Why did God choose the Jews?

[marco]

Assuming Yahweh is a genuine God, why would we suppose he had a favourite tribe? The famous saying is: How odd of God to choose the Jews. And the reply:

But not as odd as those who choose a Jewish God and spurn the Jews.


But I think on balance it is much odder for God to choose some human group.

Why did he choose the Jews?

Does this mean Yahweh is not anyone else's God?

[marco]

We exist within a complex environment Marco. It would be oxymoron to have a simple divine procedure.

Interesting observation, my friend. But I disagree that there is anything tautological in "complex divine procedure," and here is why. A simple divine procedure would be the immediate dispatch of some bad guy or some disobedient lady. The format for arrangements in heaven, involving ifs and maybes, is what I call complex since it involves several layers of guesswork. If one speculatively used the word divine to mean complicated or difficult, then simple would be an antonym; but I employed no such speculation. The simplest of meals may be divine.

GOD is an entity, and like all entities, is drawn to relationship. What appears to be favoritism is simply response to the call for relationship.

God is a concept and like all human concepts is subject to the smudges of human fingers. When we start imputing to God reasons for actions and systems of procedure, we move towards our own imaginative picture of the Almighty. Not a bad thing, any more than Michelangelo's concept of a bearded God is, but not something that stands up to argument.

The answer to the OP question is relatively easy enough to come by

The answer from the perspective of one who understands the truth, is that a 'Jew' is someone who has a direct relationship with the creator-entity.

From the perspective of one who reads the Bible as an outsider, it is true that those who created Yahweh have a special relationship with him. But if we consider, for a moment, that God leads an existence independent of Jerusalem then one would want to know why he showed a preference for some bipeds. They functioned as stupidly as other bipeds and needed sharp hits on the head to follow simple instructions.

You say:

"It is the fundamentals of being 'born again' as it were - one has to go through the process of letting go of everything that one has been told through medium and actually relate with the creator-entity one to one. *Roller-Coaster* comes to mind. Not for the faint of heart..."


Here you are moving into the fields claimed by every religious group or individual - that their special insight is the elixir of eternal life, the key to the kingdom, the fount of truth. I think we find threads of truth in our shuffles through life, sometimes in unexpected places. If we personify the sources of these threads as God, I suppose we do no great harm. It provides a vehicle to transport us from birth to death.


So it would seem the Jews chose their God and were happily reciprocated. The same procedure works for all Christians, in their respective rooms; each believes the light they have is the light of God. And some defend that light with wonderful tenacity, almost providing a proof of God's existence. But not quite.


Go well, William.

[marco]

I am afraid I remain among the ranks of not understanding why circumcision makes a people chosen.

They were apparently chosen before God decided to throw rainbows around and pretend they were magic. Every time you wish on a rainbow, he may have said, you knock on my door. Lovely. And because many men cut off the genitalia of enemies as war trophies, as one does, God used the same idea, so that foreskins would show he was the conqueror.


The reality is that the script writers looked at things around them and customs in their own club and modelled God on what they saw or imagined he would want. Luckily for the survival of the race, God didn't want the entire organ set.


Female circumcision is alive and well today among many Muslims. When I visited Norway I learned that some advanced individuals sent their young daughters to Africa to be brutalised by women who cut them open, and sometimes killed them, which presumably would reflect some divine judgment on the child. The God who chose the Jews is a stone's throw away from such practices.... with the emphasis on stoning.

[Willum]

[Replying to post 2 by Goat]

So, I'd still like an answer.
Ah but there isn't one.
The decendants of Abraham have been more remiss in following the Canaanites' Yahweh than many other peoples. It's just a story that goes away when you turn on the lights.

[bluethread]

The God who chose the Jews is a stone's throw away from such practices.... with the emphasis on stoning.

Not really, circumcision predates the Islamic practice by a long shot and was a common practice in the ancient near east during the time of Avraham. There is no record that I know of regarding cutting women until Islam. Also, the Islamic practice is much more invasive than circumcision. If you are doing a play on words with the word stone, I don't know about Islam, but failure to be circumcised is not a stonig offence in HaTorah, it is an exclusionary offense.

[marco]

The God who chose the Jews is a stone's throw away from such practices.... with the emphasis on stoning.

Not really, circumcision predates the Islamic practice by a long shot and was a common practice in the ancient near east during the time of Avraham. There is no record that I know of regarding cutting women until Islam. Also, the Islamic practice is much more invasive than circumcision. If you are doing a play on words with the word stone, I don't know about Islam, but failure to be circumcised is not a stonig offence in HaTorah, it is an exclusionary offense.

Muhammad was operating in the 7th century; I was suggesting that practices were adopted by Muhammad in his Koranic treatise. I don't believe female circumcision is compulsory but it is widely practised and outlawed in many Western countries. It is of course barbaric.

[Willum]

[Replying to post 24 by bluethread]

Yes, circumcision was practiced by the Egyptians long before the Judaic religion was made-up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... ient_world

Did they have a covenant with a god who didn't exist yet?

[bluethread]

[Replying to post 24 by bluethread]

Yes, circumcision was practiced by the Egyptians long before the Judaic religion was made-up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... ient_world

Did they have a covenant with a god who didn't exist yet?

You would have to check Egyptian theology. Circumcision did not need to be a sign exclusively of the Covenant. However, it was adopted as an exclusionary sign. That is that one can not say the one who is circumcised is one of Adonai's people, but if one is one of Adonai's people he should be circumcised.

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

This was based on Abraham's willingness to murder his son and God's reward for his willingness to commit filicide. How God knew Abraham would be willing to do this as another question.

[bluethread]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

This was based on Abraham's willingness to murder his son and God's reward for his willingness to commit filicide. How God knew Abraham would be willing to do this as another question.

No, Avraham received the Promise long before that. However, it was due to that Promise that Avraham believed that Yitzchak would somehow survive.

[Willum]

[Replying to post 27 by bluethread]

So what is God's preoccupation with genital mutilation?
Is it obviously sexual.
Why would he take that particular oddity from the Egyptians?

And of course "raham," means Egypt so there is obviously another connection.