Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Loren Crow wrote:

> Not angels, certainly, but the HB is not unambiguous on the matter of who
> is there when God creates.  Prov 8:22-31, particularly v. 30, may very well
> have Dame Wisdom there assisting God in creation.  She's certainly there,
> at least.

Interesting suggestion, Loren. But Dame Wisdom doesn't have any place in the 
Genesis narratives. It
seems too great a jump outside the context to include her as having any part 
to play in Genesis.

> Even in Gen 1:27 and 5:1-2, the "image of God" is a plurality of
> beings, both male and female.  It may very well be that we have in both of
> these texts a remnant of (what is clearly demonstrated as a possibility by
> the archaeological record) the co-creatorship of Yahweh and his consort.
> In other words, they may *very easily* be "inconsistent with other parts of
> OT theology."

We must also consider the evidence of Gen 11:7 where YHWH speaks a similar 
statement of intent. I
suggest that this is simply the way the Israelite/Jewish deity addressed 
himself when he makes a
statement of intent. It is not restricted only to uses of ELOHIM - it occurs 
with usage of YHWH
also. In 11:8, the statement is that YHWH goes down and confuses men's 
language. No other entity is
mentioned in this action. It just seems to be the way Yahweh-god speaks to 
himself and makes up his
mind.

> And you can put those $.02 in the bank!  ;-)

Ditto.

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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