From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:34:48 -0400
Jim, I can't EVEN read your run-on sentences.
G-d said that Avraham was a Prophet and that he knew. You keep
changing the subject, you are GROPING to disprove the Torah. NOT MY
PROBLEM!
All the rest of your post is just changing the subject, if you
believe that a few human beings wrote the Torah, then you are going
to be subject, forever, to endless doubts as to what it reports, how
true it is, what it means, who said what, what is true and what is
false - and I admit, if you have a tendency to promote your own ideas
about what the Torah "really" is saying, - then this position, that a
few people wrote the Torah - certainly would suit your purposes - and
you could go on forever ignoring whichever information, as suits you,
that is given PLAINLY in the Text, in order to promote whatever
arbitrary ideas you would like to believe.
For instance, if, as you claim, S'dom was in the North, and not in
the Dead Sea area, where ALL THE MOUNTAINS ARE MADE OF SALT (maybe
you don't know Israel so well, but you can actually break off pieces
of the mountains, and they are pieces composed of crystals of SALT,
and salty to taste), then you would have to call G-d a liar for
reporting that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for
turning around to look at S'dom up in the north - after all, if the
whole story took place in the north, WHERE THERE ARE NO SALT
MOUNTAINS, then that is much more of a geographical impossibility
than that of Avraham being able to see the SMOKE of the destruction
of 4 cities from not a lot of miles west of them, which is not
impossible at all - as I could see the actual waters of the Dead Sea
from Jerusalem.
Layla Tov
Shoshanna
Shoshanna:
If YHWH had told Abraham, in a conversation not reported in the text, that
nothing had happened between Abimelech and Sarah, then why wouldnÄôt
Abraham be
ecstatic with joy at IsaacÄôs birth? Sarah is ecstatic with joy at IsaacÄôs
birth, but Abraham says nothing.
ÄúAnd Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
And Sarah said: 'God hath made laughter for me; every one that heareth will
laugh on account of me.Äô And she said: 'Who would have said unto Abraham,
that Sarah should give children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old
age.' And the child grew, and was weaned.Äù Genesis 21: 5-8
Abraham is not reported to praise YHWH upon IsaacÄôs birth. Abraham is not
reported to say one nice word to or about Isaac prior to the binding
incident.
Why?
The author of the Patriarchal narratives has not made a ÄúmistakeÄù, nor
has
he ÄúoverlookedÄù this issue. Rather, the author is forcing us to consider
that Abraham may have had doubts about what had happened, or not
happened, when
Sarah was in AbimelechÄôs household.
Perhaps nothing at all happened. But based on what the text says, it does
not appear that YHWH told Abraham that nothing had happened. That is a key
element in the text.
I agree with you that the text is perfect, as is. But I do not agree that
these stories are simple. The author is laying his real point between the
lines a little bit.
It may well be that nothing in fact happened between Abimelech and Sarah,
but what I am saying is that Abraham does not appear to know that.
That is the key for making this story work, historically. Abraham must have
a bona fide doubt, for many years, as to whether Isaac is his blood son or
his adopted son. It is virtually certain that in fact, Isaac is AbrahamÄôs
blood son. Though much less certain, nothing at all may have happened
between
Abimelech and Sarah. But the key is that Abraham is not sure what did or did
not happen between Abimelech and Sarah. ThatÄôs all IÄôm saying.
If Abraham had been certain from the beginning that nothing at all had
happened between Abimelech and Sarah, Abraham would have jumped for
joy at IsaacÄôs
birth. The text reports, however, that whereas Sarah waxed lyrical at
IsaacÄô
s birth, Abraham said nothing (other than to confirm IsaacÄôs divinely-given
name). AbrahamÄôs silence speaks volumes as to what Abraham knew for sure
from YHWH, and what Abraham had his doubts about.
In the end, Isaac is AbrahamÄôs blood son. But the way the text tells the
story, Abraham was not sure about that for many years.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois