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On Lawn (1073)
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Heh, It's Raining. (c:
Genesis 12
Abraham is unique. Is he a prophet? Is he a miracle worker? Is he a leader/priest of a nation? The word I most often hear to describe Abraham's role is one that I share -- father.
He is a father, and that is about it. He isn't like other prophets who send a message to the nation to repent, or lead a nation out of bondage, his role is entirely familial as far as I can tell.
He travels in a strange land, and is promised to have that land. But, first he takes a trip to Egypt where his wife is taken. She is freed by a plague on Pharaoh's house and Abraham leaves with lots of cattle and sheep that he got from there.
I'm honestly sure there isn't much more to take from this chapter other than how it is a simplified type of the great Exodus story. And if you ask me, and I'm sure the Exodus story is just a type of the scattering and gathering of Israel that is still in progress. Its all about getting caught up in something, and being rescued or redeemed from the more immediate powers.
A few questions for the scholars:
As usual this is about the meaning of words that are otherwise untranslated. Often a place is named for a particular event or significance to the traveler, so I'm somewhat interested in the place names.
What does Beth-el (a land) mean? That seems like roots I've heard of before, "Beth" and "El".
Hai, is that a word foreign to Hebrew?
Also, I think this was discussed briefly before, but what do your traditions tell you about how Moses compiled the book of Genesis? Was it given by revelation or compiled from sources he might have had at the time?
House of God (Score:2)
Modern Israeli Jews, Moslems, and Christians claim that Bethel is a very real place; a city about 10 miles north of Jerusalem in Samaria, today the West Bank. The Israeli settlement of Beit El and the Palestinian villia
Abram (Score:1)
Abram is an interesting character. His faith is remarkable in that he follows the commands of God, but he does not consider always that God will watch out for him in all things. He is false with Pharaoh, in not telling the whole truth of Sarai and risks doom upon himself, thinking he can avoid it by lying. But the grace of God covers the falsehood, and Abram is sent aw
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You know, now that you mention it, I am reminded that Abraham's wife had this happen to her twice. And this closely parallels the time the Ark was taken and returned because of the plagues it caused in the nation who took it.
Moo (Score:1)
Beth-El means House of Stregnth, though Strength refers to G-d's ownership of strength. The name of the city was Lu
Avraham (Score:2)
While Abraham was not a prophet in the normal sense, his life was chock full of prophetic overtones. I'll comment on two sections.
In Genesis 14:20, Abraham gave a tenth of everything to the High Priest Melchizedek (Malki-Tzedek, meaning "My king is righteousness"). After the covenant given at Mount Sinai, priests could be only of the tribe of Levi. But at this point, the tribes of Israel did not yet exist. While the Levitical priesthood was to be temporal, the priesthood in the order of Melchizedek existe
Word study (Score:2)
Bethel (pronounced Beit-El in modern Hebrew) means House of God. Reading Genesis as a narrative, it is anachronistic for the city to be called such in chapter 12 since it would not be given that name until chapter 28 by Abraham's grandson. There, Jacob had gone to sleep and dreamed about angels going up and down on a ladder/stairway between heaven and earth. On awaking, he exclaimed, "What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven." (v. 17) Then, he named
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So do you find any significance in the placement of Abraham between the house of God and the heap?
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Where? It is a singular term.
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That's what I had originally written there, but then I read something online that was misleading, and I subsequently edited my post while previewing it.
Yes, "El" can be plural (as the article I read said) ... um, that is, of course, *after* you append *its* plural ending ("im") to the word; e.g. elim. Duuuh (TO ME). Really, I knew better. I just wasn't thinking. "Mi chamocha ba'elim HaShem?"
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Moo (Score:1)
Please be more specific when mentioning place names. I don't always recognize the translations.
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Is there any significance in your tradition about Abraham's dealings occurring in a place between a house of strength and a destroyed place?
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Not that i know of, though i never looked specifically for this, and there is so much written, there's probably is a lot there.
As a wild guess, looking at it with a symbolic view (and traditions about more of the story) Abraham's father was an idol-worshipper. Worse, he sold idols. A young Abram destroyed his fathers idols one day. His father came into the store and saw
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A very interesting interpretation, especially since "Beth-el" is a future name for that area and it represents a future place in his own personal journey. I was also taught of Abraham destroying his fathers idols and how he blamed their destruction on a fight breaking out among them.
Speaking of trying to sacrifice Abraham, I read an interesting commentary about a parallel between Abraham, Theseus and Heracles last night that is based on how each character seem to find themselves being ritually sacrificed an
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BTW, Abraham was not being sacrificed. Heathens were being killed. They were asked about the belief and either let live, or thrown into the fire. After Abraham came out, Haran (who was undecided about G-d vs the local religion) decided to follow Abraham and proclaim his faith in G-d. He was killed in the fire.
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Thanks. BTW, What difference there may be should be chalked up to different accounts. And for what its worth the author I was reading discussed the traditional Jewish account to show that no one was discussing a alter/table sacrifice of Abraham before the 1950's. Someone had forwarded that the 1840's account of a tabled sacrifice was not unique but derived from the Jewish tradition, and the author (as you) pointed out that is not what the tradition says. That 19th century scholar was unique, even to Jewish
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