what do christians (particularly bible fundamentalists) think about this passage?

i was flipping around the book of deuteronomy the other day... and i came upon this specific passage:

He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.--Deuteronomy 23:1

so... what's the purpose of this passage? why is it included? do you really follow this law?

and just to keep this thread going, i'll introduce a few more passages i find a bit ludicrous every so often

I dont think it really ment actual stones or member(body) cut off. I think it would mean sort of sin, or done something wrong to which you cannot enter the church. But I am probably wrong.

I think that this probably refers to eunuchs. The Jews did not allow people with tattoos and deformities to be buried in their cemeteries from what I understand, and several pagan nations at the time kept eunuchs. So I'm extrapolating that a eunuch in the employ of Pharaoh, say, couldn't become a Christian.

For a god that doesn't want you using your "stones' or "member" out of wedlock or even to masturbate, you'd think he'd be glad to have some eunuchs in the congregation.

I went and checked my belief, and found I was wrong about burial in a Jewish cemetery while tattooed.

clickonjudaism.org...

Is it true that you cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery if you have a tattoo?

Judaism teaches us that our bodies belong, as do all parts of nature, to God. They are on loan to us and we are responsible for caring for them. Any sort of mutilation of the body is, therefore, prohibited. Tattooing is prohibited, as is scarring, and some forms of elective cosmetic surgery.
There are criminal offenses that are so heinous as to bar someone from being buried in the Jewish cemetery. Despite the persistence of a myth to the contrary, a tattoo is not one of those offenses. There is no prohibition against burying someone with a tattoo in the Jewish cemetery

But Jewish law says mutilation is bad, they must have really hated eunuchs. I'll keep researching this as my kid allows.

You should check out the commentaries at a site like the Blue Letter Bible.

www.blueletterbible.org...

Poole suggests that the idea of the assembly of the Lord is the leadership, or the rulers of Israel. These people were barred not from the religious life of Israel, but from the political life of the nation. Trapp agrees, saying on shall not enter the assembly of the Lord: “Shall not go in and out before the people as a public officer.” Clarke adds, “If by entering into the congregation be meant the bearing a civil office among the people, such as magistrate, judge, &c., then the reason of the law is very plain.”

A lot of the laws in Ex. Lev. Num. Det. have more to do with the Jewish political system and laws than anything. I think you'd have to be a historian or study them quite a bit to understand them. Of course some like "Thou shalt not kill" are plain an simple, but others "Do not cut the hair on the side of your head" can be really perplexing. Ya gotta read the commentaries and compare notes to figure out what some of this means.

I'm wondering about one little thing, thought I'd throw it out there just for people to mull over on this topic...

The Hebrews spent time in Egypt. Osiris is an Egyptian god. The only part of Osiris that Isis never found when he was dismembered by Seth was his "member and stones."

Could this be some kind of echo of anti-Osirisism? Just musing, carry on, folks.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
I'm wondering about one little thing, thought I'd throw it out there just for people to mull over on this topic...

The Hebrews spent time in Egypt. Osiris is an Egyptian god. The only part of Osiris that Isis never found when he was dismembered by Seth was his "member and stones."

Could this be some kind of echo of anti-Osirisism? Just musing, carry on, folks.

actually, it would make sense, especially since a lot of judaic tradition emerges only AFTER contact with egypt at a time of aten-ism... the first monotheistic religion. prior to being nomads (not slaves) wandering around/near/through egypt they were still henotheistic (their gods were like the superfriends with yahweh being superman).

so what pagan religion would need to be most dealt with in a monotheistic religion centering around a rewarding afterlife? the one with an afterlife deity at its center.

good thinking there, MM