Fun fact about that, one of the two greatest commandments jesus gives is a quote from Deuteronomy 6 and the full context is the Israelites shouldn’t be ungrateful to god because he let them murder the natives and take their shit.
“Always remember to give thanks to the immortal Hitler kids!” - Jesus Christ
Just a quick response to some of these claims from the perspective of Judaism
Kill People Who Don’t Listen to Priests-
this isn’t just any guy off the street not listening to some priest. This is about a sage in his own right who actually issues rulings in line with an opinion of his that was rejected by Jewish equivalent of the supreme court
Kill Homosexuals-
It’s actually more like “kill men who have been convicted of having sex with other males and btw we only accept testimony from multiple eyewitnesses who saw each other and the same thing at the same time”
Death For Hitting Dad-
Only applies if the hit draws blood
Death For Cursing Parents-
This requires a very specific formulation to get a conviction
Death for fornication-
This is the first one that’s straight up wrong. It falls under death for adultery, the punishment is just harsher because she’s a priest’s daughter and some rabbis say she needs to be fully married for it to apply while others say just betrothed as is the standard status in most cases with punishments for infidelity.
Death to followers of other religions-
It’s more like death to those who actively worship other gods. Followers of nontheistic religions, and Muslims would be fine as well as, in some opinions, christians and modalistic Hindus.
Kill nonbelievers-
This seems to be more of a one-time royal edict (that didn’t result in anyone dying btw) than an actual prescribed penalty
Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God-
This is an incredible misunderstanding of the text. In Hebrew it is called an “ir hanidachat” and it is only done if the majority of the town has two eyewitnesses testifying that over 50% of the individuals of the town worshipped idols after being warned that doing so carries the death penalty, and only if they were enticed/subverted to do so and only if the subverter/enticer was a group of one or more adult males from that town and a member(s) of the tribe in whose territory the town is and if a caravan sets up camp there and counting them as inhabitants makes it that less than 50% are worshipping idols then that saves the town.
Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night
Believe it or not this also falls under adultery. She is only executed if in the course of investigating the monetary claim he makes against her, witnesses come forward and they saw her having sex with another man while betrothed to this man then she is executed.
Kill Followers of Other Religions
This sounds kinda like 6 doesn’t it? However in fairness it is discussing something slightly different. While 6 deals with people convicted of worshipping false gods this deals with one who tries to entice others to do so. This actually the only case where we endorse anything resembling entrapment and the Mishna that says so makes it very clear that it’s an exception in this regard rather than the rule. (To clarify “something like entrapment” I mean that thing many people think is entrapment where a police officer pretends to not be an officer and noncoercively offers one the opportunity engage in a crime and then arrests them for doing so)
I should also mention that 1,3,4,5,7?,8, and 9 only apply to Jews while 2,6, and 10 are left to the non Jewish courts outside of the land of israel
and it is only done if the majority of the town has two eyewitnesses testifying that over 50% of the individuals of the town worshipped idols after being warned that doing so carries the death penalty
You realize that’s not better right? It’s literally religious persecution as a law.
More absurdly, this would even apply to worship of gods that by all available evidence are in fact older than Yahweh.
Imagine someone suddenly coming up to you and saying you cannot worship Yahweh because Botar is the one true god and has been the only god in all of earth’s history.
and it is only done if the majority of the town has two eyewitnesses testifying that over 50% of the individuals of the town worshipped idols after being warned that doing so carries the death penalty
You realize that’s not better right? It’s literally religious persecution as a law.
1- it’s definitely better to kill a town where the majority have been convicted of idol worship as opposed to a case where there is a single idol worshipper
2- all other factors being equal, any legal system that requires jurisprudence is better than a like alternative that calls for vigilantism
More absurdly, this would even apply to worship of gods that by all available evidence are in fact older than Yahweh
I disagree that such beings actually exist within reality given that I believe that he is the author of reality itself.
By “older than” I don’t mean those gods are actually real I mean that archeological evidence indicates that humanity believed in them long before anyone ever heard of Yahweh.
You made that clear when you said “by all available evidence”. I was pointing out that in my interpretation of the evidence no god predates mine as I don’t ascribe nearly as much weight to archaeological evidence and it’s interpretations as I do with better established sciences
Fun fact about that, one of the two greatest commandments jesus gives is a quote from Deuteronomy 6 and the full context is the Israelites shouldn’t be ungrateful to god because he let them murder the natives and take their shit.
“Always remember to give thanks to the immortal Hitler kids!” - Jesus Christ
Deuteronomy 6:5-12
Just a quick response to some of these claims from the perspective of Judaism
this isn’t just any guy off the street not listening to some priest. This is about a sage in his own right who actually issues rulings in line with an opinion of his that was rejected by Jewish equivalent of the supreme court
It’s actually more like “kill men who have been convicted of having sex with other males and btw we only accept testimony from multiple eyewitnesses who saw each other and the same thing at the same time”
Only applies if the hit draws blood
This requires a very specific formulation to get a conviction
This is the first one that’s straight up wrong. It falls under death for adultery, the punishment is just harsher because she’s a priest’s daughter and some rabbis say she needs to be fully married for it to apply while others say just betrothed as is the standard status in most cases with punishments for infidelity.
It’s more like death to those who actively worship other gods. Followers of nontheistic religions, and Muslims would be fine as well as, in some opinions, christians and modalistic Hindus.
This seems to be more of a one-time royal edict (that didn’t result in anyone dying btw) than an actual prescribed penalty
This is an incredible misunderstanding of the text. In Hebrew it is called an “ir hanidachat” and it is only done if the majority of the town has two eyewitnesses testifying that over 50% of the individuals of the town worshipped idols after being warned that doing so carries the death penalty, and only if they were enticed/subverted to do so and only if the subverter/enticer was a group of one or more adult males from that town and a member(s) of the tribe in whose territory the town is and if a caravan sets up camp there and counting them as inhabitants makes it that less than 50% are worshipping idols then that saves the town.
Believe it or not this also falls under adultery. She is only executed if in the course of investigating the monetary claim he makes against her, witnesses come forward and they saw her having sex with another man while betrothed to this man then she is executed.
This sounds kinda like 6 doesn’t it? However in fairness it is discussing something slightly different. While 6 deals with people convicted of worshipping false gods this deals with one who tries to entice others to do so. This actually the only case where we endorse anything resembling entrapment and the Mishna that says so makes it very clear that it’s an exception in this regard rather than the rule. (To clarify “something like entrapment” I mean that thing many people think is entrapment where a police officer pretends to not be an officer and noncoercively offers one the opportunity engage in a crime and then arrests them for doing so)
I should also mention that 1,3,4,5,7?,8, and 9 only apply to Jews while 2,6, and 10 are left to the non Jewish courts outside of the land of israel
You realize that’s not better right? It’s literally religious persecution as a law.
More absurdly, this would even apply to worship of gods that by all available evidence are in fact older than Yahweh.
Imagine someone suddenly coming up to you and saying you cannot worship Yahweh because Botar is the one true god and has been the only god in all of earth’s history.
1- it’s definitely better to kill a town where the majority have been convicted of idol worship as opposed to a case where there is a single idol worshipper
2- all other factors being equal, any legal system that requires jurisprudence is better than a like alternative that calls for vigilantism
I disagree that such beings actually exist within reality given that I believe that he is the author of reality itself.
By “older than” I don’t mean those gods are actually real I mean that archeological evidence indicates that humanity believed in them long before anyone ever heard of Yahweh.
You made that clear when you said “by all available evidence”. I was pointing out that in my interpretation of the evidence no god predates mine as I don’t ascribe nearly as much weight to archaeological evidence and it’s interpretations as I do with better established sciences