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  • From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
  • To: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Inspiration
  • Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 19:43:53 -0700

Shoshanna,

I'm not sure what Jim was thinking specifically, but if you don't mind me jumping in: many North Atlantic Christians (and maybe others, I'm just speaking from my own milieu) tend to make a distinction between "inspiration," defined as God prompting the production of _written texts_, and the broader concept of "revelation," defined as God communicating with human beings for a variety of purposes. If God said to Abraham, "Fear not, I am your shield and your great reward," that would be "revelation." If God said to Moses, "Write down the words of this covenant" (that is, the Ritual Decalogue, Exodus 34), that would be "inspiration." I don't know if Jim was really thinking about that distinction, but I personally tend to find it a helpful one. To summarize: the term "inspiration," in North Atlantic Christian discourse anyway, tends to be limited to divinely-prompted _composition of texts_. It's just a vocabulary thing (from my point of view).

I think Jim is right to the extent that I can't think of any _biblical_ Hebrew term for what Christians mean when they say "inspiration." On the other hand, I do think that the _concept_ is present (see my other post). Without doing an extensive search, my hunch is that there is a Hebrew biblical vocabulary for "revelation," but it is pretty simple, usually just "God said ..." I have been working through Ezekiel recently, and the concept of "revelation" in the sense "You/they shall know that I am YHWH when x, y, z happens" is a recurrent theme.

Best wishes,

Chris

On Aug 1, 2005, at 7:32 PM, Shoshanna Walker wrote:

Why, what do you think G-d speaking to people - Avraham, Yitzchak,
Adam, Noach, Moshe, etc. - is?

Shoshanna





there is none. the concept of "inspiration" is a completely christian
notion- and the Hebrew Bible says nothing of it.

Best,

Jim


Kevin Riley wrote:



A question raised by a recent [and now ended] discussion: is there any
clear evidence in the Hebrew scriptures or in Hebrew writings from *before*
the exile that give us a clear picture of how the ancient Hebrews perceived
inspiration [or whatever you want to call the process of God causing the
scriptures to be written]. It seems to be assumed that they viewed
inspiration in one of the ways we do, yet I wonder if we have any evidence
of that, and if so what it is? I don't want a reply that tells me what
inspiration is, or to start a discussion on which current view is correct -
just what actual original evidence we have for an ancient Hebrew
understanding of it.

Kevin Riley

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--
D. Jim West

Biblical Studies Resources - http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
Biblical Theology Weblog - http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com

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--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352
http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
http://www.iTanakh.org
http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info




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