Claim CH135:
The Bible describes medical and sanitary practices remarkable for the
time. It says you should bury your excrement (Deut. 23:13). It requires
people to wash themselves after touching a dead body (Numbers 19:11-22).
It notes that the eighth day after birth is the safest time to
perform circumcisions (Gen. 17:12; Lev. 12:2-3).
Source:
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here?
Brooklyn, NY, p. 204-206.
Response:
- Accuracy on one point does not show overall accuracy. Genesis
30:25-33, for example, describes a breeding program based on
sympathetic magic.
- Deuteronomy 23:9-14 is not about hygiene. The purpose of burying
excrement is so God will not be offended by seeing anything indecent
and turn away. The idea is religious; uncleanliness would make one
unfit for a religious war. There is also a danger that exposed
excrement could be found by the enemy and used magically against one
(Scott 1979).
Numbers 19:11-22 is not about hygiene. It refers to ritual
purification
conducted by sprinkling water, not washing with it. The purification is
to be done not immediately after touching the body, as good health
practice would demand, but on the third and seventh days. Whoever
fails to perform the ritual is unclean and must be ostracized from
Israel. Basically, it is a superstitious taboo. Similar taboos
against people who have touched dead bodies appear to be universal in
Polynesia (Frazer 1993, 206). Furthermore, unless they have died
from pestilence or have been decaying for a few days, dead bodies are
no less clean than live ones.
- The Bible does not include directives that really would indicate good
medical practices, such as burying feces downhill from the source for
drinking water, and washing ones hands in clean water in circumstances
that really would prevent spreading dangerous germs.
- Attributing a requirement of some special knowledge to account for
knowledge of good health practices assumes the ancient Hebrews were
idiots. People can often see the results that come from bad practices.
References:
- Frazer, Sir James, 1993. The Golden Bough. Ware, Hertfordshire:
Wordsworth.
- Scott, D. Russell, 1979. Deuteronomy. In: The Abingdon Bible
Commentary, Eiselen, C., E. Lewis and D. G. Downey, eds., New York:
Abingdon Press. Citing Frazer, Golden Bough vol. i, pp. 327f.
created 2003-7-11