Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

Yes, just a vocabulary thing - that's almost what this whole list is 
about, after all.

Also a belief thing - if you believe, as many do, that G-d wrote the 
Torah, but that Moshe put it into physical form (since we believe 
that G-d, pure spirit, does not acquire physical properties, limbs or 
bodies, and therefore was not the entity who put the Torah into 
PHYSICAL form), and that therefore, Moshe did it by inspiration - 
actually I think he did it by automatic writing - which is actually 
the same thing.

I am not going to argue with those of you here who don't agree, I am 
stating my belief, which is not ONLY my belief - no matter how small 
a minority I or we are on this list.

Shoshanna




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