Which God, If Any?

I had to begin wondering what tribes were included in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. That's when I realizedJerusalem is actually in Benjamin's territory (per Joshua, chapter 18, verse 28).

If, however, that was so, and Judah was with Benjamin to war against the split ten tribes of Israel, what was the tenth tribe of the Northern Kingdom? It looks like it wasn't Benjamin, and it couldn't have been Simeon.That leaves only nine tribes for Jeroboam instead of ten as is written in the bible. A fantastically huge error.

As I noted earlier in The Warriors and Numbers Game above, Simeon sort of disappears in the bible. It is not in the north, but either in the south below Judah, or surrounded by Judah. Therefore it can not be a part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, therefore there are not ten tribes in the Northern Kingdom, but nine.

In other words, the bible is not inerrant—this is an error of "biblical proportions" as the saying goes.

Okay, there is one Internet biblical site that tries to explain this away. (Sorry, Literotica does not permit any Internet sites being published here.) It leads us to I Chronicles (probably written sometime in the 400s BCE according to the Catholic bible, which time is about 500 years after the fact, and is known to be error laden as already cited earlier here).

In I Chronicles, chapter 4, verses 41 and 42, we are told that in the time of Hezekiah who ruled Judah approximately 727 to 698 BCE, again (two to three hundred years before Chronicles was probably written), that Simeon was a part of Judah.

What is important here is that these times of Simeon maybe being part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were not so in the time of the split as itemized in I Chronicles, verses 41 and 42, therefore, there were not ten tribes at the inception if Jerusalem is in Benjamin and a part of Judah.

Every explanation given by some to put Simeon in the orbit of the Northern Kingdom are attempts to justify this gross error in the bible and not even given biblically written justification.

It is known that many men, and at many times, wrote books of the bible, and many men subsequently edited those books for whatever reason. This is more evidence of the bible, particularly the Old Testament, being a work of many fictions by men, as well as many authors and editors.

UNBELIEVABLE—OR, HUH?

This takes a little more explaining, but it is quite unbelievable.

Out of over 600,000 men (Levites included), there were also young men under the "warrior" age that weren't counted, and maybe some older ones too, if you can believe the numbers of those of warrior age given in the bible.

One of the strictures imposed on the Jews by God was the covenant that proved you were a Jew, a sign of being one of God's chosen people, and that was male circumcision as in Genesis, chapter 17, verse 10 and 12, which say:

"This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised."

"And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you..."

Apparently there was no circumcision while wandering, and possibly none of children born in the first one to two years before the warriors refused to fight as commanded, for they would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land, and maybe none at all while wandering.

When after the forty years to make sure that all had died who were not to enter the promised land, there were six hundred thousand plus to replace them, they weren't circumcised. Why not? It's not explained, but the book of Joshua, chapter 5, verses 2, 3 and 7 unbelievably say:

"At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made them sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins."

The "circumcise again" phrase is not clear. Were they that were circumcised be circumcised again? We're not told.

"And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way."

Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouch!

There had to be over the six hundred thousand of those men, and the only two men allowed into the promised land of the original group were Caleb and Joshua.

Think about it: "...not circumcised by the way."

There were six hundred thousand new men plus Levites that were newly of warrior age, many of them older men who were not circumcised originally for there was no circumcision "...by the way." There also had to be new babies that were age eight days or more that hadn't been circumcised but were not yet of warrior age.

That probably meant that there may have been about a million or more that needed to be circumcised if the bible is to be believed.

Think about this too: how long does each circumcision take (assuming God miraculously kept them all from becoming infected). And remember, men and women weren't allowed to see each other's nakedness, so that had to mean either special tents, or make the women go off a goodly way so they couldn't see the men's nakedness.

Joshua and Caleb would have had to circumcise the Levites first, let their wound heal, then begin the process of circumcising a million or so males. That's a lot of knives and a lot of time, and a lot of time to make many sharp knives, and to find suitable rocks to make them out of in the wilderness or desert.

That's also more than quite unbelievable! Incredibly unbelievable! Pure fiction, in fact.

CONTRADICTORY BLOOPERS

In the splitting of the kingdom, I Kings, chapter 11, verses 29 though 31 say:

"And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field:

"And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:

"And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: forthus saight the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:" (Emphasis mine.)

Now fast forward to many kings later to II Kings, in chapter 17, where Israel has just been taken by Shalmaneser of Assyria who besieged Samaria, the capitol of Israel for three years. In saying why this was done, verses 20 and 21 say:

"And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

"For he rent Israel from the house of David: andthey made Jeroboam the son of Nabat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin." (Emphasis mine.)

Yes, a great blooper indeed. First God, with a peculiar ceremony that was somehow usual, personally has his prophet select Jeroboam to be the first king of the ten tribes that were said to make up the Northern Kingdom of Israel, then in the next book, it's said that the people of the Northern Kingdom did the selecting of Jeroboam. This, too, is an inexplicable contradiction.

The Catholic bible reads the same. This is a god of many errors.

* * * *

Not quite a blooper, but perhaps made into one by Christians who coopted a verse and made it into something that it most likely wasn't when the place and context is considered. This is in Isaiah, chapter 7 in which we're told of Ahaz' problems with Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In this conversation between Isaiah and Ahaz, Ahaz is told a couple of things to be cheerful about, namely that Israel will cease to be a people in "three score and five years" (verse 8), and then the much ballyhooed and oft quoted verse 14:

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you [Ahaz] a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

This is sworn to by one and all the popular and mainstream churches to be a prophecy about the coming of Jesus. The famed historian, Richard E. Rubenstein, in his book, "Thus Saith The Lord" (Harcourt, 2006), gives the proper reading of it—which any of us can if we'll read from the start of the chapter—which is that a son will be born to one of Ahaz' wives or concubines, which son was a beloved of the Lord, namely Hezekiah.

The word translated in the King James Bible as "virgin" is mistranslated and should have been rendered a "young woman". Just about everyone now agrees that it's a mistranslation save for some diehard Fundamentalists and the Catholic church.

Any that have been in non-Catholic churches that "preach" will most likely have heard this said as meaning Jesus will be born. The Catholic Church coopted it to mean other than what is contextual, and so have most of the other churches. As I said, read the chapter from the start—it's not long.

PROPHETS?

We sometimes think of Moses as a prophet, and in a way, he was, but not like those that started in the mold of Samuel. Samuel was the start of what are called the major prophets, but after him, they escalated dramatically, and morphing into something new. Why was that?

That book by Richard E. Rubenstein cited in the previous section, helps with our understanding of that. First, let's look a Samuel, and, believe it or not, a blood thirsty prophet, or should I say, Fundamentalist as many of them can be said to be. Here's why I say Samuel was blood thirsty. In chapter 15 of I Samuel, starting in verse 2 and 3, it says:

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.

"Now go up and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman,infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (Emphasis mine.)

In verse 9, however, it says:"But Saul and the people spared Agag [the king]..."

Then in verse 32, it says:"...Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites." In verse 33, it continues:"And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless, among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal."

Yes, supposedly he's under orders from God, but so was Saul. Still, as Saul did to most, Samuel personally did to finish it completely, and without remorse, it seems.

He also had no problem in pronouncing a famine as stated earlier.

This seems to have signaled a new type of prophet, but it was to be outdone in this new way by Elijah, and then Elisha.

ELIJAH

Elijah apparently came into being as we know him because of Jezebel and her foreign gods that she brought with her when she married Ahab, king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel after the so-called split of the kingdom. However, first he works a couple of miracles. This is very important when looking at the scenario we're quickly presented shortly. Chapter 18 of I Kings tells the story of Elijah challenging the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, Jezebels god, and four hundred other prophets she had, to a test of proving who is god for there was a drought into the third year. God sends him to Ahab saying that he would bring rain.

Meeting Ahab they exchange unpleasant pleasantries at which Elijah tells him to have Baal's prophets to meet him in a contest on Mount Carmel, and have the people there also. Mount Carmel is said to be 1,540 feet above sea level. There Baal's prophets kill their offering to their god and beseech him in their manner to take their offering and bring the rain. After some time, and Elijah's mocking of them, Elijah makes his offering which he'd had water poured on it three times. Yahweh consumes it all with fire, including the water thereabout. Then in verse 40 and 41:

"And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

"And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain."

Back to the top of the mountain, the rain comes shortly.

An odd thing happens next. Most don't see it; I know I didn't for a long time until it was pointed out to me by another book, "Jezebel", by Lesley Hazleton (Doubleday, 2007), an interested psychologist. Ahab tells Jezebel in chapter 19, verse 1, what has happened. It is here that an extremely strange occurrence comes to pass in verse 2 and 3:

"Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

"And when he saw that, he arose, andwent for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there."

That is strange! He works miracles, and stands fearlessly before Ahab, causes the rain to be brought by Yahweh, and afterward so easily orders the massacre of all of Baal's prophets, and possibly Jezebels personal prophets, but the bible doesn't say if they were included.

So now he runs in fear of a woman?

A blood thirsty prophet going more than one better than Samuel, and he cringes and whines in verse 14. This is inexplicable!

However, the next verse and what happens thereafter is just as inexplicable, not to mention, a long time in coming to pass:

"And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:

"And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt though anoint to be a prophet in thy room."

As the author, Ms. Hazleton aptly suggests, it looks as if God has fired Elijah, but he is to do three things first: Go to Damascus and anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, then anoint Jehu to be king of Israel, and lastly anoint Elisha to be the next prophet. Instead he finds Elisha first, which is told of in the last three verses of the chapter.

Whee! What a trip that was. From miracle worker, to rainmaker, to killer, to fraidy cat running from a woman and gets himself fired after whining.

The next chapter is weird in a different way. God has said to anoint Jehu as the next king of Israel, but chapter 20 starts out with the king of Syria going to war against Israel if Ahab doesn't surrender first. Oddly, Ahab is told by an unnamed prophet of God that he will deliver Syria to him, and he did.

Then it all instantly segues to the next year when against great odds, God is pissed at Syria for bad mouthing him, and on the seventh day of a new war, Israel, in verse 29, slays one hundred thousand footmen in one day. More thousands die when they ran away to Aphek in verse 30.

Ahab, however, let's the king of Syria live instead of killing him as he's supposed to do, and God tells him through another nameless prophet in verse 42:

"And he said unto him, "Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people."

This is another passing on of punishment to the children for the sins of the father, and the war, with God's blessing won by Ahab, was after saying Jehu was supposed to be king of Israel.

As if that wasn't weird enough and wholly out of sync, after that comes what Ms. Hazleton points out as an insertion by an editing scribe; a new chapter, 21, and the tale of murder by Jezebel. Remember, Elijah hadn't yet gone to Damascus, nor had he anointed Hazael, and not anointed Jehu as he was supposed to do. All is out of schedule as if ignored by the players. This is even stranger.

Chapter 21 is about a vineyard which Naboth tended in Jezreel, which Ms. Hazleton questions for the stated purpose which Ahab is said to want it: for a herb garden. Naboth refuses for it is the law of Yahweh that there be no buying of ownership, for the land belongs to Yahweh, and this is known, but Ahab sulks.

Jezebel is said to tell him that she will get it for him, and writes letters in Ahab's name to elders and nobles in Naboth's city, where he's set up to be said to be blaspheming God and subsequently stoned to death. At hearing this, Ahab is said to go down to possess the land.

All out of kilter, reenter Elijah, sent to meet Ahab. In verse 19, it says:

"And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."

In verse 28 of this chapter, Ahab is remorseful and is semi-forgiven in verses 28 and 29::

"And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth and wept softly.

"And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

"Seest thou how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house."

This is all so out of whack, not to mention, convoluted. So here we have Elijah still not going to Damascus and anointing Hazael, and not anointing Jehu, but after anointing Elisha.

More, he's going to let Ahab, the idolater who has a wife who has brought idols into Israel, not done as God wanted him to do to the king of Syria, and just had a man framed and killed by his wife though known to be innocent, and he forgives Ahab enough to let him live. No justice yet. Totally weird.

Truly, this is a fiction inserted at a later date as probably was the war mentioned before this.

Three years later, however, in the next chapter, Ahab talks Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah into fighting Syria for Ramoth in Gilead for he says it is theirs. A long story short, and Ahab gets killed in battle. He was taken to Samaria where his chariot was washed, and the dogs licked up his blood. Ahaziah, the oldest of Ahab's sons reigns for two years.

There are so many errors in the telling of this tale that it is incredible.

How something like this could have been inserted into the story is offered by Ms. Hazleton is that the "books" were actually scrolls that had to be unrolled to read, or to write in. This, she ventures logically, makes it difficult to read what went before, or after, so additions of this sort are not carefully edited prior to seeking where to insert any new additions. Ostensibly, the scrolls are somehow known as to order in which to read. Frankly, it's confusing as to how they could do it, but more confusing as to how it was missed by any who transcribed it in the making of an actual book such as the first bibles, and by any and all who have read it since being inserted.

Like so much about the bible, it's hard to tell what was done, written, or why, and when, or by whom. What we do know is that it is error filled, and this is another example of it. Fundamentalists read with what is called "Willful blindness" thus subconsciously willing themselves to overlook anything inconvenient to see or question.

* * * *

The book of II Kings begins thereafter, and Ahaziah has fallen. Behold, Elijah is back again, and neither Hazael nor Jehu has been anointed by Elijah as God commanded him to do. There's more bloodlust to come. Ahaziah sends messengers to ask Baalzebub if he will recover. God has Elijah intercept them who prophesies to them that Ahaziah is to die in bed. Ahaziah sends a captain with fifty men to Elijah and he called him to come down from hill he was on. Verse 10 says:

"And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty men."