Moses Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Criticism of Moses== [[File:Tissot The Women of Midian Led Captive by the Hebrews.jpg|thumb|''The Women of Midian Led Captive by the Hebrews,'' [[James Tissot]] {{circa|1900}}]] In the late eighteenth century, the deist [[Thomas Paine]] commented at length on Moses' Laws in ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' (1794, 1795, and 1807). Paine considered Moses to be a "detestable [[villain]]", and cited [[Numbers 31]] as an example of his "unexampled atrocities".<ref>Paine, Thomas (1796) ''[[The Age of Reason]], part II''.</ref> In the passage, after the Israelite army returned from [[Midian war|conquering Midian]], Moses orders the killing of the Midianites with the exception of the virgin girls who were to be kept for the Israelites. {{blockquote |Have ye saved all the women alive? behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of [[Balaam]], to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of [[Peor]], and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him; but all the women-children, that [[Virginity|have not known a man by lying with him]], keep alive for yourselves.|author=|title=|source=Numbers 31<ref>{{bibleverse ||Numbers|31:13β18|KJV}}</ref>}} Rabbi Joel Grossman argued that the story is a "powerful [[fable]] of [[lust]] and [[betrayal]]", and that Moses' execution of the women was a symbolic condemnation of those who seek to turn sex and desire to evil purposes.<ref name=":0">Grossman, Joel (2008), [http://libraryminyan.org/divreitorah/Jole%20Grossman%20-%20Matot.htm "Matot"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101001/http://libraryminyan.org/divreitorah/Jole%20Grossman%20-%20Matot.htm|date=2016-03-04}}. Temple Beth Am Library Minyan.</ref> He says that the Midianite women "used their sexual attractiveness to turn the Israelite men away from [Yahweh] God and toward the worship of Baal Peor [another Canaanite god]".<ref name=":0"/> Rabbi Grossman argues that the genocide of all the Midianite non-virgin women, including those that did not seduce Jewish men, was fair because some of them had sex for "improper reasons".<ref name=":0"/> Alan Levin, an educational specialist with the [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] movement, has similarly suggested that the story should be taken as a [[cautionary tale]], to "warn successive generations of Jews to watch their own idolatrous behavior".<ref>Levin, Alan J. [http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/mattot_uahc.shtml "Some messages are hard to deliver"]. My Jewish Learning.</ref> [[Moses Sofer|Chasam Sofer]] emphasizes that this war was not fought at Moses' behest, but was commanded by God as an act of revenge against the Midianite women,<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.ou.org/torah/tt/5763/matmas63/aliya.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030802230201/http://www.ou.org/torah/tt/5763/matmas63/aliya.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date = 2003-08-02 | title = Aliya-by-Aliya Sedra Summary | series = Torah Tidbits | publisher = OU }}.</ref> who, according to the Biblical account, had seduced the Israelites and led them to sin. Linguist [[Keith Allan (linguist)|Keith Allan]] remarked: "God's work or not, this is military behaviour that would be tabooed today and might lead to a [[war crime]]s trial."<ref>Allan, Keith (2019). ''The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 15. {{ISBN|9780198808190}}. Retrieved 14 March 2021.</ref> Moses has also been the subject of much feminist criticism. [[Womanist theology|Womanist Biblical]] scholar [[Nyasha Junior]] has argued that Moses can be the object of feminist inquiry.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sherwood|first=Yvonne|title=The Bible and Feminism: Remapping the Field|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0-19-103419-0|pages=228}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page