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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Is.45:7 God created evil?
  • Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 16:20:45 -0500

Dear Chris,

Specifically, in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it is _not_ ”˜ËÔ [H&+N] that incites David to count the people; it is merely ˜ËÔ [&+N] (no definite article). Now the lack of a definite article is very important here, it seems to me. For the verse ought not be translated "Satan opposed [stood against] Israel, and incited David to count Israel," nor "The Adversary opposed ..." since there is no definite article, but rather, "_An_ adversary opposed ...," with an indefinite article. Now I wonder--I have not done the real legwork on this yet, so I'm thinking out loud--whether the Chronicler thinks he is referring to YHWH, or an entity other than YHWH, by this word, indefinite ˜ËÔ [&+N]. The Hebrew word ˜ËÔ [&+N], of course, does not _inherently_ refer to some malignant supernatural entity; see 1 Kings 11:23-25, where the noun ˜ËÔ [&+N] refers to a purely human opponent, though one who, importantly, was incited _by God_ to be such. Moreover, there is nothing semantically out of bounds about God being a ˜ËÔ [&+N], or at least we can say that at least one writer had no trouble characterizing the ÓýÏÍÝȔ” [M)LK YHWH] "angel of YHWH" as a ˜ËÔ [&+N] to someone (Numbers 22:22). Clearly, the Chronicler is altering his Deuteronomistic source text. But is he completely changing the referent, or just using a subtle circumlocution?

HH: It seems to me that it would be a useless change unless it were to
"Satan."




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