Compiled by Ruth Hurmence Green

Independent reading of the bible is a traumatic experience for someone taught from childhood that the bible is a "book about love." Side by side with some morally defensible admonishments, one finds repeated instructions to hate and to kill. The Mosaic law, that commands the reader to kill the child who curses its father and mother and to stone the woman not a virgin when she marries, was upheld by Jesus, "every jot and tittle."

The "loving" gods of both the Old and New Testaments emerge as mean and vengeful, possessed, as Bertrand Russell said, of "an uneasy vanity."

The apologist for the bible, who insists that it is just an occasional passage that is a problem, overlooks the avalanche of mass murders commanded and perpetrated by the biblical Lord. Live burials, beatings, burnings, cannibalism, buying and selling of human beings, and the chopping off of heads, hands, feet, ears and plucking out of eyes all fill the pages of the "Good Book."

Here is a listing of bible images. When you read it you will know why Thomas Paine called the bible "a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize." You will know why kind and discerning individuals in our society object to the bible's use in public ceremonies. You will understand why educational organizations such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation are endeavoring to work for the absolute separation of state and church.

Anne Nicol Gaylor

Freedom From Religion Foundation

A

A delicate woman doing evil to her children and eating them

Deut. 28:56-57

A fair woman without discretion resembling a jewel of gold in a swine's snout

Proverbs 11:22

A human body wallowing in blood on the highway

II Sam. 20:12

Abandoning orphans

Psalms 109:7-20

An angel killing 185,000 warriors in one night

II Kings 19:35

Angels consorting with women of earth

Gen. 6:4

Asking your neighbors to help you stone a stubborn son to death

Deut. 21:18-21

B

Bears devouring 42 children

II Kings 2:23-24

Beating slaves to death in stages

Ex. 21:20-21

Beating your child black and blue

Proverbs 23:13-14

Proverbs 22:15

Proverbs 20:30

Boiling and eating your son

II Kings 6:29

Breaking and chopping up human bones and seasoning human flesh, flaying flesh off bones

Micah 3:2-3

Ezekiel 24:10

Daniel 6:24

Burning books, denouncing science, closing mouths, becoming fools

Acts 19:19 (books)

Titus 1:10-11 (mouths)

I Timothy 6:20 (science)

I Cor. 3:18 (fools)

Burning women accused of witchcraft and men accused of wizardry

Lev. 20:27

Ex. 22:18

Burning your only daughter alive to fulfill a promise

Judges 11:39

Burning your son as a sacrifice

II Kings 3:27

Burning 250 princes alive

Num. 16:35

Burying a criminal's wife and children alive

Num. 16:27, 33

Buying a wife with 200 male foreskins

I Sam. 18:25

Buying your brother to be your slave

Deut. 15:12

Buying your rape victim for your wife

Deut. 22:29

C

Castrating men for the Lord

Isaiah 56:4-5

Matt. 19:12

Chopping off heads, hands, feet, ears and plucking out eyes

Matt. 18:8-9

John 18:10

Num. 25:9

Matt. 14:10

II Sam. 4:7, 12

Circumcising a child with a sharp stone

Ex. 4:24-26

Circumcising thousands at one time

Joshua 5:2-8

Circumcising yourselves to the Lord and taking away the foreskins of your heart

Jeremiah 4:4

Cursing a tree and three cities

Matt. 21:19 (tree)

Matt. 11:22-23 (cities)

Cursing children and animals

Deut. 28:18

Cursing people with blindness, leprosy, hemorrhoids, consumption, madness, sickness, starvation, thirst, pestilence

Num. 12:10

II Kings 5:27

II Kings 15:5

II Kings 6:18

Acts 13:6-12

Lev. 26:16-39

Deut. 28:15-68

I Sam. 5:6

II Sam. 24:15

Cutting up a woman's body and distributing the pieces

Judges 19:29

D

Dashing little ones against the stones

Psalm 137:9

Isaiah 13:16

Delivering people up to the torturer

Matt. 18:34-35

Matt. 13:41-42

Designing an eternal torture chamber for most people of the world and describing their screams

Matt. 13:50

Matt. 7:14

Luke 13:24

Matt. 13:42

Devils tearing peoples' bodies to get out, jumping into pigs, talking and walking about, turning into snakes

Luke 8

Luke 9:38-42

Job 1:7

Mark 3:11

Mark 1:23-28

I Peter 5:8

Gen. 3:1

Discovering women's secret parts

Isaiah 3:16-17

Dividing the prey, to every man a damsel or two

Judges 5:30

Drinking poison, handling snakes, jabbering nonsense

Mark 16:17-18

Drinking the blood of the slain

Num. 23:24

Drinking your own urine and eating your own excrement. Urinating on public walls

Isaiah 36:12

I Kings 14:10

Drowning women, men, children, embryos and and animals by inches

Gen. 7:23

E

Eating human flesh and drinking human blood

John 6:53

Eating the flesh of your own arm, the flesh of your children and of a friend

Lev. 26:29

Isaiah 9:2

Jeremiah 19:9

Deut. 28:53

Eyes consuming away in their holes and tongues consuming away in their mouths

Zechariah 14:12

Exorcising devils from people's bodies

Mark 1:23-27

Mark 1:34

Mark 5:2-14

Mark 16:17

Matt. 8:28-32

Matt. 17:14-18

Matt. 9:32-33

Matt. 12:22

Luke 8:28

Luke 13:32

Luke 8:2

Luke 9:1

Luke 10:17

Luke 9:39, 42

F

Fastening human beings to trees

Mark 15:25

Joshua 8

Acts 5:30

Filling the altars and courtyards with blood of sacrificial animals

Lev. 16:11, 15

Filling the courts with the slain

Ezekiel 9:7

Filling the sword of the Lord with blood

Isaiah 34:2-6

Judges 7:18

Forbidding men to touch the bodies of women and the dead

I Cor. 7:1

I Cor. 7:29

Lev. 21:11

Forbidding women to learn, adorn themselves, speak in church, teach or visit friends

I Cor. 14:34-35

I Tim. 2:11-12

I Tim. 5:13

I Tim. 2:9

Forcing a woman to marry seven brothers

Luke 20:29-32

G

Giving your children away

Deut. 28:32

Gods impregnating human beings

Matt. 1:18

Luke 1:35

Genesis 6:2

H

Hacking a man to death

I Sam. 15:33

Hanging up heads against the sun. Putting children's heads in baskets. Nailing a head to the ground

Num. 25:4, 9

II Kings 10:7

Judges 4:21

Hating, abandoning and delivering your family up to authorities. Being rude to your mother and sisters

Matt. 10:35

Matt. 10:21

Matt. 19:29

Ezra 10

John 2:4

Matt. 12:48

Luke 14:26

Hating this life and this world to gain the next. Despising your body

John 12:25

Matt. 6:33

Romans 8:18

Mark 8:35

Romans 8:10

Having repeated sexual intercourse in public view with your neighbor's wives and your fathers' wives

II Sam. 12:11

II Sam. 16:22

Having sexual relations with your wife and her mother

Lev. 20:14

Healing with spit and magic and oil and laying on of hands, faith, a brass snake, aprons, handkerchiefs, prayer, by dipping into a pool, a garment hem, a lump of figs, and shadow.

James 5:13-15

Acts 19:11-12

Mark 16:18

Mark 5:25-30

Mark 5:34

Mark 7:33

II Kings 20:7

Num. 21:8

John 5:4

Acts 5:15

Hiding in vineyards to capture girls as they dance

Judges 21:20-23

Hiring a hitman to kill your brother

I Kings 2:25

Human entrails gushing out

Acts 1:18-19

Judges 3:22

I

Ignorance being elevated above wisdom. People being told to become as children

I Cor. 1:27

I Cor. 1:19

I Cor. 4:10

Matt. 18:3

Incest: raping your sister; impregnating your daughers; marrying your sister; impregnating your daughter-in-law

II Sam. 13:1-22

Gen. 19:36

Gen. 20:12

Gen. 38:13-27

Inflicting childbirth pain as punishment

Gen. 3:16

K

Kidnapping virgins for sex partners

Judges 21:7-14

Killing a child to punish the father

II Sam. 12:14

Killing all your grandchildren and nephews

II Kings 11:1

II Kings 10:13-14

Killing all your servants

II Kings 14:5-7

Killing a man's children and replacing them with another set

Book of Job

Killing everyone breathing

Num. 21:35

Joshua 8:26

Deut. 20:16

Num. 21:3

Joshua 9:11-21

Joshua 10:28-40

Killing man, woman, infant, suckling

I Sam. 15:3

Deut. 3:6

Killing your brothers

Gen. 4:8

II Chron. 21:4

Ex. 32:37

Judges 9:5

Killing your enemies with swords, hailstones, slingshots, arrows, and by crushing, fiery serpents and hornet stings, flaying off their skin and whipping them to death with an animal bone and an ax goad

Judges 3:31

Judges 16:27, 30

Judges 15:14

I Kings 20:28-30

Ex. 9:25

Deut. 13:15

Num. 21:6

Deut. 32:23-25

Deut: 7:20

Killing 50,000 innocent persons because a few looked into a box

I Sam. 6:19

L

Letting your neighbors help you stone and burn your children alive

Deut. 13:6-10

Deut. 22:20-21

Deut. 21:18-21

Lions breaking bones of husbands, wives and children

Daniel 6:24

M

Making innocent pay for misdeeds of the guilty

Romans 5:12

Gen. 3

Josh. 27:24-26

II Sam. 12:11-14

I Sam. 6:19

Ex. 20:5

II Sam. 24:15

Making people disobey so you can punish them

Ex. 12:28-29

John 12:39-40

Romans 9:16-22

II Peter 2:9

Ezekiel 14:9

Making the sun stand still

Joshua 10:13

Making wives barren, ravishing them and giving them to someone else, all to punish their husbands

Deut. 28:30

Isaiah 13:16

II Sam. 12:11

Jeremiah 8:10

Zechariah 14:2

Jeremiah 6:12

Gen. 20:18

I Sam. 25:44

II Sam. 16:21

II Sam. 12:11

II Sam. 6:23

Making your child "pass through the fire"

II Kings 21:6

II Kings 16:3

II Kings 17:17

Mountains melting with blood; rivers and moon turning to blood; the sword of the Lord filled with blood; shedding of blood for redemption; pour out blood by the force of the sword

Ex. 7:20

Matt. 26:28

Rev. 6:12

Isaiah 34:6

Jeremiah 18:21

Isaiah 34:3

Mutliating the dead

II Sam. 4:7, 12

O

Obtaining slaves by buying the heathen, taking captives, buying a brother

Lev. 25:45

Lev. 25:48

II Chron. 28:8

Deut. 15:12

Offering your virgin daughters to perverts

Gen. 19:4-8

One thousand women belonging to one man

I Kings 11:3

P

Pimping for your wife

Gen. 12:11-19

Gen. 20:2-18

Gen. 26:6-12

Plotting the death of your paramour's husband

II Sam. 11:14-15

Punishing a whole people for one person's sin

I Kings 20:42

II Sam. 24

I Kings 17:1

Gen. 3:14-19

Purifying virgins with 12 months of perfume and oil

Esther 2:12

Putting a knife to your child's throat

Gen. 22:10

Putting babies to the sword

Matt. 2:16

Putting brothers, companions and neighbors to the sword

Ex. 32:27

Hosea 13:8

Putting the sword to all the firstborn of an entire country

Ex. 12:29

Putting your feet on captives' necks

II Sam. 22:35-41

Joshua 10:24

R

Refusing to heal a child because of its race

Matt. 15:26

Refusing to share your children as food for friends

Deut. 28:55

II Kings 6:29

Revilling and abusing the sick, handicapped and deformed

II Sam. 5:8

Num. 5:2-4

Lev. 21:1-23

Ripping up pregnant women

II Kings 15:16

S

Sacrificing human beings to gods

Matt. 27:35

Judges 11:39

II Sam. 21:1-9

II Kings 16:3

II Kings 17:17

II Kings 21:6

Ex. 22:29

Seducing your own father and kinsman

Gen. 19:30-38

Ruth 3:4-15

Selling your daughter into slavery

Ex. 21:7

Selling a whole family to pay a debt

Matt. 18:23-25

Selling yourself into slavery

Matt. 18:23-25

Sending your wife and child into the desert alone

Gen. 21:14

Separating oneself from those of another doctrine

Romans 16:17

1 Tim. 6:5

Seven women taking hold of one man

Isaiah 4:1

Sexually abusing women to death

Judges 19:25

Shedding blood for atonement for the soul

Lev. 17:11

Hebrews 9:22

John 1:7

Matt. 26:28

Slaying old and young, maids and little children and women, but sparing the men

Ezekiel 9:6

Slavishly obeying husbands, parents, masters, state, gods

Gen. 3:16

I Cor. 11:3

James 4:7

Romans 13:1

Ephesians 5:22

Ephesians 6:5

Ephesians 6:1

Colossians 3:18

Colossians 3:20

Colossians 3:22

Spreading excrement on human faces; spitting in your child's face; washing your feet in blood

Malachi 2:3

Num. 12:14

Psalms 58:10

Stoning and burning whole families

Joshua 7:24-26

Num. 16:35

Stoning women for being rape victims

Deut. 22:21

Stoning and burning women for not being virgins

Deut. 22:21

Lev. 21:9

Stoning your brothers, son, daughter, and wife for worshipping differently from yourself

Deut. 13:6-10

Stoning a man for picking up sticks

Num. 15:35-36

Stoning a youth for blasphemy

Lev. 24:23

Stripping women of their clothing and jewelry

Ezekiel 16:39

T

Taking women and children as spoils of war and dividing up the virgins and babies

Num. 31:18-40

Deut. 20:14

II Chron. 28:8

Tearing off women's breasts

Ezekiel 23:24

Ten virgins awaiting one bridegroom

Matt. 25:1-3

Throwing a woman from a window to be run over by horses and eaten by dogs

II Kings 9:32-37

Throwing babies into a river

Ex. 1:22

Thrusting people through and stabbing them in the belly with a concealed dagger

Num. 25:8

Isaiah 13:15

Judges 3:21

Zech. 13:3

Torturing animals by hanging them, tying them together and setting their tails on fire, drowning them, and afflicting them with plagues

II Sam. 8:4

Judges 15:4-5

Ex. 9:3,6

Ex. 14:28

Torturing victims with briers, thorns, harrows, saws, passing through fire, the brick kiln, plagues, eternal fire, frogs, lice, flies, thirst, hunger, boils, and sores

Matt. 13:49-50

Num. 21:5-9

Judges 8:16

II Sam. 12:31

I Chron. 20:3

Job

II Kings 8:1

II Sam. 18:14

Ex. 23:28, 30

Ex. 7-11

Num. 16:41-49

II Sam. 24:15

Joshua 10:10-11

Num. 11:33

"Trying out" virgins

Esther 2:12-14

Turning a used woman into the streets at will

Deut. 21:11-14

Deut. 24:1-3

Matt. 19:7-8

Gen. 21:14

U

Using a virgin to give an old man heat

I Kings 1:1-2

W

Warning women not to become mothers

Matt. 24:19

Luke 23:29

Wild beasts, fowl, dogs and swords devouring flesh

Ezekiel 33:27

Deut. 28:26

Lev. 26:22

Jeremiah 15:3

Wiping out whole cities with napalm or war

Joshua 6

Gen. 19

Num. 21:25

Deut. 2:34

Women kissing men's feet and drying them with their hair

Luke 7:45

John 12:3

Z

Zapping innocents--throughout.