The Biblical Male Mindset

[Rose]

.
If one looks closely at the layout of many passages in the Bible it quickly becomes evident how strongly the male mindset of the time period it was written in is mapped onto its pages. The one passage I want to focus on in this article comes from the book of Zechariah. We read in this prophecy that when the day of the Lord comes he will gather the nations against Jerusalem and in so doing will allow the women of the city to be raped, half the city to be taken captive and the rest of the people to be cut off from the city. The prophecy then goes on to say after God causes this invasion to take place, he then goes to fight against the very nations he used to punish his people with in the first place.

Zech 14:1-2 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
The first observation I would like to take note of is the raping of the women of the city, this act of violence is specifically targeted against women and is something that happens quite frequently in the 'wars of men'. So, why is it that we see Yahweh acting in ways that exactly match the things men do? If Yahweh is so concerned with punishing his people for their transgressions, why is it that he allows the women to be singled out for extra punishment based on their gender? It seems pretty obvious that this passage was written from a totally male mindset, recounting what actually goes on when men go to battle of their own accord, but one would not expect the creator of the universe to act in the same way.

The second observation is concerning the notion of the Lord gathering all the nations and using them to as a tool to battle against Jerusalem, only to turn around when the battle is finished and go forth to fight against the very nations he used to begin with…seems more like something devised in the minds of men then coming from the divine source of all creation. Just one more reason to take a second look at a book that is espoused by many to be the word of 'God', but looks more and more man made all the time.

Rose

[Richard Amiel McGough]

.
If one looks closely at the layout of many passages in the Bible it quickly becomes evident how strongly the male mindset of the time period it was written in is mapped onto its pages. The one passage I want to focus on in this article comes from the book of Zechariah. We read in this prophecy that when the day of the Lord comes he will gather the nations against Jerusalem and in so doing will allow the women of the city to be raped, half the city to be taken captive and the rest of the people to be cut off from the city. The prophecy then goes on to say after God causes this invasion to take place, he then goes to fight against the very nations he used to punish his people with in the first place.
Zech 14:1-2 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
The first observation I would like to take note of is the raping of the women of the city, this act of violence is specifically targeted against women and is something that happens quite frequently in the “wars of men”. So, why is it that we see Yahweh acting in ways that exactly match the things men do? If Yahweh is so concerned with punishing his people for their transgressions, why is it that he allows the women to be singled out for extra punishment based on their gender? It seems pretty obvious that this passage was written from a totally male mindset, recounting what actually goes on when men go to battle of their own accord, but one would not expect the creator of the universe to act in the same way.

The second observation is concerning the notion of the Lord gathering all the nations and using them to as a tool to battle against Jerusalem, only to turn around when the battle is finished and go forth to fight against the very nations he used to begin with…seems more like something devised in the minds of men then coming from the divine source of all creation. Just one more reason to take a second look at a book that is espoused by many to be the word of “God”, but looks more and more man made all the time.

Rose
I think the most important point is that the characteristics of the "wars of the Lord" in the Bible are indistinguishable from the "wars of men" recorded throughout our bloody human history. This evokes a question of profound significance: Why does the God of the Bible appear to act like a Bronze age tribal war god? It would be very interesting if any of the Christians on this forum would like to take a stab at answering this one.

[TheDivineWatermark]

Interesting perspective in the article at the link, below.

Here is one writer's thoughts as explanation regarding what the Midianites did toward Israel (in Numbers 25) to invoke God's judgment upon themselves (in Numbers 31).


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianthinktank.com%2Fmidian.h tml&ei=HYWOTvHGKaHw0gGI7bFR&usg=AFQjCNHPwDN4yXcK2LIr-WMb1y7epoMhTA

From the article:


I struggle with trying to come up with a modern analogy to this, that communicates the atrocity level…It’s almost like 10,000 women, in advanced stages of the Ebola virus (or perhaps AIDS, since they would survive longer), were persuaded by their city leadership, to whole-heartedly travel to a different city and aggressively seduce and offer “sex for free” to all the married men, deliberately concealing or lying about the fact that they had Ebola/AIDS, and for the specific intent of inflicting the men (and their wives and families) with this horrible and quickly fatal disease. And, this decision was supported by their husbands and fathers (“in front of” the children), and the trip funded and planned by their government. And this all done against a people who were no threat to them now, and were actually friends/allies of a related group.

Why would anyone “defend” the “values” of such a sub-culture [the Midianites]? It was not just a matter of their “own consensual sexual preferences and ethics”—this was aggressive, deliberately destructive malice toward others/outsiders [Israel], and self-destructive abuse of the precious gift of feminine allure…

So, what did the judgment on Midian ‘look like’ in Numbers 31?

[more at link]

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Interesting perspective in the article at the link, below.

Here is one writer's thoughts as explanation regarding what the Midianites did toward Israel (in Numbers 25) to invoke God's judgment upon themselves (in Numbers 31).


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianthinktank.com%2Fmidian.h tml&ei=HYWOTvHGKaHw0gGI7bFR&usg=AFQjCNHPwDN4yXcK2LIr-WMb1y7epoMhTA

From the article:


I struggle with trying to come up with a modern analogy to this, that communicates the atrocity level…It’s almost like 10,000 women, in advanced stages of the Ebola virus (or perhaps AIDS, since they would survive longer), were persuaded by their city leadership, to whole-heartedly travel to a different city and aggressively seduce and offer “sex for free” to all the married men, deliberately concealing or lying about the fact that they had Ebola/AIDS, and for the specific intent of inflicting the men (and their wives and families) with this horrible and quickly fatal disease. And, this decision was supported by their husbands and fathers (“in front of” the children), and the trip funded and planned by their government. And this all done against a people who were no threat to them now, and were actually friends/allies of a related group.

Why would anyone “defend” the “values” of such a sub-culture [the Midianites]? It was not just a matter of their “own consensual sexual preferences and ethics”—this was aggressive, deliberately destructive malice toward others/outsiders [Israel], and self-destructive abuse of the precious gift of feminine allure…

So, what did the judgment on Midian ‘look like’ in Numbers 31?

[more at link]
I'm surprised you quoted that article. Is it an abomination of Biblical hermeneutics. Glenn Miller invented a story without any Biblical or historical evidence whatsoever. Here is an sample from the page you linked:
Then, all of sudden, Moabite women (“daughters of Moab”) start showing up there--in large numbers—having traveled in groups from the kingdom of Moab thirty miles south of there. ... So, these Moabite women show up, with government funding and security escorts, having carefully planned the trip, and having left all family responsibilities on indefinite “hold” back in Moab
There is nothing in the Bible that says anything about the Moabite women traveling to Shittim. There is nothing in the Bible about any "security escorts." There is nothing about "having carefully planned the trip." There is nothing about "having left all family responsibilities." Glenn Miller invented all this stuff. I've never seen such an abysmal fabrication presented as Biblical exegesis in my life.

And worse, the text directly contradicts his assertions! Consider this: Why would the Moabites import 32,000 young virgins along with all the women they supposedly shipped in to seduce Israel? Think about this! Those "young virgins" were never "used" to seduce Israel, else they would not be virgins. And why bring them anyway? Their presence in the "booty" suggests that they were part of a rather large town in that area. This is confirmed by the rest of the statistics which are characteristic of a well established town, not a military contingent and caravan carrying a bunch of women on a plot to seduce Israel:
Numbers 31:32 Now the booty that remained from the spoil which the men of war had plundered was 675,000 sheep, and 72,000 cattle, and 61,000 donkeys, and of human beings, of the women who had not known man intimately, all the persons were 32,000.
Do you really think they shipped 675,000 sheep and 72,000 cattle and 32,000 virgins over a distance of 30 miles along with the women in some wicked plan to seduce Israel???? And as a final confirmation, the text states that Israel "burned with fire all the cities where they dwelt, and all their forts." There is only one conclusion: Glenn Miller's article is pure fiction. It is an utter absurdity that repeatedly ignores what the Bible actually states.

And there is another ridiculous error in his article. He appears to be plain ignorant of Scripture. Glenn Miller wrote:
The Israelite men immediate start having ‘regular’ sex with them--the Hebrew indicates extreme lustful abandon. (“The verb used to describe the action of the men is one normally used to describe the behavior of a loose woman, a harlot. Here the people, as a man, bewhore themselves with foreign, pagan women. Always in the ancient Near Eastern context, references to sexual imagery such as this suggest interconnecting circles of sexual immorality tied to sacral rites of prostitution, essential parts of pagan religious systems of the day.” [EBCOT, Num 25])
The "Hebrew" indicates no such thing! Miller is talking about zanah - the standard Hebrew word for fornication and/or harlotry. It does not indicate anything special like "extreme lustful abandon." This is more fiction he invented to make the situation sound more lurid. But there is a much larger error here. Once again, he ignored a fundamental parallel passage that is strongly connected with this whole event. Consider these words from Moses:
Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring (zanah) after their gods, and do sacrifice (zebach) unto their gods, and one call (qara) thee, and thou eat (akal) of his sacrifice; 16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
Exactly the same words from this warning are found in Numbers 25:
Numbers 25:1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom (zanah) with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called (qara) the people unto the sacrifices(zebach) of their gods: and the people did eat(akal), and bowed down to their gods. 3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
Obviously, the meaning of "whoredom" in both passages is first and foremost a reference to Israel worshiping other gods. This is common knowledge amongst all competent Biblical scholars. The physical sexual aspect is secondary, if present at all. It is not even mentioned in Exo 34 except in the implied sense of "taking their daughters unto thy sons" after the "whoredom" of worshiping other gods had already occurred.

This is why I said that Glenn Miller's article is an abomination. He did not even mention the primary Biblical texts that related to the issues at hand, and opted rather to create an imaginary scenario out of whole cloth and present it as the "Biblical truth."

Note: I first composed this answer on January 30, 2011 in Post #42 (http://www.biblewheel.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27206&postcount=42) of the thread called Are some Laws in the Bible Immoral? (http://www.biblewheel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2011) where we addressed a number of similar issues.

[TheDivineWatermark]

I agree that we should endeavor to not impose "man's viewpoint" upon the text.

To be clear, I did write "one writer's thoughts." :yo:

[Richard Amiel McGough]

I agree that we should endeavor to not impose "man's viewpoint" upon the text.

To be clear, I did write "one writer's thoughts." :yo:
I'm not sure we have any viewpoint other than a human viewpoint since we are mere humans. Minds quickly get twisted when they begin to think that their viewpoints are not human but "God's."

And yes, I noticed you were careful to put a little distance between yourself and the thoughts written by "one writer." Smart move! :thumb: