{"id":58723,"date":"2019-07-03T14:05:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T11:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58723"},"modified":"2023-01-26T06:38:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T04:38:48","slug":"common-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/common-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[781,444,835],"acf":{"old_id":"58723","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":58720,"related_cahpter":"255","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"In Common Sense, Thomas Paine argued that monarchy was born in the ancient world and was now antiquated and anachronistic. He used biblical arguments to buttress his case. He cites the book of Samuel as demonstrating that the Hebrew Bible is anti-monarchical. These arguments helped persuade at least some patriots to reject monarchy. ","content":"

The Jews came to Samuel, saying, <\/span>“<\/span><\/i>make us a king to judge us like all the other nations<\/span><\/em>“<\/span> [I Sam. 8:5]<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And here we cannot but observe that their motives were bad, viz. that they might be <\/span>like<\/em> <\/span>unto other nations, i.e. the Heathens, whereas their true glory laid in being as much <\/span>unlike<\/em> <\/span>them as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the thing displeased Samuel\u2026 and the Lord said unto Samuel\u2026they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>that i should not reign over them<\/b>\u2026<\/span>Now therefore\u2026shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them<\/em> <\/span>[I Sam. 8:6-9]<\/span>,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

i.e. not of any particular king, but the general manner of the kings of the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying after.<\/span><\/p>\n

And notwithstanding the great distance of time and difference of manners, the character is still in fashion. Samuel said: <\/span>he will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen <\/span><\/i>(this description agrees with the present mode of impressing men), <\/span>and he \u2026will set them to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots; and he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks and to be bakers <\/span><\/i>(this describes the expense and luxury as well as the oppression of kings) <\/span>and he will take your fields and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants; and he will take the tenth of your feed, and of your vineyards, and give them to his officers and to his servants <\/span><\/i>(by which we see that bribery, corruption, and favoritism are the standing vices of kings) <\/span>and\u2026ye shall be his servants, and ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen, <\/span><\/i>and the lord will not hear you in that day <\/b>[I Sam. 8:10-18].<\/span><\/p>\n

This accounts for the continuation of monarchy; neither do the characters of the few good kings which have lived since, either sanctify the title, or blot out the sinfulness of the origin; the high encomium given of David takes no notice of him <\/span>officially as a king, <\/span><\/i>but only as a <\/span>man <\/span><\/i>after God\u2019s own heart<\/span>. Nevertheless the People refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles <\/span><\/i>[I Sam. 8:19-20]<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Samuel continued to reason with them, but to no purpose; <\/span>So Samuel called unto the Lord\u2026 And all the people said unto<\/span><\/i> Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for <\/span><\/i>we have added unto our sins this evil, to ask a king <\/b>[I Sam. 12:17-19]. These portions of scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchical government is true, or the scripture is false.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpted from <\/span>Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States: A Sourcebook<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> edited by Meir Y. Soloveichik, Matthew Holbreich, Jonathan Silver Stuart W. Halpern, Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, The Toby Press, 2019. Pages 84-86.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":58724,"id":58724,"title":"july4","filename":"july4.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/july4.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/common-sense\/july4\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"july4","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":58723,"date":"2019-07-03 10:53:51","modified":"2019-07-03 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