Just how stupid were the ancient Israelites?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Suggested reading assignment = 

Map of the New Kingdom of Egypt, 1450 BCE
https://www.ancient.eu/image/538/

Weapons and Warfare
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2016/06/02...te-people/

[The Grand Nudger]

The exodus narrative is a microcosm of the entirety of the ot.  Garbled semi-history, misplaced in time and edited for certain purpose.......then fucking shredded in transportation and recobbled back together by the remaining elements of society that weren't -always- the brightest bulbs in the set.  

-then along comes some random nutballs...taking a look, they say to themselves "legit, Imma build a whole new religion out of this material, it;s fantastic!"

When you really step back and consider how all of this went down, theres no idiocy or atrocity committed in the name of god that;s even remotely surprising.

The answer to the OP Q is, pretty damned stupid, but not just the isrealites...and not nearly as stupid as the stories suggest. A significant portion of the target audience for any of these stories..were children. They were made to propagandize children.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The exodus narrative is a microcosm of the entirety of the ot.  Garbled semi-history, misplaced in time and edited for certain purpose.......then fucking shredded in transportation and recobbled back together by the remaining elements of society that weren't -always- the brights bulbs in the set.  

-then along comes some random nutballs...taking a look, they say to themselves "legit, Imma build a whole new religion out of this material, it;s fantastic!"

When you really step back and consider how all of this went down, theres no idiocy or atrocity committed in the name of god that;s even remotely surprising.

The answer to the OP Q is, pretty damned stupid, but not just the isrealites...and not nearly as stupid as the stories suggest.  A significant portion of the target audience for any of these stories..were children.  They were made to propagandize children.

It pays to remember that all of the biblical stories are used to illustrate the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 34:11-28 and that the miracles are based on Exodus 34:10.  Consequentially the stories may or may not make logical sense because the purpose is for the listener (or reader) to associate the story with one of the Ten Commandments.  Sometimes the stories show the "good" results of obeying the particular Commandment and other times it shows the consequence of disobeying the Commandment.  

People have trouble with the biblical stories because they don't know that or even know what the real Ten Commandments are.  So in effect they are just reading a bunch of words without appreciating how intricate the whole fairy tale is.  A person should be able to read any biblical story and identify which Commandment it illustrates and if it shows the positive of obeying it or the negative of disobeying it.  

The Bible wasn't written as a complete book until the 680s-690s when a committee of story tellers, writers, and artists produced three master copies each weighing 75 pounds.  It didn't exist until then.  So they were able to weave a very complex tale that flows from book to book.  They also cleverly included all kinds of clues to show that it was just an elaborate prank designed to fool the gullible church leaders.  Of course there were bits and pieces of various manuscripts and the oral stories but they didn't contain all of the dialogue that's now found in the Bible.  The committee wrote that.

[Minimalist]

When literacy became a more common reality

But that did not even begin to happen until the invention of the printing press.  In antiquity only the elites could read and even fewer could write.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

When literacy became a more common reality

But that did not even begin to happen until the invention of the printing press.  In antiquity only the elites could read and even fewer could write.

Remember how it was during slavery times in America?  The slavers wanted the slaves to believe in the biblical fairy tale so that they would be good compliant slaves.  But they wouldn't teach them how to read so that they could read the fairy tale for themselves.  In fact it was illegal to do so.  They just wanted the slaves to believe in the fairy tale based on what they were told so that they wouldn't cause any trouble because zombie Jesus wouldn't like that.  It was excellent brainwashing.

Oh, and the Catholic church forbade the common Catholics from even reading the Bible for about a thousand years.

[Fake Messiah]

Yeah, Jews have some pretty stupid myths

[I_am_not_mafia]

So the ancient Israelites have suffered slavery in Egypt until a certain Mr. Moses frees them.

To get free, they witness the plagues of Egypt.

While fleeing they witness Moses part the Red Sea, and drown the Egyptian army.

Then, after a few days, Moses wanders up a mountain to get his rocks off, and the moment he turns his back, they're off creating new gods!

They witnessed these events and still chose to create new gods and idols the moment Moses buggered off for a quick wank!

So, were the ancient Israelites really that fucking stupid...

..or, perhaps, is the story a complete work of fiction?

Mr God didn't actually appear in front of them and say, "Look guys, I'm going to free you all by doing all this and it's me who should get the credit."

Instead they were led by one person who had his religious belief while the rest of them had their own religious beliefs.

That's if Mr Moses even was leading them. He might have only been a scribe recording history with a massive bias for his own religious beliefs. How would we know?

Is there any evidence that Mr Moses even existed yet alone led them all?

[Brian37]

So the ancient Israelites have suffered slavery in Egypt until a certain Mr. Moses frees them.

To get free, they witness the plagues of Egypt.

While fleeing they witness Moses part the Red Sea, and drown the Egyptian army.

Then, after a few days, Moses wanders up a mountain to get his rocks off, and the moment he turns his back, they're off creating new gods!

They witnessed these events and still chose to create new gods and idols the moment Moses buggered off for a quick wank!

So, were the ancient Israelites really that fucking stupid...

..or, perhaps, is the story a complete work of fiction?

Not "perhaps", "IS a work of fiction"

Slavery was common worldwide in the age of kings yes, but there is no evidence whatsoever that Egyptians ever kept Jews as slaves. And they most certainly never would have allowed their captured or slaves to work on monuments to their kings in any case. Even today, if you look at how Palestinians and Jews act towards each other, it is mere blasphemy for each other to even enter the other's holy place. 

The story of God killing off the Egyptian firstborn is immoral on top of that. He kills them over a beef he has with an adult. That would be like today, if a sitting judge had the children of a convicted bank robber murdered for something the kids didn't do.

[Minimalist]

Oh, and the Catholic church forbade the common Catholics from even reading the Bible for about a thousand years.

Yes they did but it was largely irrelevant.  Books had to be painstakingly hand copied and were thus both rare and very expensive.  The vast majority of the population couldn't read at all and they certainly couldn't read Latin.  Even the nobility was not terribly literate.  Women were considered brood mares and the men were regarded as little more than chivalric cannon fodder in an age before cannons.  There is a reason why men like Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Richelieu were trusted advisers to their kings.  They were a lot better educated than the kings!

The church was right to fear the printed word.  Gutenberg's first bible rolled off the press in 1455.  50 years later Martin Luther started getting uppity!

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Yeah, Jews have some pretty stupid myths

The story about killing the first born in Egypt illustrates the 4th Commandment in action.

Exodus 34:19-20 (CEB) = "19 Every first offspring is mine. That includes all your male livestock, the oldest offspring of cows and sheep. 20 But a donkey’s oldest offspring you may ransom with a sheep. Or if you don’t ransom it, you must break its neck. You should ransom all of your oldest sons.

No one should appear before me empty-handed."

The crucifixion of Yeshua also illustrates the 4th Commandment.  It shows that Yahweh's control is absolute to the point where he will kill his own son to show that he is in control and impartial.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/exodus/...11_01.html  22 pictures