Michelle wrote:I was observing a post a while back regarding someone saying all these verses they had read which they thought were horrible. On the night I read this post (I think it was called Iused2bchristian or something) I thought that I would try and read what he was referring to and other things as well to try and gain a better perspective of what they were meaning.
However as I did I found myself feeling quite puzzled. If one reads the Bible right through from Genesis ch 12 to Numbers ch 32 they notice that the chosen people are nomads. They are not a settled race with their own land. The times they were attacked was it because they were seen as invaders coming into another persons land? We are only getting on side of the story in the Bible when we read it as if the opposing forces were in the wrong and the Hebrews were in the right. Are there some clues as to what these people opposed them for?
I tend to look for intellectual reasons as to why things occur. While reading this I realised that a country would protect themselves from invading forces, or what they thought was a perceived threat. Could someone please point me in the right direction to find out exactly what it was they opposed them for.
Also I have a question I think may only answered by someone who is fluent in Hebrew. I suddenly had aha ha idea!
, I realised that anything that existed before the flood from that region would have been lost. The story of creation was an oral tradition handed down until it was written. This led me to realise that the story of Genesis creation is really two versions of the same story from different people. As well, Hebrew would not have even existed until many generations after the flood. My question is: how reliable is the translation of the original language into ancient Hebrew, then into the more modern Hebrew studied today? I realise that many words often have multiple meanings in many languages. In ancient Sumerian for example the word for heart and womb are identical. So I wonder are there many words that may exist in our modern Bibles that are completely different from the original meaning intended?
As well wouldn't Hebrew itself be a language similar to English in the context that it is taken from a plethora of other languages? Where in the Bible can I find the point at which the Hebrew language would have begun in the first place?
Michelle,
A lto fo questions there. I'm not a scholar in Hebrew although I'm reasonably good in Biblical greek.
I do have some knowledge in this area however, and so here's my thoughts to your questions.
Yes in Genesis 12 - 50 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were nomads, but they had their established regions that were recognized by treaty between themselves and others as their lands. It was not simply uncharted land. They moved within the boundaries of what they recognized as theirs. They moved based on availbale grass for their herds and water availability.
When Joseph called them to Egypt during the famine they left their lands in time of drought and over time became plentiful to where after Jospeh died the Pharoah's following saw them as a threat and treated them as slaves to be used in building cities and tending agriculture.
When the Exodus took place to return to the lands they once held, others had moved in. Many of those others were enemy tribes such as the edomites (descended from Esau), the moabites, the canaanites, and also the phillistines.
Israel was seen by God as a called out people. The danger in mingling with these peoples in the land God had for them was idolatry. In eradicating entire villages the goal as best I read these passages was to eradicate idol worship which if it remained would draw the Isrealites away from God.
This is exactly what happened by the way in many cases.
In terms of Gen 1-11, while there would be issues such as you suggest, there's a more important issue to look at. Inspiration and inerrency. If God inspired the book of Genesis then He protected it from any error and on that basis alone we rely upon it.
That doesn't take these other factors out of play. They may indeed me needful to address in order for us to understand the passages.
Hebrew more than greek, has som questions at times in terms of what words are meant. This is due to the ancient Hebrew practise of omitting vowels and so depending on the vowel restored you get different words. Usually it is very, very obvious. Sometimes not as obvious and it requires a lto of work to figure out.
Hebrew, doesn't have the same intermixing of languages that English does. Certainly not at the time of the exodus. Later it interacted with some others like aramaic, but that was near the time of Christ.
Hope this helps,
Bart
Dogmatism is the comfortable intellectual framework of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is more decadent than the worst sexual sin. ~ Dan Allender
