Reply #23: Enemies of the Hebrews were excluded

[Meshuga]

from "joining" and in the case of Ammonites and Moabites (per scripture) it was because they did not offer Israel bread and water on the way when Israel came out of Egypt and they caused Israel to sin. Israelites were forbidden to marry with their enemies. But then again, King David himself is descendant of the Moabites through Ruth and the supposed messiah is his descendant. So, where does this fit when you say "in a culture whose religion preached that non-Jews were worth little" in your OP? I don't think the religion preached that non-Jews were worth little.

In a similar way, the opponents of Christians (i.e., the Jews) were not very well regarded in Christian scripture. And there are those who don't accept Jesus therefore they don't have a place in this kingdom according to the NT.

The problem is not being critical of the OT and its writers. Criticizing it is easy to do. But clarifying the role of Torah in that society. The Torah (as the first five books) by itself is a body of work that was meant to give religious power to a class of priests. Phariseism took the powers away from the Pentateuch with the torah sheba'al peh (the oral law) and the intention was to grab religious power for themselves. Not surprisingly, their new work (the Oral Law) also criticized their opponents. For example, the priestly class (also Jews) who was given special religious status in the Pentateuch did not have a place in the so called world to come. But this did not mean that other (non-Jewish) nations did not have a place in this world to come. It is just more evidence that the people who wrote scripture were not very forgiving of those they found at opposition.

However, Jewish scripture was more of a vehicle for a segment of the Jewish people to gain religious power within the Jewish community than it was a statement of how Israelites viewed non-Jews. Non-Jews were irrelevant as far as the laws were concerned because the laws were meant to solve problems for the Jewish people. Non-Jews were sometimes the rulers of the Jews and sometimes the ones being ruled.

Regardless, I understand why Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible is important to Jews and Judaism since it tells the Jewish story. Whether the stories are positive or embarrassing it is part of Jewish heritage. And the Oral Law is an interpretation and re-interpretation of Written Law. But I don't understand the adherence of Christians to the Hebrew Bible since phariseism seems to be more related to Christianity than "Pentateuchism".

But if an ancient hebrew thought his life was worth more than a non-Jew, what does the New Testament say of the worth of a soul that does not adhere to Christianity and have a certain faith? After all, such a soul does not deserve a place in Heaven.