Let's go right to the Bible for guidance on God's will

By Bill Treumann 03/28/2002

Ken Koehler asserts (Forum, March 25) that "Not knowing about or rejecting God's revealed will and design is certainly a prime example of how a 'lack of knowledge ... destroys ...'" So let's go to the Bible (King James version) for some guidance.

How should prisoners of war be treated? From Numbers 31 we have "... the Lord spake unto Moses ... And Moses spake unto the people ... And they warred against the Midianites ... and they slew all the males ... And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones ... And Moses said ... 'Have ye saved all the women alive? ... kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that have not known a man by lying with him ... all the women children ... keep alive for yourselves. ...'" Incidentally, many of the slain women were no doubt pregnant, thus this involved a very effective mass abortion. Compare also Deuteronomy 21:11 and I Samuel 15.

How should a witch be treated? Exodus 22:18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Useful at Salem and elsewhere.

How should the handicapped and the "out of wedlock" be treated? Deuteronomy. 23:1-2: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. A bastard shall not enter ... even to his tenth generation ..." The latter would guarantee a very small congregation. Who would be the earliest eligible candidates?

How should members of certain peoples be treated? Deuteronomy 23:3: "an Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter ... even to their tenth generation ..." Many racists are pleased to quote this.

How should typical teen-agers be treated? Deuteronomy 21:18-21: "If a man have a ... rebellious son, which will not obey, ... his father and mother [shall] lay hold on him, and bring him unto the elders ... and all the men ... shall stone him ... that he die ..." Is this intended to be gender-specific? If so, it's an unusual case of the girls getting the better deal. How should a freed slave be treated if he rejects freedom without his wife and kids? Exodus 21:2-6: "... If he came in by himself he shall go out by himself; ... If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's ... And if the servant shall ... say, I love my ... wife, and my children; I will not go out free; Then his master ... shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall serve him forever." There may be a message on family values here.

I regret that the need to be brief allows only a small set of abridged examples, with nothing from the New Testament. But this should suffice to show that we could not build enough protective prisons if most Christians and Jews did not pick and choose which biblical stipulations to follow.