Delivered at Provo, Sunday Afternoon, August 28th, 1881, Reported by Geo. It is this difference, which lies at the heart of the distinction between the two interpretive methods described above. [20] Moreover, even if the Torah had been written from one perspective only, in one clear and flowing style, that would not have proven that it came from God. This is something best accomplished by narrative, not by list of laws or principles. He did his Ph.D.in Jewish thought atBen Gurion University, focusing on the writings of Rav Kook. 18The genealogical enrollment included [k]all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, for the whole assembly, for they consecrated themselves [l]faithfully in holiness. Conversely, if the Torah is only telling stories, it would appear, at first glance, more difficult to account for the similarities between its stories and those of the surrounding cultures. The power of a story cannot be found purely in the ideological explication of the divine message contained within, even if the message once understood, requires a person to live up to it in his or her life. 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? Even for such a person, something still lingers from the dissonance required in reframing the story as ahistorical. 8When Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and (J)His people Israel. 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 Join today!. These could now be understood as virtually physical expressions of the divine message. One reason why they did so was, that he had gone into those places which his father considered sacred, and among the wooden gods which were there, and, being filled with anger that his father should bow down and worship gods of wood and stone, he broke them. God stopped him from actually following . My suggestion avoids this problem altogether. Kush was the son of Ham, the lowest and least important of Noah 's three sons. These were the feelings of Abraham, and he taught his father's house, and all around him, as far as he had the privilege. It is this perspective in particular, and the interpretation of the event expressed in it, that is of interest, religiously speaking, for within this retelling of the event lies its religious value. 22 And Terah bowed down to his gods, and he then went away from them, and Abram, his son, went away with him. They meant the world to me and taught me crucial lessons. On its own, the sentence can be understood as conveying the opposite meaning, as a call for those involved in studying the exodus from Egypt to remove themselves from the present, to transport themselves through time and view the event the way it would have been viewed by Moses and Aaron, Datan and Abiram. In essence, we exchange a conversation about God for an encounter with God. Completely erase the names of their gods! [8]In fact, seeResponsa Rashba1:116, where Rashba makes this point. In a world where there are many doubts about the historicity of core events in the Torahs narrative,[24] establishing the palace of Torah upon a higher foundation would seem to be a constructive goal. 26 And Abram saw on the day when he was sitting amongst them, that they had no voice, no hearing, no motion, and not one of them could stretch forth his hand to eat. Now, believing it is safe, Abram leaves Noah's home and returns to his father Terah. Instead, the text of the Torah should be understood on its own terms; the Torah itself is the matter being studied. 2 Chronicles 34:7 - Josiah Destroys Idolatry - Bible Hub Idols Are Destroyed 31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the memorial stones in pieces, cut down the [ a]Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until [ b]they had destroyed them all. Please support us. I expected my father to punish me, but he never said a word. 1. Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 14 - English Standard Version Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. So Nimrod declares they worship water. Anyone who accepts the seven mitzvot (of the Noahides) and is careful not to violate them should be considered one of the righteous gentiles and has a share in the World to Come. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Although I felt able to push the first question into the sidelines, the second question seemed to me more problematic. 35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going out. Abram Destroys Terah's Idols | We Are Israel The Bible tells us the Lord said to him: Get thee up from thy fathers house, from the land wherein thou wast born, and go up to a land I will show unto thee, and which I will afterwards give unto thee for an inheritance. And we are told that he went up, not knowing whither he went. 4, It is said Abrahams father was an idolater, and that he had a number of gods in his house. Douay-Rheims Bible And when he had destroyed the altars, and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. And why wilt thou not sense the God of the whole universe, who created thee and in whose power it is to kill and keep alive? 18 And Abram went from them, and his anger burned within him. In contrast to the midrash, the Bible itself never credits Abraham with monotheistic beliefs. Therefore, it is the job of the historian to tell his or her story about history. 635-637 [Hebrew]). A similar point was made by R. Abraham Kook inEder ha-Yakkar, (Jerusalem, 5726), p. 42. This is true even for a person who can digest the nuances of the ahistorical approach to the Torah. Abraham, Cursed by His Own Father and Banished Again Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children[ a] by her." Start for FREE. A woman enters to offer food to the idols. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of It is a post-biblical story imagining the early life of Abraham. His Test Abraham leaves the home of his childhood and youth. Rambam expressed this idea in his unique idiom. (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. One time a woman came carrying a dish of fine flour. ! [Terah] took him and brought him before Nimrod (. Why did God choose to limit the divine creative impulse to the (apparently) inadequate framework of narrative? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?, If I find forty-five there, he said, I will not destroy it., 29Once again he spoke to him, What if only forty are found there?, He said, For the sake of forty, I will not do it., 30Then he said, May the Lord not be angry,(Z) but let me speak. why dost thou worship . My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help. 31 Abraham 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." 32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. When the Torah describes various events that appear to be rooted in a concrete time and place, its account is more a retelling than a reconstruction. When Abrahams father learned what had happened, he of course was greatly exercised; he inquired of Abraham who had done it. 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. Abraham's father, Terah, joined the adamant opposition to his son in Harran, which indicates that he had continued to cling to his profession of making and selling idols. Abraham and His Father's Idols A Concordance of Abraham in The - Scribd In response to the first question, I admitted that I am not trying at all to prove that the biblical author was God. And Abram hastened and went from the chamber to his fathers outer court, and he found his father sitting in the court, and all his servants with him, and Abram came and sat before him. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. Abraham's father in fact agrees with Abraham regarding idol worship unlike the Qur'anic version! In verse 7 God said the covenant He established with Abraham was to be everlasting and that He alone was to be God to Abraham and his offspring. The believer, who adapts the divine message to his or her own life, chooses to look upon the events of the past described in the Torah from the divine perspective. Abraham responds that people withstand wind. Bible verses related to Idols from the King James Version (KJV) by Relevance. See also the words of Maharal of Prague about Abraham and Sarah in hisGlosses on Aggadot(part 3, p. 83), but compare these with his comments inGevurot Hashem(ch. that there is a real God, then that God will save him. 2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Over the years, the interpretive tradition has taken this statement far out of its original meaning, which refers to the way a person is to behave on the night of the 15thof Nissan, and turned it into a key phrase describing Jewish consciousness in general. His father came in and asked what he had been doing, what great sin this was that he had committed, why he was so sacrilegious in his feelings and so wicked as to seek to destroy these gods? 27 And Abram mocked them, and said, Surely the savory meat that I prepared has not pleased them, or perhaps it was too little for them, and for that reason they would not eat; therefore tomorrow I will prepare fresh savory meat, better and more plentiful than this, in order that I may see the result. See,Iggrot Raayahvol. Donate. A divinely originated narrative has no need for real historical events in order to grow sinews and flesh and become something substantial. At this point, Terah took Abraham to Nimrod. See:The Guide of the Perplexed, 1:1. what makes muscle tissue different from other tissues? New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. 20 Bible verses about Abandoning Idols - Knowing Jesus This Midrash can be interpreted as an example of persecution against those of monotheistic beliefs during a time when polytheism dominated.[8]. 47 And how can you continue to do this and serve gods of wood and stone, who cannot hear, or speak, or deliver you from oppression, thereby bringing down the anger of the God of the universe upon you? Does the Torahs Abraham really need the historical Abraham in order to claim an important role in Jewish religious consciousness? 15 And Terah his father was in those days, still captain of the host of king Nimrod, and he still followed strange gods. But Abram said that the largest of the idols had killed all the others in a fight over an offering brought to them. For an English version explaining Breuers approach, see: Mordechai Breuer, The Study of Bible and the Primacy of the Fear of Heaven: Compatibility or Contradiction, inModern Scholarship in the Study of Torah(ed. 32 Bible verses about Child Sacrifice - Knowing Jesus And Terah answered his son Abram and said, Behold those who created us are all with us in the house. 11Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare (M)rooms in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. The giving of the Torah at Sinai turns a story or mitzvah included in it into the barometer for proper religious behavior. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. 51 And he said, I beseech thee my lord, to hear meNow fifty years back a child was born to me, and thus has he done to my gods and thus has he spoken; and now therefore, my lord and king, send for him that he may come before thee, and judge him according to the law, that we may be delivered from his evil. [19] The various literary layers identified by biblical scholars in the text do not contradict its status as divine. went away on a journey, and he left Abraham in charge of the store. Terah, having heard the crash of the hatchet on the stone, ran to the room of the idols, and he reached it at the moment when Abraham was leaving it, and when he saw what had happened, he hastened after Abraham, and he said to him, What is this mischief thou hast done to my gods? Abraham answered: I set savory meat before them, and when I came nigh unto them, that they might eat, they all stretched out their hands to take of the meat, before the big one had put forth his hand to eat. She said to [Abraham]: Here, offer this before them. [Abraham] picked up a staff and broke [the idols] and placed the staff in the hands of the largest of them. (For instance, not to say that God uses rational and beneficent thinking. Nimrod proclaims to Abraham that we should worship fire. Abram Rescues Lot. Berean Standard Bible Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles. 60 And if thy wicked heart will not hearken to my words to cause thee to forsake thy evil ways, and to serve the eternal God, then wilt thou die in shame in the latter days, thou, thy people and all who are connected with thee, hearing thy words or walking in thy evil ways. One approach (the older and more nave one) claims that the job of a historian is to make a copy of the past and place it, as-is, before present day students of history. 29 And Abram took the savory meat from his mother, and brought it before his fathers gods into the chamber; and he came nigh unto them that they might eat, and he placed it before them, and Abram sat before them all day, thinking perhaps they might eat. This story is taken from The Book of Jasher 11:21-49, Terah, in response to Abrahams question to him about who the God was that had created heaven and earth and the children of men, took him to the hall wherein stood twelve great idols and a large number of little idols, and pointing to them he said, Here are they who have made all thou seest on earth, they who have created also me and thee and all men on the earth, and he bowed down before his gods, and left the hall with his son. "Turn from Thy burning anger and change Thy mind about doing harm to Thy people. F. Gibbs. [22], Getting accustomed to this kind of thinking about the Torah is required, in my opinion, if a person wishes to acquire the ability to raise his or her faith in Torah from a peripheral attachment to an essential attachment to its contents. Therefore, we should be careful not to miss even a single hint or implication that may be imbedded in the direct speech of God to us. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. Although Hajar is Abraham's second wife she is the first to bear him a son, Ishmael. Nevertheless, this possibility brings to mind the old joke about the elephant and the ant. Abram is now 50 years old; he has lived with Noah and Shem for 39 years and a cave for 10. Rijksmuseum 1 The Midrashic Abraham Rabbi Chiyya said: Terah was an idol worshiper. [1] Many commentaries throughout the generations have taken up this question; see, for example, Ramban on Genesis 11:28 and Maharal of Prague inNetzah Yisrael, ch. (C) 18Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation,(D) and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. These events are seennot without causeas being singular and special. Thou speakest lies to me. Deuteronomy 9:13-14, "Let me alone that I may destroy them." Abraham did destroy his father's idols though. It is precisely the struggle of thinkers like Rambam and Rav Kook that can be most helpful in answering such questions. Later, a woman walked into the store and wanted to make an offering to the idols. Powered by WordPress. The way the Sages understand Scripture is quite different. To attempt an answer, I suggest that dry mechanical lists of rules, such as do not murder and do not steal, couldnt accomplish the transmission of lofty values to humankind. Designed using Unos Premium. If the religious value of events comes from their being included in the word of God, let us allow God to speak to us in Gods own language, and to tell us the divine story with its entire force. Access 50+ premium resources. 34 And when he had done breaking the images, he placed the hatchet in the hand of the great god which was there before them, and he went out; and Terah his father came home, for he had heard at the door the sound of the striking of the hatchet; so Terah came into the house to know what this was about. Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 13 - English Standard Version Abraham grabs a stick and smashes all the idols, except the biggest one, in whose hand he places the stick. 21Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in the Law and in the commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and (X)prospered. There have been responses that take a more conservative approach; see, for instance, Adam Zertal,A Nation is Born: The Altar on Mount Ebal and the Beginning of Israel(Israel: Yedioth Aharonot, 2000), 292 [Hebrew]; Yitzhak Meitlis,Excavating the Bible: New Archaeological Evidence for the Historical Reliability of Scripture(Bartleby, 2012). Thus, we can say that there is no reason not to ascribe great literary prowess to God. So, one day when I was very young, I went to our basement and smashed on the concrete floor every bottle of liquor! his father put him in charge of caring for the idols, and Abraham tried to discourage people from bringing them offerings. Oops! 3He also appointed (D)the kings portion of his property for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed festivals, (E)as it is written in the Law of the Lord. Abraham Wrecks Terah's Idols - LDS Scripture Teachings Abraham is cast into the fire and is saved by God. [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. ), or adding matres lectionis (). I am not surprised, therefore, at the literary prowessvery much like human literary prowessdemonstrated in Torah by its author. So he got a club, or some other weapon, and knocked off the heads of some, the arms and legs of others, and made a general wreck among the idols, but left the biggest untouched. And Abram answered the king, saying, And if there be no power in them why dost thou serve them and cause the sons of men to err through thy follies? 1, pp. Abraham, Smasher of Idols, and the Question of the Torah's Historicity Christian Standard Bible If this is a story, he said, it is a very human story. My thanks to Hillel ben-Sasson for sharpening this point. Shalom Carmy; Orthodox Forum; Northvale: Aaronson, 1996), 159-180. 1 Kings 15:13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. [9] Kugel's interpretation continues in the tradition of looking at this midrash as part of the analysis of monotheism. 5 From . Each one of them said, I will eat first until the largest of them picked up the staff and shattered the others. [Terah] responded: Why are you trying to fool me? In order to answer this question let us investigate the basis for this phenomenon: what is the point of writing? Abraham's brother Haran sees what happened and says that he believes in the God of Abraham. 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. This second approach, in my opinion, works well with what seems to be occurring in the biblical narratives. Said he, Father, I did not do anything to them, they quarreled among themselves and went to work fighting and knocked one another down, broke one anothers heads and knocked off one anothers arms and legs. Oh, said his father, my sons do not tell me anything of that kind, for they are made of wood and they could not move or stir from their place nor knock one another down; it has been some other agency that has done it. Why, father, said he, would you worship a being that could not stir or move, that had hands and could not handle, that had legs and could not walk, a mouth that could not speak, and a head and it was of no use? However, see the words of Maimonides about Adam, Eve and the serpent inGuide of the Perplexed(2:30). Because of the signs in the heavens that were associated with his birth Nimrod tried to kill him at that time. Intuitive attachment to our inherited traditions is common to all people, regardless of education. For an overall discussion of his approach by other scholars, see: Yosef Ofer (ed. [2] Terah also made and sold idols, as the Midrash Genesis Rabbah 38 explains. // Javascript URL redirection Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! 2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. 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 Are they not wood and stone, and have I not myself made them, and canst thou speak such lies, saying that the large god that was with them smote them? Ibn Munzir said that pictures and statues made of wood or metal, etc. 2. Save 15% for life on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. 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. Start your free trial today! Will you really sweep it away and not spare[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Once he went on a trip and he placed Abraham in charge of the store in his place. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. When Terah. [5]A lot has been written about the principle of the slippery slope. See, for example, the essay by Yuval Cherlow, Halacha and the Slippery Slope,Akdamut23 (5769): 33-48 [Hebrew]. 44 And now surely it is not good for thee nor for the sons of men that are connected with thee, to do these things; are you so silly, so foolish or so short of understanding that you will serve wood and stone, and do after this manner? Genesis 18:16-33 NIV - Abraham Pleads for Sodom - When the men - Bible [1] According to Jewish tradition, Terah was an idolater. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. 58 Dost thou not know, or hast thou not heard, that this evil which thou doest, our ancestors sinned therein in days of old, and the eternal God brought the waters of the flood upon them and destroyed them all, and also destroyed the whole earth on their account? [b](P) 23Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? [27] Putting this view forward before those who believed that God had a body probably caused those believers a crisis of faith. New Living Translation Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. According to many Jewish and Islamic sources, the two did meet, and their meeting was symbolic of the confrontation between either: And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.. Muhammad describes Abraham's anguished attempts to reason with His father and persuade him to accept a new divine Message this way: "O my Father! Sons were born to them after the flood. So Abraham took a stick, smashed the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. The second approach, however, is rather surprising. [25] Freeing the Torah from its historical crutches not only frees the narrator from having to keep the narrative in line with past events, but it also neutralizes the basis for the attack against the validity of a person maintaining his or her faith. The Bible says we should put living in a righteous manner above all other pursuits of the flesh and mind. Such a perspective does not diminish the connection between humanity and God; it strengthens it.[23]. Understanding the Torah this way can strengthen the deep vitality buried in its every story, every verse, every word even every letter. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.".
Famous Colchester United Fans,
Adobe Fonts With Tails,
Pasta Dough Turned Grey In Fridge,
Ella Emhoff And Julia Garner Relationship,
Nerdwallet Summer Internship,
Articles A
