this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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The old testament is brutal, maybe ease off the apologetics trying to sell some 'the bible is nice' if you squint meme, we even get into genocidal rape territory and having sex with your slaves is just how they roll in texts trying to sound old and brutal.
There is nothing to indicate 'the bible' had any impact at all on life prior to 300BCE or so afaiu, it really kicks in around the Hasmonean period as novel sacred history which was high fashion. You'd be as well reading the Qur'an or Geoffrey of Monmouth for history.
The concern here is more you seem to be running with a OT like a history book: Torah, prophets, Ezra, Nehemiah etc isn't history and the oldest sources we have are Hasmonean era when Torah observance pops up in the archaeological record.
Early Christians often don't seem overly concerned about the flesh, outwith liturgy, and reports indicate slaves, kids and women were a big part of the movement....Gregory of Nyssa in the 4th century one of the first to really break down the insanity of the practice but his mariology wouldn't go viral in the west like the horrors of Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin etc.
In the western tradition it's not really properly deconstructed until Jefferey Bentham or so when Aquinas's homophobia was getting a kicking too.
You make good points, you definitely know some historical context that I do not. And, I agree with you that the Bible is not nice. I wholeheartedly believe that trying to paint it as such completely undermines its core message. Yet I admit that, as is human nature, my tendancy is to shy away from sections that I don't have an adequate underatanding to discuss. I apologize if it seemed like I was trying to whitewash anything, it wasn't my intent.
I know that biblical scholars use lots of extrabiblical sources to gain historical context, but I'm just your average burnt-out former gifted kid. History was one of my least favorite subjects growing up. What I know is mostly from impulsive internet searches and the few sermons that my ADHD brain found engaging enough to retain.