Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Penner <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Cc: Daniel Wagner <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: Qoheleth


> Dan wrote:
> 
> > i always believe what the text intends that we believe.
> 
> I am surprised and intrigued by this policy of yours.

I am surprised that you are surprised! (Although i'm glad you're intrigued, 
considering that you are surprised!) It is the standard historical position 
in evangelical, fundamentalist, reformed, Lutheran, and some other circles of 
faith. It is not necessarily the position in new-evangelical circles, and of 
course it is fully discounted in neo-orthodox and liberal circles.

> Do you limit its
> application to authorship, or does it extend to other claims made in texts?

I extend to all claims. Authorship just happened to be the issue here.

> Does it apply only to certain texts, or to all?

To all canonical texts of the Protestant Bible, and only to those texts.

> 
> If this is off-topic, we can continue the discussion off-list.

Much of it is off-list; not all. We just had a big discussion not long ago 
here on inspiration and the like. I believe there are only two possible 
options: (1) the Bible is a uniquely human book and is as reliable as any 
work of literature might happen to be, religious or otherwise, and must be 
examined as such; (2) the Bible is essentially and fully a divine book, 
having its origin in God rather than in independent ideas of its human 
writers, and therefore is fully authoritative and reliable on whatever 
matters it speaks. Since i reject no. 1 as untenable on numerous bases (many 
but not all of which are off-list), i accept it to be fully reliable and 
ultimately from God. Thus, since it claims inerrancy for itself, as one of 
the matters to which it speaks, i accept that as doctrine. 

Concerning an "on-list" area of the above, i refer you to BH passages such as 
Psalm 19 and 119. To keep it fairly short, just a quick focus on Psalm 19:

There is a structure to this psalm immediately evident, even in the 
translations, and the changes in structure correspond with the changes in 
content. The first section is about what theologians usually refer to as 
"general revelation," that is, that which we can learn of God through means 
other than propositional statements of prophecy or in Scripture. The stars 
and sun, for example, declare God's glory, _KABOD_, His "assets" (for that 
meaning of "glory" see Psm. 49:17-18). The structure here is fairly 
consistent (i'm not going to detail the metrical/syntactic patterns here). 

The next section is on "special revelation," or the propositional 
self-revelation of God. It focuses clearly on the written text, referring 
especially to the Pentateuch, but not necessarily exclusively to that. Thus, 
the "law," "statutes," "commands," etc. are all fully reliable. Specifically, 
the word of God is described as:
(1.) "perfect" _TAMIM_ 86x; over 1/2 (44x) translated "without blemish" or 
"without spot" in reference to sacrificial animals 
(2.)  "sure" Nif. participle of _)MN_-translated 90% "faithful" or "sure" cf. 
Isa. 22:23 of fastening something heavy with "a nail in a sure place." 
(3.)  "right" _Y$R_ "straight, level" (BDB); Jer. 31:9 The Lord will lead to 
"walk by rivers of  water in a straight way, in which they shall not 
stumble." 
(4.)  "pure" _BAR_ or "clear" only 7x total; 2x of a clean/pure heart; Song. 
6:10 "clear as the sun;" Prov. 14:4 of a clean stall
(5.) "clean" or "pure" _TAHOR_; in Lev. used in reference to leprosy, etc. if 
one was "clean" or not; Ex. 25 of "pure gold;" Mal. 3:3 "a refiner and 
purifier of silver." 
(6.)  "true" _)eMET_ 1Kg. 10:6-7 Queen of Sheba did not believe the report 
about Solomon until she saw and realized that "it was a true report that I 
heard." 
(7.) with the verb _CDQ_, the root meaning "righteous" or "just" = conformity 
to a standard, e.g., Lev. 19:35-6 "You shall do no unrighteousness in 
judgment, in measure of length, in weight, or in quantity. Just balances, 
just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall you have: I am Yahweh your 
God." 

This section is extremely consistent in meter and syntactical/semantic 
arrangement. I conclude from the difference in consistency that the writer 
intends that we recognized a greater precision to special revelation in the 
written word concerning God than we do in the general revelation through 
creation. It's obvious to me from the points above that the writer intends to 
communicate that absolute reliability of the law (emphasized in primarily in 
the adjectives, above), as well as its practical effectiveness to life 
(emphasized by the verbs, which i don't delineate here).

The final section is extremely free poetry, both in theme and meter. Perhaps 
that is because it is the most "human" part of the psalm -- man's emotional 
response to general revelation and especially to special revelation and what 
it will do (when it is believed) because of how reliable it is. In the 
structure alone, God's special revelation has extreme consistency, general 
revelation also to a lesser degree (because it requires greater human 
interpretation and gives less precise information about God), and the human 
response is totally free/emotional.

In any case, i hope you can understand why "i always believe what the text 
intends that we believe," even if you might not agree. It is the only 
alternative i know of to viewing Scripture as a completely human book, void 
of any information that is *necessarily* binding as true, as authoritative, 
or as from God. It's an "all or nothing" as far as absolutes go, and the 
"nothing" option is untenable within the scope of my knowledge (and because 
of other off-list presuppositions i have). 

Dan Wagner

> 
> Ken Penner
> Ph.D. student, Biblical Field (Early Judaism)
> McMaster University
> Hamilton, Canada


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