by Ianto Watt
Later there was the prophecy that Abraham would become the Father of many nations. Genealogically, this has been shown to be true, with the Israelites and the Ishmaelites. Spiritually speaking, this would also encompass the Christian and Muslim world as well. That’s about half the world’s population. Pretty good prediction. The God of the Jews also said that the Jews would be captive in Egypt for 430 years, but would come out with great substance. Again, this has been shown to be true (although you’d never know it by reading ancient Egyptian accounts. They were the first modernists! Or maybe they’re just in de Nile. Sorry, couldn’t resist).
Now let’s stop and think. Moses wrote the first five books of the OT (known as the Pentateuch, or the “Five Books’), and Moses was a descendant of Abraham, the one who was the historic center of this prophecy. So can we call this a genuine ‘prophecy’ if Moses wrote it down after Abraham, Father of the Hebrews, became the physically acknowledged father (by different women) of both Ishmael (father of the Arabs, generally speaking) and Isaac (the father of Jacob who was the father of Judah, who was the original Jew)? Well, consider that when the Jews left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, they were not yet in possession of the Promised Land, and their future was still in doubt, from a secular perspective, of course. But they were all aware of the prophecy at that time. And so, as the prophecy took many centuries to unfold beyond the life of Moses, who recorded the prophecy, it looks pretty airtight to me, as a provable prediction. And it is now an undoubted fact believed by half the world (Jew, Christian and Muslim alike) that this was a true prophecy that has indeed been fulfilled.
As for miracles, the Jewish record is crammed full of them. Here’s a recap of just a few of the big ones: the 10 Plagues on the Egyptians, the parting of the Red Sea, the Manna in the desert, the parting of the Jordan, the destruction of Jericho by marching around it blowing trumpets, fire and brimstone from heaven falling on Sodom & Gomorrah, and I could go on for five pages just listing them by title.
Here’s my favorite though- the miracle of what didn’t happen. What didn’t happen? Well, Alexander the Great (no Jew, he), the man who ran roughshod over all the earth and who subjugated everyone that he came across to his rule, came to Jerusalem. Yet he didn’t even try to capture it or make it pay tribute. In fact when Alexander, who claimed divine origin, came in great anger to the gates of Jerusalem (a tax-payment problem, naturally) and he saw the Jewish High Priest and the priestly entourage before the city all dressed in white, he fell down and worshipped the God of the Jews. Alexander claimed to have seen the High Priest in a dream as a youth many years before he came towards Jerusalem. These priests in his dream were dressed exactly the same as the Jewish High Priests. And who tells us this story? Why Flavius Josephus, in his book Jewish Antiquities, of course. And various other sources attest to it including Alexander’s best general, Parmenion, who couldn’t believe his behavior in this one peculiar instance.
Josephus and other secular historians say that Alexander’s greatest general, Parmenion, asked Alexander why he, a supposed god, fell down before the High Priest and worshipped him. To whom Alexander replied, ‘I did not adore him, but that God who has honored him with his high priesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dion in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians; whence it is that, having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the Divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.’(Antiquities,11.17)2
(picture of Alexander at the temple in Jerusalem, by
Sebastiano Conca, from Wikipedia)
Now modern historians simply dismiss this explanation of Josephus and Parmenion as so much legend, but the simple undisputable historical fact is that Alexander came to Jerusalem, yet he didn’t even try to take it! Name one other capital city he came against and failed to assault, or take, you Wiener-Dogs. Name one other people he failed to subjugate and tax and then force them to worship him. This is not a small thing, historically, and it is a fact that cannot be denied. And the story of this failure to even attempt to conquer the Jews comes from many non-Jewish sources. If this wasn’t a miracle, and a big one at that, what was it? Well, c’mon, what was it?
And beyond that, what about the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian Emperor, which was interpreted by Daniel the Prophet, who accurately predicted the coming of the Persian victory over Babylon? He also accurately predicted the name of the Persian ruler who would accomplish this feat, Cyrus, and then the coming of the empire of the Greeks (led by Alexander) who would supplant them, and finally, that Rome would establish the last worldwide empire. Pretty good track record, I’d say. It sure beats Hal Lindsay and Tim LaHaye. Talk about being ‘Left Behind’!
And here’s another HUGE miracle- feeding 2.5+ million people for 40 years (that’s 14,600 days). What? Yes, that’s the claim. And there’s another even bigger one behind it. How did the 70 men (and their families) of the family of Jacob (aka Israel) enter Egypt during the great famine, and come out 430 years later as 603,550 men over the age of 20, along with their wives and children?
Let’s do some math here. If we assume, as the scripture does, that a ‘generation’ equals 20 years, and we start with 70 men, and we further assume that each man has a family of 4 children, two of which are males, then we have an equation we can extrapolate out over the 20 generations that 400 years would demand. The first generation would produce 140 boys and 140 girls. If each boy continues this progression, then by the 12th (of 20) generations, there would be 573,440 male children. Thus, when scripture says (in the 2nd book of the Bible, Exodus) that there went out from Egypt 603,550 men of the age of 20 and older (and not counting those of the tribe of Levi, the priests, who were not numbered as warriors), then this is entirely believable, without resorting to miraculous explanation. Especially when one considers that if we extrapolate out all 20 generations (at this rate of 2 males and 2 females per generation), we’d be at the 150 million point. And that’s just the men.
Now let’s factor down for two reasons; first, the Israelites were slaves, and that leaves little time or resources for having and raising children. Secondly, Pharaoh was obviously aware of their numbers, and that’s why he instituted his ‘kill the males’ program, whereby he instructed the midwives to kill all newborn Jewish males. It was the proto-type for Planned Parenthood, I guess. Now this didn’t happen until sometime in the second half of the 430 year sojourn in Egypt, so it didn’t succeed as well as planned, and Moses was testimony to that fact, as his sister hid him when he was born. Nevertheless, it is easy to see how there could be so many men (603,550) over the age of 20. And if each equaled a family of four (2 parents, 2 children), then we’re right where we should be, in the 2.5 million range of ALL who left Egypt.
Now, let’s think about the volume of food this miracle of the manna required. Each person required an ‘omer’ of weight (which is one tenth of an ‘ephah’, which is one tenth of an ‘homer’, which is about a bushel of dry weight), or about a third of a liter of dry volume. Let’s just call it a pound of weight, OK? I’m tired of looking all this stuff up.
So, if a modern rail car can hold 90 thousand pounds of weight, we’re looking at 14 rail cars per day, just to bring the manna to the Israelites. That’s without the water to wash it down, too.
OK, so 14 rail cars per day, for 14,600 days (40 years). And water that came from the rocks. Oh yeah, and a giant flock of quail that landed at the edge of camp every evening, and which sat there paralyzed, I guess, so every family could send junior out to the edge of camp and grab one so everyone could have KFC as well.
&n
bsp; And if each family had only 2 male children on average (which is unlikely) then that translates to 2.5 million hungry souls sitting in the desert sun looking for chow every day after Moses led them out of the bondage of Egypt, according to the second book of the Old Testament, ‘Exodus’.
Now this qualifies as a miracle in my book! But is there proof it happened? Well, are there still Jews? Yes. And did they escape from Egypt? Yes. And did they immediately go to the Promised Land? No. Then who fed them during their 40 years of wanderings in the barren desert? In fact, considering the immediate barren environment, and supposing they could only travel about 10 miles per day through the Sinai desert, how could anyone possibly have fed them, humanely speaking, for even a week? Good questions, all. But let’s not dwell on this one, as it boggles my mind. Almost as much as the 10 Plagues on Egypt. But let’s answer the Wiener-Dogs before we move on. They say that there was no real mass exodus, and that many Jews left Egypt over this 430 year period. Some Weiner-Dogs even claim that there is no real ethnic group known as ‘Jews’.
But then, somehow, according to Weiner-Speak knowledge, these drifting ‘Jews’ who left Egypt over many decades, even centuries, all drifted towards one common spot and coalesced into a cohesive group claiming common lineage and (yet-bogus) religious belief, in the area of modern Palestine. Hmmmm. Let’s see now, this Weiner-Dog version means these Jews all came to assert that they were all genetically connected, and culturally and religiously connected, to a story about how they all left together, following one man (Moses) to whom their common God had revealed himself and who sent him to lead the entire group out of Egypt together, even though none of them really believed it!
OK, I get it- the Wiener-Dogs are basically saying all the Jews of the last 3,000 years are liars (or idiots) if they believe this, and that they all, somehow, decided to make up this story and tell it to anyone who would listen. That they all left Egypt individually, over hundreds of years, and somehow all went to the same place (for no apparent reason) and they met at the lodge and decided to create a powerful state that conquered much of the ancient world and created a religious system out of thin air that has lasted till today. And then, somehow, this false story that they made up gave them the cultural cohesiveness to stick together for 3,000 years in the face of incredible hardship and persecution. Wow. Talk about creating things out of nothing! Idiots.
That’s like saying that we got to the moon without President Kennedy setting the goal before us and focusing the entire nation towards this one specific goal. Instead, there was a bunch of German refugee rocket geeks after WWII that just all happened to wander to the same place in Florida where they founded a religion called NASA and they built the Apollo program (with government money that they somehow bamboozled Uncle Sam out of ) and then somehow got everyone to believe they should do this. Sound believable? Well, that’s the equivalent of what the Wiener-Dogs are asking you to believe. But that’s the way Wiener-Dogs think. Go figure.
Anyway, the list of miracles could go on and on, and there is sufficient historical and archeological evidence that many if not most of these events occurred in some fashion similar to the account relayed to us in the Old Testament. And if they didn’t, the Wiener-Dogs still can’t explain what did happen. So in this regard, Torah Judaism has shown an astounding record of believable miracles, prophesies and belief in an all-powerful God. And there is considerable historical and secular evidence to back it up, and I like that. After all, who wants a puny God? There is one small problem here, however. The problem for Judaism is that for over the last 2400 years, there haven’t been any more miracles. Or Prophets. This could be a problem, depending on your outlook. But we’ll deal with that later. Now, on to criteria #3.
Does Torah Judaism promises us something
of great value or reward? Yes.
Well, how about eternal life, with a merciful God? I’d take that! So would Paschal. Especially if it was essentially a free deal. If all I had to do was to admit I’m a Mad Dog too (with rabies to boot), and to repent from my willful failings (they call them ‘sins’), what a deal! But wait, it’s not that easy, and it shouldn’t be, either. We’d have to have something invested here, or it’d be too easy. And the God of the Jews seems to agree, because he said if you want what he offered, you’d have to deny yourself a lot of things. Like pagan women. And ham sandwiches. And shrimp and lobster. And other desirable things. Dang, this is harder than I thought! But hey, nothing but our first breath is totally free, is it?
But let’s look at the list of things that were forbidden. Most of them had a physical and familial reason that, if followed faithfully, would preserve the Jews as the Chosen People. Most of them, if followed, would have served to maximize the health and homogeneity of the group, thus keeping all the benefits within the race, to the maximal benefit of their progeny. Now if we consider that humans are the progeny of their creator, then this makes mathematical and historical sense. It also makes sense from the point of view that says these forbidden things offended their God, and that purity is foremost among this God’s demands if you want what he offers.
Some things, like ham sandwiches, simply reflect the demand by the Jewish God for obedience. After all, as Thomas Aquinas said, some things are forbidden because they are evil, whereas other things are evil because they are forbidden. Like apples in the Garden. There’s always a test, and there’s always trick questions, right? Which means you gotta follow the professor’s syllabus if you want to pass the course, right?
Anyway, what else does the Jewish God offer? Well, to be honest, the OT doesn’t get real specific about the daily activities available to those who attain the heavenly rewards of this offer. It doesn’t explicitly say what heaven and heavenly life will be like. But it does say what won’t be there: no pain (that’s good), no tears (I like that too), no famine, disease or wants of nature. Pretty good offer, so far. And no death, no aging, and no taxes! Pretty good offer, even though these are explained in the negative. So for now, let’s be fair and say that this religion has offered a pretty good deal, and that, on the whole it’s an acceptable one, especially considering the minimal cost needed to obtain it. Now let’s move on to the next basic requirement for belief in Judaism as the monotheistic religion of choice;
Does OT Judaism have an unbroken line of
priestly leadership or succession? NO.
No, and here’s where the wheels start to fall off the bus. OT Judaism required three things for its essence: An acceptable sacrifice (the ‘red heifer’), an acceptable place of worship (the Tabernacle-tent when they were in the desert and then the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem later), and finally, a genealogically defined priesthood. And there’s the problem. The priesthood (and all the rest) was destroyed in the Fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD, courtesy of Titus, the Roman general. So how was this priesthood ‘destroyed’?
In Old Testament (OT) Judaism, there were 12 tribes. One of those tribes was the tribe of Joseph. Another was the tribe of Levi, which Moses and his brother Aaron belonged to. When the Promised Land was divided amongst the tribes, Joseph’s tribe got two parcels of land (one for each of his two children, Ephraim & Manasseh), since Joseph had preserved their family centuries earlier in Egypt. This would mean that the land would be divided 13 ways. Except for the fact that God had commanded that the tribe of Levites (sons of Levi, who was the ancestor of Moses and his brother Aaron, the first High Priest) be given no discrete parcel of land. Rather, as the tribe from which the priesthood would come, the Levites would be given the Temple precincts in Jerusalem, as well as 48 cities throughout the whole of the Promised Land.
Additionally, these Levites would earn their keep in their service at the Temple, and would receive a portion of the tithe offerings from the members of the other 11 tribes (or 12, if you count Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as two). Now part of their work at the temple was to keep the genealogical rolls of all the tribes, including their own. This was important work, as they were basical
ly fulfilling the function of the Social Security Administration, the IRS and the Draft Board in today’s world. This was a theocracy, remember, and so the religious authorities were also the legislative authority to a great degree, even though there was a King, who was the executive power.
The Levites also made sure that, as per the instructions of their God, nobody but a Levite could serve as a priest, and especially the High Priest. And nobody but the High Priest could offer the daily and yearly sacrifices demanded by their God. And, as mentioned earlier, these sacrifices could only occur in the Temple, at Jerusalem. And so, without the Levites, the priesthood couldn’t function. And unless you could prove, genealogically, that you were a Levite, you couldn’t serve in the Temple. Pretty simple stuff, right?
So, it’s pretty easy to see that when the Temple and all the census and genealogical rolls were burned when Jerusalem was captured and razed to the ground in 70 AD, an essential link in the unbroken genealogical chain that existed from the time of Moses was gone. And it’s been gone ever since. Big Problem. And we’ll deal with the fallout from this problem later, as this lack of priesthood is significant in other ways even to this day.
So let’s admit that this is a big problem, because this discontinuity is hard to accept in a religion supposedly made up of ‘The Chosen People’. Chosen for what? It’s bad enough that there haven’t been any prophets or miracles for around 2400 years. And now we have a huge gap of the same proportion for the priestly criteria, and no apparent means of fixing it. And no, having a Rabbi named Cohen doesn’t quite fix the problem, because the rabbi isn’t in Jerusalem, and even if he was, there’s no Temple where he can offer the sacrifice. And there’s no Sanhedrin (priestly legislature) to pick the individual Levite as the yearly High Priest. But let’s withhold judgment for a bit while we examine the last criteria and see if this helps or hurts Judaism’s claims to the title of the True Religion. And so, let us ask the last question.