Did God Sanction Sacrifices to Moloch?
There is repeated comment and criticism re. the supposed giving of “statutes” (Law), to the Jews in the Old Testament, by Almighty God, which seems (according to the critics), to sanction their practice of sacrificing (burning) of their first born children, to the Pagan god Moloch!
That such an abomination from God would be possible, is in the opinion of right thinking and committed Christians, impossible!
That the practice was committed by the surrounding Tribes adjacent to Israel in the “Promised Land” is established fact, and is not to be confused with the events and history of Israel. It is however recorded that there were periods when Israel was behaving badly, and had been influenced by their neighbour’s, and did worship Pagan gods, and it is recorded by God that they did practice Moloch worship!
The important point is that the God of the Hebrews did NOT sanction the practice, but the wordings of many translations seem to say the opposite!
The very confusing texts in some of the “modern” translations were clearly difficult for the Translators, so below are the opinions of two eminent scholars; Dr. David Ginsburg, Hebrew and Greek Scholar, Academic for translations of all Hebrew Scriptures, Consultant to the British Museum and British Library, and trained Hebrew Rabbi which he did not practice when he converted to Christ Jesus!
Dr. E. W. Bullinger, London Vicar, Greek and Hebrew Scholar, author of many books, and held many positions of concern for evangelising in UK and Europe. Dr. Bullinger also is one of the main authors of the “Companion Bible”, which has large margin for observations and corrections of the 1611 text, and a very large notation on all the books of the Bible, and incorporating other translations notes.
One of the big advantages of this Companion Bible work, was/is the fact that these two eminent people worked together on the details, such as the subject in question above; and Dr. Bullinger trusted Dr. Ginsburg’s standing in both the Jewish and Christian worlds (see Links below).
The writer has recently been in discussion with a correspondent, re. the question posed above re.; did God give overt permission re. the sacrificing of children on fires to Moloch? The following is the gist of the points made!
To give more clarity to my choice and comment re. this particularly sensitive subject and the KJV usage, I quote Dr. E. W. Bullinger's comment: Ezek. 20:25, “I gave them also statutes etc.” . In Heb. idiom = “I suffered others to give them statutes”, i.e. “in their captivity”. Active verbs in Hebrew were used to express not only the doing of thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do. The verb “nathan”, to give, is therefore often rendered “to suffer” in this sense. See: Gen.31:7, Judg. 15:1, 1Sam. 24:7, 2Sam.21:10. Where not so actually rendered it means “permission”. (This is followed by various examples in Old and New Testaments).
Ezek. 20:26 is also treated similarly, re. Israel’s “pollution” of God’s gifts (v.16). “Pass through: or, pass over” to Jehovah (Exod.13:12); but Israel passed them (through the fire) to Moloch (Lev.18:21).
The points being here, that the Hebrew scripts were not in the main able to be properly handled by some translators; and the “nuances” were not given proper translations; which led to the translated meaning that “God gave new laws which allowed child sacrifice”; instead of “God abandoned the Jews to their sinning”; which He promised would lead to their scattering (Diaspora) eventually!
See: Dr. David Ginsburg: (Hebrew Scholar, Jewish academic, Jewish language Scholar for the British Library, and Museum)
And Dr. E. W. Bullinger (Hebrew and Greek Scholar, author Companion Bible)
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