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  • From: "B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] FW: origin of evil
  • Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:56:54 -0400

B-Haverim,

The list server had some problems for a few days,so I am sending this post a second time. The original made it into the archives, but I think it may not have been mailed out to the list. Forgive me if this is the second time you are receiving it.

**********

When Isaiah says that YHWH creates xoshek and ra`, he means that YHWH has created the disaster for Israel at the hands of the Babylonians. In other words, YHWH creates devastating judgment.

As to the origin of this figure in the Gen creation account, there are indications that Isaiah (and Jeremiah and others) thought of the dark and watery world of Gen 1:2 as being the result of God's judgment. See Isaiah 34:8-16 (and Jeremiah 4). If so, there was pre-existent light that God had darkened as judgment. "Create darkness" in the code means "judge."

The Bible is not meant to be a physics textbook, so the hang-up on darkness being the absence of light is really off the track.

I think an appropriate translation in Isa 45:7 is "disaster."

Shalom,
Bryan

--
B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13026
(W): 315.437.6744




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