Compiled by Ruth Hurmence Green
Independent reading of the bible is a traumatic experience for someone taught from childhood that the bible is a “book about love.” Side by side with some morally defensible admonishments, one finds repeated instructions to hate and to kill. The Mosaic law, that commands the reader to kill the child who curses its father and mother and to stone the woman not a virgin when she marries, was upheld by Jesus, “every jot and tittle.”
The “loving” gods of both the Old and New Testaments emerge as mean and vengeful, possessed, as Bertrand Russell said, of “an uneasy vanity.”
The apologist for the bible, who insists that it is just an occasional passage that is a problem, overlooks the avalanche of mass murders commanded and perpetrated by the biblical Lord. Live burials, beatings, burnings, cannibalism, buying and selling of human beings, and the chopping off of heads, hands, feet, ears and plucking out of eyes all fill the pages of the “Good Book.”
Here is a listing of bible images. When you read it you will know why Thomas Paine called the bible “a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize.” You will know why kind and discerning individuals in our society object to the bible’s use in public ceremonies. You will understand why educational organizations such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation are endeavoring to work for the absolute separation of state and church.
Anne Nicol Gaylor
Freedom From Religion Foundation
A
A delicate woman doing evil to her children and eating them
Deut. 28:56-57
A fair woman without discretion resembling a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout
Proverbs 11:22
A human body wallowing in blood on the highway
II Sam. 20:12
Abandoning orphans
Psalms 109:7-20
An angel killing 185,000 warriors in one night
II Kings 19:35
Angels consorting with women of earth
Gen. 6:4
Asking your neighbors to help you stone a stubborn son to death
Deut. 21:18-21
B
Bears devouring 42 children
II Kings 2:23-24
Beating slaves to death in stages
Ex. 21:20-21
Beating your child black and blue
Proverbs 23:13-14
Proverbs 22:15
Proverbs 20:30
Boiling and eating your son
II Kings 6:29
Breaking and chopping up human bones and seasoning human flesh, flaying flesh off bones
Micah 3:2-3
Ezekiel 24:10
Daniel 6:24
Burning books, denouncing science, closing mouths, becoming fools
Acts 19:19 (books)
Titus 1:10-11 (mouths)
I Timothy 6:20 (science)
I Cor. 3:18 (fools)
Burning women accused of witchcraft and men accused of wizardry
Lev. 20:27
Ex. 22:18
Burning your only daughter alive to fulfill a promise
Judges 11:39
Burning your son as a sacrifice
II Kings 3:27
Burning 250 princes alive
Num. 16:35
Burying a criminal’s wife and children alive
Num. 16:27, 33
Buying a wife with 200 male foreskins
I Sam. 18:25
Buying your brother to be your slave
Deut. 15:12
Buying your rape victim for your wife
Deut. 22:29
C
Castrating men for the Lord
Isaiah 56:4-5
Matt. 19:12
Chopping off heads, hands, feet, ears and plucking out eyes
Matt. 18:8-9
John 18:10
Num. 25:9
Matt. 14:10
II Sam. 4:7, 12
Circumcising a child with a sharp stone
Ex. 4:24-26
Circumcising thousands at one time
Joshua 5:2-8
Circumcising yourselves to the Lord and taking away the foreskins of your heart
Jeremiah 4:4
Cursing a tree and three cities
Matt. 21:19 (tree)
Matt. 11:22-23 (cities)
Cursing children and animals
Deut. 28:18
Cursing people with blindness, leprosy, hemorrhoids, consumption, madness, sickness, starvation, thirst, pestilence
Num. 12:10
II Kings 5:27
II Kings 15:5
II Kings 6:18
Acts 13:6-12
Lev. 26:16-39
Deut. 28:15-68
I Sam. 5:6
II Sam. 24:15
Cutting up a woman’s body and distributing the pieces
Judges 19:29
D
Dashing little ones against the stones
Psalm 137:9
Isaiah 13:16
Delivering people up to the torturer
Matt. 18:34-35
Matt. 13:41-42
Designing an eternal torture chamber for most people of the world and describing their screams
Matt. 13:50
Matt. 7:14
Luke 13:24
Matt. 13:42
Devils tearing peoples’ bodies to get out, jumping into pigs, talking and walking about, turning into snakes
Luke 8
Luke 9:38-42
Job 1:7
Mark 3:11
Mark 1:23-28
I Peter 5:8
Gen. 3:1
Discovering women’s secret parts
Isaiah 3:16-17
Dividing the prey, to every man a damsel or two
Judges 5:30
Drinking poison, handling snakes, jabbering nonsense
Mark 16:17-18
Drinking the blood of the slain
Num. 23:24
Drinking your own urine and eating your own excrement. Urinating on public walls
Isaiah 36:12
I Kings 14:10
Drowning women, men, children, embryos and and animals by inches
Gen. 7:23
E
Eating human flesh and drinking human blood
John 6:53
Eating the flesh of your own arm, the flesh of your children and of a friend
Lev. 26:29
Isaiah 9:2
Jeremiah 19:9
Deut. 28:53
Eyes consuming away in their holes and tongues consuming away in their mouths
Zechariah 14:12
Exorcising devils from people’s bodies
Mark 1:23-27
Mark 1:34
Mark 5:2-14
Mark 16:17
Matt. 8:28-32
Matt. 17:14-18
Matt. 9:32-33
Matt. 12:22
Luke 8:28
Luke 13:32
Luke 8:2
Luke 9:1
Luke 10:17
Luke 9:39, 42
F
Fastening human beings to trees
Mark 15:25
Joshua 8
Acts 5:30
Filling the altars and courtyards with blood of sacrificial animals
Lev. 16:11, 15
Filling the courts with the slain
Ezekiel 9:7
Filling the sword of the Lord with blood
Isaiah 34:2-6
Judges 7:18
Forbidding men to touch the bodies of women and the dead
I Cor. 7:1
I Cor. 7:29
Lev. 21:11
Forbidding women to learn, adorn themselves, speak in church, teach or visit friends
I Cor. 14:34-35
I Tim. 2:11-12
I Tim. 5:13
I Tim. 2:9
Forcing a woman to marry seven brothers
Luke 20:29-32
G
Giving your children away
Deut. 28:32
Gods impregnating human beings
Matt. 1:18
Luke 1:35
Genesis 6:2
H
Hacking a man to death
I Sam. 15:33
Hanging up heads against the sun. Putting children’s heads in baskets. Nailing a head to the ground
Num. 25:4, 9
II Kings 10:7
Judges 4:21
Hating, abandoning and delivering your family up to authorities. Being rude to your mother and sisters
Matt. 10:35
Matt. 10:21
Matt. 19:29
Ezra 10
John 2:4
Matt. 12:48
Luke 14:26
Hating this life and this world to gain the next. Despising your body
John 12:25
Matt. 6:33
Romans 8:18
Mark 8:35
Romans 8:10
Having repeated sexual intercourse in public view with your neighbor’s wives and your fathers’ wives
II Sam. 12:11
II Sam. 16:22
Having sexual relations with your wife and her mother
Lev. 20:14
Healing with spit and magic and oil and laying on of hands, faith, a brass snake, aprons, handkerchiefs, prayer, by dipping into a pool, a garment hem, a lump of figs, and shadow.
James 5:13-15
Acts 19:11-12
Mark 16:18
Mark 5:25-30
Mark 5:34
Mark 7:33
II Kings 20:7
Num. 21:8
John 5:4
Acts 5:15
Hiding in vineyards to capture girls as they dance
Judges 21:20-23
Hiring a hitman to kill your brother
I Kings 2:25
Human entrails gushing out
Acts 1:18-19
Judges 3:22
I
Ignorance being elevated above wisdom. People being told to become as children
I Cor. 1:27
I Cor. 1:19
I Cor. 4:10
Matt. 18:3
Incest: raping your sister; impregnating your daughers; marrying your sister; impregnating your daughter-in-law
II Sam. 13:1-22
Gen. 19:36
Gen. 20:12
Gen. 38:13-27
Inflicting childbirth pain as punishment
Gen. 3:16
K
Kidnapping virgins for sex partners
Judges 21:7-14
Killing a child to punish the father
II Sam. 12:14
Killing all your grandchildren and nephews
II Kings 11:1
II Kings 10:13-14
Killing all your servants
II Kings 14:5-7
Killing a man’s children and replacing them with another set
Book of Job
Killing everyone breathing
Num. 21:35
Joshua 8:26
Deut. 20:16
Num. 21:3
Joshua 9:11-21
Joshua 10:28-40
Killing man, woman, infant, suckling
I Sam. 15:3
Deut. 3:6
Killing your brothers
Gen. 4:8
II Chron. 21:4
Ex. 32:37
Judges 9:5
Killing your enemies with swords, hailstones, slingshots, arrows, and by crushing, fiery serpents and hornet stings, flaying off their skin and whipping them to death with an animal bone and an ax goad
Judges 3:31
Judges 16:27, 30
Judges 15:14
I Kings 20:28-30
Ex. 9:25
Deut. 13:15
Num. 21:6
Deut. 32:23-25
Deut: 7:20
Killing 50,000 innocent persons because a few looked into a box
I Sam. 6:19
L
Letting your neighbors help you stone and burn your children alive
Deut. 13:6-10
Deut. 22:20-21
Deut. 21:18-21
Lions breaking bones of husbands, wives and children
Daniel 6:24
M
Making innocent pay for misdeeds of the guilty
Romans 5:12
Gen. 3
Josh. 27:24-26
II Sam. 12:11-14
I Sam. 6:19
Ex. 20:5
II Sam. 24:15
Making people disobey so you can punish them
Ex. 12:28-29
John 12:39-40
Romans 9:16-22
II Peter 2:9
Ezekiel 14:9
Making the sun stand still
Joshua 10:13
Making wives barren, ravishing them and giving them to someone else, all to punish their husbands
Deut. 28:30
Isaiah 13:16
II Sam. 12:11
Jeremiah 8:10
Zechariah 14:2
Jeremiah 6:12
Gen. 20:18
I Sam. 25:44
II Sam. 16:21
II Sam. 12:11
II Sam. 6:23
Making your child “pass through the fire”
II Kings 21:6
II Kings 16:3
II Kings 17:17
Mountains melting with blood; rivers and moon turning to blood; the sword of the Lord filled with blood; shedding of blood for redemption; pour out blood by the force of the sword
Ex. 7:20
Matt. 26:28
Rev. 6:12
Isaiah 34:6
Jeremiah 18:21
Isaiah 34:3
Mutliating the dead
II Sam. 4:7, 12
O
Obtaining slaves by buying the heathen, taking captives, buying a brother
Lev. 25:45
Lev. 25:48
II Chron. 28:8
Deut. 15:12
Offering your virgin daughters to perverts
Gen. 19:4-8
One thousand women belonging to one man
I Kings 11:3
P
Pimping for your wife
Gen. 12:11-19
Gen. 20:2-18
Gen. 26:6-12
Plotting the death of your paramour’s husband
II Sam. 11:14-15
Punishing a whole people for one person’s sin
I Kings 20:42
II Sam. 24
I Kings 17:1
Gen. 3:14-19
Purifying virgins with 12 months of perfume and oil
Esther 2:12
Putting a knife to your child’s throat
Gen. 22:10
Putting babies to the sword
Matt. 2:16
Putting brothers, companions and neighbors to the sword
Ex. 32:27
Hosea 13:8
Putting the sword to all the firstborn of an entire country
Ex. 12:29
Putting your feet on captives’ necks
II Sam. 22:35-41
Joshua 10:24
R
Refusing to heal a child because of its race
Matt. 15:26
Refusing to share your children as food for friends
Deut. 28:55
II Kings 6:29
Revilling and abusing the sick, handicapped and deformed
II Sam. 5:8
Num. 5:2-4
Lev. 21:1-23
Ripping up pregnant women
II Kings 15:16
S
Sacrificing human beings to gods
Matt. 27:35
Judges 11:39
II Sam. 21:1-9
II Kings 16:3
II Kings 17:17
II Kings 21:6
Ex. 22:29
Seducing your own father and kinsman
Gen. 19:30-38
Ruth 3:4-15
Selling your daughter into slavery
Ex. 21:7
Selling a whole family to pay a debt
Matt. 18:23-25
Selling yourself into slavery
Matt. 18:23-25
Sending your wife and child into the desert alone
Gen. 21:14
Separating oneself from those of another doctrine
Romans 16:17
1 Tim. 6:5
Seven women taking hold of one man
Isaiah 4:1
Sexually abusing women to death
Judges 19:25
Shedding blood for atonement for the soul
Lev. 17:11
Hebrews 9:22
John 1:7
Matt. 26:28
Slaying old and young, maids and little children and women, but sparing the men
Ezekiel 9:6
Slavishly obeying husbands, parents, masters, state, gods
Gen. 3:16
I Cor. 11:3
James 4:7
Romans 13:1
Ephesians 5:22
Ephesians 6:5
Ephesians 6:1
Colossians 3:18
Colossians 3:20
Colossians 3:22
Spreading excrement on human faces; spitting in your child’s face; washing your feet in blood
Malachi 2:3
Num. 12:14
Psalms 58:10
Stoning and burning whole families
Joshua 7:24-26
Num. 16:35
Stoning women for being rape victims
Deut. 22:21
Stoning and burning women for not being virgins
Deut. 22:21
Lev. 21:9
Stoning your brothers, son, daughter, and wife for worshipping differently from yourself
Deut. 13:6-10
Stoning a man for picking up sticks
Num. 15:35-36
Stoning a youth for blasphemy
Lev. 24:23
Stripping women of their clothing and jewelry
Ezekiel 16:39
T
Taking women and children as spoils of war and dividing up the virgins and babies
Num. 31:18-40
Deut. 20:14
II Chron. 28:8
Tearing off women’s breasts
Ezekiel 23:24
Ten virgins awaiting one bridegroom
Matt. 25:1-3
Throwing a woman from a window to be run over by horses and eaten by dogs
II Kings 9:32-37
Throwing babies into a river
Ex. 1:22
Thrusting people through and stabbing them in the belly with a concealed dagger
Num. 25:8
Isaiah 13:15
Judges 3:21
Zech. 13:3
Torturing animals by hanging them, tying them together and setting their tails on fire, drowning them, and afflicting them with plagues
II Sam. 8:4
Judges 15:4-5
Ex. 9:3,6
Ex. 14:28
Torturing victims with briers, thorns, harrows, saws, passing through fire, the brick kiln, plagues, eternal fire, frogs, lice, flies, thirst, hunger, boils, and sores
Matt. 13:49-50
Num. 21:5-9
Judges 8:16
II Sam. 12:31
I Chron. 20:3
Job
II Kings 8:1
II Sam. 18:14
Ex. 23:28, 30
Ex. 7-11
Num. 16:41-49
II Sam. 24:15
Joshua 10:10-11
Num. 11:33
“Trying out” virgins
Esther 2:12-14
Turning a used woman into the streets at will
Deut. 21:11-14
Deut. 24:1-3
Matt. 19:7-8
Gen. 21:14
U
Using a virgin to give an old man heat
I Kings 1:1-2
W
Warning women not to become mothers
Matt. 24:19
Luke 23:29
Wild beasts, fowl, dogs and swords devouring flesh
Ezekiel 33:27
Deut. 28:26
Lev. 26:22
Jeremiah 15:3
Wiping out whole cities with napalm or war
Joshua 6
Gen. 19
Num. 21:25
Deut. 2:34
Women kissing men’s feet and drying them with their hair
Luke 7:45
John 12:3
Z
Zapping innocents–throughout.
