No person of refinement and good morals, who has not been warped and
biased by education or religious training in favor of the Christian
Bible, can read that book through without being often shocked and put
to the blush by its obscene and vulgar language! Indeed, there are
more than two hundred texts calculated to raise a blush on the cheek of
modesty. Many of them are so obscene that we would not dare copy them
into this work. It would not only outrage the feelings of the reader,
but it would render the author liable to prosecution.
A law has been recently passed by Congress prohibiting the publication
and circulation of obscene literature; and many persons have already
been prosecuted under that law,--some of them for merely selecting and
publishing some of the obscene texts of the Bible. But, without being
influenced by these considerations, we will, in order to spare the
feelings of the reader, merely state the import of some of these texts.
1. Omitting the history of Adam, in which we find some not very refined
language, we will commence with Noah. We are told that Noah became so
drunk as to strip off all his clothing, and one of his sons, to avoid
seeing him in that situation, walked backward, and covered him: for
which act his father cursed him. Thus it appears that Noah, although
"a righteous man," was not a very modest or decent one. And such a man
being held up as a righteous example must have a demoralizing tendency
upon those who accept him in this light. (See Gen. ix. )
2. The story of Abraham and Sarah, and the account of Abraham's illicit
intimacy with his servant-maid Hagar, as related in Genesis (chap.
xvi.), and his and Sarah's gossip over the affair, is any thing but
modest.
3. The "holy man" Lot: The story of Lot's incest with his daughters, as
set forth in Genesis (chap. xix.), is both immodest and disgusting.
4. Rachel and Bilhah: The tea-table talk of Jacob and Rachel, about
the act of Jacob in seducing their maid-servant Bilhah, must be morally
repulsive to all only Bible believers.
5. The story of Leah and Zilpah is not much better. (See Gen. xxx.)
6. The bargain between Leah and Rachel about Reuben's mandrakes (Gen.
xxx.) is too immodest to relate or contemplate.
7. Jacob's trick of using peeled sticks and poplar-trees among his
cattle is something more than a descent from the sublime to the
ridiculous. And were it not deemed "divine revelation, heavenly
instruction," it would have been left out (Gen. xxx.).
8. The account of Rachel's stealing her father's images, and then
telling an indecent falsehood to hide it, is not very suitable for a
"Holy Book" (Gen. xxxi.).
9. The story of the defilement of Dinah we will not attempt to describe,
as we can not do it without offending decency. (See Gen. xxxiv.)
10. The story of Reuben and Bilhah, in the next chapter, may be
instructive to the pious, but is not so to persons of refined taste.
11. If you read the narratives of Judah, Onan, and Tamar, as related in
the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis, for humanity's sake keep it out
of the hands of your children, and use _your_ influence to prevent its
circulation among the heathen; for it must have the effect to sink them
still deeper in moral depravity and mental degradation.
12. The disgusting story of Absalom's familiarity with his father's
concubines, as related (2 Sam. xvi. 32), is so disgusting, that we will
barely allude to it. Having referred to twelve cases more, we shall
pursue the repulsive subject no further, except merely to indicate
the chapter and verse where a long list of such cases may be found
and examined by those who may need more evidence that the Bible is an
obscene book, not fit to be read in decent society.
13. Vulgar language is used in representing men as acting like dogs.
(See 2 Kings ix. 8.)
14. Job describes disgusting conduct toward a woman (Job xxxi. 9).
15. Solomon's Song of Songs contains much that is obscene language from
the first to the eighth chapter.
16. Isaiah makes revolting suggestions relative to stripping women. (See
Isa. xxxii. 2.)
17. Ezekiel is represented as eating disgusting food (dung) (Ezek. iv.
12).
18. Jehovah's command to Hosea to marry a harlot is of immoral tendency.
19. Isaiah frequently makes use of vulgar language. One case may be
found in chap. lxvi. 3.
20. Another case in Hosea, describing horrible treatment of women and
children. (See chap. xiii. 16.)
21. The conduct of Sechem towards certain women, as told in Gen. xxxiv.
4, is loathsome.
22. The conduct of parents toward their daughters, as described in Deut.
xxii. 15, and as enjoined by the Mosaic law, is disgusting and shocking
in the extreme.
23. And language no less disgusting, relative to the treatment of men,
as prescribed by law, is found in Deut. xxiii.
24. The account of Paul's conversion, as described in Acts ix., is
extremely vulgar.
The above-cited cases are mere samples of hundreds of similar ones to be
found in God's Holy Book in the use of indecent language, calculated to
make any person blush to read in private, much more if read in public.
Indeed, no person dare read them to a company of decent people. Look,
then, how the case stands. Look at the mortifying condition in which
every devout Bible believer in Christendom is placed. Here is a book
which, it is claimed, emanated from a pure and holy being; which
contains so many passages couched in such obscene and offensive
language, that any person who attempts to read the book to a company
must be constantly and critically on his guard, and is liable to be
kept in a state of fearful anxiety (as the writer knows by his own
experience), lest he stumble on some of these offensive texts. What an
uncomfortable situation to be placed in when reading a book which is
claimed to be perfect in every respect! We have seen a Bible class
in school stopped suddenly by the teacher, with orders to close their
Bibles, because he had observed, by looking ahead, that the chapter
contained language which would bring a blush to every cheek if read.
In the same school we saw a modest boy, of refined feelings, burst into
tears because he was required to read to the school a certain passage
in the account of the conversion of Paul. The teacher being a devout
Christian, whose piety overruled his decorum, attempted to enforce the
reading by a threat of punishment, but failed. We have also seen
the offer of one hundred dollars' reward, standing in a paper for
a considerable time to any person who would read a dozen texts to a
company of ladies, which the gentleman offering the reward might select,
but no person dared to disgrace himself by accepting the offer.
And what is the moral, or lesson, taught by these things? Why, that the
Bible is a very unsuitable book for a refined nation of people to read
habitually, or for a morally elevated and enlightened age of the world,
though it was probably adapted to the age and to the people for which it
was written. They had not attained to the present standard of morality
and refinement. We cherish no disposition to censure them. They were
probably honest, and lived up to their highest idea of right. If
anybody deserves censure in the case, it is the professedly enlightened
Christians of the present age for going back to a savage, unenlightened
age and nation for their religion and morals.
A PARTIAL LIST OF THE OBSCENE PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE.
The following figures point to texts, many of which are too vulgar to be
described in any kind of language:--
Gen. xvii. 2, very disgusting; xix. 8, 33, 35, a shocking case; xx. 18;
xxv. 23, disgusting; xxx. 3, very obscene; xxx. 15,16; xxxi. 12; xxxiv.
2, 7, 16, 22; xxxviii. 9, loathsome; xxxviii. 29; lix. 25; Exod. 1.16;
xix. 15; xx. 2; xxii. 10; xxxiv. 15, 16; Lev. xii. 15; xviii. 7, 19,
20, 22, 23, 24; xxi. 7, 20, extremely vulgar; Num. xiv. 33; xix. 6,
disgusting; xxv. 1; xxxi. 35; Deut. xxi. 11; xxii. 15, 21; xxii. 22, 23,
25; xxiii. 1, very disgusting; xxiii. 13, 17, 18; xxv. 5, 7, 10; xxxi.
16; Judg. xi. 37; xix. 2, 25; Ruth i. 11, 12; iii.; iv. 13; 2 Sam. vi.
20, 22; vii. 12; xi. 4, 11; xii. 11, 12, very disgusting; xiii. 11,
12, 14, 20, 22, 23; 1 Kings i. 4; iii. 16, 17, 26; xi. 3; xvi. 11, very
filthy; xxi. 21; 2 Kings xviii. 27, very filthy; 2 Chron. xxi. 13,
15; Esth. ii. 12, 14; Job iii. 10; xvi. 15; xxi. 24; xxxi. 10, very
disgusting, and 15; xxxii. 19; xi. 16; Ps. xxii. 10; xlviii. 6; cxxxix.
13; Prov. xxiii. 27; xxx. 16,19; Eccles. iv. 11; xi. 5; Sol. 1. 13; Iii.
1; vi. 8; vii. 2, 3; viii. 8; Isa. iii. 17; xxvi. 17, very nasty; xlvii.
2; xlix., very obscene; xlvi. 7; Jer. ii. 20; iii. 1, 2, 6, 9, very
filthy, and 13; iv. 31; xiiii. 27; xiv. 17; xvi. 3, 4; xxix. 8; xxx. 6;
xxxi. 8, 27; Lam. ii.13; vii.; Ezek. iv. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
25, 28, 33, 35; xviii. 6; xix. 2; xxii. 11; xxiii. 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10,
11, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 29, 43; xliv. 25; Hos. i. 2; ii. 2, 4, 5;
iv. 14, 18; vii. 4: ix. 1,14; Mic. 1, 2; iv. 10; Nah. iii. 4; Hab. ii.
16; 2 Esd. viii. 8; ix. 43; xvi. 38, 49; Jud. ix. 2; Wisd. of Sol. iii.
13; iv. 6; Ecclus. xx. 4; xxvi. 9; xxxviii. 25; xiii. 10; Bar. vi. 29; 2
Macc. vi. 4; Matt. 1. 25; xxiv. 19; xxv. 10; Luke i. 15, 24, 31, 36, 41,
44, 49; ii. 6, 7, 23; xi. 27; John xvi. 21; Acts ii. 30; Rom. i. 26,27;
iii.23; 1 Cor. vii. 1; 2 Cor. vi. 12; Heb. xi. 11; 2 Pet ii. 2; Rev.
xii. 2; xvii. 1; xviii. 4.