Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 23/06/2006 03:36, Harold Holmyard wrote:
> ... (quoting the official list guidelines)
> Please honor the following guidelines in all your contributions:
> • Debate that forces particular faith or doctrinal perspectives onto a 
> reading of the text is not appropriate subject matter for this forum.
> • Proselytizing ("seeking to convert someone to a certain religious 
> faith") is also not appropriate. Naturally, each of us will share our 
> own understanding from our own perspective, but this should not be done 
> with the goal of changing other participants. ...
>   

It seems to me that Shoshanna has been persistently breaching the first 
of these two guidelines with her insistence on reading the text in the 
light of the so-called "Oral Torah", whose existence (at least from 
earlier than late the Second Temple period) and authority is her faith 
and doctrinal perspective. While she has not been openly proselytising, 
the way that she has been arguing for her position reads rather like 
trying to convert others to her faith position. Attempts to convert 
anyone to Christianity would rightly be rejected on this list. A similar 
position should be taken on Shoshanna's propaganda for her own brand of 
Judaism.

As for John's mention of Hillel, it seems from 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder that remarkably little is 
known about him and his teaching. Maybe Jesus did take some of his 
teaching; on the other hand, if as this page suggests Hillel was the 
head of the Pharisees in Jesus' time or shortly before, why were they 
following Shammai's teaching when Jesus confronted them? On the other 
hand, it just might be that the Pharisees accepted some of Jesus' 
teaching, but because they had rejected Jesus as a person (not for his 
teaching but for his claim to be the Son of God) they attributed the 
teaching they had accepted to the late and venerated Hillel. But it is 
interesting to read that Hillel may have been the inventor of the doner 
kebab!

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/