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Kinda makes me wonder if, in Islam, the multiple wives thing could be an end run around the adultery issue? But only for MEN, of course. Dang------doncha just love those double standards!!!
No. It's more likely, as I commented above just now, an "I am THE man" statement, by "collecting" all (or a great deal of) the females, just as many primates do. It's a very, very, very basic show of importance among primates including human ones, to have a lot of females at their disposal.
And no. I don't dig it. By far. But that's just opinion.
If my sources hold high validity, then I propose the following:
1. Religion centered around a female goddess.
2. Women held a lot of rights, including those of her body, that were only recently won back.
A woman could sleep with anyone she wanted to, even if she was married. Often, a woman would go to the temples and have sex with a stranger. Returning home, there was no outcry from the husband, and should a child be the result, the child was an accepted member of the family and society.
3. Bloodlines were established through the mother and not the father.
Along comes a "new" religion from the Baltic regions that emphasized a male god figure.
1. Women were now considered to be property of men.
2. Bloodlines were now established through the father.
3. Women were stripped of owning property and just about any civil and person right. They belonged to the men.
4. Adultery was always the fault of the woman, and she had to be severely punished.
We see this being played out in the myth of Medusa. Medusa rebuffed Neptune's amorous advances, but he finally raped her in Hera's temple. Instead of being angry with Neptune, Hera blamed Medusa for being raped and punished her with a sentence totally unreasonable to her "crime," which she did not commit.
We see remnants of this philosophy even in Muslim, whereby in the strictest Sharia, a woman displaying an ankle or a wrist is guilty of inciting a man's sexual desire. The resulting rape is completely at the fault of the woman for tempting the man.
Bottom line:
Punishment of adultery precedes the Bible. It was an outcome of man's attempts to overturn a more liberal female-centered religion into a male-centered religion. The consequences were brutal and severely punitive.
That we see traces of this in Biblical writings--ignored or totally misunderstood--underscores a huge, radical change in the affairs of men and women within societies. Even one underpinning concept of the creation story is the teaching that the woman came from a man and not the other way around. And this underpinning can be seen even in the writings of Paul, who supported this belief that man came first, woman second, and the role between men and women is that women must be completely subservient to men forever and ever (amen).
No good man would ever be ok with that. that system is extremely repressive to men who need a good woman.
so I read somewhere that the torah is the origin of the death penalty for adultery, and then we all pretty much know that jesus got rid of the death penalty for adultery,
Jesus never got rid of the death penalty for adultery.
That false information is based on E13 which was written circa 1400 CE. These are a collection of gospel fragments. This group is very important, because it proves John 7:53 to 8:11 is a later addition (B. M. Metzger summarizes: “the evidence for the non-Johannine origin of the Pericope of the Adulteress is overwhelming).
I thought I would highlight that for those who are hard of hearing.
Codices Alexandrinus and Ephraemi Rescriptus do not contain the story at all. Codices Bezae/Cantabrigiensis and Claromontanus contain parts of it.
More embarrassingly, in some texts, the Pericope of the Adulteress occurs at John 21, while in other texts, it occurs at either Luke 21 or Luke 25.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, this is the story:
Pseudo-John 7:53 And each one departed to his own house. 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 8:2 Early in the morning he came to the temple courts again. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. 8:3 The experts in the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them 8:4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 8:5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women. What then do you say?” 8:6 (Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him, so that they could bring charges against him.) Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. 8:7 When they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight and replied, “Whoever among you is guiltless may be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8:8 Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground.
Pseudo-John 8:9 Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 8:10 Jesus stood up straight and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 8:11 She replied, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
I have argued in the past that this story was made up and attributed to Jesus by those in the Imperial Roman Catholic Church to justify the adulterous affairs (including bisexual and homosexual affairs) and rapes committed by many of the popes (one pope in particular used to rape women on the streets in front of horrified on-lookers -- in fact when that pope wasn't raping women he was murdering pilgrims and stealing their money and possessions -- he was later run out of town by the people, but came back with an army of assassins trying to get his job back).
If we were to take this story as somewhat historically true, and
given that the prevailing attitude towards women that rape was their fault,
then this story flies in the face of tradition. It is a kind of equality speech by Jesus.
Then, too, he lays an accusing finger at the men who wish to stone her. "Even if a man thins about it" has committed adultery. So, it isn't just the woman who is causing the man to sin; man has just as much--if not more--responsibility for his own thinking and actions.
There have been some pretty bad popes and bishops around in history. Some might even claim that there are still some bad eggs around. But I cannot totally agree that this was added to cover up their "sins" and misdeeds. True, there are a few obvious additions from the so-called Middle Ages, but I, for one, do not believe that this is one of them.
What is interesting of note is that the early church allowed homosexuality. The only hard and fast rule was that two persons of equal rank could not "love" each other. It is interesting in that any reference to homosexuality was not excised from the texts. But then, perhaps the early church leaders understood that Paul was not writing specifically about sexual relations; but more about accepting pagan religions over and above the new church of the Christ, and it were those pagan religions whose rituals included a good deal of sexual activity and, therefore, were indicative--exemplary--of pagan religion (i.e., not Christ-centered religion).
Yes in Iran they dig a hole, bury a woman up to her forearms, and then the town STONES HER TO DEATH!!!! For adultry, so stay away from Iran, or be truthfull to your spouse. Even if you accused, with no facts to support the adultry, you stil get stoned!!!!!!
They also hang women over there......
But they say we are barberic because we shoot electricity thru our prisioners until their brain is fried, we drop pellets of cynaid capsuls into buckets of water until the prisioner breathes them in and is found foaming at the mouth, we strap prisioners down to a gurney and inject them with lethal does drugs, one which paralizes the lungs to they can't breath and then a drug is given to OD them!!!!!
Last edited by hopedelivers; 12-13-2010 at 05:25 PM..
Reason: Adding content
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By far. But that's just opinion.
