Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Even cursing pagan idols can lead to punishment for blasphemy under Noahide Law: Book Review, The Rainbow Covenant


 The featured image comes from the book The Rainbow Covenant by Michael Dallen. It shows a tourist poking fun at a pagan idol in a museum; notice two securing guards running toward him with clubs. This is how Dallen chose to depict the commandment that even blaspheming a pagan idol can come with punishment if the blasphemer in any definitionally loose way associated the idol with the "One God", this can be as simple as attributing wisdom to the idol which is said to be an attribute of the Jewish god. 

Pagans adore and venerate their idols. Ignorant folk associate their false gods with the One God. They invest their Athenas with His wisdom, their earth mothers with His mercy or His infinite love, their father gods with His omnipotence; etc. So the fierce public curse or angry taunting insult by which the blasphemer brings contempt against a mere idol can easily reach beyond its target — that is, against Him, as pagans think they know Him. (Dallen, 2003, p. 235)

SOURCE: Dallen, Michael E. (2003). The Rainbow Covenant. Light Catcher Books & The Rainbow Covenant Foundation. 

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