Eli, priest from 1 Samuel: Good guy or bad?

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Aryania Disclaimer: The article is not meant to support any Abrahamic faith. The Aryan people should abandon all such superstition!

This is the second article in a three part series.

Now that I’ve documented how the jewish god abandoned Israel in the period of the judges, let examine the record of Eli the Priest who appears in 1 Samuel Chapter 1.

Some will wonder why this is a question at all. Read further and find out how bad Eli really was!

 

Reason #1: Eli was a descendent of Itamar

In the wilderness, when the Israelites were lured into worshipping false gods by Moabite and Midianite women, the jewish god instructed that the leaders of this rebellion were to be hung and all the participants executed. As Moses and the judges of Israel wept over this at the entrance to the tent of meeting, an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to his brothers in view of them. Phinehas brutally ran a spear through both, ending a plague that had already cost 24,000 Israelite lives. The jewish god gave the priesthood to Phinehas as a reward:

“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. Therefore, announce: ‘I am going to give to him my covenant of peace. So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, and has made atonement for the Israelites.'”

Numbers 25:11-13 NET

Both the northern and southern Israelite traditions understand this to have awarded the position of high priest to only the descendants of Eleazar/Phinehas from that time forward. Eleazar was the high priest at the time of this event.

Eli was a descendent of Itamar, not Eleazar. Even rabbinic Judaism understood the above passage to have given the high priesthood to the descendants of Phinehas alone:

Rabbinical commentators explain that the continuity of high priesthood is put forth to the descendants of Phineas from this noted verse.[16] According to some rabbinical commentators[17]Phineas sinned due to his not availing his servitude of Torah instruction to the masses at the time leading up to the Battle of Gibeah. In addition, he also failed to address the needs of relieving Jephthah of his vow.[18] As consequence, the high priesthood was taken from him and given (temporarily, see next section) to the offspring of Ithamar, essentially Eli and his sons.

Wikipedia: Phineas/Ithamar controversy

Note that they agree that the high priesthood had been given to Phinehas, so they must come up with conjecture (with no basis in the text of the Torah) for a temporary transfer of the high priesthood to the descendants of Itamar.

The northern Israelites (the Samaritans, descendants of the tribes of Joseph and their Aaronite priesthood which it still in service today!) recorded their own very interesting version of events surrounding Eli. According to them:

Then a dispute occurred within the Temple priesthood. Eli the priest, descendant of Itamar ben Aaron, rebelled against the High Priest Uzi ben Bookie, descendant of Pinhas ben Elazar ben Aaron. The latter was the legitimate High Priest according to the Torah commandment [Numbers 25:11-13]. Consequently, Eli was forced to leave Mount Gerizim, and went with his supporters to Shilo. Uzi, fearing a religious rift among the People of Israel, then hid the Temple of Moses in one of the caves on Mount Gerizim. The Temple remains there, undiscovered to this day. (Later, Josephus Flavius indirectly confirmed the tradition in his history Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18). Eli then made a new Tent of the Covenant with new ritual utensils, in Shilo. David later brought this Tent to Jerusalem.

However, the Tribe of Joseph would not submit to the rule of David and Solomon. They rebelled against the House of David at the first opportunity, when Solomon died. Subsequently, the Tribe of Joseph led the northern tribes to form the large Kingdom of Israel. Relations between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were uneasy.

Israelite Samaritan History

Should one take into consideration the claims of the northern kingdom? Why wouldn’t one? After all, by accepting the claims contained in the Tanakh outside of the Torah, one must recognize that they were compiled by Judaeans to document their history, and might have a sectarian spin. Why wouldn’t one be willing to consider the arguments presented by the other side?

Interestingly, the above narrative suggests that Mount Gerizim near Shechem (modern day Nablus in the West Bank) was the place where the high priest originally served. Is it possible that Mount Gerizim was the original chosen place mentioned over 20 times in Deuteronomy as the only place where an altar and sacrificial offerings were authorized, and where the pilgrimage feasts were celebrated? Yes!

The Northern kingdom story is at least plausible considering that Eli, of the line of Itamar, should not have been the high priest.

 

Reason #2: Eli’s evil sons:

The sons of Eli were wicked men. They did not recognize the Lord’s authority.

1 Samuel 2:12 NET

Eli’s sons were flagrantly violating the jewish god’s instructions regarding offerings (1 Samuel 2:13-17) as well as regularly having sex with women at the entrance of the tent of meeting (1 Samuel 2:22)!

Please ask yourself this question: If the jewish god was present among His people at this tabernacle, would Eli’s sons have been allowed to behave in this manner? Recall that two of Aaron’s sons perished in the wilderness for making mistakes when offering something as simple as incense (Leviticus 10:1).

Would a legitimate high priest have wicked sons who went unpunished for their terrible misdeeds? One might be convinced the actions of the sons are not a barrier to Eli’s legitimacy, but the indication that the jewish god is not present to punish the sons should be of some concern.

Eli was not a legitimate high priest, and being a bogus priest could not be in communication with the jewish god, and therefore Samuel, Eli’s successor, could not have been following the jewish god’s directives when choosing first Saul (an obvious bad choice) and later David, as King.

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