10. EXCHANGE OF WIVES
BOOK – Genesis, chapter 21, verses 1-14
QUESTION – Jealousy and revenge
The patriarch Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and the slave Agar lived a complicated love triangle. Sarah was barren, and as she turned 70, she suggested to her husband that he take a new wife. Agar was chosen and gave birth to Ishmael, but Sara regretted it. She got pregnant 14 years later, had Isaac and, jealous, demanded the expulsion of her rival and her son. Supposedly, the fight continues until today: Ishmael would have given rise to the Arab people, and Isaac, to the Jewish people.
9. LOST HIS HEAD
BOOK – Matthew, chapter 14, verses 1-11
QUESTION – Adultery, revenge and murder
The story of John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, serves as a warning: be careful where you put your squint. John reproved the affair between Herod Antipas, king of Galilee, and his sister-in-law Herodias. On the monarch’s birthday, his stepdaughter Salomé presented him with a sensual dance. In return, Herod promised her whatever she wanted. She didn’t hesitate: she demanded João’s head on a platter.
8. PLACE YOUR BETS
BOOK – Job, chapter 1, 2 and 42
QUESTION – unnecessary suffering
Sometimes, in order to teach a lesson, God may propose very arduous tests of faith. That’s what happened to Job, a just and upright man. Satan made a bet with God that if Job lost his riches, he would turn against his Creator. God agreed. He authorized his adversary to launch several plagues against Job: he lost his children, had his goods stolen and became covered with ulcers. But he never blasphemed the heavens. Sensitized, God doubled back everything he owned.
7. HOLY WAR
BOOK – Second Book of Chronicles, chapter 14, verses 8-14
QUESTION – Genocide
Religiously motivated wars have always caused controversy. But not in the Bible. The bloodiest, of King Solomon’s great-grandson, Asa, against the Ethiopian monarch Zara, killed more than 1 million people! And with divine blessing: “It is in your name that we march against this crowd!” Asa cried out before attacking with only half his army.
6. RESERVE BANK
BOOK – Genesis chapter 38 verses 8-10
QUESTION – Sex and murder
In biblical times, the practice of levirate was common: when a man died without heirs, his brother married the widow and their children were considered descendants of the dead man. But not everyone approved of the idea. Onan rebelled and, instead of getting his sister-in-law Tamar pregnant, he practiced withdrawal, that is, “he spilled his semen on the ground”. God didn’t like it and took his life. That’s where the term ′′ onanism ′′ came from, synonymous with masturbation.
5. LOOK AT THIS STUPID HAND!
BOOK – Genesis, chapter 24, verses 1-9
QUESTION – Sex
Abraham asked a servant to find a wife for his son Isaac, as was the custom. The curious thing is that the deal was sealed according to tradition: the servant placed “his hand under the thigh” of Abraham – or, scholars say, held his testicles. This is because circumcision (removal of the skin over the penis) was a sign of divine alliance (“testicle” comes from the Latin testis, which also originated “witness”).
4. HAVE BREATH
BOOK – First Book of Kings, chapter 11, verses 1-3
QUESTION – Polygamy
Solomon went down in history as an intelligent and just man. But he had other attributes. According to the Bible, the son of David would have had 700 wives. And on the outside, he took another 300 concubines. According to historians, the harem was due, in part, to marriages with foreigners for diplomatic reasons. Among the wives, there were people from everywhere: Hittites, Moabites, Edomites…
3. MACHINE BROTHER
BOOK – Judges, chapter 9, verses 1-6
QUESTION – Fratricide
Brothers never got along very well in the Bible – see cases like Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael and Esau and Jacob. But the greatest fratricide in the scriptures is Abimelech. To assume the throne, the son of Gideon killed or had 69 of his 70 brothers killed. Only the youngest, Joatão, escaped – and that’s because he ran away. But Abimelech’s reign did not last. Three years later, he died after being hit in the head by a stone.
2. FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANITY
BOOK – Genesis chapter 19 verses 30-38
QUESTION – Incest
Disgusted with the sexual oddities that rolled in Sodom and Gomorrah, God destroyed both cities. Lot, Abraham’s nephew who lived in Sodom, managed to escape with his two daughters and hid in a cave. Certain that they were the last women on Earth, the young women took a shocking attitude: they filled their father’s face with wine and had sexual intercourse with him for two nights in a row. From incest, Moab and Ben-Ami were born.
1. TA Í, IN-LAW!
BOOK – First Book of Samuel, chapter 18, verses 17-27
QUESTION – Cruelty
Do you think your father-in-law is tough? It’s because he didn’t know the patriarch Saul. His youngest daughter, Michal, was in love with David. It’s just that Saul considered the future son-in-law a rival in the struggle for central power between Judah and the northern tribes. To prevent the marriage, the old man had an idea: ask for a wedding dowry that David would not be able to pay. He then demanded 100 foreskins (the skin that covers the end of the penis) from Philistine soldiers. The boy must have found it strange, but instead of 100, he brought 200. With no alternative, Saul had to surrender his daughter’s hand.
SOURCES Books The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Bibleby John Drane The Complete Who’s Who in the Bibleby Marshall Pickering, The Illustrated Guide to the Bibleby JR Porter, and The Holy Bible – Pastoral Edition