From: jwindley%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Jay Windley)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: a little confused...
Date: 8 Apr 92 06:21:30 GMT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

It is important to remember contextual clues when doing this sort of
thing.  Juxtaposing apparently contradictory biblical material, if not
done with due consideration to context and possibly qualified meanings
can have dangerously misleading results.  For the most part, the
context of these passages has been preserved, or can be deduced.

dove@elaine9.Stanford.EDU (Dav Somebody) writes:

>Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any
>thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
>that is in the water under the earth.  Exod 20:4
>
>And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou
>make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.  Exod 25:18

But the cherubim were not made "unto thee."  That phrase in the first
passage is important, because it denotes the purpose of the
manufacture.  The implication is idolatry.  And yes, the "unto thee"
applies to everything in the list that follows, according to Hebrew
grammar.

The concept of God's laying down a general law, then superseding or
contradicting it under specific circumstances is not unknown in
Judeo-Christian theologies.

>The doers of the law shall be justified.  Rom 2:13
>
>By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.  Rom 3:20

This is sort of sneaky because it resolves merely upon closer
inspection and doesn't require any textual analysis.  The first
passage describes WHO will be saved, and the second passage describes
HOW those individuals WILL NOT be saved.  The first passage leaves
open the process by which the faithful will be justified.  They are
not justified by the doing of the law, but by the grace of God, as
3:20 implies.  The reader might desire to think of 2:13 as reading
"The doers of the law shall be justified [by such deeds]," but this is
incorrect and not implied.

>There is nothing too hard for thee ... Behold, I am the Lord, the God
>of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?  Jer 32:17,27
>
>And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the
>mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley,
>because they had chariots of iron.  Judg 1:19

"He" in the passage from Judges probably refers to "Judah," not "the
LORD."  I don't have the Hebrew in front of me, but this would be
consistent with similar forms whose Hebrew I do recall.  So the
assumption is that the LORD was not with Judah as they fought the
inhabitants of the valley.  After all, the LORD did not always fight
on Judah's side.  But grammatically, it's Judah that's failing, not
the LORD.

>Be not afraid of them that kill the body...  Luke 12:4
>
>After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in
>Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.  John 7:1

This is one in which the contextual information necessary to
understand the passages presented has been conveniently deleted (the
rhetorical term is a "rail split").  The first passage is merely an
antecedent to the warning which follows: beware him who has power to
cast you into hell.

In this sort of construction, it is not a given that the antecedent is
unimportant.  It is to be understood that the regent phrase is
considerably more important than the antecedent -- nothing more.  I
can use the same construct with a different set of axioms and come up
with: "Don't worry about your severed hand, we're about to be hit by a
train!"

I don't think any of us would consider a severed hand unimportant, but
being hit by a train is a danger of a much higher order and demands
action.  In the absence of a train, I think the severed hand would
demand action.

Now Jesus wasn't in any danger of being cast into hell, so he had
every reason to avoid those who sought to kill him.

Along these lines is the oft used proof-text for the completeness of
the biblical canon, 2 Tim. 3:16, which reads:  "All scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
[and for a whole list of other things]."  Those who so cite not only
put a period after "All scripture is given," they put an exclamation
point.

This is equivalent to reading the sentence  "All stoplights in Salt
Lake City have been built by the city council, and are useful to
control traffic," and from that deducing that all stoplights have been
built in Salt Lake City, and that Salt Lake City will never have any
more stoplights.  Just as we tacitly understand the above sentence to
mean "All stoplights in SLC [which have heretofore been built] have
been built by the city council..." so we understand Paul to say "All
scripture [which has hitherto been written] is given by inspiration of
God."

Rail splits are ugly things.

>---
>I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
>fathers upon the children... Exod 20:5
>
>The son shall not bear the iniquities of the father... Ezek 18:20
>---

Along with the ones I deleted at the top, I have no answer for this
one on textual grounds.  Any takers?
--------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Jay Windley                     | jwindley@asylum.utah.edu
Department of Computer Science  +---------------------------------------
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City   | "I have detailed files."  -- T2