Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Dear Sameer, Moderator, et. al.
I thought we were discussing the meaning of ra' in Isaiah 45:7.
Liz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-
> bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Sameer Yadav
> Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 2:28 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [b-hebrew] FW: origin of evil
> 
> 
> Moderator?  Isn't the question of theodicy outside the scope of this
> discussion list (unless it is discussed in connection with elucidating
some
> feature of a corpus of Hebrew texts or their ANE context)?
> 
> - sameer yadav
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lisbeth S. Fried
> Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 11:33 AM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] origin of evil
> 
> Dear Harold,
> Are not disasters evil??? What about the Tsunami, which killed over
300,000
> men, women, children, babies? You say that God as only good must have some
> ulterior good motive for killing all those people? If God has free will,
> acts, is a moral agent, and commits disaster, then he also does evil, as
he
> is quoted as saying.
> Best,
> Liz Fried
> >
> >
> > HH: God says that he creates evil, so of course you can say that. But
> > clearly moral evil is due to moral agents, and God as a moral agent does
> > not produce moral evil because he is holy. However, angels and men do
> > produce moral evil by contravening God's good will.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > HH: Right, but I think Isa 45:7 is using the term "evil" in the sense of
> > "disaster." I understand what you are saying about moral evil being a
> > by-product of God's creation of the world. However, it was not a
> > necessary by-product, since it is due to the free will choices of moral
> > beings. He was not the direct Creator of moral evil, since it arose
> > through angels and human beings.
> >
> > Yours,
> > Harold Holmyard
> >
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