Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

Hi Carl,

At 10:39 AM 7/10/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Bryan Racine wrote concerning the paroket: "It bars the human race from a 
>face-to-face communion with the Lord.  It symbolizes the harsh judgment of

>separation from God that is upon us all due to our sinfulness."
>
>This appears to be an interpretation that imposes the later Christian
doctrine 
>of original sin on the text of the Hebrew Bible. I would be much more 
>comfortable with an interpretation that understands cultic/spatial
barriers 
>such as the paroket within the context of biblical/priestly notions of
holiness 
>in the sense of separation.
>
>Carl Ehrlich

I am not sure with what in my post you are uncomfortable about or what you
prefer.  "Our sinfulness" and "original sin" are not necessarily equivalent
terms.  

Do you mean that I should not use broad terms such as "human race," "us
all," or "our sinfulness" because they represent a generalized
interpretation that reaches past the boundaries of the YHWH cult?  I guess
I can see your point.  I may have made too large an interpretive leap for
the discipline of this forum.

But should I not connect the judgment of sinfulness with the barrier at
all?  The meaning of your phrase "notions of holiness in the sense of
separation" is a bit elusive.  Lev 16, in describing the rites of _yom
hakkiPPurim_, makes it clear that the once-a-year passage into the
_KaPPoret_ past the _ParoKet_ required the sacrifice of a bull for the sin
of the high priest and his family and a scapegoat for the sin of Israel
and, in fact, for atonement for the very tent and altar.  Doesn't this
indicate that the judgment of sin is the barrier for which the _ParoKet_ is
a symbol?  

Shalom,
Bryan