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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] g(r Psa. 106:9 - exorcism?
  • Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:54:56 -0600

Dear Clay,

What prompted my query is the notion that monotheism of the Psalmist reduces
the physical universe to dead matter of 20th century materialist. That Psalm
106:9 is just talking about moving some water aside to make a path and there
is no other dimension to this. No cosmic conflict between spiritual beings
represented in this event. This "flat" reading of the text is really quite
common.

HH: Well, anytime you have God speaking and nature responding, there is something more than flatness. But if the universe's very creation began with God's saying "Let there be light," we know that nature will be responsive to God's word. If there is a verbal aspect to g(r in Ps 106:9 and in EPITIMAW (Mt 8:26; Mk 4:39; Luke 8:24), and there evidently is, then we might want to think in terms of forces of nature endangering people and being rebuked on that basis. The term EPITIMAW is also used when Jesus rebuked a fever that endangered Peter's mother-in-law (Lk 4:39). If the Sabbath exists for man, then in a sense nature exists as his home. When it threatens him, God can rebuke it.

HH: I don't know how much you can read into a divine "rebuke." Whether we should think of personification of nature, imagine demonic powers at work, or suppose ancients conceived of nature as alive is not clarified in the text. Writers of that era seem perfectly capable of conceiving of nature as simply nature. The latter chapters of Job suggest this. They could use mythic and poetic elements to demonize or personify nature, but it is hard to know how seriously they took the imagery as they used it. If Isaiah says the trees clapped their hands, I gather he is a poet conveying an image of joy. I don't automatically conclude that he saw nature as spiritually alive. So unless the context clearly informs me that demon exorcism is present, I am not likely to import that meaning into the text by the mere presence of a word like "rebuke." However, that does not mean that there might not have been demonic forces at work in some situations. But the Red Sea just sitting there does not conjure up the forces of demonic evil in my mind, despite the use of "rebuke," and despite the imagery associated with Yam. It strikes me more that the Red Sea represented an obstacle threatening the survival of the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. God rebuked it, or drove it away, in its threat to Israelite survival.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard



Psa. 106:9 wyg(r byM-swP

Bryan, I take it that you would have no problem with the suggestion that g(r
with yM-swP as an object involves subduing a hostile spiritual force, not
just the physical event of making a path through the sea.



greetings,
Clay Bartholomew



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