any people believe that the first case of premeditated murder in man’s history occurred when Cain killed Abel because God liked Abel’s sacrifice better than Cain’s. I believe the first murder in human history occurred even further back, probably when one jealous caveman killed another because he had a bigger stick. Whomever may be right, we know one thing: Man has been mass-murdering his fellow man since as far back as human beings can remember. From the slaughters of the Old Testament to the blood and gore of the Bronze, Copper, Iron and Nuclear ages; from the habitable six continents of the globe to the most isolated Pacific island, there is not a speck of land that has not been drenched in the blood of our fellow man.

Today we have a word for this: holocaust. A "holocaust," according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, is "destruction or slaughter on a mass scale" with the caveat that it be caused especially "by fire or nuclear war."

The word "holocaust" comes from the Greek "holokauston," a combination of holos ("whole") and kaustos ("burned") – i.e., a burnt offering made over an altar.

Christians and Jews most assuredly would have come across the idea of "burnt offerings" in the Old Testament, as mention of burning the butchered parts of a slaughtered animal over an altar occurs in Genesis 8:20 (Noah’s burnt offering to God after the flood), Exodus 10:24-29 (discusses the plague that was unleashed upon the Egyptians for refusing to release the livestock of the Jews so burnt offerings could be made) and several times in Leviticus in which the proper procedure for making a ritual burnt offering is dictated. In short, as clarified by the "BibleHub" website:

The Hebrew word for "burnt offering" actually means to "ascend," literally to "go up in smoke." The smoke from the sacrifice ascended to God, "a soothing aroma to the Lord" (Leviticus 1:9). Technically, any offering burned over an altar was a burnt offering, but in more specific terms, a burnt offering was the complete destruction of the animal (except for the hide; it was kept by the priest). . . ."

But, as some of man’s worst mass slaughters have far exceeded those perpetrated by fire or nuclear attack (take for example the Chinese communist holocaust in which 60 to 100 million are thought to have been mass slaughtered as compared to the 150,000 killed in the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), we take the word "holocaust" to mean a mass slaughter or targeting of innocent people – "innocenticide," as historian David Irving has called it – generally for their race, religion or politics.

We do have, however, real examples of mass slaughter by fire and nuclear-like devastation described in the Old – Testament. This certainly sounds like a real holocaust:

Then the Lord rained down brimstone (sulfur) and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the Lord out of the heavens. . . . Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground. (Genesis 24-25)

In our own secular history texts, we can offer several examples of real-life holocausts in which the victims were incinerated alive by fire – the firebombings of Japanese and German cities in Word War II and the dropping of nuclear bombs on two nearly defenseless Japanese cities at the end of that global holocaust.

The second accepted definition of "holocaust" in the aforementioned New Oxford American Dictionary words it as such: "The mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during the period 1941-45."

We believe it is high time, however, that the other "holocausts" are remembered and not forgotten so as to prevent one group from copyrighting that versatile term.

As you will see in this issue of TBR, we discuss as many "holocausts" as we can. But, were we to report upon all of the "holocausts" that man has perpetrated, we would have needed an estimated 6 million pages. Thus, our apologies go to the following groups whose own holocausts were not adequately covered – even in this greatly expanded issue of TBR

• The millions of victims of Hebrew armies as recounted in the Old Testament holocausts • the Christian victims of the Romans slaughtered in public spectacles • the millions of victims of the British starvation holocaust of the people of India • the millions of victims of the British holocaust of the Irish both in the slave trade and forced starvation • the American Indian victims of the Spanish holocaust of South and Central America • the millions of victims of the Muslim slave trade holocaust • the hundreds of thousands of victims of the slave trade in the Caribbean • the millions of victims of the African slave trade • the millions of victims of the Turks in the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Christian holocausts • the millions of victims of Operation Keelhaul • the 60-100 million victims of the Chinese communists • the millions of victims of the Cambodian holocaust • the unknown number of victims of the ongoing Israeli holocaust in the Holy Land • the millions of victims of the appalling sex trade holocaust • the outrageous, unending, self-inflicted holocaust of young black men across the U.S. • the holocaust-genocide of whites in South Africa. Of course, even with this extensive list, I am sure we have neglected to mention the victims of even more holocausts while others not mentioned here have gotten some overdue attention in this issue.

Source: "‘HOLOCAUSTS’ GALORE," THE BARNES REVIEW, Vol. 24, No. 5 (September/October 2018): p. 3.

URL for this video: NewsBitsAndBites.com/article3/holocausts_galore-url.shtml