David Barton’s long list of Christian Nation lies seems to be getting even more brazen. As Right Wing Watch reports, it is now a standard part of his presentations that many of the provisions in the Constitution are “literal, direct quotations out of the Bible.” In this video, he makes very specific claims about the provisions that are “exact quotes” out of the Bible:
httpv://youtu.be/PB5YJPf5ktU
Here’s Exodus 18:21:
21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
And Deuteronomy 1:13-16
And Deuteronomy 16:18Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.”
You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.”
So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you.
Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.
Uh, yeah. Those are “exact quotes” and “literal, direct quotations” from the Bible. Except, of course, they aren’t. At no time during the writing, explanation or ratification of the Constitution does even one of the men who wrote that document refer to any of those verses, or the Bible in general, as a source for those ideas. The Federalist Papers were written specifically to explain and defend every provision in the new Constitution, written to a predominately Christian populace; surely if they had based those provisions on the Bible, they would have said so because that would have been viewed as a strong argument for passing the Constitution. But no, the only people quoting the Bible during the ratification debates were the anti-federalists, who cited the Bible in opposition to the passage of the Constitution.
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