Judaism: 12 Painful Facts

Fact 1: The Torah (“Five Books of Moses”), the very pillar of Judaism, wasn’t written by Moses, but by numerous anonymous authors who contradicted one another with regards to theology and history. [1]

Fact 2: The bulk of the Book of Genesis wasn’t written in the second millennium BCE, as both Jewish and Christian traditions assert, but in the Exilic or Post-Exilic Period (6^th Century BCE ~ during or after the Jewish exile in Babylon). [2]

Fact 3: The Book of Genesis contains numerous plagiarized (adopted) myths, all of which find their origins in the more ancient empires of Mesopotamia – The Creation, The Garden of Eden, The Fall of Man, The 12 Patriarchs prior to the flood who all lived extremely long lives, The Flood, the shortening of lifespans after the flood, The Tower of Babel and even Abraham and Sarah’s descent into Egypt (See Descent of Ishtar and Tammuz). This relates to Fact 2, as the Jews were in exile in the very place (Babylon/Chaldea) from which many of these myths in Genesis find their, well, genesis. [3]

Fact 4: The Exodus probably didn’t happen, as there is no archaeological evidence for the 1.2 million people who were alleged to have left Egypt and camped at Mt. Sinai – no Egyptian records, nor any form of historical or archaeological evidence where there should be (archaeological argument from silence), given the circumstances and presence of records prior to and during this alleged event. Also, at the time in which the exodus was alleged to have taken place, Egypt’s entire population was around 3 million, so an exodus of 1.2 million of its free labour force would have crushed Egypt economically, but Egypt continued to reign well after this alleged event. [4]

Fact 5: The Story of Moses being placed in a basket of reeds covered with bitumen was a direct plagiarism (adoption) of the earlier Mesopotamian ruler’s escape from infanticide narrative, Sargon of Babylonia, who was also said to have been placed in a basket of reeds covered with bitumen, plucked from the water, and whom, Akkadian legend holds, went on to become the great law giver of the more ancient Akkadians. [5]

Fact 6: The popular Ten Commandments can be accounted for, almost in their entirely, in the earlier Egyptian ‘Negative Confessions’, located in the ancient Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’, and many other “Jewish” teachings, including the ‘lex talionis’ (Eye for an eye) were also present in the earlier Babylonian Code of Hammurabi. [6]

Fact 7: Much the so-called ‘Wisdom Literature’ in the Hebrew Bible (Particularly Proverbs), dishonestly represented as direct revelations of the wisdom of the tribal deity of the Israelites, contains sayings and proverbs that were directly taken (in some cases word for word) from earlier Egyptian and Mesopotamian literature. [7]

Fact 8: The birth of the Israel (Joshua’s alleged conquest) has been shown to have been an outright fiction, along with the exaggerated size of the so-called “Kingdom” of David, who may have been, along with Moses and Abraham, a fictional character. [8]

Fact 9: Both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds (collection of rabbinical discourses that interpret the Torah) are laced with harmful racism, xenophobia, and silly superstitious stories that are almost certainly false. [9]

Fact 10: The religion of Judaism was originally a polytheistic religion and although apologists have tried to argue that the pluralistic epithet ‘Elohim’ (gods) is merely a pluralis Majestatis (majestic we), there are places in the Hebrew Bible that contradict this notion, and this epithet is also applied to the gods of other nations.  Judaism only became monotheistic at a relatively late point in history, and it wasn’t the first monotheistic religion. Long before it developed into a monotheistic religion, the ancient Egyptian religion of ‘Atonism’ (worship of the god Aton) existed as a strict monotheistic religion. [10]

Fact 11: The practice of circumcision originated in ancient Egypt.  The ancient historian Herodotus informs us that the people of Israel and Palestine adopted this custom from the ancient Egyptians. Also, the practice of circumcision and particularly, the ultra-orthodox practice of ‘metzitzah b’peh,’ (the sucking off of the baby’s partially severed foreskin by an old rabbi) has been responsible for killing numerous infants in recent years, by infecting the infants with herpes. [11]

Fact 12: The Hebrew Bible promotes slavery, genocide, human sacrifice, infanticide, rape, misogyny, murder, the theft of land and property, among other crimes.  In the words of Robert G. Ingersoll: “If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.”  In other words, the Hebrew Bible is the ancient moral equivalent of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. [12]

End Notes:

1. Joseph Wheless. Is it God’s Word? Alfred A. Knopf. (1926). pp. 29-30; Judge Parish B. Ladd. Commentaries on Hebrew and Christian Mythology. The Truth Seeker Company, (1896). pp 53-54; Richard Elliot Friedman. Who Wrote the Bible? Harper-San Francisco. (1997). pp. 17-18.
2. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts. Touchstone (2002); Paul. J. Achtemeier. Harper-Collins Bible Dictionary Revised Edition. Harper Collins, (1989). p. 165; I. E. S. Edwards. C. J. Gadd. N. G. L. Hammond E. Sollberger. The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol. 2. Part 1. Cambridge University Press. (1973). p. 24; Kathryn A. Bard. An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Blackwell Publishing (2007). p. 60; Kathryn A. Bard. Encyclopaedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge (1999). p. 363; Messod and Roger Sabbah. The secrets of the Exodus: The Egyptian roots of the Hebrew People. Allworth Press (2004) p. 90; Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar. The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archeology and the History of Early Israel. Brill (2007). p. 46; Gary Greenberg. 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History. Sourcebooks Inc. (2000). p. 116.
3. B. Bury, M.A, F.B.A., S.A. Cook, Litt.D., F.E. Adcock, M.A. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 1: Egypt and Babylonia to 1580 B.C. Cambridge University Press. (1928). p. 129; Morris Jastrow. Jr. PhD, L.LD, & Albert T. Clay, PhD, L.LD. An Old Babylonian Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Yale Oriental Series, Vol. 4. New Haven, Yale University Press. (1920). p. 10; George Smith. The Chaldean Account of Genesis. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. (1876). p. 15, 64, 65, 69, 73, 303, …; The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Faculty of Oriental Studies. Oxford University. (2006); Glossary (E); http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/edition2/etcsllemma.php?sortbylemma=lemma&letter=e; Fred Skolnik & Michael Berenbaum. Encyclopedia Judaica 2nd Ed. Vol. 7. Thompson Gale. (2007). p. 388; Leonard W. King. A History of Sumer and Akkad. Chatto and Windus. (1923). p. 65; Fred Skolnik & Michael Berenbaum. Encyclopedia Judaica 2nd Ed. Vol. 3. Thompson Gale. (2007). p. 20; Don Nardo, Robert B. Kebric, Christine Nasso & Elizabeth Des Chenes. The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesopotamia. Greehaven Press. (2007). p. 293; Friedrich Delitzsch. Babel and Bible. The Open Court Publishing Company (1906). pp. 38, 41; Easton. M. G. Easton’s Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. (2000). p. 16; John Barton and John Muddiman. The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press. (2001). p. 26.
4. Professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University in Israel, Ze’ev Herzog says: “This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel. Perhaps even harder to swallow is the fact that the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom. And it will come as an unpleasant shock to many that the God of Israel, Jehovah, had a female consort and that the early Israelite religion adopted monotheism only in the waning period of the monarchy and not at Mount Sinai. Most of those who are engaged in scientific work in the interlocking spheres of the Bible, archaeology and the history of the Jewish people – and who once went into the field looking for proof to corroborate the Bible story – now agree that the historic events relating to the stages of the Jewish people’s emergence are radically different from what that story tells.” – http://archaeologynews.multiply.com/notes/item/15; Thierry Ragobert and Isy Morgenzstern. The Bible Unearthed: TV Documentary Series. (2005); R. Bunson. Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Revised Edition. Facts on File, Inc. 2002. p. 79.
5. Sir James George Frazer. Folk Lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law. Macmillan & Co Ltd. Vol. 2. (1918). p. 450; George Smith. Assyrian Discoveries; An Account of the Explorations and Discoveries at the Site of Nineveh During, 1873-1874. Scribner Armstrong & Co. (1875). pp. 224-225.
6. J. Achtemeier. Harper-Collins Bible Dictionary Revised Edition. Harper Collins, (1989). p. 97; E. A. Wallis Budge. The Book of the Dead: The Chapters of Coming Forth By Day. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Ltd. (1898). pp. 193-195.
7. Arthur Weigall. The Life and Times of Akhnaton Pharaoh of Egypt. (1923). pp. 135-136; J.W. Rogerson. Judith. M. Lieu. The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Oxford University Press, (2006). p. 95-96.
8. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts. Touchstone (2002); See Ref. 4.
9. “The best of Gentiles should be killed”, (TJ, Kid. 4:11, 66c), cited at; Jewish Virtual Library (Gentile), accessed on 19th Oct, 2015 & William Horbury, W.D. Davies,  & John Sturdy, ‘The Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. 3: The Early Roman Period’, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 256-257; Note: The racism, bigotry and xenophobia present in the Talmud seems to have stemmed not from the idea that Jewish stock is viewed as somehow superior, but that Jewish morality and culture is superior to every other nation on earth, Jewish Virtual Library.
10. A. H. Sayce. The “Higher Criticism” and the Verdict of the Monuments. E. & J.E Young and Co. (1894). p. 84; Bart D. Ehrman. From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity. The Teaching Company. (2004). Lecture 2: Religious World of Early Christianity; Anthony Bananno. Archeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean. The University of Malta Press (1986). p. 238; John R. Bartlet. Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation. Routledge (1997). p. 61; Jonathan M. Golden. Ancient Canaan and Israel: New Perspectives. ABC.CLIO. (2004). p. 195.
11. W Doane. Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions. The Commonwealth Company. (1882). p. 86; Margaret. R. Bunson. Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Revised Edition. Facts on File, Inc. (2002). p. 83; http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/jewish-baby-contracted-herpes-bris-article-1.2055911.
12. Slavery: Leviticus 25:44-46, Exodus 21:2-6, Exodus 21:7-11, etc. Genocide: Deuteronomy 2:34, 3:6, 7:2…Joshua 6:21, 10:40, 1 Samuel 15:2-3. Human Sacrifice: Genesis 22:1-18 (Although Abraham was stopped from committing ritual human sacrifice, some biblical scholars, along with Jewish traditions say that the original version had Abraham fulfil this gruesome task. Also, it promotes the idea as an act of loyalty.) Judges 11 (Jephthah performed a ritual human sacrifice, killing his daughter as a thanks to YHWH for helping him kill his enemies in a war). Infanticide:  1 Samuel 15:2-3, Hosea 9:11-16, Numbers 5:11-21 (Forced abortion – Irony for pro-lifers!), Numbers 31:17, Psalms 135:8 & 136:10, Psalms 137:9. Rape: Judges 21:10-24, Numbers 31:7-18, Deuteronomy 20:10-14, 22:28-29 (This verse holds that a rapist must marry the rape victim, thereby placing the rape victim in the horrible position of having to perpetually raped by her rapist for the rest of her life). Misogyny:  Genesis 3, Leviticus 4:22-28, Numbers 5:11-31, Deuteronomy 5:21, etc…. The Theft of Land and Property: Joshua, Deuteronomy 20:10-14, Judges 5:30, etc…

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