(May 2, 2015 at 8:42 pm)Esquilax Wrote: Well, given that we don't have the originals of any biblical manuscript, making claims about what is and is not present in the original language is fairly laughable...
Actually, reconstruction of the probable original text given the extant manuscripts is not laughable, but quite feasible. It has been done. There is of course some uncertainty in the process, nor can I cover the details of textual criticism and its methods here in a post. But the content of the Hebrew bible's text as of the 1st cent. BCE is fairly certain. That all the texts underwent redaction before reaching canonical form is also known. The Torah and Deuteronomistic history were likely the first items to become finalized, sometime between 500 BCE and the early Hellenistic period about 250 years later. The prophets and wisdom literature were fixed last.
While we're pretty sure what the words are, what they mean is a harder question. The meaning and interpretation of many Hebrew bible passages is obscure.
(May 2, 2015 at 9:19 pm)Esquilax Wrote: And my objection to [legal passages in Leviticus] is that they're heinously immoral...
...by our standards of morality, not those prevailing in ancient Palestine. However, the various laws and stonings in Leviticus were already problematic to the New Testament Christ, who suggested replacing them with just two laws: to love your god and to love your neighbor. Jesus (John 8:7) basically told the law enforcers not to stone the adulterous woman because they weren't any freer of sin than she was.
No Christians advocate enforcing the Mosaic law today. Which distinguishes their faith from some conservative strains of Islam which are indeed conducting ancient punishments in areas of the world they control.
