When reading the history of the Jewish people, of their flight
from, slavery to death, of their exchange of tyrants, I must
confess that my sympathies are all aroused in their behalf. They
were cheated, deceived and abused. Their god was quick-tempered,
unreasonable, cruel, revengeful and dishonest. He was always
promising but never performed. He wasted time in ceremony and
childish detail, and in the exaggeration of what he had done. It is
impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly
detestable than that of the Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised
the Jews that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with
milk and honey. He had led them to believe that in a little while
their troubles would be over, and that they would soon be in the
land of Canaan, surrounded by their wives and little ones, forget
the stripes and tears of Egypt. After promising the poor wanderers
again and again that he would lead them in safety to the promised
land of Joy and plenty, this God, forgetting every promise, said to
the wretches in his power: – “Your carcasses shall fall in this
wilderness and your children shall wander until your carcasses be
wasted.” This curse was the conclusion of the whole matter. Into
this dust of death and night faded all the promises of God. Into
this rottenness of wandering despair fell all the dreams of liberty
and home. Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert, and
each one certified to the dishonesty of Jehovah. I cannot believe
these things. They are so cruel and heartless, that my blood is
chilled and my sense of justice shocked. A book that is equally
abhorrent to my head and heart, cannot be accepted as a revelation
from God.
When we think of the poor Jews, destroyed, murdered, bitten by
serpents, visited by plagues, decimated by famine, butchered by
each other, swallowed by the earth, frightened, cursed, starved,
deceived, robbed and outraged, how thankful we should be that we
are not the chosen people of God. No wonder that they longed for
the slavery of Egypt, and remembered with sorrow the unhappy day
when they exchanged masters. Compared with Jehovah, Pharaoh was a
benefactor, and the tyranny of Egypt was freedom to those who
suffered the liberty of God.
While reading the Pentateuch, I am filled with indignation,
pity and horror. Nothing can be sadder than the history of the
starved and frightened wretches who wandered over the desolate
crags and sands of wilderness and desert, the prey of famine,
sword, and plague. Ignorant and superstitious to the last degree,
governed by falsehood, plundered by hypocrisy, they were the sport
of priests, and the food of fear. God was their greatest enemy, and
death their only friend.
It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable,
hateful, and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a
redeeming feature. In the mythology of the world he has no
parallel. He, only, is never touched by agony and tears. He
delights only in blood and pain. Human affections are naught to
him. He cares neither for love nor music, beauty nor Joy. A false
friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite, and tyrant, sincere
in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in promise, honest
in curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous and
hideous: – such is the God of the Pentateuch.