Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

I doubt that the text means that one of the "men" was YHWH, accompanied by
two angels. I'm sure that you know the midrash, that explains that since
each angel is sent for a single mission at a time (Shoshanna referred to
this at one point), the angel that was sent to tell Abraham that Sarah would
have a child had done his bit and went back to heaven. The other two
continued to Sodom, one to destroy the city and the other to save Lot.

Of course, this interpretation also makes a lot of assumptions that are not
in the text.

Yigal

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 1:23 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Fw: 2Sam24:1 v. Gen18:1-3


> On 8/14/05, Yigal Levin wrote:
> > James, I don't know what text you're using, but in my BHS, verse 3 says:
> > "And he said, ADONAI...", spelled out, NOT YHWH. The narrator lets us
know
> > that it was YHWH who appeared, but Abram doesn't know it until verse 10.
In
> > verse 9, the three still address Abram as three people, "and they
said...".
> > In verse 10, it's suddenly "and HE said...". This is the point at which
> > Abram realizes that it's God who's talking.
>
> Actually, if one follows the text onwards, up to the point that
> Abraham makes his
> plea for Sodom and Gommorah, the text seems to convey the idea that there
were
> indeed three "men," but one of those "men" was "Yahweh."  This is because
three
> men come, then "the men" leave for Sodom and Gomorrah, but Abraham is
still
> standing before Yahweh, then after the plea, Yahweh leaves, and the two
angels
> arrive at Sodom.  It appears that the text is calling only one of the
> three men who
> came to visit Abraham as "Yahweh" although this is never made explicit.
If one
> adopts this reading, I am not sure that Abraham is not aware that one
> of the "men"
> is "Yahweh" from the beginning.  In your analysis above you seem to
> suggest that
> in verse 10 they speak as one group in the name of Yahweh.  However, that
"and
> he said" in verse 10 could simply be a reference to that one member of
> the three
> (who is called by the text "Yahweh").  There are multiple
> interpretations of what is
> going on here.
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
>
>
>