Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Wednesday 02 July 2003 12:24, Liz Fried wrote:
[snip]
>  Liz can you give us other
>
> > examples where pagan deities are shown in the OT as responding
> > favorably to
> > human sacrifice or any other kind of sacrifice?
> >
> > This isn't a rhetorical question, I really want to know.
>
> Well..., I don't think it's relevant really.....
> Just cuz one episode sneaks in, that doesn't mean there'll be more.
> Uh, how about Exodus 7:11,22; 8:7???

Maybe I missed something, but the RSV says that the Egyptian magicians did 
these things "by their magic arts."  There is no mention of sacrifice of any 
kind, particularly no mention of human sacrifice (which, AFAIK, the Egyptians 
didn't do).

More to the point, how reasonable is it to suppose that the 
author/compiler/whatever of Kings would let even "one episode" "sneak in" of 
a foreign deity defeating YHWH?  Not very likely, methinks.  And even 
supposing that the original writer of the episode intended such a meaning, 
are we truly to believe that a Deuteronomic redactor (if there was such a 
thing) would let it go by without revision or comment or some other 
treatment?  I doubt it.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"God does a lot of things in the Psalms
that He can't get away with in systematic theology."