"And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy
sons and of thy daughters.... So that the man that is tender among
you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother,
and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his
children which he shall leave; so that he will not give to any of
them the flesh of his children whom he shall eat.... The tender and
delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole
of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye
shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and
toward her daughter, ... for she shall eat them" (Deut. xxviii, 53-57).
"The hands of the pitiful women have sodden [boiled] their own
children" (Lam. iv, 10).
"And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered,
This woman said unto me, Give thy son that we may eat him to-day,
and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat
him. And I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son that we may
eat him; and she hath hid her son" (2 Kings vi, 28, 29).
You will say that these were punishments inflicted upon these people
for their sins. And you will have us believe that these punishments
were just. Strange justice! a merciful God compelling a starving
mother to kill and devour her own child!
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you" (John vi, 53).
The church perpetuates the idea, if not the practice, of
cannibalism. The Christian takes a piece of bread, and tries to make
himself and the world believe that he is eating the body of Christ;
he takes a sup of wine, and says, "This is Christ's blood." Your
sacramental feast points to the time when savage priests gathered
around the festal board and supped on human flesh and blood.
Primitive Christians, many of them, were guilty of cannibalism. In
their Agapæ they were accustomed to kill and eat an infant. Dr. Cave
in his "Primitive Christianity" (Part III., ch. i) says:
"Epiphanius reports that the Gnostics (a sect of primitive Christians)
at their meetings were wont to take an infant begotten in their
promiscuous mixtures, and, beating it in a mortar, to season it
with honey and pepper and some other spices and perfumes to make
it palatable, and then like swine or dogs to devour it, and then to
conclude all with prayer."
Meredith, in "The Prophet of Nazareth," says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account