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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Oxen & Oxcarts in the Exodus

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: tladatsi AT charter.net
  • Cc: mattfeld12 AT charter.net, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org, peterkirk AT qaya.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Oxen & Oxcarts in the Exodus
  • Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 03:04:38 +0000

On 31/12/2005 01:54, tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:

Peter,

I am confused by your response. You seem to be suggesting that you are disagreeing with me that the Exodus was a series of miracles. Your explanations for the appearance of oxen and carts seems to me to suggest that divine agency is not at work in the story of the Exodus. The text of Genesis (and Numbers) make it quite clear that the author intended for the reader to understand the events to be miracles, i.e. events impossible to explain except by the direct intervention of Yahweh. As such, things that would not normally occur, do. Oxen in the desert would be a miracle but that would not really be out of place in the story of Exodus.

So, are you sayig that the story as told in Exodus was not miraculous or did I mis-understand your posting.


I am not saying that the story was not miraculous. There are certainly miraculous elements in the story. However, I suppose I believe in a certain economy of miracles. God certainly could have made it miraculously possible for oxcarts to cross the Red Sea. But the text does not say that he did, and there is an alternative non-miraculous explanation for the presence of oxcarts at Mount Sinai. Therefore, rather than postulate that a miracle took place for which there is no biblical record, I tend to prefer the simpler suggestion that the Israelites made or bought the carts in Sinai.

I suppose my explanation makes more sense if you believe as I do that this is a factual account and that the miracles recorded in the Bible really did happen. Of course some people might hold that in fact this is an account of goings-on in a fantasy world in which miracles happen, whereas for these people they don't happen in the real world. But even fantasy worlds are usually governed by regular physical laws most of the time, and so the principle of economy of miracles still makes sense.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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