All language subtitles for The Bible Rules s01e01 The Curse

Tonight on The Bible Rules.

Child sacrifice was an essential part of
ancient civilization.

We look at the dark powers ruling the
lives of ancient people.

The gods would threaten all kinds of
amazing sadistic punishments.

From witches and wizards to crime and
punishment.

The entire village would gather to throw
stones until he or she was dead.

What would the ancient world really
like?

The answer may be hidden in thousands of
rules and commandments in the Bible.

Some are shocking.

Some mysterious.

All reveal lost details about the world
that was.

The past is now.

We all know the Ten Commandments, but
look deeper and there are nearly 2 ,000

laws, rules, or commands in the Bible.
All of them an unexpected portal to

understanding the ancient world.

From the clothes they wore, to the
curses they spoke, to the gods they

all the answers of how ancient people
lived and how they died can be found in

one place, the Bible.

What's family life like?

How are people interacting?

What's the social order?

Who is ruling?

How does the tribal entity work?

All those actually are reflected in the
rules which govern that culture and that

society.

It's 2000 B .C.

The place, the Valley of Hinnom, near
the city of Jerusalem.

Terrifying screams pierce the sky.

screams that still echo in this Bible
rule from Leviticus.

Do not give any of your children to be
sacrificed to Moloch.

Moloch, that's a name to send shivers up
the spine. But who or what exactly

would demand the sacrifice of a child?

Moloch was a god of the underworld.

This pagan god was worshipped in about
2000 BC by a cult active across the

Middle East.

Child sacrifice was an essential part of
ancient civilizations.

This idea that God needs blood to be
appeased.

This cult believed that sacrificing
their own children to mollusks was

a matter of life and death.

Burning a child as a burnt offering to a
god is inconceivable in our world.

but was conceivable in the ancient
world.

Maybe you could ward off death, satisfy
death's terrible appetite, by giving

him one of your precious children.

There is hard physical evidence that
this gruesome practice actually happened

the site of the ancient city of
Carthage, now located in the African

Tunisia.

Hundreds and hundreds of urns were found
full of the bones of young children

from newborns to two -year -olds, which
scholars are more and more convinced

were actually sacrificed to some
horribly demanding deity.

Sacrificing your child sounds like pure
evil. But like all Bible rules, it

reveals something about the ancient
world.

And not just that the ancient world had
shocking customs or minor gods.

It turns out this Bible rule reveals
something about life expectancy.

There were many, many ways to just
suddenly die.

During this time, people died quickly
from all kinds of incurable diseases.

Ancient cholera, typhoid, smallpox.

Life expectancy was short, and there was
a belief that you could ward off early

death, not just for yourself, but for
your family, if you're willing to

sacrifice someone of your own blood.

There's this assumption that we can only
please God if every so often we kill

somebody. Sacrificing humans to obtain
the favor of the gods was practiced

throughout the ancient world, not just
by the Malik cult.

A thousand years ago, in Mexico, for
instance, the Aztecs killed their own.

In fact, one of the earliest documented
uses of a favorite dessert was

associated with this practice.

The Aztecs sacrificed humans on the top
of the pyramids. The young man who was

going to be sacrificed, if he was losing
courage, you would give him a drink of

the chocolate beverage that had some
blood mixed in with it. And this would

blood from a previous sacrifice.

Around 2000 BC, when the Malak cult was
active, the Israelites regarded

sacrifice as sinful. But that hadn't
always been the case. In Exodus 22, God

actually commands, you shall give me
your firstborn sons.

Full stop.

In other words, you owe me your sons.
You owe me everything.

This passage is one of several places
where child sacrifice appears in the Old

Testament.

But there's an even more famous story,
arguably the most shocking account of

practice in the Bible.

And it may contain one final clue to how
the ancient world regarded this

terrifying behavior.

It begins with a father and son.

We know them as Abraham and Isaac.

Right as Isaac comes of age, Abraham
receives this.

Command from God to go sacrifice his
son.

Climb a mountain, build an altar,
sacrifice his son.

And God says, you take the fire upon
which you are going to immolate your

And you should also take a sword with
which you can actually kill your son.

can tell that Abraham is anguished over
this. And he's raised his knife to

plunge in his son's chest.

And then an angel appears and says,
don't do it.

There's a ram whose horns are caught in
a thicket.

And Abram realizes that God has provided
an animal sacrifice so he doesn't have

to do a human sacrifice.

What a gruesome thing for God to put
someone through. For God to tell a

to kill his child, if that can happen,
it seems that almost anything can

God may ask you to do the untenable.

God may ask you to do the horrible.

And because you love God, you've got to
do it.

Yet that's not the lesson of this story.

Abraham doesn't go through with it. God
stops him.

In that moment, are we witnessing a
turning point in how the ancient world

regarded this savage practice?

Here's a story to say, nope. In our new
understanding of the God of Abraham and

Isaac and Jacob, we don't do that
anymore.

We do not sacrifice children to God.

That's not the kind of God we serve.
They've advanced beyond that, and this

seems barbaric to go back to it.

Child sacrifice became less accepted,
but it was still sometimes practiced by

the Israelites, and some believed it
could be used to win battles.

There's a story where the Israelites are
beating the king of Moab, and then it

says he went and sacrificed his son,
then the Israelites lost.

End of the story.

gaining military advantage. That was the
way that you are going to marshal God

to your side.

So could this Bible rule be seen as a
counter -strike? An attempt to dismantle

and defuse the mystical weapon that was
child sacrifice?

If so, it was mostly effective, though
in a few places the practice persists

even to this day.

In certain parts of Africa, for
instance, child ritual murder cases are

occasionally reported.

Are they echoes of an ancient time when
a child's blood was viewed as

protection?

Malik is just one rule on this journey
to decode the ancient world.

But what do these rules tell us about
the reality of the world thousands of

years ago?

When it comes to the rules of parenting,
for instance.

Whoever curses father or mother shall be
put to death.

In other words, if you wish ill on
either of your parents, you die.

We're talking about a tribal society.

And the idea of turning against a parent
is just unthinkable.

We're in an ancient world where survival
depends on certain social arrangements.

The relationship between parents and
children is one of the essential ones to

preserve society, to keep the thing
going.

How different is that from today?

Recent studies show that children today
are swearing more and younger than they

did even 10 years ago, picking up the
practice around the ages of three and

four, often directing choice words at
their parents.

In the ancient world, did vile language
carry a death penalty?

It's probably not about a child who says
to his dad or mother, I hate you, dad.

I hate you, mom. This is much different.
So what is this law about?

To answer that question we first have to
figure out what is meant in this rule

by the word curse.

Is it maybe about much more than dirty
words?

It must be something much more serious.

It must be calling down either divine
punishment or the punishment of some

powerful force on the parents to do them
irreparable harm.

Cursed be the one who stole my money.
Cursed be the one who would ever do this

to me. Those words are so powerful that
if anybody were ever to do it...

The curse is understood to come upon
them. The law, in effect, is the

side of the commandment which says,
honor your father and your mother.

A curse, for instance, could include the
invocation of terrifying powers of

darkness.

Which means, I invoke you, O gods of the
night.

With you, I invoke night, the veiled
bride.

Another rule is about to decode the
ancient past in a way that might shed

light on how we live today.

The rules of the Bible form a portal to
the ancient world, shining a light on

everything from child sacrifice to
parenting 3 ,000 years ago.

Whoever curses father or mother shall be
put to death.

This Bible rule delivers harsh judgment
on kids who curse their parents.

Today, studies show more and more
children using obscenities at younger

but no one's getting executed.

So what's going on? The portal to the
ancient world is opening again,

a secret about the spoken word. Was its
power infinitely more dangerous 3 ,000

years ago?

Curses really were used at all levels of
society. Even international politics

used a significant element of curses. So
treaties between two nations would be

guaranteed by the gods, and the gods
would threaten all kinds of amazing

sadistic punishments if the treaty was
broken.

Clearly this Bible rule is about more
than bad words. It's cursing as in

down dark powers.

But did people really do this?

The answers are found in temples and
graves scattered throughout the Middle

and the Mediterranean.

Actual curses written on clay tablets
and left by the ancient world for us to

find. These tablets don't just tell us
about the curse. They tell us about

procedure. If you wanted to curse
someone effectively, you had to follow

specific guidelines.

So what you want to do with a curse is
you want to put it in some sacred place

so that it's as close to the gods as it
can get, and they'll listen to it and

hear it, read it, understand what it is
you want.

Sometimes they have magical expressions
on them, what we would call abracadabra

words. Sometimes they are accompanied
with a doll or a part of the body that

supposed to represent where you want to
hurt the other guy.

And sometimes you really want to hurt
the other guy.

One curse states, may your penis hurt
when you make love.

This one was specifically addressed to a
chap's penis. I think that may be the

one, you know.

How can I put it? They knew how to hurt
a guy.

And if you really wanted to make that
curse stick, you smash something.

A bowl, for instance.

But why?

From ancient Egypt, we have what are
called execration texts, literally

texts. The name is written on a ceramic
figure or a bowl.

Then it is pronounced.

And then you would smash the bowl.

And the earliest mention of Jerusalem is
from one of these very texts that the

Pharaoh is using to pronounce curses on
his enemy.

So that almost in a kind of voodoo -like
way, he would inflict harm on those

whose names were written on that bowl.

So the bowl was a kind of stand -in for
the person, like a voodoo doll. But the

ancients didn't believe the person doing
the curse had magical power.

Instead, they believed that person was
in essence placing an order to a higher

being. and that being would carry the
curse out.

Gods and demons and devils had immense
power, and that power could be used to

harm others.

So you could call down an evil power on
a person, and that evil power

would respond if you used the right
formula, if you had the magic

the abracadabra.

Just as the ancients believed hell was a
physical place, they believed utterly

that a curse could hurt them.

Close your ears now if you don't want to
hear a real ancient curse from around

700 BC, which sounded something like
this.

Which means, roughly translated, I
invoke you, O gods of the

night. With you, I invoke night, the
veiled bride.

So the Bible rule that a child who
curses a parent must die begins to make

in the context of the time.

The ancients so believed in curses that
they had actual processes for carrying

them out. A parent could believe that a
child who cursed them was trying to kill

them. And that means keeping your
cursing children in line.

So many of these commands and curses in
the Bible, a lot of these are survival

-based. The ancient world was a
patriarchal world.

A powerful man meant safety for everyone
under his care.

And in a world where powerful men were
warring against each other all the time,

then each powerful man needed to know he
had the loyalty of all those under his

protection and care.

In the ancient world, words had a mighty
power.

One example is the curse.

Another is the spell.

Thousands of years ago, there were
people who used magical spells to change

course of events.

And the Bible also has a rule about
them.

A man or a woman who is a medium or a
wizard shall be put to death.

A wizard in Leviticus is probably not,
you know, a Harry Potter character with

big hat and a long beard.

They may not have the hat and the beard,
but according to the writers of the

Bible rule, Their powers do work, and
those powers served a concrete purpose

a world far more unpredictable than the
one we inhabit today.

They didn't have weather maps. They
didn't know about earthquakes, why the

shakes. So you would like to gain a bit
of control, any kind of control. Like

control over what happens to our bodies.

If you get hurt, you get sick, and you
didn't do anything, someone must be

responsible.

So people would assign responsibility to
a witch or sorcerer.

Belief in sorcery and witchcraft spanned
the ancient world, and rules against it

can be found in one of the most
important of all ancient texts, the Code

Hammurabi. Welcome to Mesopotamia, the
year 1772 BC.

One of the first laws in this Babylonian
legal code states... If a man accuses

another man of witchcraft and he can't
prove it, the accused will be subject to

the river ordeal, which seems to mean
you throw them in the river and see if

they drown.

And if you survive, then the accuser is
killed.

If the river takes him, then he must
have been guilty.

In the ancient world, supernatural power
was a given, just as science is today.

Mesopotamian priests were believed to
possess supernatural powers, and even

Hebrew prophets are depicted as
performing miracles in the name of God.

that's the case, why is the Bible
especially hard on the power of witches

wizards? What makes them different?

The problem was that it didn't go
through the official channels. And if

wanted to communicate with you, he would
do so through a prophet who he called

for the purpose of delivering messages
to the people.

Today, far from having laws against
witchcraft, the United States government

given some approval to the practice.

In 1996, the Department of Defense
officially recognized modern witches

Wiccans. as a religion for any soldier
that might practice it. And today, there

are five established military
congregations. In 2007, the DoD even

Wiccan pentacles to be carved into
military gravestones.

Yet at the same time, ancient fears of
witches also survive.

The idea that certain people have powers
that we don't understand is

always unsettling.

In tribal societies to this day, people
are afraid of witches.

There might be one living next to you or
near you or something like that.

There was a woman in my building that I
feel that way about.

Thousands of years ago, people actually
believed the dark forces in the universe

had the power to destroy them. And as
we're about to see, even the stones at

your feet could take your life.

of the bible are a portal to the ancient
world and now the portal is opening

again a means to understand everything
from the way people dressed to crime and

punishment one who blasphemes the name
of the lord shall be put to death the

whole congregation shall stone the
blasphemer stoning was the usual method

execution

for capital offenses in ancient Israel.
It was a communal exercise in which the

entire village would gather to throw
stones at the guilty party until he or

was dead.

It's an intimate form of punishment.

There's no sharpshooter stoners. You're
not far away. You need to make sure that

it's a stone that's of significant
weight and mass, and you need to be able

hurl it with some amount of force.

It's similar to a firing squad where you
don't know which bullet took the life.

And the whole community is now visiting
justice and upholding the righteousness

of the land together.

You knew this person and you knew their
family, their parents, their

grandparents. And so this would have had
to have been something pretty

significant for you to pick up a stone
against your neighbor.

Stoning was the traditional execution
method for the ancient world from

Macedonia to Arabia.

And it served as punishment for a wide
variety of crimes, from adultery to

treason. So does the wording of the rule
reveal details of the ancient world?

Why did the whole community take part?

One theory, stoning functions as a kind
of loyalty test within the community.

If you refuse to throw a stone at your
blaspheming neighbor...

You might also fail to protect your
village from its enemies.

We're constantly needing to test one
another's loyalty so we know that when

attackers come, we'll be there for each
other.

No matter what the circumstance, a tribe
must stick together.

Everyone needed to participate.

Other forms of execution included
hanging and beheading, but stoning

with it a different meaning for the
whole tribe.

To pick up a stone is to give your
assent. You don't get to say, Well, some

stone and some don't.

Everyone's in on this. It sounds
barbaric, but there's an accountability

here. We have all decided this is what
we're doing.

And it wasn't just men being subjected
to this punishment.

It's horrible. A lot of times the woman
was buried up to her neck, and they

would just whack her with stones until
her head was pretty much gone.

This ancient practice exists today and
is known as lapidation. There are 15

countries that still authorize stoning
as a form of corporal punishment, but

only three routinely use it. Iran,
Pakistan, and Somalia.

This Bible rule says a lot about how an
ancient community protected itself.

But before we pass judgment, we must
consider the context in which this rule

practiced.

In the ancient world, everyone is living
a lot closer to the cliff of survival

or non -survival. So if we just realize
that most of the time we have this

incredible luxury of living with a
greater degree of security, it might

to imagine what it was like to live in
constant danger in the ancient world.

If we pay close attention...

The rules of the Bible can guide us to a
new understanding of the way people

lived and even dressed.

Touch your shirt.

3 ,000 years ago, a Bible rule said the
garment you might be wearing was

blasphemy.

Nor shall you put on a garment made of
two different materials.

In other words, don't wear anything made
of two different fabrics. It was a rule

directly from God, but what did it say
about the times the ancients lived in?

The old adage that clothes make the man,
that we are what we wear, the Bible

knew that.

Don't mix a fabric which is grown out of
the ground with a fabric that comes

from an animal that lives on the earth.

You're not to mix things because a
mixing implies impurity and it implies

uncleanness of some sort and
inappropriate combinations.

In 450 BC, in the ancient Near East,
where tribal identity was a matter of

and death, you needed to know by sight
who was friend or foe. So maybe fabrics

were like flags or even gang colors
today.

The clothing we wear and the foods we
eat, we have to become obsessed with a

kind of purity.

We don't want there to be any people
among us.

with divided loyalties for example if a
man marries a woman from another tribe

and that other tribe comes in attacks
her uncles might be coming in with

and spears we want to be sure that
she'll stay loyal to us and not be loyal

her uncles who are coming today this
rule of fashion is much more difficult

follow most fabrics these days are
blended for practical reasons

A typical golf shirt, for instance, is
made from a cotton and polyester blend

that makes it easier to swing a club.

In the ancient world, you might have to
find a different way to improve your

game.

The Bible rules guide the beliefs of
millions today, but this is an

investigation into what they tell us
about civilizations long vanished. About

politics, for instance.

You shall not revile the God or curse a
leader of your people.

You're never going to look at King David
the same way again.

If you think the politics in our own
time are extreme, check out the ancient

world where you weren't even allowed to
curse your leader, something we, in the

present day, take for granted.

You shall not revile the god or curse a
leader of your people.

Why so much censorship under our ancient
rulers?

One possibility is in ancient times,
leaders were themselves seen as godly.

our society, we try to draw a clear line
between church and state. But there was

no such clear line in the ancient world
in general or in ancient Israel in

particular. Cursing a leader is like
cursing your parents or God, who all

authority together over the people.

When Israel was moving across the desert
and needing to be led by Moses, the

elders, the rulers, the teachers had to
be authorized to make a decision that

the people would follow.

You can't have rebellion in the desert.
It's too dangerous. It's too wild.

These days, in democratic countries, we
believe in protected speech. No one gets

arrested for cursing a leader.

We've evolved as a nation on that issue
in the way we interpret the Bible.

We've said, God gives inalienable
rights, and those rights

include life, liberty, pursuit of
happiness, which includes the freedom to

against your political leaders and even
the freedom to blaspheme God.

Between the lines of this Bible rule,
it's possible to glimpse an ancient

structure.

Most citizens of the ancient world could
be sure of two things.

The king was above them, and above the
king sat a god.

So before we look at why people weren't
supposed to curse their leaders, it's

first necessary to investigate what
happens when a leader challenges his own

god. What happened then?

The time, 2000 BC.

The place, the long -lost empire of
Akkad.

Located somewhere in the modern Persian
Gulf, it's considered the world's first

empire, and a curse of staggering
proportions is about to descend on it.

4 ,000 years ago, we had the Akkadian
Empire, based at Akkad or Agade. And

when it collapsed, its loss was felt
greatly.

Archaeologists have uncovered a poem
written about a century after the

detailing just how the empire fell and
the devastation this brought.

But what caused it?

The gods curse the city of Akkad because
its king had built a

temple against divine wishes.

And the king tore down the old temple
and the gods went into mourning and

Akkad. And power passed from Akkad to
one of its neighboring cities.

Archaeologists believe the words of the
curse point to a historical reality.

meaning this catastrophe may have
actually occurred.

What's interesting about the curse of
Akkad is that it seems to describe a

period of drought, almost a period of
climate change.

There is archaeological evidence now for
a drought at the end of the third

millennium, so it may be that in this
curse we actually have a reflection of

historical reality.

So in the case of Akkad...

A king disobeys his God and an empire
falls.

But what happens when a man obeys God
but destroys the king to obtain power?

To answer that question, we must look at
the career of the most famous king in

the Bible, King David, one of the most
complicated and inspiring rulers of the

ancient world.

King David is usually thought to be the
greatest of all the Israelite kings.

And I would say that most biblical
scholars would now say that his

Story has been much polished that in
actuality he was relatively nasty

character.

Historical evidence suggests that David
was a real person, a leader who ruled

the Israelite kingdom 3 ,000 years ago,
between 1010 and 970 BC.

But what kind of leader was this king,
believed by Christians to be a direct

ancestor of Jesus Christ?

It's clear that David had real political
talent.

He basically wants to marry Saul's
daughter because it's the king's

It's not a deep love or anything like
that. But how is he a virtual nobody?

is he going to marry the princess?

By any means necessary.

David's king is known as Saul.

And Saul recognizes David's ambitions.
He gives him a task that is suspiciously

difficult, one that no normal man could
ever accomplish.

Saul recognizes that with David there,
his own power is in question. Thus, he

goes to extreme measures to get rid of
David. Saul devises a plan. Go out and

bring me 100 Philistine foreskins. But
why exactly foreskins?

Why not say hands?

What is all this foreskins business? It
all goes back to the Egyptian practice

that had begun several hundred years ago
of paying a financial reward to any

soldier who had slain an enemy and could
prove he did so by chopping off his

penis. The Israelites had adopted the
practice of circumcision from the

Egyptians. So you could be sure.

that the Israelite troops were
circumcised, but the Philistines were

Saul's request requires an act of
extreme violence.

It's very hard to get a man's foreskin
if he's not interested in giving it to

you. So we know what he does. He kills
many people.

The ancient world is about to get very
bloody.

In the ancient world, murder and
violence were a means to power.

As we see with the rise of David,
sometimes the violence could get

Saul recognizes that with David there,
his own power is in question. Thus, he

goes to extreme measures to get rid of
David. Saul devises a plan. Go out and

bring me 100 Philistine foreskin.

What is Saul's intent?

He wants David to die in the process of
trying to collect 100 Philistine

foreskins. So what does David do? He
goes out, he brings 200.

200 Philistine foreskins, leave them
there at the bride fight.

And then he comes before Saul, and he
counts them out.

You know, 101, 102, 103, you know.

Saul then knows, my fate is doomed.

Nothing can stop this guy.

By getting twice as many foreskins,
David doubles down on this Bible rule

requires him to obey his king without
question.

And in doing so, he paves the way for
his own kingship.

Might makes right.

So many of the rules in the Bible are
about power, to preserve the way things

are. And almost always in ancient
civilizations as today,

That means a few people at the top and a
whole lot of people at the bottom. And

the gods are always called in to justify
that if you're down at the bottom, you

should be happy and stay there and don't
shake things up.

So this Bible rule enshrines the powers
that be, God and King, and makes clear

that you don't mess with the leader who
may have overseen the writing of such

rules in the first place.

The Bible rules are an unexpected
opportunity to explore the ancient

even have something to say about this
commonplace modern hobby, getting a

tattoo.

You shall not make any cuts in your body
for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks

on yourself.

So were tattoos forbidden because they
were associated with pagan worship?

To answer that question, we have to look
at the Canaanites.

neighbors of the ancient Israelites, and
a group who considered body laceration

a religious practice.

We're told that the prophets of the
Canaanite god Baal, in an effort to get

attention, cut themselves with their
swords until the blood was dripping all

over them. That form of bodily
mutilation may have been connected with

of ancestor worship.

In the ancient world, from Egypt to
Crete, from Greece to Persia, tattoos

many functions.

rites of passage, decorations for
bravery, and even as a sexual come -on.

But this rule strives to define ancient
Israelites as an exception.

They are the people who refuse to mark
their bodies like other people do.

You shouldn't change the way you are
because God made you the way you are.

The body is the temple of God, the
temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not do

that in any way impedes the body or
disrespects the body or inflicts any

pain or suffering on the body. The Bible
doesn't want any crooked lines tattooed

on your body.

But what does it mean when it forbids
crooked speech?

Put away your crooked speech and put
devious talk far from you.

Lying is a big problem in the ancient
world. Lying is a big problem today.

And then there are gradations of lying
where we find ways to use weaselly words

to cover up hidden intentions and to
deceive other people. This is a deep

theme all through the Bible.

Does it also come to define how we first
think and even talk?

The minute a little kid learns language,
he learns how to alter the truth.

And it's one of the most basic things
that we do with language.

We lie.

Today, we live in a society where words
really mean nothing.

One can say one thing and mean another.

One can throw out words and say, oh, I
didn't really mean it. But in the

world, that was not the case.

One was held to one's word.

Today we can go online and post what we
want with no real repercussions. So what

was so different about speaking in the
ancient world? Why did people fear what

would happen if they didn't follow
through with their promises?

We live in a world that's full of laws
and contracts and protocols.

Let's go back to a world where almost
everyone is illiterate.

where if you're a nomadic people, you
have no books at all. And in that world,

the verbal contract and the memory of
what was said becomes the glue that

a society together.

Staying true to your word was a
foundation of ancient society.

Outside of the Bible, there's an old
Jewish parable which illustrates this

A man was spreading rumors about one of
his neighbors.

And so the man went to the sage and
explained that, yes, in a fit of anger,

had begun saying some terrible things
about one of his friends.

And the sage looked at him and said,
well, here's what I think you should do.

I want you to go home and get a feather
pillow.

I want you to open that feather pillow
up and scatter its contents to the wind.

And then I want you to go try and gather
up those contents and put them back.

The man says.

It's not possible. I can never gather up
all those feathers and get them back

into that case.

And the sage looked at him and said, Do
you think it's any different with the

stories you've told about your neighbor?

The rules of the Bible emphasize the
tremendous power of speech in the

world. But today, when words are cheap
and we have a host of ways to

with each other, does this rule still
speak to us?

Not everyone has cursed their parents or
cursed God or, you know, not everybody

has murdered. Not everyone has committed
adultery.

Everybody has lied.

There's hardly a law or a rule that
could be more basic and more universal.

It hits everybody.

The harm done by words was considered
even worse than the harm done by

someone financially.

Money taken can be repaid, but the
damage caused by an ill word may never

repaired.

In other words, what you said mattered
almost as much as what you did in the

ancient world, especially when those
words promised something.

The Bible rules have a lot to say about
doing what we say we'll do and the dire

consequences when we don't.

In that world, the words that are spoken
have to be remembered and they have to

be followed through.

Otherwise, society begins to unravel and
fall apart.

The rules of the Bible transport us back
in time, taking us inside the minds of

ancient peoples, from the tattoos on
their bodies to how they made and kept

their promises.

Whatever your lips utter, you must
diligently perform.

Put simply, whatever you say, you have
to do. Your word is your bond.

So what does this rule tell us about how
the ancient world viewed a promise?

One clue can be found in the physical
appearance of the gods themselves,

especially the Greek variety.

Herodotus, the Greek historian from the
5th century, says the Greeks got almost

all their gods from the Egyptians,
except they changed the form. The Greeks

don't have animal -headed gods.

Think of the contrast with many of the
Egyptian gods, which are precisely

-headed. So what's the objection to an
animal -headed god?

Those animals don't talk. Only human
beings had reason.

Because only human beings can speak.

So for Greeks, the act of speaking is so
important, it is seen as the very thing

which connected them to the gods they
worshipped. Maybe it's no surprise then

discover in the ancient world, the
physical words that came out of your

carried a heavy sense of purpose.

Make promises at your peril. In a world
where you don't have...

a court, in a world where you can't have
a written contract, in a world where

there isn't a digital recording.

In that world, the words that are spoken
have to be remembered and they have

to be followed through.

Otherwise... society begins to unravel
and fall apart.

And if you ignored this Bible rule and
didn't follow through, there were going

to be real consequences.

If an agreement is broken, tempers might
flare and stones might fly and knives

might be pulled out and so on. So people
staying alive depends on people

speaking the truth.

And not weaseling out of it later on.

Language is a powerful tool.

And like any powerful tool, it can be
used for good or for bad. The old adage

that sticks and stones will break my
bones but names will never hurt me is a

lie. That's not just a feature of the
ancient world. Certain words today still

have immense power.

From racist epithets that are meant to
insult and degrade.

to the word racist itself, which can
irreparably harm a career or a life. And

doesn't stop there.

In some settings, to call somebody a
liberal or a conservative, to call

a communist or a socialist, the word
itself changes everything for that

once they're labeled.

3 ,000 years ago, the terms of abuse may
have been different, but whether

promising or cursing, the ancient Hebrew
language got right to the point.

Hebrew is a truly desert language.

And if you've ever been in the desert, a
real desert, you know that you want to

conserve your energy because it is
leeched away by the sun.

They don't use...

definite articles like the or uh if they
can get away without them they don't

use two or four or any of those little
words they're all missing the people who

wrote and spoke this language believed
that staying true to your word was an

essential part of maintaining day -to
-day life this new society was glued

together by words

The Word was so powerful that they
understood creation itself in terms of

language. Nothing came into being
without the Word.

God said, let there be light. God said,
let there be living things.

God's Word spoke the creation into
existence.

The Bible is the best -selling book of
all time, a holy book for millions. In

are nearly 2 ,000 laws, rules, or
commands.

An unexpected portal to the ancient
world. In some ways, it's really nice

we can look back in history and see this
wild assortment of rules that had a

purpose in their time, and now maybe
that helps us look at whatever rules we

have at this moment and say, well, what
purpose is this fulfilling in our time?

Can these rules written more than 2 ,000
years ago still inform our lives today?

If we can look at these...

biblical rules as a snapshot.

It's one frame in a larger film that's
unfolding.

We have this book that right when we
think we've mastered it and figured it

we realize there's so much more going on
than we first understood.

And this is just the beginning of our
investigation using the Bible rules to

plunge into the depths of the ancient
world.

Soon enough, the portal will open again.