The tension: Deuteronomy 14:1 calls all Israel 'the children of the LORD your God.' Psalm 82:6 declares 'all of you are children of the most High.' Hosea 1:10, Acts 17:29,…
The tension: Deuteronomy 20:19 prohibits destroying fruit trees during a siege: 'thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them.' 2 Kings 3:19 has…
The tension: Deuteronomy 23:2 bars the offspring of an illegitimate union from the assembly of YHWH for ten generations, but the genealogies of David in Matthew 1 and Luke…
The tension: Deuteronomy 23:3 and Nehemiah 13:1 explicitly forbid Moabites from ever entering the assembly of YHWH, but the book of Ruth makes a Moabite woman the great-gra…
The tension: Deuteronomy 23:7 forbids Israel from despising the Edomite because he is a brother, but later texts — 2 Kings 14, Ezekiel 25, and the entire book of Obadiah —…
The tension: Deuteronomy 24:1-2 explicitly permits a divorced woman to become another man's wife, but Luke 16:18 has Jesus declaring that anyone who marries a divorced woma…
The tension: Deuteronomy 27:26 places under curse anyone who fails to confirm and do all the words of the law, while Galatians 3:10 turns that same verse on its head, claim…
The tension: Deuteronomy 28:63 explicitly says YHWH will rejoice to wipe out and destroy the disobedient just as he rejoiced to bless them, while Ezekiel 18:23 has YHWH ask…
The tension: The Bible holds together two streams: Deuteronomy 30:19 and Joshua 24:15 frame human destiny as a real moral choice ("choose life," "choose you this day"), whi…
The tension: Deuteronomy 34:7 says Moses' eye was not dim and his natural force was not abated when he died at 120, but Deuteronomy 31:2 — three chapters earlier — has Mose…
The tension: Deuteronomy 6:16 issues a blanket prohibition — 'Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God' — quoted approvingly by Jesus at Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12.
The tension: Leviticus 19:26 and Deuteronomy 18:10-12 ban divination and observing 'times' — language traditionally read to include astrology — and call practitioners an ab…
The tension: Deuteronomy 4:2 forbids adding to the commandments: *lōʾ tōsipû ʿal-haddābār ʾăšer ʾānōkî mĕṣawweh ʾetkem* — 'you shall not add to the word which I command you…
The tension: Deuteronomy 24:1-2 permits divorce for any 'uncleanness' (Hebrew *ʿerwat dābār*) — historically read liberally by the school of Hillel as covering almost any c…
The tension: The Pentateuchal legal codes prescribe death by stoning, burning, or general execution for an enormous range of offenses: murder (Gen 9:6; Num 35:30), striking…
The tension: Deuteronomy 25:5 not only permits but commands a man to marry his deceased brother's childless widow — the institution of levirate marriage (Hebrew yibbum), wi…
The tension: Matthew 11:2-5 has Jesus point to his miracles — blind seeing, lame walking, lepers cleansed, deaf hearing, dead raised — as the answer to John the Baptist's q…
