re: #376 LudwigVanQuixote

This is a case of an odious person (Dr. Laura) who should not be speaking for Judaism, prompting a legitimately angry but deeply ill-informed response.

Each of those points has a tremendous number of caveats to them. The Bible - particularly in Judaism is NOT a literal reading of King James. Honestly, much confusion would be removed if people saw King James as a distinct book from the Torah and the Nach - as distinct as the Koran or the Rig Veda.

This is not an insult to King James or people who see it as their Book. However, it can not be used to counter Jewish Law because, by selective translation and rejection of the Oral Law, it is completely divorced from actual Jewish Law.

For example, slavery is a mistranslation. It was actually a form of indenture with very strong protections on the indentured servant. There were many ways one could find oneself in that position. There were no prisons of the time in the modern sense, so the court could order someone into a period of servitude to pay off damages.

IN the case of a daughter, the idea was that she would be promised to the son of the wealthy man who took her in as a servant. When she came of age, she had the right to decide she did not want to marry the boy. During the period of her indenture, if she were molested in anyway, there were very stiff penalties to the master of the house - including a financial settlement for the girl and removing her from the house.

In an age where there was no welfare, this was an attempt to see to it that poor children were cared for. This was a form of adoption.

Whether or not you consider it a good system or the best system to care for children who would otherwise be left is another issue. It was however not at all the egregious system that selling her into slavery implies. The word is servant, not slave.

Thank you, Ludwig. Excellent clarifications—but beyond that, I do see these shticks as a way of pointing out that such people are at time obsessively literal with the KJV, and at other times ignore it completely.

Hence such sites as godhatesshrimp.com.