By biblical clues it was once determined that the murder of Abel by his brother Cain occurred in 3875 BCE. Interestingly, the first year of the Jewish calendar was set as beginning in 3760 BCE—or 115 years later. The brief and incomplete list that follows here, taken from “Holy Bible” stories, make it clear that the respect for life was not an especially high priority among God’s favorites.
The Deluge, whipped up by none other than God himself with the sole intention of obliterating the human species, supposedly occurred in 2348 BCE. Oddly, part of the Lord’s instruction to Noah (who escaped being done in) was that Noah and his progeny must, among other listed immoral acts, refrain from committing homicide—the shameless counseling of do as I say, not as I do. Scanning over the following brief highlights from biblical tales, remember that the definition of murder is the unconscionable killing of a human being.
In the time of Abraham (c. 1860 BCE), the alleged progenitor of the Hebrews, the Lord asked Abe to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abe said okay, but then the Lord said that it was only a test and provided a ram for slaughter. Why the all-knowing creator would have to test Abraham in this cruel manner is never explained. What this tale does reveal is that any tradition about not killing handed down from the time of Noah 488 years before was not taken seriously.
By the most commonly accepted calculations, Moses did not receive any commandment against homicide until 1491 BCE—or 369 years after Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, and 2384 years after Abel’s death. It might be said that the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” given to Moses was a case of too little too late. Even with this commandment as counsel, good old Joshua, the God-favored successor to Moses, is proudly presented as freely indulging himself in holocaustic slaughter of countless Canaanites.
Then there is the tale of Jephthah, a blustery Israelite who was called upon by the Israelite elders to head off a threatened Ammonite attack around 1143 BCE. Jephthah, positive of God’s favor, swore that if he won in battle then whatsoever cometh forth out of the doors of my house to meet me…” he would offer it up for a burnt offering to God (II Judges). Well, Jephthah won the battle. His “honor” supposedly demanded the ritual murder of his daughter, for in joy to see his safe return she had rushed out to greet him. God is portrayed as knowing all, so was it Jephthah’s fault or God’s divine indifference that Jeph had to murder his own daughter by fire? Even God seems to have ignored his own edict handed down to Moses only 348 years earlier, for he did nothing to save the girl.
412 years after the Commandment Thou shalt not kill had been handed down, King Saul of Israel indulged himself in a swift war of extermination against the Amalekites in 1079 BCE in which, the boast goes, every man, woman babe and child were “utterly destroyed.” This was bad enough, but then King Saul’s pitiless “prophet,” Samuel, is recorded as having savagely chopped the captured and defenseless Amalekites King Agag into mincemeat with a sword. Samuel also contributed to Israel’s gory glory by then promoting David (1040?-973? BCE) for the throne. And ultimately, 23 years later after the slaughter of Agag, David did succeed Saul as King of Israel.
David is presented in Holy Scripture as a master of deceit, mendacity and bloodshed, and followed the traditional pattern of killing everyone among a conquered people, including women, babes and children. He even had people killed “lest they should tell on us” (1 Samuel 27:11). David’s list of slaughters and atrocities are too many to present here, but his open disregard for the sixth commandment makes it questionable as to why God could ever have considered him a worthy founder of a royal dynasty or to be the protector of the Holy Ark of the Covenant. David is commonly excused under the pretext that he displayed unfailing devotion to Jehovah!
Next we have Elijah, c. 910 BCE, who had the Phenician prophets of Baal put to death to prevent them from muscling in on his hold on the official religion of Israel. The myth goes that after the murder of the Baal priests, rain and dew which God had jealously withheld for three years finally returned. Besides murdering the priests of Baal, Elijah also caused the destruction of two companies of fifty innocent messengers that had been sent to him by King Ahaziah of Israel. There was eager anticipation that this “holy man” was to return to Earth, and this was later incorporated into Christian myth as the spiritual fulfillment in John the Baptist.
The successor of Elijah was Elisha, c. 896 BCE, another typically short-tempered and irascible Israelite “prophet,” who displayed his disregard for the sixth commandment with 42 unruly children on the road to Bethel. The young delinquents allegedly teased him about his bald head. In angry retaliation, holy Elisha is said to have cursed the children in the name of the Lord and immediately two bears appeared and ripped the children to shreds. The weak excuse for this god-assisted murder of forty-two children is that the “prophet” was weary and agitated from his fifteen mile hike from Jericho. Elisha was not weary, however, when he hatched the conspiracy to seize the throne of Israel and elevate Jehu, the last son of Joram, as king.
Jehu, allegedly appointed by God and anointed by murderous Elisha as king of Israel (c. 843? BCE), lost little time in setting out to exterminate his predecessor King Ahab’s seventy children as well as the priests of Baal. How the murder of the priests was accomplished is a mystery, for Elijah had supposedly already done all that. But true to form, here is what chapter 10, verse 30 of 2 Kings says: And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. Thus blessed by the Lord, Jehu, without an ounce of scruple, later ordered two or three eunuchs to throw his wife Jezebel out a window to her death.
This brief and far from complete list of God-favored characters from “the good book” have been offered as spiritual inspiration for countless generations. Do they really exemplify the most exalted way of attracting peace, love, justice, mercy or intelligence that is so yearned for in the world? Are these really examples that an advanced nation should follow?
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