Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David N. da Silva" <huyxh8s02 AT sneakemail.com>]

Peter Kirk writes:

> But the statement of mine which you
> quote relates only to "anyone who
> believes in the "Divine Origin" of the
> Torah". Are you saying that there
> are such people who reject the
> fundamentalist position? 

I don't know if there are, but there certainly could be.   God, wishing to 
bring the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, could have transported 
them in a flash, but chose rather to bring about the same result by speaking 
a few words to a shepherd with a speech impediment.   He allowed his chosen 
implements to work, sometimes in a fallible way - mistakes he could have 
prevented from happening, but chose not to.   How would such a being, given 
his desire that a book should exist, set about the process of bringing it 
into existence?  I would say that to suppose he would simply dictate the 
text, is like supposing he would simply transport the Hebrews to Canaan.   He 
just doesn't work that way.   It is more consistent with his known actions to 
work through humans, and allow them to be human.   It seems rather to suppose 
a certain crudeness and lack of subtlety to suppose he would dictate the 
text.   But this does not make the text not of divine origin - any more than 
it was Mosheh, rather than Yahweh, who brought the children of Yisra'El from 
Egypt. 

If a fundamentalist is one who thinks that the text was dictated by God, then 
 I would say it is certainly possible to believe in the divine origin of the 
text without being a fundamentalist. 

David Nunes da Silva
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