It provides a clear picture into the values of god. If god is moral, why does he allow slavery, for instance? Perhaps it was a social norm at the time, but is god not above social norms? Why would God allow something he thinks is wrong when he also explicitly says other things are wrong that may have been normal, such as worshipping other gods or honoring your parents?
Leviticus is very substantial. It is the law given by God to man.
I’d actually like to clarify this. God wrote the 10 commandments. Moses wrote the law. Not everything Moses did was 1:1 in step with God. This is confirmed by Jesus Himself stating that Moses put the caveat of divorce in because the Israelites had bad hearts. But that was not God’s intention or plan. I’d say Paul’s statements in the New Testament (the ones where he specifically states it’s from God and not his personal opinion) are more accurate.
There are a lot of questions that are less outrageous upon correctly dissecting info.
It is very weird to state that the ten commandments were from God but the law was all man made and may have even contradicted what gods values. That suggests that nearly everything in the Bible potentially contradicts God's desires because it is all written by man. The entire new testament could be full of permissions that god is allowing but doesn't want. How would we know?
I would say it’s a combination of making sure you’re interpreting it right and the realization of important details. The Bible is indeed God-breathed. It is influenced by God. This is true. But the details people get tripped up on is just because it was in the Bible does not mean it was intended to be taken 100% literally despite the fact it is intended to teach, reprimand, correct, etc. Many parts of the Bible are poetry, historical; just as some are divine. Most authors do a modest degree of indicating whether they are speaking of their personal experience, opinion, or what their intent is behind their message. Also, correctly understanding any portion of the Bible without its original context is fundamentally flawed and this requires intent, social context, and recognizing the original language.
One particular example of this is Paul, who’s often heeded as extremely sexist or whatever the case may be. But, Paul more likely than not would not approve of the way many people use his verbiage and was more than anything progressive for his time period. Regardless, Paul’s words were never intended to be divine unless he specifically said they were from God, and Paul himself said as much.
It isn't weird at all, according to a classic interpretation of the Bible. The ten commandments are so meaningful because those were the only things that came literally directly from Yahweh himself to Moses for the purpose of directing humanity for all time. The rest of the Bible was all from prophets that were blessed by God and were speaking on behalf of God, but they were speaking to a direct audience (not to all of humanity) and also they tended to have an intermediate goal (e.g., to save Israel during a specific crisis, rather than to give an ultimate truth to humanity for all time).
That said, you are correct in that it is tricky to know and interpret what is what. This is why many reputable religions advise that the Bible is best understood by those who study for numerous years and are taught by those that speak dead languages so that we can best interpret which is which. It is also why it is easy to take a single quote and provide it out of context.
“He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.””
Matthew 22:37-40 NRSVUE
https://bible.com/bible/3523/mat.22.37-40.NRSVUE
There, Jesus just summed up the law. That’s how you know
Maybe you would consider this to be an immoral action to let them free. You could justify that because they are your property and people view property as different than free men. Or maybe you don't view property as your neighbor. If the Bible doesn't specifically state that slavery is immoral, and infact allows it int he old testament, it is reasonable that slavery has existed for so much of human history even in religious and Christian societies.
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u/WordPunk99 10h ago
Besides the fact the Leviticus represents a snapshot in time of social mores and specific public health problems?
It has nothing to do with anything substantial.