The Difference Between Abraham and Mrs. Laney

The difference, Roderick, between Abraham and Mrs. Laney is the difference between day and night.

The difference between Abraham and Laney is that Abraham's action, whether true, myth or allegory, to remove Issac from the alter and replace him with the offering of a ram was THE decisive moment in the development of Judaism, and indirectly of Christianity, even taking into account the Christ mythology created by Paul and others.

First, and foremost, is that, unlike Laney, who killed her two sons, Abraham did NOT kill his son, Issac, but instead made a Covenant with Yahweh. Tit for tat, monotheistic worship and rewards as a Chosen people, in exchange for no more human sacrifice. The idea of the Covenant, of course, is central not only to Judaism but to much of Christianity as well. My favorite among comments on the idea, are those of Mark Twain in his insightful essay on anti-Semitism written after a trip in both Austria and Germany late in the nineteenth century.

It is important to understand that the Jews were on the periphery of several civilizations which stressed human sacrifice, especially Canaanite civilization which encompassed both Phoenicia and later Carthage. The Jews were constantly falling back into involvement with the corruption of this urban civilization, of which Delilah's hold on Samson was one illustration.

Archeologists have found the remains of perhaps 20,000 first-born males of the Carthaginian aristocracy, burnt to assuage the blood lust of Moloch-Baal, the most blood thirsty of all of the Gods of the Ancient World. It is thought the offerings were also meant to blunt the envy of the lower class masses in that commercial civilization, often called the first Capitalist one.

On a related point, Geneticists have long pointed out, as C.D. Darlington phrased it,"that people who don't eat together, don't sleep together." And, going back to earliest times, woman's control over what might be called"the power of the pot," has meant that the wife is simply NOT going to cook two separate meals, one for herself and another for her husband. The point is to develop a breeding group that has separated itself from others with cultural traits deemed harmful.

Diets, the more restrictive the better, therefore, become key factors in separating one group for another. Jewish dietary laws were meant for this purpose, to contrast with those of the Canaanites, not because of some sanitary purpose. If the fear was because the shellfish, pork, etc., might spoil, then the injunction would have been to eat it within an early timeframe. This is the real reason for such diets today among groups such as the Jews, Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists.

The important thing, ultimately, was to do everything to separate the Jews from the blood lust Moloch-Baal worshiping Canaanites.

To compare the significance of the important story of Abraham and Issac to that of the poor Mrs. Laney's murder of her two children, whatever her motivation, is, well, just plain silly!

PS:

The dietary laws have some interesting economic aspects as well as the in-group genetic ones.

Since the Mormons believe each Stake should have a year's supply of food stored up, they tend to buy in bulk with great savings. I ate better than most on my graduate fellowship because a Mormon friend allowed me to buy food at their prices.

The Jews, of course, have done well peddling Kosher foods, not only for themselves but to others. In high school I worked on a wholesale milk truck and used to take the old stamp with the rabbi's seal on it and stamp the heck out of cartons of cottage cheese as needed.

The Adventists, pound for pound, have done best with their health food thrust even into medicine where, ironically, for Fundamentalists, some of the most advanced work is done in their hospitals. Going back to Kellogg's, the companies they control have done very well, especially discovering uses and patenting of the soy bean long before the government became aware of its qualities. They have more medical people per capita than any group, and with tithing, for example, give several times more than other Christian sects.