Quote:

Jim Jackson said:
The letter penned to Dr. Laura, while humorous, presents the absurdity of following the Bible in 21st C. America.

What was condoned two millenia ago may not be now, and what was not condone two millenia ago may well be condoned now, based on cultural shifts and the like.



I understnad where you're coming from, but I think your comment is a bit harsh.

For example, I keep kosher and try hard to observe the Sabbath as closely as I can. The Bible conisders it meritorious to give charit and treat others with respect, even to the extent of encourage us to help other people to get along, and I try and do this. I pray when I can, I observe Jewish holidays, commemorating noteworthy events in the history of my people.

These things give me a sense of being a part of something special, and are a significant part of my Jewish identity. How is this absurd?

By the way, a lot of what the Bible says, including punishments for certain sins, don't apply in modern times because the Jews don't have a Jewish state where a Sanhedrin, a Jewish court, is able to enforce the Jewish law. So many of the laws in the Torah don't in fact apply today.

Also, the oral law of Judaism (the Talmud), which is just as important as the Bible, placed all sorts of restrictions on the death penalty, so even where the Bible says "breaking the Sabbath is punishable by death," only a court can carry out this sentence - no vigilante justice is condoned by Judaism - and it was almost impossible for the courts to execute anybody due to the restrictions. So the laws of the Bible may seem harsh at face value from an outsider's point of view, but that's because most are unaware of the oral law which tempers them, and it's the oral law that tells us exactly how to carry out the commandments of the Bible - which are rather vague.

BTW, I once asked this before - does Christianity or Islam have an oral law like we do? Or is the Bible/Koran the only book they go by?

Last edited by Darknight613; 2004-03-03 10:55 PM.
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