Friday, April 4, 2014

Is the Hebrew Bible Anti-Semitic?

Counter-missionaries accuse the New Testament of being anti-Semitic for having content where some Jews call other Jews names along the likes of stubborn, heart hearted, sons of the Devil, harlots and so one, but does this make the New Testament anti-Semitic? Let's take a look at the Hebrew Bible and see the criticism and names it calls the Jewish people.

Anti-Semitic Moses? Moses calls some Levites Rebellious, Stubborn, Corrupt:
Moses commanded the Levites, that bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying:....For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck; behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?....ye will in any wise deal corruptly--Deuteronomy 31:25,27,29
 Anti-Semitic God?
God calls Israel uncircumcised of heart and stubborn
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.--Deuteronomy 10:16
God calls Israel and Judah whores and talks about divorce
And the LORD said unto me in the days of Josiah the king: 'Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel  did? she went up upon every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there played the harlot...And I saw, when, forasmuch as backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, that yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot; --Jeremiah 3:6,8
God Calls Israel stiff-necked, threatens total annihilation except Moses' offspring 
 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people. Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee [Moses] a great nation.'--Exodus 32:9-10  
There is much more which if it were not found in the Hebrew Bible, it would appear to be the most anti-Semitic literature around--what worse can be said than when God called the whole Jewish community in Jeremiah whores? or when God says in the Torah that perhaps He should kill ALL the Jews? 

Conclusion: If it should be conceded the New Testament is a work of anti-Semitism because of pejoratives used by Jews towards other Jews, then by that same standard it should be admitted that the Hebrew Bible and the Torah itself are by far more Anti-Semitic, and should be categorized as the foremost books on hatred of Jews. 

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