Re: OT: Genesis 1:29 Was: strep throat poll

[Guest guest]

Joan Pearse wrote:

>...some professor of medicine, surmised that these dietary restrictions

>were very clever and effective public health measures to protect the Jews

>from certain diseases.

I have seen these also. However, if God meant mainly to improve their

health He did an odd job of it. These authors and commentators seem to be

selective about pointing out the bad things of unclean while ignoring the

bad things of the clean. I remember one of the examples of unclean that

comes up is swordfish (it loses its scales), because it is suppose to have

so many parasites. I can tell you about some clean fish that I hope no one

is eating raw because of the parasites in them. You can get tape worms and

nematodes from clean fish. You can also get these things form other clean

meats.

If God wanted to give us some help with health there are a lot of things He

could have said, like how to clean, cook and preserve the food. He could

have told them about germs. He could have told them how to purify water and

how to keep the water supply clean. Then there are commands like, don't

cook a kid in its mother's milk. (Note that is different from " in milk " ).

Is that about health? If not, then how do you know the others are? I am not

saying God made " unhealthy " choices with the laws. I am saying that health

was not " the " reason for the laws. I also think that:

1) People miss more important lessons when they reduce this to health issues.

2) People use this to point fingers at those with health problems.

3) People make it part of a circular reasoning. (We know these foods are

healthy because the Bible says so, We know this is what the Bible means

because we know these foods are healthy.)

4) People begin to think of healthiness as godliness. (Is it ok to be a

missionary in a place where your health is going to be destroyed?)

notan

[Guest guest]

OMG (with apologies to anyone whom that offends) this thread is starting

to sound like the last train journey I went on when I got cornered by

someone who had plenty to say on similar subject matter.

It does my head in..... I have way too many other things to think about

these interpretations which scholars have spent and will spend years

debating.

Glad you marked it OT anyway :-)

--

Sue

Mum to Stephi, 7yo

Nottingham UK

[Guest guest]

Another thing that I think is important is that the versions of the Bible that we know today are NOT necessarily 100% accurate translations/interpretations.

I don't have any specifics right now, but I know that the King Version (which is either what most people know or else what is the basis for what most people know) has several places where it was translated "not quite right". We live in a different time, too, so to take something literally AS WE KNOW IT isn't necessarily how it would have been meant back in other times. I mean, how many people wash someone else's feet these days (pedicurists excepted!) )

People have to be cautious in saying "I know this is what this means" -- unless you were there when it happened, you can only give your INTERPRETATION of what it means, and everyone's interpretation is colored by their experiences and influences.

Deb