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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Bible on sacredness of human life
Message-ID: <1496@pucc-h>
Date: Mon, 19-Nov-84 18:57:06 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1496
Posted: Mon Nov 19 18:57:06 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Nov-84 01:04:30 EST
References: <228@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Crypt
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Richard Carnes (gargoyle!carnes) writes:

>  Apparently the religion of the Hebrews spread through having the Toughest
> God in the Neighborhood....

preceded by a variety of Old Testament quotes prescribing punishment by
death for various things, including long passages on destroying people or
cities which sought to turn people away from the "Toughest God" (that is what
He is, actually, but that's not my point).  It would be interesting to hear
comments from the Jewish net community (e.g. Yiri) on those passages; but my
understanding would be that the Lord a) wanted no one to be hurt by turning
away from Him, b) wanted to impress upon not only the Hebrews but also all
future generations the vital importance of holiness -- that if you turn away
from God and act in any destructive manner (e.g. something so seemingly trivial
as reviling your father or mother), something inside you dies.  In a way, it
could be said that the Hebrews and the Hebrew Law, with so many prescriptions
of physical death, were a prophetic type of the Christian idea (or does it also
show up in Judaism? I don't know) of spiritual death.

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
"I'm not asking for anyone's bleeding charity."
"Then do.  At once.  Ask for the Bleeding Charity."