This second approach, in my opinion, works well with what seems to be occurring in the biblical narratives. Philip Munoa notes that 'the Testament of Abraham studi- ously avoids physical description of God when describing Abraham's heavenly ascent and tours of heaven explicitly identifying God with can they hear thy prayers when thou callest upon them? 25 And his mother did so, and she fetched a kid, and made savory meat thereof, and brought it to Abram, and Abram took the savory meat from his mother and brought it before his fathers gods, and he drew nigh to them that they might eat; and Terah his father, did not know of it. Our analysis of the truth problem leads us to this summary statement: Whenever we as readers encounter a description of an event in the Torah, the main concern for us as students of Torah is not the reality of the event as it happened but the event as described in the biblical narrative. I discuss this halacha in greater detail in the book. 2 Chronicles 31 NASB - Idols Are Destroyed - Now when all this - Bible Take the flood story, for example. An ahistorical Torah is not subject to being disproven by archaeology or academic historical reconstructions. 20 And Abram said to his father, My lord, shew them to me I pray thee; and Terah brought Abram into the chamber of the inner court, and Abram saw, and behold the whole room was full of gods of wood and stone, twelve great images and others less than they without number. Save 15% on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. This one, enraged against them on account of their behavior, took the hatchet and broke them all, and, behold, the hatchet is yet in his hands, as thou mayest see., Then Terah turned in wrath upon Abraham, and he said: Thou speakest lies unto me! Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Writing, not just in these examples, is a reality substitute of great value. So Laban searched through all the tent, but did not find them. When Terah. Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine plural, Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural, Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural, Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun, Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural, A Phoenician goddess, also an image of the same, Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun, Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct, gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative, Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural, Holy things must be eaten in the holy place, and holy things must be eaten in the holy place, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, OT Law: Deuteronomy 12:3 And you shall break down their altars (Deut. The ant says to the elephant, Just look at the dust-clouds were making!. 48 Now therefore my father refrain from this, and bring not evil upon thy soul and the souls of thy household. What if only thirty can be found there?, He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there., 31Abraham said, Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?, He said, For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it., 32Then he said, May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. (Joshua 24:2), there is no Biblical record of him actually making Abraham did destroy his father's idols though. Shalom Carmy; Orthodox Forum; Northvale: Aaronson, 1996), 159-180. [15]With regard to the sciatic nerve, the Mishna states (m.Chullin7:6): The rule applies to clean animals but not to unclean ones. Rav Kook, in his analysis of this approach, found that Rambam made use of it as he wrestled with Aristotles notion of an eternal universe. It is thou that didst place the hatchet in his hands, and then sayest he smote them all. Abraham, Smasher of Idols, and the Question of the Torah's Historicity ORLOV 'The Gods of My Father Terah' 35 Testament of Abraham, also deny the possibility that God has a human- like form. Terah exclaimed that such a thing was impossible, since idols could not quarrel or fight. ! [Terah] took him and brought him before Nimrod (. Save 15% for life on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. When he or she reads the accounts of our father Abraham in the Torah and wishes to understand their significance, what he or she wants is not to find out more about the (possible) historical character behind the story but to encounter the protagonist of the narrative, i.e. Designed using Unos Premium. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. Thou speakest lies to me. 9Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. Its meaning is not dependent on external evidence; its narrative descriptions should not be characterized as reconstructions or preservation of past events. (R) 25Far be it from you to do such a thing(S)to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous(T) and the wicked alike. In many ways, the challenge faced by such a person is similar to the one faced by Rambam when he tried and demonstrate to the world that God has no body. [16] Only from the time of its inclusion in the Sinai covenant could a given law become the Archimedean point for the spiritual makeup of a person. Moreover, the traditional approach to Torah, which accompanies the study of the written text, greatly emphasizes the function of studying the past for contemporary times. Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! returned from his journey, he found his merchan- My gods cannot fight; they have legs, but they cannot walk; they have arms, but they cannot use them; they have eyes and ears, but they cannot see nor hear. Why, father, said Abraham, is it possible that you worship a god that cannot hear or see, walk or use himself at all? The god of the Christians, according to their own description of him, being a god without body, parts or passions, would be as unlikely to hear them when they called upon him, as were the gods of Terah, Abrahams father, when he called upon them. 13 "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou didst swear by Thyself, and didst say to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall Whereupon Abraham responded by saying that you deny their knowledge, yet you worship them! Finto: Iconclass: Abraham destroys his father's idols Terah was the father of Abram (his name was later changed to However, see Rambams comments inThe Guide of the Perplexed(3:50) as well as chapter 5 of my book. 50 And Terah, seeing all that Abram had done, hastened to go from his house, and he went to the king and he came before Nimrod and stood before him, and he bowed down to the king; and the king said, What dost thou want? Rambam, in contrast, uses this claim to explain why God commanded humans to act in certain ways and forbids them to act in others.) 5 From . All rights reserved worldwide. 13Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers [g]under the authority of Conaniah and his brother Shimei by the appointment of King Hezekiah, and (O)Azariah was the chief officer of the house of God. [28]Rambam himself understood that this was the way his opponents conceptualized the issue. See,Iggrot Raayahvol. When a man would come to buy [an idol], [Abraham] would ask him: "How old are you?" Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: Judges 2:2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? This can be seen clearly in the rich collection of essays, edited by Lee Levin and Amichai Mazer,The Polemic about the Historical Truth of Scripture(Jerusalem, 5761) [Hebrew]. In the book of Abraham, translated in our day and generation, we are informed that Abraham was bound, and those priests sought to take his life, but the Lord delivered him from them. [25]This imagery comes from Rav Kook. 2 Kings 23:14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. The first statement, the simpler one, would probably be acceptable to anyone. When his father saw that his son Abraham had broken his gods he was very angry with him. [11]It is virtually impossible to exaggerate the political, sociological and emotional implications of this assertion. The priests of those days offered sacrifices to their gods, and, like the priests of these days, they were generally opposed to new revelation from God. It is precisely this struggle with which I attempt to grapple in my book. Child sacrifice. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem . 15[i]Under his authority were (P)Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in (Q)the cities of the priests, to distribute their portions faithfully to their brothers by divisions, whether great or small, 16without regard to their genealogical enrollment, to the males from [j](R)thirty years old and upwardeveryone who entered the house of the Lord (S)for his daily obligationsfor their work in their duties according to their divisions; 17as well as the priests who were enrolled genealogically according to their fathers households, and the Levites (T)from twenty years old and upward, by their duties and their divisions. [23]My view here stands in stark contrast with that of Rav Kook, who criticizes the ahistorical approach to biblical narratives. The commentary explains what happened to Abraham when he was a young boy working in his father's idol shop. Note: This essay was translated and adapted by Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber, with the approval of Rabbi Dr. Kula, from the introduction to his book, Existential or Non-Essential. A business deal that took place before witnesses, but without documentation, can end up being a source of dispute and fraud if the witnesses disappear and never return. [18]It must be admitted that the long genealogical lists, which specify the origins of the entire human species (see, for instance, Gen. 4:18-5:32), stand in some tension with the above-offered claim.
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