Philosophy 1600 - Honors Seminar

Answers for Exercise 2: Morality and the Bible

Readings:  Exodus, chapters 20-23; Leviticus, chapters 18-20, Deuteronomy, chapters 21-22; Matthew, chapter 5, verses 27-32; chapter 15, verses 19-20; chapter 19, verses 3-12; Mark, chapter 10, verses 2-12; Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 21-33; Romans, chapter 1, verses 18-32.

Passages and Answers Worthy of Full Credit

Passage:         Exodus 20:4

This passage says that it is wrong to make likenesses of anything.

 

Passage:         Exodus 20:5

This passage says that is morally acceptable for God to punish children for the sins of the fathers.

 

Passage:         Exodus 21:1-2. 

Also Exodus 20:10, Exodus 21:21, Leviticus 19:20, and Ephesians 6:5.

This passage says that it is not morally wrong to own a slave. 

Comment on Translations

Both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version of the Bible use the words ‘manservant’ and ‘maidservant’ at Exodus 20:10 .  The Oxford Bible, the New English Bible, and the Torah (1962 translation) all use the word ‘slave’.)

 

Passage:         Exodus 21:7

This passage says that it is not wrong for a man to sell his daughter into slavery.

 

Passage:         Exodus 21:15

This passage says that a person who strikes his father or his mother should be put to death. 

 

Passage:         Exodus 21:21

Comment:     Exodus 21:20 is not satisfactory.

This passage says that if one strikes one's slave, and the slave survives at least for a day or two before dying, then one should not be punished.

 

Passage:         Exodus 22:18

Also give full credit for Leviticus 20:27, which refers to “mediums” and ”wizards”, both male and female.)

This passage says that witches should be put to death.

 

Passage:         Exodus 22:19.  Also Leviticus 20:15-16

This passage says that people who have sex with animals should be put to death. 

 

Passage:         Exodus 22:20

This passage says that whoever sacrifices to a deity other than Yahweh should be put to death.

 

Passage:         Exodus 23:24

It is not morally wrong to destroy sacred things associated with other religions.           

 

Passage:         Leviticus 19:28

This passage says that tattoos are forbidden. 

 

Passage:         Leviticus 20:9 Also Exodus 21:17.

This passage says that a person who curses his father or his mother should be put to death. 

 

Passage:         Leviticus 20:10.  Also Deuteronomy 22:22

This passage says that people who commit adultery should be put to death. 

 

Passage:         Leviticus 20:11

This passage says that if a mother and her son engage in intercourse, both of them should be put to death.

 

Passage:         Leviticus 20:13-14

This passage says that male homosexual activity should be punished by death.

 

Passage:         Leviticus 20:14

This passage says that if a man has sexual intercourse with a mother and her daughter, then all three should be burnt to death.

 

Passage:         Leviticus 20:27

This passage says that a spiritualistic medium should be put to death.

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 21:10-11.  Also Deuteronomy 20:10-14

This passage says that when one has taken captives in a war, one is permitted to marry any of the women.

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 21:15

This passage says that polygamy is not morally wrong. 

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 21:18-21

This passage says that sons who are out of control should be stoned to death.  

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 22:5 

This passage says that women should not wear men's clothing, and men should not wear dresses.

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 22:20-21 

This passage says that women who marry and who are not virgins should be stoned to death.

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 22:23-27

Comment:   Deuteronomy 22:24 is crucial.
No credit for any passage that does not include Deuteronomy 22:24.

This passage says that a woman who is raped in a city and does not cry out should be put to death.

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 22:23-24.  Also Deuteronomy 22:25.

This passage says that a man who rapes a woman should be put to death, because he dishonored a woman who belonged to another.  (It also says that the woman should also be stoned to death if the rape occurs in a city, and she did not cry out.)

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 22:28-29

This passage says that if one rapes a virgin who is not engaged to another man, one should pay the father the bride-price, and marry the woman.

 

Passage:         Deuteronomy 25:11-12

This passage says that if a woman, in attempting to rescue her husband from assault by another man, grabs the assailant in an ‘inappropriate’  way – by touching the assailant’s sexual parts – her hand should be cut off, and no pity should be shown.   

 

Passage:         1 Samuel 15:1-3.  Also 1 Samuel 15:18.

Assuming that the Biblical writers hold that God never does anything morally wrong, this passage implies that genocide is morally permissible if God commands it.           

 

Passage:         Matthew 5:28

This passage says, in effect, that looking at a woman lustfully must be very wrong, since the passage says that looking at a woman lustfully is morally on a par with committing adultery.

 

Passage:         Matthew 5:29-30

This passage says that if you find that some part of our body is leading you into sin, you should destroy the relevant part of your body. 

 

Passage:         Matthew 5:32

This passage says that it is morally permissible for a man to divorce a woman only if she has committed adultery. 

 

Passage:         Matthew 5:32

This passage says that it not morally permissible for a man to marry a woman who has been divorced, since it says that anyone who marries a divorced woman thereby commits adultery. 

 

Passage:         Matthew 15:19-20

This passage says that fornication - which includes sexual intercourse before marriage - is something that defiles a person.

 

Passage:         Matthew 19:9

This passage says that any man who divorces a woman for any reason other than unchastity on her part, and marries another woman, thereby commits adultery. 

 

Passage:         Mark 10:11-12

This passage says that it is always wrong for a divorced man to remarry. (Notice that this passage contradicts Matthew 19:9, which allows remarriage if the man divorced his wife because she was unchaste.)

 

Passage:         Ephesians 5:22-4

This passage says that a woman should be subject to her husband in everything, thereby implying that the relation between a husband and his wife is not one of equality?

 

Passage:         Romans 1:18-23

This passage says that it not morally permissible for a person not to believe in God, since God's existence has been "visible, since the world began, to the eye of reason, in the things he has made."

 

Passage:         Romans 1:26-32

This passage says not only that that male and female homosexuality are not  morally acceptable alternative life style, but also that homosexuality is morally very bad indeed, since it says that homosexuals  "deserve to die."