Some Summary from Glenn Miller of his article on the Midianites.
Summary:
The judgment scene in Numbers 31 has nothing to do with lewd ‘tests for virginity’
The judgment scene in Numbers 31 has nothing to do with ‘sex slaves’ or even slavery in the sense of New World Slavery
The judgment scene in Numbers 31 has nothing to do with a religious war against the Midianites, “because they worshipped a different god than Israel”
The Midianites were a tribal league of generally nomadic peoples, with a wide variation in orientation, ethics, and practices.
They were known to engage in kidnapping and international slave trading, as well as raiding and pillage of sedentary peoples/villages.
The Moabites, who start the chain of events leading to Numbers 31, are under no danger or threat from Israel, but nonetheless begin unprovoked attempts to vanquish the unsuspecting Israelites
cont. below
Glenn Miller's Summary cont.
After the Mesopotamian diviner/sorcerer/prophet Balaam fails to curse Israel, he nevertheless advises the Midianite leadership on how to overcome Israel—by a _____
deception of a massive scale.
Moab transports women into the area en masse, and Midian moves into the territory east of _____, to begin this initiative. Some 6,000-12,000 married women aggressively offer ____ to the Israelite men (most of whom are married), and after having sex/adultery, convince them to participate in further acts (involving both s** and disloyalty to the Lord).
Israel ‘falls for it’, and likely makes a ‘covenant’ with a Canaanite fertility god of vegetation (Baal Peor), and are judged by God (at least 24,000 Israelites die of a plague, most of which are males)
I keep getting flagged for inappropriate words by some filter.
But there is nothing tawdy in the article.
I have to blank out possibly offending words.
@fmf saidBrother it's time to move on from this behavior.
sonship, you have condemned Humanists as merely "eating faeces" and "spreading germs" when they share their ideas. You have compared atheism to "animal excrement". And you've likened people who do not have the same beliefs as you to unclean dogs and pigs and cockroaches. Would you describe the Midianites as vermin?
Learn some forgiveness and learn that on the internet people occasionally speak loosely!
@Duchess64
Why not start a thread on the War Crimes of Atheism if you want to talk about numbers killed in the scores of millions - Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, thoroughly Darwinistic Hitler.
@sonship saidGreat point.
@Duchess64
Why not start a thread on the War Crimes of Atheism if you want to talk about numbers killed in the scores of millions - Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, thoroughly Darwinistic Hitler.
Atheism often encourages people to pursue Utopian visions while Christianity tends to reinforce the idea that we live in a fallen world and pursuing overly idyllic imagined states is less common.
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
@philokalia saidIt isn't "behaviour". It is a question posed after reading sonship's post. Here it is again:
Brother it's time to move on from this behavior.
sonship, you have condemned Humanists as merely "eating faeces" and "spreading germs" when they share their ideas. You have compared atheism to "animal excrement". And you've likened people who do not have the same beliefs as you to unclean dogs and pigs and cockroaches. Would you describe the Midianites as vermin?
@philokalia saidWould you describe the Midianites as vermin?
Learn some forgiveness and learn that on the internet people occasionally speak loosely!
@philokalia saidsonship has repeated the "animal excrement" and "eating faeces" thing countless times and he has cited Philippians 3:8. How is it "speaking loosely" if it comes with carefully html-coded Biblical quotes and if it is repeated over and over again?
learn that on the internet people occasionally speak loosely!
@sonship saidHow does this relate to your defence of the Midianite genocide and your demonization of the Midianites who lived 3,500 years ago?
Why not start a thread on the War Crimes of Atheism if you want to talk about numbers killed in the scores of millions - Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, thoroughly Darwinistic Hitler.