Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>]

(n.b. I am finding it difficult to answer to the list with my response mode;
please forward if necessary: tlt)

> ----------
> Fra:  Thomas L. Thompson
> Sendt:        13. januar 1999 10:59
> Til:  'Lloyd Barre'
> Emne:         SV: Clarification
> 
> My purpose was to encourage more explicit references to what is only
> implicit. To refer to a biblical monotheism can have many different -- and
> possibly contradictory -- implications. The use of Elohei shamayim may
> well refer to the transcendent and universal, but a reference to Yahweh as
> Israel's elohim is a reference to a very specific deity among the many
> deities of this world (cf. Deut 32:8) and to the transcendent divine only
> by refraction. The use of  references as "the holy ones" or metaphors of a
> heavenly counsel and the like on the other hand are what we call
> polytheistic, but which may implicitly echo references to a transcendent
> unity and an effort to speak of the transcendent in self-consciously
> ephemeral mode. I don't like the word henotheistic because I feel that
> using it often confuses literary motifs with theological beliefs. Yet,
> speaking of "one's god" itself has henotheistic implications as do
> references to the gods, the devil, etc. to say nothing of the way the
> authors of some texts in the Bible refer to gods of the past.
> 
> Our own scholarly abstractions I think oversimplify, distort and falsify.
> I don't think what we reference as biblical monotheism was always opposed
> to ancient forms of polytheism; at times monotheism is an effort to
> abstract from the ephemeral and human language about the divine. I think
> for many of our texts gods have clay feet in contrast to the divine which
> transcends understanding. For this I use the term inclusive monotheism. In
> this worldview, Yahweh is not god but his name, an hypostasis, god's son
> or mal'ak.
> 
> Thomas
> 
> Thomas L. Thompson
> Professor
> University of Copenhagen  
> 
>       ----------
>       Fra:    Lloyd Barre[SMTP:barre AT c-zone.net]
>       Svar til:       Lloyd Barre
>       Sendt:  12. januar 1999 21:43
>       Til:    Biblical Hebrew
>       Emne:   Clarification
> 
>       Dear Thomas L. Thompson,
> 
>       I don't know what you being by stating the various forms of beliefs
> such as
>       monotheism, henotheism and polytheism do not exist but a relative
> terms
>       invented by scholars.  Would you clarify, please?
> 
>       Lloyd Barre
> 
> 
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