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  • From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Is.45:7 God created evil?
  • Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 18:03:26 -0700

Karl,

It seems to me that the verb, however, does not mitigate the _direct discourse_ presented at the end of 2 Sam 24:1. YHWH, or perhaps more precisely the anger of YHWH, "says" (אמר )MR) to David, "Go, count ..." That is much more than "allowing."

Chris

On Aug 4, 2005, at 5:55 PM, Karl Randolph wrote:

Let me add a lexicographic note: the verb used in 2 Samuel
was not that God commanded David to number the people,
rather that he instigated the action, i.e. allowed the
temptation to occure. David could have resisted it, but
didn't.

The verb is SWT to instigate, rouse into action.

True, this is understanding the text in the same manner as
1 Corinthians 10:13, which not everyone here agrees with.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>



Dear Chris,

...
HH: The Chronicler relied on the documents in 1 & 2 Samuel, or to
sources from which 1 & 2 Samuel derived. So any reader would or could
discover that the "adversary" was God. All the Chronicler would have
done was obscure the truth, which the reader could eventually
discover anyway and still be left with the same theological issue. It
seems much more helpful that he clarified how God was acting only
indirectly through His providential permission of Satan's action. The
Chronicler made plain what the reader of 2 Samuel was supposed to
understand, that God is sovereign over all that happens, however it
happens. The words "God did such and so" allow for secondary agency
and even secondary will. By changing "God" to "Satan" the Chronicler
shed spiritual light on a text (1 Samuel 24) that required some
sophistication to read properly.

HH: The text in 2 Samuel obliges one to insert an agency like Satan,
even though it is not stated. For God could hardly command someone
directly to do something and then punish him for doing it (2 Sam
24:13-17). And David could easily have exonerated himself on the
grounds of obedience if God had directly commanded him to act, but
instead he feels guilt (2 Sam 24:10). He feels he has sinned (v. 17),
acting contrary to God, not in obedience to Him. What is implicit in
the Samuel account is made explicit by the Chronicler.

Yours,
Hariold Holmyard


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





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