errancy
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| Date: |
Thu, 16 Aug 2001 06:18:02 -0500 |
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Errancy Archive <errancy@errantyears.com> |
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Robert Turkel on the DH |
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-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Robert Turkel on the DH Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 23:10:56 -0400 From: "John P. Kesler" <kesler2@charter.net> Reply-To: errancy@infidels.org To: <errancy@infidels.org> KESLER J.P. Holding (Robert Turkel), in his article titled "To Be Seen, or Not to Be Seen: Is the Bible Contradictory Concerning God's Visibility?" ( http://www.tektonics.org/visiblegod.html), unwittingly admits to what proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis believe: that Yahweh is a more anthropomorphic deity than Elohim. Of course Turkel does not put it this way. In an attempt to prove that the Bible does not contradict itself regarding whether God can be seen, Turkel proposes that "Elohim" is God's "majestic power" name, and so in instances where Yahweh appears to people, this does not really count as an appearance since God's "majestic power" was not manifested. Turkel's is a tacit admission that Yahweh is a deity more directly involved with people than Elohim, in perfect accord with the DH. In a previous post, I mentioned Turkel's way around the DH while at the same time acknowledging that Moses did not write the whole Torah. He simply said that Moses signed off on the writings of others so Moses was the "author," in the same way that modern writers take credit for the work of ghost writers; thus, differences in writing style in the Pentateuch pose no threat to Moses' "authorship." Take a look at the quotes below. They show the lengths some will go to to keep a cherished belief, no matter the evidence to the contrary. TURKEL QUOTES: Gen. 17:1, 26:2 -- Although these are the first places where it is said that God appears before someone, there is very little that can actually be drawn from it. God "appears" -- but in what form? It is perhaps important to note that in both cases, it is Yahweh who appears before Abe and Isaac -- not Elohim, God's "majestic power" name. We'll get more into this shortly. Amos 9:1 -- Now here again, note that it is Yahweh who is seen -- not the majestic Elohim. Admittedly there are a couple of places where Elohim does appear to people (Gen. 35:9, 2 Chr. 1:7), but the rarity of the usage suggests that this is the result of the known process of scribes incorrectly substituting the divine name where it should not be. But then again, even without that, there is no indication that what was seen was God's glory, as opposed to some sort of other manifestation. John Kesler kesler2@charter.net |
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