World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 39 стр.

PA R T I I                                                                              his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah
                                                                                        did not go down to his house”, David said to Uriah, “Have you not come
                                    JUDAISM                                             from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to
     Although the religion, which we call Judaism today, has its roots in the an-       David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths; and my lord Joab
cient past, it is very different from the Biblical religion out of which it grew.       and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go
We must make a distinction between Israelite (or Hebrew) religion and Rab-              to my house, to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as
binic Judaism.                                                                          your soul lives, I will not do this thing”.
                                                                                              Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I
                                Israelite Religion                                      will let you depart”. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the
     By this is meant the religion we find described in the Hebrew Scriptures or        next. And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that
Hebrew Bible (which Christians call the Old Testament).                                 he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with
     These books were composed over several hundred years, from about 900               the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
B.C.* to about 100 B.C., the earliest being certain portions of the first five                In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of
books, the Pentateuch, and the latest being the book of Esther. Not all of them         Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest
had a directly religious origin, but they were subsequently given religious sig-        fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and
nificance by being collected together into a single authoritative compilation.          die”. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place
                                                                                        where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out
                             The spirit of Israelite religion                           and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people
           It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and         fell. Uriah the Hittite was slain also.
      was walking upon the roof of the king’s house that he saw from the roof a               Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; and he
      woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and               instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news
      inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the               about the fighting to the king, then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says
      daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messen-          to you, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did not you know that
      gers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her… Then she            they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerub-
      returned to her house. And the woman conceived; and she sent and told             besheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone upon him from the wall,
      David, “I am with child”.                                                         so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?” Then you
           So David sent word to Joab, “Sent me Uriah the Hittite”. And Joab            shall say, “Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also”.
      sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was                   So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had
      doing, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. Then David            sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advan-
      said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet”. And Uriah             tage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back
      went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the           to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the
      king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of    wall; some of the king’s servants are dead; and your servant Uriah the
                                                                                        Hittite is dead also”. David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to
  *
     Many Jewish scholars prefer to use “B.C.E.”, meaning “before the Christian Era”,   Joab, “Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one
and “C.E.” meaning “of the Christian Era”. However, the traditional usage is retained   and now another, strengthen your attack upon the city, and overthrow it”.
here, for two reasons. One is that use of the terms “B.C.” and “A.D.” need not neces-   And encourage him”.
sarily imply a faith commitment, just as use of the Christian system of dating events         When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she
from the putative birth-date of Christ does not necessarily imply a faith commitment.   made lamentation for her husband. And when the mourning was over,
Although literally B.C. means “before Christ” and A.D. means “in the year of the        David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and
Lord”, in modern times these are mere ciphers and are used by many people who           bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
have no commitment to Christianity, just as the dating system is. The second reason
is that there are great practical advantages in having a single terminology.
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