Leviticus 16-18

[wolfpurplemoon]

More laws, things you can atone for with animal sacrifice and some good old abominations.

* Aaron has to atone for the sins of his two sons that were already killed by God for their inability to follow the complicated sacrifice procedure exactly right. A bit like putting someone to death for jay walking and then expecting their family to serve jail time.

* Apparently this is the source of the word 'scapegoat'. The scapegoat is a goat which gets to live (unlike its brother) but has to take with it the sins of Aaron and his people on its head.

* Seems vampires are to be reviled because of the contents of this section, anyone who eats blood should be cut off from his people for 'the life of the flesh is in the blood' (pretty much the classic Dracula line!)

* God basically condemns nearly every human that has been born so far (in the bible) by declaring marriage/sex between close relatives (or their wives) an abomination. They've all been doing it, so why the sudden declaration? It's not explained, just more 'I'm God, I said it, so follow it'. However, multiple marriages are still fine, judging from the mentions of 'thy father's wife' and 'thy father's wife's daughter'.

* Ah, most infamous of Leviticus' many abominations, lying with mankind as with womankind. It's often picked out from amongst the rest of the rules and paraded about as the judgement of God and used to justify the anti-gay rights movement while the rest of the acts that God finds equally abominable are just ignored. And I don't see any of those people sacrificing tonnes of animals, which was apparently a statute for ever.

Here's a clip from The West Wing which articulates my feelings far better than I can!

Comments

[the1andonlycj.livejournal.com]

Loving the commentary, but that clip is beyond awesome. Today, I'm ignoring the blog so I can get writing done--too many comments to handle. It's gone crazy over there._.

[wolfpurplemoon]

The West Wing was constantly awesome! Someone rather blew your cover by linking to your blog, though they aren't being at all hostile from what I've seen. Good luck with your writing!

[shesfearless.livejournal.com]

I have always found the origins of the term scapegoat interesting and is probably one of the few things I actually knew about the bible.

That clip was absolutely amazing and makes me think I need to watch that show.

[wolfpurplemoon]

It is very interesting to see that words like scapegoat originated in the bible, never really thought that it meant a literal goat.

The West Wing is excellent, definitely worth catching!