Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dear Bryant,

That's a perfect illustration of my point. In our culture, saying that "all 
men are created equal" menas that all men have the same basic civil rights, 
and that one man should not own another. We also real "men" as including 
women. But that's not how it was understood in the 18th century. In most of 
the world incluing the US women had very few rights, and neither did blacks. 
In many places, even white males had to own property in order to vote. If 
you would ask them what "all men are created equal" meant, the answer would 
be something like "all have the same chance at salvation". In the two 
centuries that have passed, we have re-interpreted that dictum to refer to 
civil rights, political rights, the right to an education and so on. Would 
Jefferson agree with out interpretation - that's anybody's guess.

Yigal Levin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>; "b-hebrew" 
<b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dinah raped?


> Dear Yigal,
>
> Karl's question is very good, but your answer is actually incorrect since,
> in most cases the following has occurred. First, the confusion of
> application with interpretation. Second, the violation of key hermeneutic
> principles. Third, just because the hermeneutic is correct does not mean
> that the application was perfect.
>
> Example: Thomas Jefferson wrote (relying on John Locke) in the Declaration
> of Independence, "that all men are created equal." Yet he did not free any
> of his slaves even upon his death bed with the exception of only 5 slaves 
> on
> July 4, 1826. Now, did Thomas Jefferson believe in what he wrote. Yes. The
> application was definitely faulty. Thomas Jefferson also excised from his
> Bible what he did not like about God's actions. That is confusing
> application with interpretation.
>
> Respectively yours,
>
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
> To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 9:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dinah raped?
>
>
> > Very good question, Karl, and probably way too philosophical for this
> list.
> > But let's take a little example, which I hope nobody on this list
> considers
> > to be contemporary. In the decades leading up to the American Civil War,
> > people on both sides of the pro and anti-slavery debate, many of whom 
> > were
> > God-fearing Christians and Jews, used and quoted the Bible to support
> their
> > views. Now, 150 years later, all (I hope) civilized people consider
> slavery
> > to be abhorrent, and to quote the Bible to support it would be considered
> to
> > be perverted.
> >
> > No doubt that human values have evolved and (hopefully) advanced over
> time.
> > The Bible has had an immense influence on this evolution, but the Bible
> has
> > also constantly been reinterpreted over time in pace with that evolution.
> > The Bible is a huge collection of works, and every generation "connects"
> to
> > those parts in which it finds meaning and comfort. In part, this is what
>
> > makes the Bible relevant to so many millions of people, thousands of 
> > years
> > after it was written.
> >
> > Yigal Levin
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
> > To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 5:14 AM
> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dinah raped?
> >
> >
> > > Yigal:
> > >
> > > "We must be very careful of assuming that the authors of the Bible
> shared
> > > the
> > > same views on "morality" that modern-day Jews and Christians do. This 
> > > is
> > > especially true for matters of sexual behavior."
> > >
> > > The question is, how much of the modern mores are based on Biblical
> > > ones? In other words, how well have people understood the Biblical
> > > ones and translated them into their own? Or how much of the modern
> > > understanding are taken from contemporary mores and eisegeted back
> > > into Hebrew?
> > >
> > > Karl W. Randolph.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > b-hebrew mailing list
> > > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> >
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