Biblical ethics of political assassination

“If the Jews were ever a nation with a language and traditions of their own, the place where that nation lived, in ancient times, has yet to be discovered. Palestine was never in the possession of the Jews. They were never masters of even the country west of the Jordan, nor of the sea coast. Many Phoenicians and other Canaanitish cities were impregnable to Jewish strategy. The Jews occupied portions of the country only, and even these they had to share with the Canaanites. The sanctuaries of Palestine, such as Bethel, Beersheba, Gezer, Gibeon, Gigal, Hebron, Jerusalem, Shechem, etc., were not Jewish holy places, but ancient sanctuaries of the Canaanites “adopted” as such by the Jews, who, in most cases, “adopted” also the “hero” of the place. Having “adopted” what they did not understand, the Jews became muddled, not only with regard to “heroes,” but also in connection with customs, histories, beliefs, and sites”. “The Great Jewish Masque”

Their holy days are also not their own, so much of the Jewish religion was adopted and adapted from neighboring nations.

****Jew Idolatry and Worship of Pagan Gods throughout the Torah:

~1300bc Exodus 32 of Moses and the Wandering Tribe The Two Golden Calves were the cult of Set and Horus from Egypt.

Numbers 25:1-3 The Wandering Tribe joins itself to Baalpeor. Baalpeor (Baal) was the name of the principle male God of the Phoenicians. Baal is also identified with Molech of the Ammonites and Chemosh of the Moabites. The principle feature of the god under the latter names is that he demanded child sacrifice. It began with miscegenation.

The entire period of Judges shows oscillation between the worship of Baal and the worship of God. We even know that some were willing to execute an individual for defiling a grove dedicated to Baal. God would raise up a judge to save them. They followed the judge and worshipped God; then the judge died and the people returned to Baal. Samuel helped purge Baal from Israel, but there were many references until Solomon when he fully reintroduced Baal in the guise of Moloch and Chemosh. In addition Baal now had a companion Ashtoreth the Phoenician moon goddess.

~1000bc I Kings 12:25 Jeroboam, after Solomon, (who knew the story of Moses), built two golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The calves stayed until the Exile in 586bc.

The divided Kingdom: In the North, worship of false gods grew greatly under Ahab influenced by Jezebel. Elijah won some victories, but Baal worship was too entrenched. It wasn't until the time of Jehu that Baal was once again removed from Israel.

In the South, some kings had reforms and others had a return to the worship of Baal. The final purge came under Josiah, but it was too late, the South had become worse than the heathen it had displaced.

Through Archeology, it has been shown that even Yahweh had a consort and many attributes of Yahweh were conditioned by these Canaanite gods. The Theology of God evolved throughout the Torah.

In the late 11th century, through biblical history only, Saul and David defeat the Edomites and Edom remained a vassal of Israel. When Israel divided into two kingdoms Edom became a dependency of the Kingdom of Judah.

The cubit, an ancient measurement, is the length of the forearm from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, and is generally figured at 18 inches. The Egyptian cubit was about 20 inches; we are not sure if the Hebrew cubit was as long. Some Bible apologists, trying to stretch Solomon's temple, stretch the cubit to nearly 26 inches. But using the generally accepted figure of 18 inches we find that the temple was 90 ft. long, 30 ft. wide, and 45 ft. high. And even if we measure it with the stretched out cubit of the Bible apologists, we see that this national monument of Israel, the pride of the Jews, was far from being any awe-inspiring edifice.

King Kheops of Egypt worked 100,000 men-an estimated 20,000 at a time-for 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. It is 750 ft. square and was originally 480 ft. high, and was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Justinian used 16,000 men and built the church of Santa Sophia in 5 years; a colossal structure whose dome sears 180 ft. above the floor and is 100 ft. in diameter. Yet two of the most able Jewish kings used 183,600 men, a great treasure, the help of Yahweh, and 11 years time to come up with an insignificant meeting-house.

2 Samuel, Chapter 12: 29 And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. 30 And he took the crown of Malcam from off his head; and the weight thereof was a talent of gold, and in it were precious stones; and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much. 31 And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln; and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

The 12th-century Rashi, commenting on Jeremiah 7:31 stated: Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved.

A rabbinical tradition attributed to the Yalkout of Rabbi Simeon, says that the idol was hollow and was divided into seven compartments, in one of which they put flour, in the second turtle-doves, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and in the seventh a child, which were all burned together by heating the statue inside.

1000 BC 1000 BC 1000 BC

The Slavs, perhaps the earliest Aryans, begin migrating West into Eastern Europe.