The gospel of Matthew has Satan take Jesus to the temple roof and challenge him to jump off. Then it has him take Jesus to a mountain and offer him the world in exchange for worshiping him.
The gospel of Luke has Satan take Jesus to a mountain and offer him the world in exchange for worshiping him. Then it has him take Jesus to the temple roof and challenge him to jump off.
Continue reading Did Satan tell Jesus to jump off the temple before or after he told him to worship him?At one point, the genealogies in Genesis list Korah as a son of Eliphaz, who was a son of Esau. But everywhere else in the Bible, it says Korah was Esau’s son, including several times in that same chapter that says he was his grandson. Also in the first chapter of 1 Chronicles.
Continue reading Was Korah the son or grandson of Esau?David told his son Solomon that if he sought God, then he would find him. And Solomon told his son that if he looked for insight and understanding like he was looking for treasure, then he would find knowledge and understanding of God. Solomon says Wisdom says those who seek wisdom find it.
But is this a general thing, or does it only apply to God, wisdom, and… God-wisdom? According to Jesus, it’s a universal principle: Just as everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds. But according to the Bible, Jesus is wrong. Plenty of people have sought and not found.
The Bible says the nation of Israel consisted of twelve tribes, and it often lists all of those tribes. Or tries to. But those lists of tribes are very inconsistent. All of these lists agree that the twelve tribes included Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Benjamin. But beyond those six, the various lists of tribes in the Bible can’t agree on what the rest of the tribes of Israel were.
Continue reading What were the twelve tribes of Israel?God’s law says you should honor your father and your mother, and then you’ll have a good long life. It also says that people who dishonor their parents are to be cursed. And that people who curse their parents are to be killed.
Solomon says you should listen to and hold to what your parents teach you, and not despise them. If you mock your father or scorn your mother, ravens will peck your eye out. And if you curse your parents, you’ll die.
God said he was going to send the prophet Elijah to his people again, and if Elijah didn’t succeed in turning the hearts of the children to their parents, then God would totally destroy the land.
Jesus says honoring your parents is one of the good things you have to do to get eternal life. He says if you think giving money to God is more important than using it to help your parents, then you are breaking God’s command. So honoring your parents is even more important than honoring God. And Paul says it’s right for children to obey their parents “in the Lord”, whatever that means.
In one psalm, David states that the heavens have no speech, they use no words, and no sound is heard from them. The Bible disagrees.
In fact, David contradicts himself right there in that same passage: He says the heavens declare God’s glory and proclaim his work, and they do it by talking. They pour out speech day after day. Their voice goes out into the earth, and their words go to the ends of the world.
Continue reading Is any sound heard from the heavens?Jesus says you just have to knock, and the door will be opened for you. Because just as everyone who asks receives, the door will be opened to the one who knocks.
It worked for Peter… eventually. He had to knock an awfully long time, though. The servant who went to answer the door ran back without opening it, and tried to convince the others that Peter was there, but they couldn’t believe it because Peter was supposed to be in prison. But he kept knocking, and after a while they did open the door for him.
Jesus didn’t tell us it would take so long for the door to be opened. Why didn’t he specify how long you might have to knock, so people wouldn’t think he was wrong and give up? Because Jesus was wrong. He said so himself:
Continue reading Will the door be opened for everyone who knocks?In John 8, Jesus talks to some Jews, who are on his side at the beginning of the conversation. But then he starts making outrageous unfounded accusations against them, and before long they think Jesus is demon-possessed and should be stoned to death.
During that conversation, Jesus mentions these Jews doing what their father has told them. They respond that Abraham is their father. When Jesus disagrees, the Jews now insist that God is the only father they have. (Which they think somehow shows that they’re not illegitimate children.) Jesus doesn’t agree with that either, and insists the devil is their father. But forget about what Jesus thinks… How can the Jews say God is their only father, when they just said Abraham is their father?
Continue reading Did the Jews think God was their only father?The Bible doesn’t actually contain a law banning all prostitution, but it does tend to be disapproving of it.
When Judah found out that his daughter-in-law was “guilty of prostitution”, he thought she should be burned to death. And Paul thinks Christians should never be “united” with prostitutes.
What does God think of prostitution? He seems to disapprove of his people visiting the houses of prostitutes. He seems to think prostitution is a shameful practice, a horrible thing that defiles Israel. God said prostitution was leading his people astray and would cause them not to flourish. He said he was against someone because by being a prostitute, she had somehow enslaved nations and caused huge wars. The Bible implies that male shrine prostitution was one of the “detestable practices” that provoked God to try to wipe out the native inhabitants of Canaan.
Kings who expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land were doing what was right in God’s eyes. God punished Jehoram for leading the people to “prostitute themselves”, though it’s not clear whether that’s literal or a metaphor for idolatry.
God had his prophets tell several allegorical stories portraying his people as a prostitute. He describes her prostitution as a wicked act of rebellion. He doesn’t want his wife back after she becomes a prostitute. God punishes the land when she defiles it with her prostitution and wickedness, and he thinks she ought to be ashamed. He also disapproves of her killing his children, but just the prostitution would have been bad enough.
And then there’s Ezekiel 23, where Israel and Judah are both prostitutes, which God thinks is depraved, defiling, disgusting, and shameful. So he hands them over to be stripped, mutilated, and killed, in order to put a stop to their prostitution.
So it sure sounds like God hates prostitution, though it’s possible he just hates idolatry, which is what those parables are really about. That’s a problem with a lot of these passages. It’s hard to tell whether the Bible is really talking about prostitution or not, since it so often either uses it metaphorically, or conflates it with other behaviors like adultery.
Anyway, God also has a few laws on the subject of prostitution. He never completely outlaws it, but he does have some laws concerning more specific scenarios:
The eighth chapter of Proverbs is all about wisdom and understanding. It portrays Wisdom as saying that all who rule on earth reign and govern by her, by Wisdom. So all rulers on earth must be wise.
But the Bible mentions some rulers who were not wise. Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t a wise man, or he wouldn’t have tried to get all the wise men in Babylon killed. Saul did such a foolish thing that God decided he couldn’t be king anymore. Even Solomon wasn’t wise when he first became king.
Speaking of Solomon, he certainly didn’t seem to think all rulers were wise when he wrote Ecclesiastes. And he ought to be an expert on these things. Solomon doesn’t say it’s impossible to be a foolish old king, only that it’s not the best thing you can be. He contrasts wise people with rulers, which would make no sense if rulers were always wise themselves.
Continue reading Are all rulers wise?