Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Fred P Miller <fmoeller AT ao.net>]

Oh I should not get in a controversy.  But equating rejection of secret codes 
with
"stodgy olde" PHD's defending their commentaries is more than I can take in.  
Also who

is Tsadowq?  I had supposed people writing to the list especially with such a 
long
tome and so self confidently would have an identity.

But to get on with it,  I am not a "scholar" but  a student who finds better 
aims for
my time in trying to understand the mind of the Bible writers through grammar 
and
contextual concepts.  When most of us, "scholar" and student alike, have not 
mastered
the actual meaning of all difficult texts I find little use for schemes that 
treat the

greatest collection of literature in the Western Word like a magic 
"Nostradamian" code

book.  Let me assure you that I am a believer in the inspiration of the 
recorders of
the written record of the Jews and early Christians and that Jesus of 
Nazareth is to
me the expression of  the Triune Godhead.  Having said this I am put off by 
the idea
that rejecting literary games with numbers is somehow lining me up with the
unbelievers.  Why did the writer, whoever he is, need to use numbers to show 
that The
Nazarene is understood by the Gospel writers to fulfill the figure of Moses 
raising
the serpent on a stake by Himself being crucified in Jerusalem for the 
healing of the
sins of the nations.  You do not need numbers to read what the text says and 
arrive at

what is commonly understood facts of Christian beliefs. Perhaps the numbers 
people
have difficulty with grammar and context and find the elitism of "codism" a 
good place

to hide their difficulty with being able to read.
-
Fred P Miller
For Bible Study Majoring in Isaiah
Http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller