Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Josiah's book of the Law

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Josiah's book of the Law
  • Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 09:27:12 -0600

A good trick, since there was no temple in Ezekiel's day as far as we know.
The key phrase here is "in a vision." I would think it's rather obvious that
this is figurative language. Moreover, we know from Kings - as I believe I
already said - that various images, idols and altars had been set up in the
temple in Josiah's time. Getting rid of them was part of his recorded
reform. But Jim, it would be good to read what I actually wrote. Dora said
there was "graffitti [sic] scrawled everywhere...blessing Yahweh and Ba'al
and their jointly held wife, Asherah." First of all, the connection to Ba'al
in the Kuntillet Ajrud inscription is tenuous at best, and second, to my
knowledge, that's the only inscription found so far that describes Asherah as
a consort (if that's what "his Asherah" means) of YHWH. You can drag in
various figurative visions and things like this, but I was addressing one
specific statement about one specific inscription. Frankly, we have no idea
whether this "vision" of Ezekiel's described something literal or served as a
metaphor for Judah's unfaithfulness. You clearly want to take it literally;
do you do the same thing with the wheels within wheels in the earlier
chapters? Weird figurative imagery is one of the hallmarks of Ezekiel in
general.

On Monday 08 August 2005 08:29, Jim West wrote:
> Dave, you are wrong about this. In Ezekiel there are a number of
> passages where Ezekiel goes, in a vision, into the Temple, and sees
> what's going on behind "closed doors". There he observes all manner of
> inscriptions and drawings of bugs, beasts, animals and idols. Not only
> were there inscriptions to other gods in Jerusalem- they were in the
> temple itself. See Ezekiel 8, for instance.
>
> Best,
>
> Jim
>
> Dave Washburn wrote:
> >>And graffitti scrawled everywhere - in and out of Jerusalem - blessing
> >>Yahweh and Ba'al and their jointly held wife, Asherah.
> >
> >Um, no. There's one inscription, rather vague, and it was definitely not
> > in Jerusalem.

--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Well, if I'd wanted a safe life, I guess I wouldn't have
married a man who studies rocks." - Betty Armstrong (Fay Masterson)




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page