Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Doug:

On 7/14/06, Revdpickrel AT wmconnect.com <Revdpickrel AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 7/14/2006 3:30:28 PM Central Daylight Time,
> kwrandolph AT gmail.com writes:
>
>
> James:
>
> There are more questions here than meets the eye.
>
> For example, what does it mean "to call upon the name of YHWH"? Is
> this an indication that at this time people were starting to worship
> other gods,
>
> Look who we have living: Adam and Eve, who walked and talked with God, but
> now have rebelled.  Abel is dead, Cain has gone out and left the presence of
> God to become a wanderer upon the earth.  Seth, a third son, has turned to
> God in prayer.  Do you think this little family has made false gods?
Is this still that small a family? After all, we are talking 235 years
after the fall into sin. How many other sons of Adam and Eve had been
born, only not listed because their descendants all perished in the
Flood? The daughters were not listed other than the generic notice in
5:4. By this time several generations of Qain's family were listed,
thus the implication is that there were several hundreds, if not
thousands, by that time. After all, who were the other people that
Qain was afraid of when he murdered his brother?
> As for the section from 2:5 to 5:2, the literary formula indicates
> that it was written by Adam himself. The next section was written by
> Noah, where he ends his section without a list of descendants
> following it because it went directly to the section written by his
> sons.
>
> Karl, I mentioned this last year on this forum and was stoned.  There are at
> least  twelve such colophans indicating at least twelve authors.  Genesis 5
> is the first indicating Seth as the second writer.  Each "This is the book
> of the generations of " is an indication of a different writer.
Where is the indication that Seth is the writer? Where is he named in
the literary formula?
> As for the authorship of the last 14 chapters of Genesis, this was
> about the time that the ancient literary formula was dropping out of
> style, to be replaced by the modern one where the author and title are
> at the front of the document. At least this is the historical pattern
> that I was told.
>
> We need to be careful not to eisegete into this section.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
> Why do we need to be careful not to eisegete the last 14 Chapters of
> Genesis?
>
> Doug.
>
> Rev. Doug Pickrel, Litt.D.
> Tejas Valley
> San Antonio, Texas

Actually, I am suspicious of all eisegesis, but Genesis is especially
prone to eisegesis. There are a lot of places where Genesis makes
implications, even strong implications, but does not provide details.
That Qain was afraid of other people is an example of just such an
implication, understandable only if there were many other people to be
afraid of.

It is eisegesis to try to fill in the details that are implied, and it
is so very tempting.

Karl W. Randolph.