Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Satan

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Satan
  • Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 04:09:02 -0500

Dear Yigal,


HH: God does not have to create moral evil. If there is free choice,
there can be evil. You have it just backwards in assuming God must first
create evil in order for free will to exist.


I'm not sure what "creating moral evil" means. If God created everything ex-nihilo, then there is nothing that "just exists" by default. If there is what WE see as evil, then God must have created it, for reasons of His own. We might not be able to understand His reasons for doing so.




HH: Moral evil is due to a contradiction of God's will, so God does not have to create it. It is simply a perversion of something He has created. He created the human will, which is capable of contravening God's will. When we do that, moral evil arises, first of all disobedience. God hates moral evil and does not create it, just as he does not incite murder:

Prov. 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Psa. 11:5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.

Prov. 6:16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
Prov. 6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Prov. 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Prov. 6:19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

HH: He does not create the things he hates.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




Satan is a rebellious angel in Christian thinking.


I know, but not in (most) Jewish thinking, and only based on a very imaginative interpretation of the Tanakh.



The Tanakh shows a pattern of progressive revelation, more and more
being revealed as time passed. Christians believe that the Tanakh shows
an incomplete angelology and demonology, which later revelation
clarifies.


Ditto.

Yigal Levin
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew

.







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page