Cannibalism in the Bible
By Khayam
@Khayam (346)
Romania
December 12, 2008 7:12pm CST
Cannibalism, is in my oppinion, something that is not compatible with the system of reference of the God, and I would never thought that the Christian Bible could mention it once.
I must confess that I'm totally confused. Not only there is more than one mention regarding cannibalism, but UNBELIEVABLY, it is God Himself forcing people to engage in such unhuman and pagan acts.
First time i've discovered a different God than i used to picture in my mind in Ezekiel 5:9-10 - "Because of all your detestable idols, I will doto you what I have never done before and will never do again. Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds")
Against my vision, a google search returned another interesting aspect. God forcing people to engage in cannibalism is to be found also in Jeremiah 19:9 - "I will make them eat the flash of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege, imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives")
What is your oppinion regarding this issue?
3 people like this
7 responses
@owelm0408 (1011)
• Philippines
13 Dec 08
there are ways to properly interpret the Bible..Most of the words written in it is not always literally as it is. I believe that the Bible is full of wisdom. Most of the time, its more on the context of what it says..Sometimes, you need not to read or study not just a verse but the whole chapter, or the whole book in order to dig out what the text is saying..Take note also that a lot of the teachings of Jesus, the truth HE is emphasizing is not direct literal words but on a parable, or a quotation in the Old Testament
@Khayam (346)
• Romania
13 Dec 08
True. But there are other mentions in the Old Testament - like Exodus, when Levites were asked by God to kill their sons, friends, etc. They took God's words literally, several thousands were killed and God blessed the survivors. Exodus highlights exactly that GOD's words shouldn't be interpreted. If He says kill, then you have to kill. etc
@sixclix (677)
• Philippines
13 Dec 08
Those passages are taken from the old testament. You have to remember, Christianity started long after the old testament, thus there's the new testament in the bible. What made Christianity revolutionary in a sense is that it rejected practices and beliefs, such as stoning, from the old testament. Christianity also changed, in a way, the image of God from the old testament. In the old testament, God was projected as someone to be feared, thus you have passages like the one you mentioned about him letting people feast on each other, while in the new testament, he is projected as someone forgiving and someone to be loved, not feared. This is one of the reasons why jews aren't Christians. Jews stick to the old beliefs.
@Khayam (346)
• Romania
13 Dec 08
Although the Old Testament picture a God of Order, it can't be claimed that it is a different God from the one worshiped today. The New Testament indeed, projects a different image of God, but you can't claim that it projects a MUTATION of God Himself. He is not changed, because he can't be changed. The Old Testament God is the same with the New Testament God, both projections are SYMBIOTIC not changeable.
@MichaelJay (1100)
•
13 Dec 08
Taking the words in the Bible too literally has been the cause of a great many conflicts in this world.
I think what we are seeing is a metaphor for 'behave yourselves or unspeakable things will happen to you'. As cannibalism is one of the worst taboos it was probably vocalized this way.
@Khayam (346)
• Romania
13 Dec 08
Actually not everyone. At a global scale Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic worshipers are overwhelming, in terms of numbers, the Christian community. Why people embrace Christian religion? I do think that each of them has his/her personal reasons. But, millions embraced Mythra's religion in 300 A.D., and switched rapidly into other religions after Nicaea Council. The numbers cannot represent an argument in order to highlight if a religion is good or bad. Not the numbers, but the substance.
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
13 Dec 08
The way I see it is; that God is telling His wayward people, because of their disobedience and rebelliousness, God will not protect them from the consequences or their wayward course. Their wayward course will lead to great difficulties that will lead them to even eat their own children. Apparently famine conditions became so severe that some did eat their own children. God is actually warning them of the consequences of their continuing to be dispobedient. Have you thought of this way of looking at things?
1 person likes this
@remrick (202)
• Philippines
13 Dec 08
I agree with what 1hopefulman said... It's not like God actually ordered or "forced" people to engage in cannibalism... these were prohetic writings, written by ezekiel and jeremiah, and they were warning israel of the destruction they were bringing upon themselves because of their unfaithfulness and social decay... there is another mention of cannibalism in the Bible, it is somewhere in Lamentations, telling of mothers being forced to eat their babies after the Fall of Jerusalem... It is here that those prophecies came true... God warned His people about this, but they did not listen, so it came to pass...
@murderistic (2278)
• United States
13 Dec 08
Some more Biblical references to cannibalism:
In 2 Kings 6:24-33, a woman in Samaria tells the King of Israel how famine caused her to make a deal with another women, in which they would both eat each other's sons. She said that she boiled her own son and they both ate him, but the next day when she asked the other women where her son was, she had hidden him. The woman cried to the king of Israel to help her. His response was to tear his clothes in anger and he said "God to so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today." He meant that he literally wanted to cut off Elisha's head. He sent a messenger to do the job but Elisha predicted that the messenger would come, and promised him that there would be no famine in Samaria the next day (in 2 Kings 7:1).
I don't quite understand the context of this. But from reading the passages that you posted, as well as this, it seems that all cases of cannibalism in the Bible have to do with inter-familial cannibalism. And it seems to be a type of punishment for burning sacrifices to idols and killing innocent people. And Israel.
1 person likes this
@freethinkingagent (2501)
•
13 Dec 08
You have taken these words way out of context. Gos is not telling people to do this. This is about famine, Even recently when people have been faced with starvation they revert to catabolism. This story is about a famine coming where people will be reduced to cannibalism. Tisk Tisk on trying to bend these words as something that is sanctioned by God.
@freethinkingagent (2501)
•
14 Dec 08
My friend, I have read it from beginning to end and in the original languages. You read into it what you want to, people always do. You are going to take ONE verse and not read the whole book, therefore you are taking it out of context. If I say to you, I will take your car from you because you have misbehaved, and I will cause you to walk to work and twist your ankle on the curb, okay have i commanded you to do so? No I have said you are misbehaving, and I will take your car and now you will have to walk to work where it is possible that you will twist your ankle, fall or some other thing can happen to you and if you want to take the bible so literally well thats...
@Khayam (346)
• Romania
13 Dec 08
Read the Books yourself and you will see that everything i've typed is genuine. An order/statement of God has no contextual value. When God says "don't lie", is nothing contextual in it. When God says "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons", there is nothing contextual in it.
