People are often surprised to find there are curses in the Bible. When they do discover that there are, they expect to find them only in the Old Testament with its ‘eye for an eye’ approach. But actually they turn up in the New Testament too. In the Act, Peter’s rebuke kills both Ananias and his wife Sapphira. And in Galatians (Chapter 1 verse 8) the apostle Paul wrote But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
In fact, when the Catholic Church excommunicates people it declares them anathema which actually just a Greek word for curse.
Even so, people are still surprised to discover that there are curses in the bible at all. Especially the ‘Cursing Psalms.’ These often start off sounding deceptively innocuous, and then end up wishing all sorts of horrible things on other people.
So if you hear someone muttering a piece of ‘scripture’ at you (or anyone else for that matter) remember that the end of the quote (which might not be spoken so that you can actually hear it) could in fact be a curse. In fact the speaker is probably counting on the fact that you don’t know the psalms as well as he does. The King James translation is usually, in my experience the most favoured, perhaps because its elegant, slightly archaic language lends a certain ritualistic element to the words.
Let’s look just at one of these psalms. Psalm 143. It is one of the Seven Penitential Psalms and its early verses (5 6) include the harmless, I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.
So far, so good. Nothing wrong in that. But near the end the mood changes dramatically.
And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.
It’s a sad fact that many clergy try and avoid reciting that particular Psalm nowadays!
Most interesting post….:yes::)x
I did not realise there were cursing psalms. A very interesting post, Tylluan 🙂
XXX
You got me googling . I found some more here http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/911945/dealing_with_inappropriate_bible_passages.html
This is NOT very Christian like at all
“Psalm 137 contains one of the most graphic portrayals of revenge on a human level when it says, “O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us-he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Verse 8 and 9) ”
In the wrong hands the bible is a dangerous book indeed :yes:
X
Don’t forget that the Psalms are actually Pre-Christian Mara. 😉 Although the books which have been selected by the Christian Church and but together to form the Library known as “The bible” are the ones which suited those in power at the time and probably don’t particularly reflect the actual views of life of the Man whose behaviour so irritated the pharisees and the Romans in 1st century Jerusalem.
Tylluan, the ancient Egyptians wrote their in Red, the colour associated with Seth, I wonder what colour these curses were used for these curses in the original Hebrew – do they have copy in the Dead sea scroll collection.
Incidentally, some people have suggested that Seth as well as The Horned man may have inspired Christian depictions of the devil.
X
The bibles are quite aggressive and meant to keep the plebs controlled by virtue of fear. The interpretation in many instances, and hazarding a guess, were made to suit the purpose of the faith representatives, and embellished at various times.
Am I being blasphemous?
Oh, gosh, how topical for me! I am trying to protect my karma just now, and trying to stop myself getting anything threefold in return, – my heart is full of curses right now that haven’t been uttered, but have been thought. My only saving grace are my closed lips, but my heart is doing what my mouth isn’t.
I have often wondered how much of the original meaning and words were lost in the first translations 🙂
JF I took a required year long university course many moons agoon the exogesis of the first 4 books of New Testament. As a noncatholic working as principal for catholic school division, it made me laugh at the uneasy discussion among the nuns priests and other principals aka Headmasters. Discovered many references to astrology.
Sorry Tyullan wasn’t looking for references to curses at the time. Most interesting post. Thanks for furthering my knowledge!
Gosh, that’s very interesting, and I guess I sort of knew that but hadn’t digested it properly! You wonder what the difference was, in their eyes, between their curses and a witch’s curse. Maybe not much, to the writers of the books… history has invented the rest!
Whoops, sorry about my typing that should say “put” not “but”. Am knackered.
X
I never knew that there were curses in the bible.