From The Skeptical Review, 1998:
By Farrell Till
As noted in previous articles, a popular claim of Christianity is that the Bible has accorded women a status superior to that in societies dominated by other religions. Those who make this claim are either very ignorant of what the Bible teaches or else have no scruples against misrepresenting facts to try to further the cause of Christianity. Many of the deplorable attitudes toward women found in the Bible have already been examined, but none were more flagrantly sexist in their scope than a "test" in Numbers 5 that Yahweh required of women accused of adultery.
If any man suspected his wife of "going astray" but had no evidence to confirm his suspicion, he was entitled to take her to the priest, "if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him" (vs:11-15), and the priest would subject her to a trial by ordeal, which she had to pass in order to prove her innocence. The man was required to bring a meal offering, which the priest would put into the woman's hands. He would then take a concoction of "holy water" and dust from the tabernacle floor, which was called "the bitter water that brings a curse," and say an incantation over the woman:
As noted in previous articles, a popular claim of Christianity is that the Bible has accorded women a status superior to that in societies dominated by other religions. Those who make this claim are either very ignorant of what the Bible teaches or else have no scruples against misrepresenting facts to try to further the cause of Christianity. Many of the deplorable attitudes toward women found in the Bible have already been examined, but none were more flagrantly sexist in their scope than a "test" in Numbers 5 that Yahweh required of women accused of adultery.
If any man suspected his wife of "going astray" but had no evidence to confirm his suspicion, he was entitled to take her to the priest, "if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him" (vs:11-15), and the priest would subject her to a trial by ordeal, which she had to pass in order to prove her innocence. The man was required to bring a meal offering, which the priest would put into the woman's hands. He would then take a concoction of "holy water" and dust from the tabernacle floor, which was called "the bitter water that brings a curse," and say an incantation over the woman:
If
no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to
uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be free from this
bitter water that brings a curse. But if you have gone astray while
under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and
some man other than your husband has lain with you... Yahweh himself
make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh makes your
thigh rot and your belly swell; and may this water that causes the curse
go into your stomach and make your belly swell and your thigh rot"
(vs:19-22).
At this point, the woman was required to say, "Amen, so be it" (v:22). Who says that Yahweh didn't have a sense of fairness?
The
priest would then write "these curses" into a book and "scrape them off
into the bitter water" (v:23), at which point the "bitter water" would
contain not only dirt from the tabernacle floor but apparently any other
contaminants that may have been in the "ink" and on the surface of the
book that was scraped. After this, the woman was required to "drink the
bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse
shall enter her to become bitter" (v:24).