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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] 'Prophesying' 1 Samuel 18:10

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 'Prophesying' 1 Samuel 18:10
  • Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 11:12:15 +0100

On 07/07/2004 01:17, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

...
HH: The precise connotation of the Hithpael does not have to be the same in every context.


Absolutely. Hebrew "stems" have very variable meaning and don't always correspond to what we might think. I wonder if the hithpael of NB) actually means more than "prophesy continuously or habitually", whereas the niphal tends to mean an individual prophetic message.

...

I don't like "rave" either because it implies something about the physical manifestations which we don't really know.


HH: BDB doesn't give "rave" as a gloss for NB) like the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew does, but it does indicate that NB) in the Hithpael can involve frenzy, excitement to violence, and an ecstatic state. ...


Well, at this point I am with Karl in asking you not to be too dependent on dictionaries, and in this case especially on dictionaries which seem to want to reinterpret Hebrew texts according to a modern western worldview. I expect that Clines, Brown, Driver and Briggs don't/didn't believe that spiritual beings can affect human behaviour and speak through people. But the ancient Hebrew authors clearly did believe this. It seems likely to me (although not certain, see my reply to Brian) that in this context RUAX refers to an independent spiritual being affecting Saul (and BDB agrees). So to interpret in terms of mental illness or altered states of consciousness is imposing an alien worldview on the text.

In a situation like this, lexicographers need to become anthropologists. Studies of animism, shamanism and folk Islam (which is mostly pre-Islamic) are more likely than studies of modern mental illness to give a clue to what this "prophesying" was.

...

HH: David played the lyre to soothe the mental disturbance of the king, which amounted to mental illness:


I see the writer's viewpoint as more that there was a spiritual battle here: the "evil" spirit was troubling the king, but the Spirit of YHWH had just (16:13, the juxtaposition is not random) come upon David in power (and with what manifestations, I wonder?) and so was more powerful than the "evil" spirit and could drive it away from Saul.

...

HH: I think that "rave" can used today of people claiming divine speech, if they manifest wildness or mental illness. ...


Indeed, in a pejorative sense. And so it fits well at Jer 29:26 for MESHUGGA'.

... So I don't find "rave" bad at 1 Sam 18:10, and "prophesy" strikes me as a bit flat or odd. The reader knows that Saul has been possessed or harassed by an evil spirit. You might say that the whole situation was odd.


I agree that it is all rather odd, certainly from a modern western viewpoint. Again, I suspect it will seem less odd to someone knowledgeable about shamanism, folk Islam etc.


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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