the Old Testament, where God’s direct actions and commands will shed some light and reveal few particulars of his characteristics.

Let us begin in a chronological order and start with Abraham, common father and patriarch of all three major monotheistic religions. Abraham was the first man chosen by El Shaddai (Lord of the Mountain)⁹ with whom to make an everlasting covenant and to become a prophet as well as the father of all the nations on earth. One naturally assumes that he must have been the most righteous, decent, virtuous, and moral man to deserve such an honour.

Now let us judge this virtuous of all men by his actions.

In Genesis 12: 11-20, we read

And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.

The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.

And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.

And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

Why saidst thou, She is my sister? So I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.¹⁰

As is clear from the passage, this chosen of Jehovah in order to save his own life against possible risk to his well-being, and I underlined possible, for it was far from certainty, not only was he willing to lie, but also to offer his wife to pharaoh to save his own skin. What is more significant is the reaction of the ‘Lord’, who punishes the innocent pharaoh instead of faithless and deceitful Abraham. As if this episode was not enough, Abraham repeats this dishonest behaviour again. In Genesis 20: 1-9, we read

And Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.

But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

Said he not unto me, She is my sister? And she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.

Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? And what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

Again, Abraham’s cowardice and undue fear for his own life drove him to lie and to offer Sarah to King Abimelech. Unlike the previous instance, fortunately, God interfered at the right time before Sarah was taken to King Abimelech’s bed.

After these incidents with Abraham, we immediately confront another amazing bit of bizarre judgement by the ‘Lord’. This time Lord chooses Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family because he regarded them as a uniquely righteous family. The following passage is from Genesis 19: 1-8 and part of the famed Sodom and Gomorrah incident.

And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face towards the ground;

And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.

And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know¹¹ them.

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,

And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

What would you think of a father who offered his virgin daughters to a mob to be raped? Is he righteous or perhaps God-fearing? I wouldn’t like to comment, but ‘whatever this strange story might mean, it surely tells us something about the respect accorded to women in this intensely religious culture.’¹²

The adventure with Lot and his daughters takes a new turn that highlights the uniquely righteous nature of this family. After leaving Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot loses his wife when she turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his two daughters stayed in a cave on their way to the next town. The following passage clearly shows the morals of this righteous family. The passage in taken from Genesis 19: 30-36.

And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:

Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our Father.

And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

I don’t think there is any need to elaborate on the morals of this family chosen by God as the only uniquely righteous family in Sodom and Gomorrah.

I would like to mention another chilling episode in the Old Testament regarding respect for women in this revered religion. The following passage is taken from Book of Judges chapters 19: 16-30.

And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites.

And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest thou? And whence comest thou?

And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehem Judah towards the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Bethlehem Judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man that receiveth me to house.

Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of anything.

And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.

So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.

Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew¹³ her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.

Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light.

And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold.

And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and put him unto his place.

And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

Before I leave this part of the Old Testament, I would like to briefly mention the famous episode of Lord commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to test his faith. I am certain that we are all familiar with the story, but my question is if something like this were to happen today, a father taking his son to a remote place, tie his hands and feet and put a naked blade to his throat, what traumatic effect would this have on the child? What would be the psychological imprint on the child’s behaviour? How would this affect the boy’s future course of life? Would he ever recover from such a harrowing experience? I can think of only a few similarly unsettling incidents a child could encounter in the hands of his father. This episode can open a new category for the term child abuse. What kind of mentality would test the loyalty and the faith of his subject by asking them to sacrifice a long-sought son? You be the judge.

Another incident in which God’s cruelty in testing his subjects is evident is found in the Book of Job. I will not reproduce the incident here as the whole book is devoted to a bet God made with Satan regarding Job.

In short, Job was a faithful servant of the Lord who was blessed with many thousands of camels, oxen, sheep, and horses as well as with many sons and daughters. He gave burnt offerings to the Lord regularly. One day, Satan made a bet with the Lord and said, ‘If you take away all these blessings that you have given Job, he would not be such a faithful servant and will not bless you any longer’. God gave Satan a freehand to do with Job as he pleased. Satan first took away Job’s sheep, camels, and oxen, then burned all his crops, his children were killed, his house ruined, and finally his body was covered in boils, his bones brittle, and his eyes almost blind, but he still did not utter a single word against the Lord. After winning his bet against Satan, the Lord restored all that was initially Job’s, including his children.

But perhaps the most vile and the appalling decree issued by Jehovah was to one of his most-revered prophets, Ezekiel, that is mentioned below. It is a reprisal for a misdeed committed by the Israelites, but the innocent Ezekiel is sentenced to perform it. The following passage is taken from the book of Ezekiel 4: 5-14.

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Therefore thou shalt set thy face towards the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and leases, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.

Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.

And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

The punishment imposed on Ezekiel is to lie on his right side for forty days, but more loathsome part is the decree that for 390 days he has to bake his bread with his own dung and eat it in front of the gentiles (bold font mine). When Ezekiel complains that he has not yet defiled his body by eating human dung, Jehovah shows his magnanimity by allowing Ezekiel to mix his bread with cow’s dung instead of human dung. Jehovah’s cruelty to his devoted priest Ezekiel did not end here. When Ezekiel’s wife died, Jehovah forbade him to mourn her. At another time shuts him in his house, ties him up and sticks his tongue to the roof of his mouth so that Ezekiel could not speak.¹⁴

Again in Ezekiel 23, Lord God speaks to his Prophet Ezekiel and complaints about the cities of Jerusalem and Samaria, and how these cities have become corrupt and sinful. But the way Lord describes these cities and their wickedness is worth noting. First the Lord portrays the cities as two sisters, Aholah, the elder, and Aholibah, the younger. He then proceeds to describe how they whored around with the Egyptians who were hung like horses and with youths and captains of the Assyrians and Chaldeans by pinching their breasts and clasping their sex. The language used in the passage is explicitly sexual; hardly the literature one expects to find in a holy book.

There are numerous other episodes in the Old Testament where the judgement or omni-benevolence of Jehovah can be questioned. It shall suffice to give you the references and a short summary for those interested to investigate the subject for themselves at the end of this chapter.

I shall now turn to probably what might be termed the worst cases of genocide, mass murder and ethnic cleansing recorded in history of man. In many instances, they even surpass the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s or Genghis Khan. These atrocities were the result of direct commands given to Moses and to Joshua by Jehovah to invade Canaan and to wipe out every living thing in the land. In the eyes of Jehovah, the native Canaanites, who were the original inhabitant of the land, were simply obstructions to be removed.

The campaign to conquer the Promised Land began with the first skirmish with King of Arad the Canaanite in Negeb. The bold fonts are mine to emphasise the carnage and mayhem ordered and carried out with the help of Jehovah,

And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.(Num. 21: 3)

Next came the king of Sihon who refused passage to the Israeli army. Again, with the help of Jehovah, the Israelites occupied his towns, settled into his land, and evicted all who dwelt there.¹⁵

Next they continue their march and defeated the giant King Og at Edrei.

We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.

Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites.

And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.

And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.

So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land. (Num. 21: 30-5)

After their initial victories, the Israelites arrived at the land of friendly Moab, who looked upon them as a liberating army that had defeated their enemy King Sihon the Amorites. As a gesture of appreciation, the Moabite women invited the Israelites to a feast held for their local God Baal-Peor. As part of the ceremonies, some of the Israelites bowed to Baal-Peor. When Jehovah was informed of this, he called Moses and commanded

And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.

And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor.

And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through