DECEPTION(taqiyyah) IN THE BIBLE: callingchristians/tag/taqiyya/ To accuse Islam of teaching dissimulation(taqiyyah) and its adherents of practising it is one of the most common tactics employed by critics and detractors of Islam in their relentless crusade to demonise Islam. Many Christians gladly hop on the bandwagon peddling the mantra at every street corner, shouting to one and all, “Muslims do taqiyyah. Never believe them!”. Do Christians never lie? “No, real Christians will not lie!” answers the deluded cultic Christian. The more edified ones will concede saying, “yes, Christians do lie as well, but the difference between Islam and Christianity is that the Bible does not teach or promote lying in any way while the Qur’an and Sunnah do.” Really? Even a “white lie” is sinful according to the Bible? “Yes, even a white lie is wrong. No such thing as a white lie!” says the confident Christian. In this article we will not concern ourselves with what taqiyyah truly means in Islam and whether its representation by its critics is accurate or not. That execrcise can be done at a later date. In the meantime, it is sufficient to mention here that most Muslims have never heard of the term in their entire life as is readily admitted by so called ex-Muslims themselves (refer to the video at the end of the article). In this article we will unpack the question of whether the Bible is truly immune from promoting dissimulation or deception. Our first subjects are Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives of Exodus 1. Who were these fine women exactly? Let us turn to Exodus 1:15-22. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:15-22) In summary, Pharoah instructed Shiphrah and Puah to murder newborn Hebrew male babies. They did not follow through with the order as they feared God. They let the boys live. The Phraoah found out that they did not complete their task and summoned them to answer for their failure. They feigned innocence and ignorance by deceiving the king that they could not reach the women on time when they gave birth. Their lives were clearly spared by their deception and God rewarded them for their deed without reproaching their lie in any way. Is this not a clear example of dissimulation? President of the Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregan, Dr. Daniel R. Lockwood writes: “The faith of the midwives, named Sephirah and Puah, is a breathtaking story (Exod. 1:15-22). Pharoah personally gives them their ghoulish assignment, probably to discourage any disobedience. But surprisingly they conspire to disobey Pharaoh and deceive him. And their plan works. …. Furious, Pharoah declares an all-out genocide on Hebrew male infants. Yet he accepts the midwives’ story with little investigation, and we are privy to the reason why. These women fear the Lord and obey him; and, though the likely expect to die, God favors them with both life and prosperity.” [1](emphasis added) It is clear then that most scholars do agree that Exodus 1:15-20 portray two women who saved children through deception. But does that mean that lying is permitted simply because those two women did it? We have already seen that Lockwood for one recognises that the women are blessed because of their deed which was without a doubt deception to reach a righteous goal. Why would God favour those who commit a heinous sin if indeed lying is in every case without exception a heinous sin? In Exodus 1:15-20 it is clear that not every kind of deception is dishonourable and condemned by God. There can be exceptions especially when life is at stake. Lockwood is not alone in his understanding. Conservative Jewish scholar and rabbi Reuven Hammer writes: “Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives who resist Pharaoh’s command to kill male babies, are the very symbol of righteous conduct (Exod. 1:17). They are given the highest compliment when the Torah says that “they revered God.”” [6] Even the conservative apologist Normal Geisler recognises the deed of the midwives as a lie: “Some would prefer calling this not a “lie” but an “intentional falsification.” Call it what we will, it does not change the fact that it would be morally wrong —unless, of course, one is obeying a higher moral law in so doing. I prefer calling it a “lie” so that it is clearly understood that lying as such (without a higher conflicting law) is wrong.” [7] What Geisler is saying is that in a case where there is a higher moral law at stake the law on lying is superseded hence making it permissible. In the case at hand the sanctity of life and mercy supersede the general unlawfulness of lying. It is through the deception or manipulation of the midwives that God’s plan came to fulfillment as noted by The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary: “Masters and mistresses of the art of manipulation abound in the biblical story. In some instances manipulation is condemned within the narrative —David’s attempt to manipulate Uriah after impregnating his wife or Jezebel’s orchestration of Naboth’s murder—but some manipulative measures enable the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. This is true particularly of manipulative actions by women. … In almost all of these stories the character and role of the women as women enables their manipulation to succeed and God’s purposes to be fulfilled…Shiphrah and Puah are by virtue of their midwifery able to save Israelite baby boys…” [8] Did God approve of their manipulation, dissimulation, lying, deception? According to the Christian and Jewish biblical scholars He certainly did. Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her The Woman’s Bible writes: “The children of Israel multiplied so rapidly that Pharaoh became alarmed, lest the nation should become mightier than the Egyptians, so he ordered all the males at birth to be slain. To this end he had a private interview with the midwives, two women, Shiphrah and Puah, and laid his commands upon them. But they did not obey his orders, and excused themselves on the ground that the Jewish women seldom needed their services. Here we have another example of women who “feared God,” and yet used deception to accomplish what they deemed right. The Hebrew God seemed well pleased with the deception, and gave them each a house for their fidelity in saving the lives of his chosen children.” [9] (emphasis added) Glen H. Stasses from Fuller Theological Seminary and David P. Gushee who is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University write: “Bonhoeffer’s stance can be supported by numerous biblical texts that explicitly or implicitly offer divine approval to acts of deception or even dishonesty in conditions of oppression, injustice or war. The most important of these is the story of the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah lying to Pharoah in order to save the lives of the male Hebrew babies ((Ex. 1:19); God responded by blessing them with children of their own.” [10] (emphasis added) Stasses and Gushee in the above clearly recognise the biblical permissibility for lying and deceiving in certain cases of adverse difficulty in times of oppression, injustice and war. Why should God hold you accountable for saving a life even if it involves manipulation? If you were tied up by a Nazi officer who intends to kill your parents who are hiding in the basement and the Nazi believes that you know their whereabouts are you obliged to reveal their location and forbidden from giving the evil Nazi false directions through dissimulation? Any sane and reasonable minded individual will acquiesce that in such an instance it would be permissible, nay the right thing to do to mislead in order to preserve the sanctity of life which is one of the greatest gifts from God. And by saving your parents’ lives you would be upholding the age old command to “honour thy parents.” Christian theologian and apologist Paul Copan writes: “The Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah in Egypt (Exod. 1:15-21) engaged in deception. Because they “feared God,” they resisted Pharaoh, who wanted to put innocent Hebrew male babies to death.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:14:47 +0000