Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Evgeny Ivanov <evi7538 AT yahoo.com>]

Just a note. Christian concept of "inspiration" comes
from Apostle Paul's 2-nd epistle to Timothy (3.15)
"All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to
teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in
justice,"

Eugene 

--- "Heard, Christopher"
<Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu> wrote:

> 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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> >> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >>
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > -- 
> > 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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> 



                
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