Saturday, November 22, 2014

Yahveh Wants Human Sacrifice?

Someone anonymously said:

"Most Christians are probably familiar with the story of the patriarch Abraham being called by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on top of a mountain. Here, God at the last minute stopped the sacrifice and placed a lamb in Isaac’s place. (Genesis 22:1-19). The main theological point here is that Abraham withstood the ultimate test of God and hence showed his faith. An implicit part of this story is that God does not allow human sacrifices. This is far f...rom the truth. The Old Testament has many instances where human sacrifices were called by God: [2]

"Leviticus 27:28-29
But no devoted [c] thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. No one devoted, who is to be utterly destroyed from among men, shall be ransomed; he shall be put to death.

Notice the statement that is being made in the passage above. It is saying that no one which has been offered to God can be replaced-ransomed-by something else; that person must be killed. It is an obvious sanction and demand for human sacrifice!"

Well, let's look at Leviticus 27:29 in the original Hebrew. The transliteration reads: "Käl-chërem ásher yächóram min-häädäm lo yiPädeh môt yûmät." The key word here is "min," which is an expression of separation. What this verse is actually saying is something like this: all devoted that are to be destroyed--to be separated out are those who are of mankind (adam)--shall surely be killed. Note that the word signifying man here is "adam" and not "iysh," the other word that signifies man. You see, "adam" emphasizes that man (both men and women) was created in the image of God.