"And the serpent that speaks with Eve, what language will we say he used? Of the human one? How then do these things differ from the fantasies of the Greeks? (Flavius Claudius Julianus)"

"The serpent of the third chapter of Genesis is not at all its own creation, exclusive to the biblical story. The concept of the principle of evil and pain, represented in the figure of a monstrous reptile, which lurks against the Divinity and against the well-being of all created works of the visible cosmos, but even more against the human race, is obvious and fundamental in the Babylonian religion. We recall in the aforementioned creation poem the struggle of Marduk against Tiamat and the other powers of darkness, in the form of dragons and similar wriggling monstrous reptiles; to linger in the multiform plastic and literary expressions that the dragon, the monstrous reptile, the principle of evil, in short, assumes in the ideal Babylonian world, seems superfluous to us. (Salvatore Minocchi)"

"Let Dan be a serpent in the road, | a horned viper on the path, | that bites the hocks of the horse | and the knight falls backwards."

"The serpent is a symbol of temptation, of human thought that is satisfied with itself and does not recognize any law outside of itself, which in short wants everything that talents. And as the personification of this seductive and rebellious thought he is cursed by God and with perpetual humiliation: "you will walk on your chest, and you will eat dust." (David Castelli)"

"Adam was simply a human being and that explains everything. He didn't want the apple for the apple's sake. He only wanted it because it was forbidden. The mistake was not to forbid him the snake, because then he would have eaten the snake. (Mark Twain)"

"Anyone with a minimum of familiarity with the goddess of the ancient oriental worlds cannot fail to recognize recurring characters in those various cultures in the Bible, even if more or less transfigured. For example, in the scene of Eve and the tree, nothing indicates that the tempting serpent was itself a deity who had been venerated in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis. (Joseph Campbell)"

"Moses replied: "Behold, they will not believe me, they will not listen to my voice, but they will say: The Lord has not appeared to you!". The Lord said to him: "What do you have in your hand?". He replied: "A staff". He resumed: "Throw him to the ground!". He threw it to the ground and the stick became a serpent, before which Moses began to flee. The Lord said to Moses: "Stretch out your hand and take him by the tail!". He stretched out his hand, took it, and it became a stick in his hand again. "This is so that they may believe that the Lord has appeared to you." (Book of Exodus)"

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: "When Pharaoh asks you: Perform a miracle to help you! you will say to Aaron: Take Aaron's staff and throw it before Pharaoh and it will become a serpent! ". Moses and Aaron then came to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them: Aaron threw the staff before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the enchanters, and the magicians of Egypt also did the same thing with their magic. They each threw down his staff and the staffs became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. (Book of Exodus)"

"A critical event in Isaac's life occurred when God's command came that he should be offered as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (Gen. xxii. 2). Isaac showed himself in this trial to be worthy of his father. Without murmuring he suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the altar. But Abraham was prevented by God from consummating the sacrifice, and a ram that happened to be near was offered instead."

"The account of Abraham our father binding his son, includes two great ideas or principles of our faith. First, it shows us the extent and limit of the fear of God. ... The second purpose is to show how the prophets believed in the truth of that which came to them from God by way of inspiration."

"Abraham decided to trust his god. He and Isaac set off on a three-day journey to the Mount of Moriah, which would later be the site of the Temple in Jerusalem. Isaac, who knew nothing of the divine command, even had to carry the wood for his own holocaust. It was not until the very last moment, when Abraham actually had the knife in his hand, that God relented and told him that it had only been a test."

"When God commanded the father to desist from sacrificing Isaac, Abraham said: "One man tempts another, because he knoweth not what is in the heart of his neighbor. But Thou surely didst know that I was ready to sacrifice my son!"God: "It was manifest to Me, and I foreknew it, that thou wouldst withhold not even thy soul from Me."Abraham: "And why, then, didst Thou afflict me thus?"God: "It was My wish that the world should become acquainted with thee, and should know that it is not without good reason that I have chosen thee from all the nations. Now it hath been witnessed unto men that thou fearest God.""

"The preferred Shofar of Redemption is the Divine call that awakens and inspires the people with holy motivations, through faith in God and the unique mission of the people of Israel. This elevated awakening corresponds to the ram's horn, a horn that recalls Abraham's supreme love of God and dedication in Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac."

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ."

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

"With regard to female slaves taken in war, the Mosaic law ruled. Deut. xxi. 10: "When thou goest to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife: then thou shalt bring her to thine home, &c... And it shall be if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will, but thou shall not sell her" &c."

"Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? Happy is that slave if his master on coming finds him doing so!"

"Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death."

"It is interesting to compare the condition of the concubine under Muslim law and under the Mosaic. Under the law of Moses, a concubine would generally be either a Hebrew girl bought of her father, or a Gentile captive taken in war. So that whilst the Muhammadan law forbids concubinage with a free woman, the Mosaic law permitted and legislated for it. See Exodus xxi.: "If a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as men-servants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed; to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her." With regard to female slaves taken in war, the Mosaic law ruled. Deut. xxi. 10: "When thou goest to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife: then thou shalt bring her to thine home, &c... And it shall be if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will, but thou shall not sell her" &c."

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"

"When 19th-century British missionaries arrived in the Caribbean to convert enslaved Africans, they came armed with a heavily edited version of the Bible. Any passage that might incite rebellion was removed; gone, for instance, were references to the exodus of enslaved Israelites from Egypt. Today, just three copies of the so-called “Slave Bible” are known to exist."

"....historically people have appealed to the Bible precisely because of its presumed divine authority, which gives an aura of certitude to any position it can be shown to support -- in the phrase of Hannah Arendt, 'God-like certainty that stops all discussion.' And here, I would suggest, is the most basic connection between the Bible and violence, more basic than any command or teaching it contains....The Bible has contributed to violence in the world precisely because it has been taken to confer a degree of certitude that transcends human discussion and argumentation."[112]: 32–33"

"My re-vision would produce an alternative Bible that subverts the dominant vision of violence and scarcity with an ideal of plenitude and its corollary ethical imperative of generosity. It would be a Bible embracing multiplicity instead of monotheism."[113]: 176"

"Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

"Discussing the influence of Christian beliefs on the destruction of the Native peoples in the Americas, Stannard argues that while the New Testament's view of war is ambiguous, there is little ambiguity in the Old Testament. He points to sections in Deuteronomy in which the Israelite God, Yahweh, commanded that the Israelites utterly destroy idolaters whose land they sought to reserve for the worship of their deity (Deut 7:2, 16, and 20:16–17). ... According to Stannard, this view of war contributed to the ... destruction of the Native peoples in the Americas. It was this view that also led to the destruction of European Jewry. Accordingly, it is important to look at this particular segment of the Old Testament: it not only describes a situation where a group undertakes to totally destroy other groups, but it also had a major influence on shaping thought and belief systems that permitted, and even inspired, genocide."

"“This can be seen as an attempt to appease the planter class saying, ‘Look, we're coming here. We want to help uplift materially these Africans here but we’re not going to be teaching them anything that could incite rebellion,’” Anthony Schmidt, the Museum of the Bible’s associate curator of Bible and Religion, tells Martin. That meant the missionaries needed a radically pared down version of the Bible. “A typical Protestant edition of the Bible contains 66 books, a Roman Catholic version has 73 books and an Eastern Orthodox translation contains 78 books,” the museum says in a statement. “By comparison, the astoundingly reduced Slave Bible contains only parts of 14 books.”"

"A text discovered at Qumrân (4QpapLXXLev) that contains a fragment of the book of Leviticus in Greek (4:26–28) renders the tetragrammaton as Iaṓ: "If anyone transgresses even one of the commandments of Iaṓ and does not follow it ..." (4:27). ... This investigation leads to the conclusion that the ancient pronunciation of the name of the god of Israel was "Yahô", which amounts to saying that the tetragrammaton was originally a trigrammaton. The w in "Yhwh" was not a consonant, but a mater lectionis indicating the sound "o". The letter h at the end of the tetragrammaton Yhwh should be understood as indicating a lengthening of the preceding o."

"Genesis 6:11: "the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.""

"The form corresponding to the Greek "Iao" does not occur alone in Hebrew, but only as an element in such proper names as Jesaiah ("Yesha'yahu"), Zedekiah ("Ẓidḳiyahu"), and Jehonathan. According to Delitzsch ("Wo Lag das Paradies?" 1881), this form was the original one, and was expanded into ; but since names of divinities are slow in disappearing, it would be strange if the primitive form had not been retained once in the Bible. ... "Yahu" was in fact used in magic, as is clear from the "Sefer Yeẓirah," which shows many traces of Gnosticism; in the cosmology of this work the permutation of the letters furnishes the instruments of the Creation."

"When speaking of the new testament that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, & not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are some however still extant, collected by Fabricius which I will endeavor to get & send you."

"You will naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, etc. But it is said that the writer of that book was inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities?"

"You will next read the new testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions 1. of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at will, & ascended bodily into heaven: and 2. of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, & was Punished capitally for sedition by being gibbeted according to the Roman law which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, & the second by exile or death in furcâ."

"It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."

"Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional incitement; if that there be a future state, the hope of a happy existence in that increases the appetite to deserve it; if that Jesus was also a god, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love."

"The Christians wrested the Old Testament out of the hands of the Jews and used it as a weapon against them. The belief in their own selection by God was turned into an expression of the absolute and exclusive position of Christianity, and Jewish Messianism was twisted into the doctrine of Christ's return."

"In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision."

"The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals."

"If you suspect that my interest in the Bible is going to inspire me with sudden enthusiasm for Judaism and make me a convert of mountain‐moving fervor and that I shall suddenly grow long earlocks and learn Hebrew and go about denouncing the heathen — you little know the effect of the Bible on me. Properly read, it is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."

"The Christian Bible contains hundreds of thousands of things that are condemnable. We have only shown here a few absurdities; they will suffice to convince the wise of the untruth of it. Except a few things, all other are false. Truth adulterated with untruth can never remain pure and hence the works that contain it can never be acceptable. Besides in the acceptance of the Vedas the whole truth is accepted."

"It seems almost certain that the God of the Jews evolved gradually from the Canaanite El, who was in all likelihood the "God of Abraham" ... If El was the high God of Abraham—Elohim, the prototype of Yahveh—Asherah was his wife, and there are archaeological indications that she was perceived as such before she was in effect "divorced" in the context of emerging Judaism of the 7th century BCE."

"Although the biblical narratives depict Yahweh as the sole creator god, lord of the universe, and god of the Israelites especially, initially he seems to have been Canaanite in origin and subordinate to the supreme god El. Canaanite inscriptions mention a lesser god Yahweh and even the biblical Book of Deuteronomy stipulates that "the Most High, El, gave to the nations their inheritance" and that "Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob and his allotted heritage" (32:8–9). A passage like this reflects the early beliefs of the Canaanites and Israelites in polytheism or, more accurately, henotheism (the belief in many gods with a focus on a single supreme deity). The claim that Israel always only acknowledged one god is a later belief cast back on the early days of Israel's development in Canaan."

"It is highly likely that Abraham's God was El, the High God of Canaan. The deity introduces himself to Abraham as El Shaddai (El of the Mountain), which was one of El's traditional titles. Elsewhere he is called El Elyon (The Most High God) or El of Bethel. The name of the Canaanite High God is preserved in such Hebrew names as Isra-El or Ishma-El. They experienced him in ways that would not have been unfamiliar to the pagans of the Middle East. We shall see that centuries later Israelites found the mana or "holiness" of Yahweh a terrifying experience. On Mount Sinai, for example, he would appear to Moses in the midst of an awe-inspiring volcanic eruption, and the Israelites had to keep their distance. In comparison, Abraham's god El is a very mild deity. He appears to Abraham as a friend and sometimes even assumes human form. This type of divine apparition, known as an epiphany, was quite common in the pagan world of antiquity."

"Lazarus is carried off by the angels to "Abraham's bosom", a phrase that never occurs in early Jewish literature but probably simply means that Lazarus has been brought to paradise to recline at table beside the great patriarch of Israel. The rich man, on the other hand, is buried and ends up in Hades. It is not a happy place. ... Moreover, the respective fates of the two appear to be permanent. There is a vast chasm separating them. Neither will ever leave the place he is in."

"The valley is mentioned several times in the Old Testament, first in Joshua 15:8, where it is called "the valley of the son of Hinnom", which in Hebrew is gei ben Hinnom. We don't know who Hinnom was, but his son apparently owned the valley at one point. A later reference calls it instead Hinnom's own valley—that is, in gei-hinnom. Later, that term, gehinnom, came to be Gehenna. It is normally identified as the ravine southwest of Old Jerusalem."

"The place where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch was originally in the "valley of the son of Hinnom", to the south of Jerusalem (Josh. xv. 8, passim; II Kings xxiii. 10; Jer. ii. 23; vii. 31–32; xix. 6, 13–14). For this reason the valley was deemed to be accursed, and "Gehenna" therefore soon became a figurative equivalent for "hell"."

"We already find in Ezekiel a part of Sheol distinguished as deeper, called the "pit" or "the lowest parts of the earth", where the uncircumcised descend and those who have fallen by the sword, causing terror in the land of the living. In course of time this distinction came to be more definite: the upper part of Sheol, destined for the just, was called "Abraham's bosom", and the lower part became Gehenna, where sinners were tormented in flames."

"The letter is ordinarily drawn on Cabalistic pentacles whose object is to accomplish a desire. This letter is also the mark of the scapegoat in the mystical Cabala, and Saint-Martin observed that this letter, inserted in the incommunicable Tetragrammaton, produces the name of the Redeemer of men, , Yeheshuah."

"According to Ricius, world history may be divided into three stages based upon the names of God in the Bible. The first period was the natural period, where God reveals himself through the three-lettered divine name shaddai. Then there is the Torah period, where God reveals to Moses the divine name of four letters, the Tetragrammaton. In the final period of grace and redemption, God reveals the Tetragrammaton plus the letter shin, or the letter of the Logos (Christ), spelling yhswh, or the Kabbalistic name of Jesus. Thus, the name of Jesus, or the miraculous name, became the pronouncable name of the previously unpronouncable yhwh."

"By placing the four letters of the Tetragrammaton in a vertical column, a figure closely resembling the human body is produced, with Yod for the head, the first He for the arms and shoulders, Vau for the trunk of the body, and the final He for the hips and legs. If the Hebrew letters be exchanged for their English equivalents, the form is not materially changed or the analogy altered. It is also extremely significant that by inserting the letter , Shin, in the middle of the name Jehovah, the word Jehoshua, or Jesus, is formed thus: ."