Top 10 worst Bible passages?

This article was written by by Michael Paulson September 2, 2009
This was posted on Boston.com

Now destined to make its way across the Internet: a new (and highly subjective) list of the top 10 worst Bible passages, as suggested by readers of Ship of Fools and announced by the webzine's editor, Simon Jenkins, at the recent Greenbelt festival. The list was reported first by the Telegraph and then made its way, via some cyberintermediaries, to Episcopal Cafe, where I spotted it. I chose verse translations from the New American Bible. Without further ado, the list:

1. "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She must be quiet." (1 Timothy 2:12)
2. "Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses." (1 Samuel 15:3)
3. "You shall not let a sorceress live." (Exodus 22:18)
4. "Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock." (Psalm 137:9)
5. "When the men would not listen to his host, the husband seized his concubine and thrust her outside to them. They had relations with her and abused her all night until the following dawn, when they let her go. Then at daybreak the woman came and collapsed at the entrance of the house in which her husband was a guest, where she lay until the morning. When her husband rose that day and opened the door of the house to start out again on his journey, there lay the woman, his concubine, at the entrance of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, 'Come, let us go'; but there was no answer. So the man placed her on an ass and started out again for home." (Judges 19:25-28)
6. "And the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity." (Romans 1:27)
7. "Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. 'If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,' he said, 'whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the Lord. I shall offer him up as a holocaust.' ... When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, 'Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract'." (Judges 11:30-1, 34-5)
8. "Then God said: 'Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you'."(Genesis 22:2)
9. "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:22)
10. "Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse." (1 Peter 2:18)

What are your thoughts? Is the effort offensive? Instructive? Are there passages you would add to, or subtract from, this list?


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[edit on 2-9-2009 by GAOTU789]

are those really from the bible,i dont remember the messages being so...frikkin absurd
the worst message is "when they hit you,turn the other chick" what a nwo submissive slave thing to teach!

Yes they are...

You can even check by looking HERE at this website and typing the passages in the space provided.

some of them I can't find and some others are changed
but again "how many versions are there?"


[edit on 2-9-2009 by TrainDispatcher]

its sad but true all, Judeo, christian and muslim scriptures have these little "subliminal" messages - thus misinterpretation of them causes majority of the world to be messed up

Whoever spoils his son will bind up his wounds, and will suffer heartache at every cry. An unbroken horse turns out stubborn, and an unchecked son turns out headstrong. Pamper a child, and he will terrorize you; play with him, and he will grieve you. Do not laugh with him, or you will have sorrow with him, and in the end you will gnash your teeth. Give him no freedom in his youth, and do not ignore his errors. Bow down his neck in his youth, and beat his sides while he is young, or else he will become stubborn and disobey you, and you will have sorrow of soul from him. Discipline your son and make his yoke heavy, so that you may not be offended by his shamelessness. (Sirach 30:7-13 NRS)

I believe this behavior will have Child Services on your doorstep before you can say 'God Almighty'!

Well, that quote from John should be expanded. In the rest, it talks about men "using" women & implies that both male & female homosexuality are punishment from god & also equates any sexuality with depravity. There's a whole section of Leviticus which deals with menstruating women being "unclean". So unclean in fact that anyone who touches something she touched will also be unclean, even after washing, for a specified length of time. But I'm very surprised they left out the passage that says that beating a slave to death is bad, but merely beating them so badly that they live for a couple of days is ok. Exodus 21:20-21 Actually, the whole of Exodus 21 has some classics.

[edit on 2/9/09 by Bunken Drum]

First of all those pasages are probably from the KJV with translation errors as I can see in Timothy 2:12 the real qoute goes.


" I suffer a women not to teach "

basically what he was saying is that in Church men only should preach because of eves sin and God chose men for the job of preisthood and not woman. To say that's bad because of a humans lack of understanding is absurd.

It should be IMO a bad passage to some and completely logical to others.




Samuel 15 :3

Was brutal sounding, no doubt, but we have to remember God is the author of life and loves the people he allowed to be slain because of the sins of Amalec.

The same God said love your enemies, so one instant in war cannot be described as bad as we know not how those children would have grown up nor where they are now enjoying heaven.

basically atheistic liberal teach abortion, yet it's all fine and dandy when unborn babies are killed, they get praised as human right heros.





Now as for the second poster saying.


" turn the other cheeck "

is insane.

No to you it is. What you want people constantly fighting back? I shoot someone, they get someone to shoot me back? Where is your logic in that? It's a never ending series of violence.


what turn the other cheeck means, means to give (peace) every possibitly and only use force as a last resort if no other options are needed.


And I see athiest after athiest call Christians hypocrites for fighting back, and yet when they don't they get called nwo controlled drones.


Jesus teaches perfection. turning the other cheeck, the 8 beautitudes, all those things are teachings of perfection for a perfect world.


we live life everyday stricking back over nonsense instead of truning the other cheeck and we create a ripple affect of violence.


and BTW the NWO is condemned in the same bible. Why would an NWO create a bible which is absurd and condemn themselves in it and their mark of the beast?

Infact it says to rise up against the nwo and coming governements who are controlled by satan.

so that's not even biblical.

I swear this age, movies like the Matrix and all these things the prophets fortold that this age would be the age of idolism...

are minds believe anything people put out in movies and TV...


Now it doesn't mean rise up against the NWO by violence, no but by love and grace. God needs many victims to pray and suffer for this world.





As for " take your son Isaac "


It was only a test. How do people judge God for that? If a regular human did it they would say, forget you, you can't judge me, but God we can judge?



" do not let a sorcerer live "


Well how do we know those sorcerers were not practising black magic and terrorizing communities with their false powers?

Those Wizards might of been the most evil ungodly things alive. How do we know?


and so good instruction to us, insanity to those without understanding, and so it always will be.

and ofcourse, antichrist will use the same tactics to not only try and prove Christ false but the bible.


this whole things has been predicted. lies abounding, false teachings, fallling away from the faith, proud blasphemers like I see all over youtube.

The explosion of technology, the spread of sin rapidly.... The overtaking of lust in the cutlture.


soon the micro chip and an nwo. which the bible also predicted and many saints.



and so let Christinas reading this know this age has to come. But afterwards a peace you cannot imagine.

and to nonbelievers, try pointing out something good in the bible, there is way more good, then presumed evil...


peace.

and btw the same bible produced the girl in my PIC st gemma who seen God almost daily and her guardian angel almost daily. Had the stigmata and was seen with literal wings by a priest.

the girl wouldn't touch a fly, and the girl practiced that turn the other cheeck teaching and it produced in her an incredibly degree of humility.

and so a few bibilical passages in war, cannot = to what God came for, which is communion, to enter a living soul with communion and the souls rises to perfection and to God.

and Iv'e read that girls story, she was an angel on Earth.




and btw one of my favorite passage it this.


" blessed are the peacemakers. "



peace.

LOL I should of spell checked.


Gods gonna get me at the end saying you should have

"turned the other (dictionary page)"


hahaha.

[edit on 3-9-2009 by JesusisTruth]

Originally posted by JesusisTruth

First of all those pasages are probably from the KJV with translation errors as I can see in Timothy 2:12 the real qoute goes.


" I suffer a women not to teach "

basically what he was saying is that in Church men only should preach because of eves sin and God chose men for the job of preisthood and not woman. To say that's bad because of a humans lack of understanding is absurd.

It should be IMO a bad passage to some and completely logical to others.

I would say it stays on the 'bad' list. It implies that God is a sexist pig! I would say it's a prime example of man's prejudice and is definitely not Divinely inspired!

[edit on 3-9-2009 by JaxonRoberts]

" it implies God is a sexist pig "

Not to me. We all have opinions. I see why God could do that considering eves sin and that he created man first and woman out of the man.

again, different views from different souls.

Now as for our belief. God holds Mary in extremely high esteem in our Church, the greatest saint out of all male saints or female save jesus, is Mary.

So where there is a lack of involvement in one area like preaching in church, there is more involvement in other areas.

doesn't mean woman play less roles.


peace.

This is a classic case of taking things out of context. Each of these verses was handpicked for it's controversial language and shock value. All of these verses have good explanations, if you care to read the verse in it's context. As far as the woman thing, notice that God doesn't say women can't be single parents, construction workers, bosses, policewomen, or whatever. He just reserves the office of the priesthood for men. Why? Who knows? Funny that no one ever quotes verses where God commands the husband to love and honor his wife as Christ does the Church, because she is his crowning glory. God shows marriage to be a relationship of servitude, to each other that is.

Here is one I'd like to see anyone argue is ok and teaches anything good or holy.
2 Kings 2:24
"And he went up from thence unto Beth–el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them."

So if you earn God's favor, he'll get bears to eat no less than 42 kids for you, if they happen to tease you for having bad hair?

Don't even try to defend that, there is no sane way to argue that children who mock or tease their elders deserve to be torn apart.

reply to post by maus80


Research the person the youth were making fun of, and who he was. Then you will understand the seriousness of who they were mocking.

Bullcrap.

An adult mans life is never worth more than those of over forty children, period. I don't see how that could be justified.