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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Evil & God
  • Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 11:37:17 -0500

Jack:

As a lexicographer, I am troubled by the translation of
R( as "evil". It may be that my understanding of the
English term "evil" is defective.

I understand "evil" as a close synomyn to "wicked",
always including a theological or moral aspect. An
avelanch that kills a mountain climber cannot be "evil"
as it has no moral concept. Similarly, a man-eating
animal simply acts out its instincts, it does not have
moral will, therefore it too cannot be evil. An example
of this is Genesis 37. From these and other uses of R( I
conclude that "evil" is not its root meaning, rather it
refers to displeasure, often extreme displeasure as in
trouble, pain, grief, even disaster.

However, R( is often caused by people who are moral agents.
In those cases a translator may use the word "evil" because
the moral aspect is not out of place. In those contexts,
the translator needs to be careful because he is adding a
moral concept to a term that in Hebrew does not carry the
moral force even while allowing it.




A final objection is
philosopphical/theological. If God
is morally good, he cannot create or cause evil. To do so,
that would make him the devil. He can allow, even cause,
bad things to happen, displeasures to the extreme, as
correction, punishment, but that is not moral evil. He
allowed the disaster of Nebucadnezzar to come with the
exile, but in that he was merely consistant with his
promises to Moses, that he would bring on military
disaster, even exile with persecutions as punishment for
the people if they refused to follow his commands. And
after the exile, we find that the nation never again
openly worshipped the idols of the nations. He will also
allow temptations, as ways of testing giving opportunities
for growth, tempering that temptation so that it is not
beyond our capacity, yet we in our perversity often choose
to fail. Again, that is not moral evil on the part of God.

For the reasons given above, I, as a lexicographer, cannot
render R(, the verb R((, the adjective R(/R(H, and other
terms from the same root as pertaining to "evil".
Displeasures, disasters even, but not moral evil.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: tladatsi AT charter.net

>
> In regards to the Bible connecting evil and God, there are
> more than a few such references beyond Isaiah. Deuteronomy
> 30:15 says * See, I have set before thee this day life (ha-
> khayim) and good (ha-tob), and death (ha-mevet) and evil
> (ha-ra)* . In Judges 9:23 God sends an *evil spirit *
> (rukh raah) between Sechem and Abimelek as punishment for
> the crimes of Jerub-Baals sons. Four times in 1 Samuel 16
> Saul is afflicted by an *evil sprit from God * (rukh-Elohim
> raah). In Neh 13:18 it says *? and did not our God bring
> all this evil (ha-raah) upon us ?*. Job asks his wife
> rhetorically?*What? shall we receive good at the hand of
> God, and shall we not [also] receive evil (ha-raa)*?
>
> Jack Tladatsi

--
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