Even for such a person, something still lingers from the dissonance required in reframing the story as ahistorical. 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. In response to the first question, I admitted that I am not trying at all to prove that the biblical author was God. 41). It is one that any person who wishes to renew his or her faithperhaps even to limit its horizons for a timeshould take to heart. Abraham responds that wind pushes clouds. [a] 19For I have chosen him(E), so that he will direct his children(F) and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord(G) by doing what is right and just,(H) so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.(I), 20Then the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom(J) and Gomorrah is so great(K) and their sin so grievous(L) 21that I will go down(M) and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. See:The Guide of the Perplexed, 1:1. 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.. Start your free trial today! Presenting the Torah as Gods narrative does not take away from its religious significance. [17] Is it surprising that Gods narrative is the story of humanity writ large? Bible verses about False Idols. 71C11131 Terah turns Abraham over to King Nimrod, who condemns him to be cast into the fire (or fiery furnace) of the Chaldeans; he is miraculously rescued by God. 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. window.location.replace(""); Abraham chose to follow God alone, and he demonstrated his commitment by circumcising every male in his household. 57 I thought thou wouldst teach thy servants the upright way, but thou hast not done this, but hast filled the whole earth with thy sins and the sins of thy people who have followed thy ways. Nevertheless, this possibility brings to mind the old joke about the elephant and the ant. Establishing the pillars of faith upon the bedrock of the historicity of past events requires an honest person to evaluate, without bias, the question of the historical reality of the Torahs claims. Many in Maimonides generation believed that the existence of God was coterminous with Gods physical existence. 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? 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]. 20Hezekiah did this throughout Judah; and (W)he did what was good, right, and true before the Lord his God. Amplified Bible Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went out together to go from Ur of the Chaldeans into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran [about five hundred and fifty miles northwest of Ur], they settled there. [3]See the long discussion inResponsa Rashba(1:414), where Rashba uses strong language to criticize various sages who suggested a philosophical-allegorical understanding for a number of biblical characters, including Abraham. Abraham had three wives: Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah (by date when The fervent attempt to capture some meaning in each and every word of the Torah, without making recourse to any external factors as a control, is a clear expression of this perspective. 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. Save 15% on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. [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. Can those idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? 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. 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. I cannot thank them enough for the happy homelife they created for me and my siblings. Rambams approach here applies to our case as well. When Terah. What is a believer to do, when he or she is convinced that a new religious outlook, as innovative and brazen as it may be, not only doesnt diminish the value of faith but even colors it in stronger and more vibrant colors? If I were pushed to offer some sort of response to this question anyway, I would say that just as any great author can breathe life into his or her characters and describe them from many angles, so too can the Divine Author, the greatest of authors. Is there spirit, soul, or power in these gods to do all thou hast told me? Would we really be unable to give ear and listen to Gods story with great focus, attention, and feeling unless we could simultaneously locate it in a specific time and place? "You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. Donate. Such narrative strategies, as I mentioned above, would be subject to factual investigation as well as comparative evidence, taking into account alternative versions. The business deal or the event is the main matter of significance, describing the event in writing is simply a means of conveying knowledge of that deal or event to others. [10]In my opinion, which is based on multiple encounters with a number of different groups, this critique can be found at the heart of many peoples objections to ahistorical reading of the Torah, and feeds their intuitive rejection of this paradigm. 19 And Abram asked his father, saying, Father, tell me where is God who created heaven and earth, and all the sons of men upon earth, and who created thee and me. Abraham told him that the gods had had a quarrel among themselves, and, said he, here is the fellow, (pointing to the big one he had spared) that did it. Said the father: My son, why do you tell me such a thing. Abraham married them according to the Book of Genesis). [27] Putting this view forward before those who believed that God had a body probably caused those believers a crisis of faith. Join today!. Once he went on a trip and he placed Abraham in charge of the store in his place. Instead, the text of the Torah should be understood on its own terms; the Torah itself is the matter being studied. 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. Abraham responds that people withstand wind. The first statement, the simpler one, would probably be acceptable to anyone. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. Lets imagine that Gods message is cloaked with descriptions of events that modern day historians believe cannot be accepted as factso what? [27]See Rambam,Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentence, 3:7. So Nimrod declares they worship wind. [6]In my book, I deal with this in chapter 4. ),Shitat ha-Beinot shel ha-Rav Mordechai Breuer: Qovetz Maamarim u-Teguvot(Alon Shevut: Tevunot, 2005). Is it less true than a simple chronology of events describing the beginning of the world and of humankind? And Terah answered his son Abram and said, Behold those who created us are all with us in the house. So, one day when I was very young, I went to our basement and smashed on the concrete floor every bottle of liquor! Once he went on a trip and he placed Abraham in charge of the store in his place. Even religious feeling, if it is possible to speak of this as a thing, is poised to gain from the intimate connection that is formed between humanity and God, when one understands the Torah as God telling a story just as a parent tells a story to his or her child. In an ahistorical reading, we exchange Abraham the man, his biographic detailsonly some of which have any connection to Godwith Gods Abraham. Cautiously, I would like to suggest that doing so is not important. Nimrod came from a line which was cursed by Noah: "Cursed be Canaan, a slave of slaves shall he be unto his brothers." By birth, Nimrod had no right to be a king or ruler. 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. Abraham). Why did God choose to limit the divine creative impulse to the (apparently) inadequate framework of narrative? 5 From . 9Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. Abraham did destroy his father's idols though. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. Abraham at last thought he would teach his father a lesson by making a clean sweep of his gods. He was looking forward. How Modern Prophets Contextualized This Account, [Abraham] understood that there was a God in heaven, a living and true God, and that no man should worship any other God but Him. The Midrash is also used by James Kugel, the chair of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar Ilan University in Israel, in his book The Bible As It Was, published in 1997 by Harvard University, to look at how stories from the Bible have been changed to how they are taught in the modern day. Later, a woman walked into the store and wanted to make an offering to the idols. But the Lord inspired Abraham to leave there. The image of Abraham smashing idols in his fathers store and blaming it on the god is likely to bring a smile to the lips of any person who is familiar with the story from his or her childhood. Such a perspective does not diminish the connection between humanity and God; it strengthens it.[23]. Designed using Unos Premium. Can these idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? not in the hands of heaven,) in order to say something about the God he discovered and followed. To me, the key question is whether ones approach to exploring the ahistoricity of the narrative is in order to reduce the vital importance of the Torah and its message or whether it is the opposite, to increase it, as I suggest above. [20]For more discussion on this question, see the position of R. Mordechai Breuer as he expressed it first inDeot12 (Winter 5720): pp. However, in this case, God was testing the obedience and faith of Abraham. English Revised Version 6The sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and (I)the tithe of [d]sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and placed them in heaps. 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 his father saw that his son Abraham had broken his gods he was very angry with him. what makes muscle tissue different from other tissues? He did his Ph.D.in Jewish thought atBen Gurion University, focusing on the writings of Rav Kook. If the stories about the ancestors of the nation had not been included in the Torah at Sinai, it seems likely that they would be without any religious implications. 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. 11, p. 68. Instead, the full power of the divine message comes once the message finds its place within a persons heart. Psalms 135:15 - 127:17 - The idols of the . I discuss this halacha in greater detail in the book. 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. Therefore I will prepare fresh savory meat to-morrow, better and more plentiful than this, that I may see what cometh therefrom. But the gods remained mute and without motion before the second offering of excellent savory meat as before the first offering, and the spirit of God came over Abraham, and he cried out, and said: Woe unto my father and his wicked generation, whose hearts are all inclined to vanity, who serve these idols of wood and stone, which cannot eat, nor smell, nor hear, nor speak, which have mouths without speech, eyes without sight, ears without hearing, hands without feeling, and legs without motion!, Abraham then took a hatchet in his hand, and broke all his fathers gods, and when he had done breaking them he placed the hatchet in the hand of the biggest god among them all, and he went out. There is also no Biblical record of Abraham 5As soon as the [c]order spread, the sons of Israel abundantly provided the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly (H)the tithe of everything. Furthermore, this objection often remains inchoate and not fully articulated. One of the questions that occupies philosophers of history as a discipline has been, to what extent can a historian really reconstruct the past and to what extent is he or she actually reshaping it? He tried to bring him to reason, but his father did not believe they had life enough to kill one another. ! [Terah] took him and brought him before Nimrod (. Copyright 2019 by Zondervan. From whence sprang the suggestion to interpret the Torah against the way it has been read? [29] How should this believer relate to the fact that the very type of faith that he or she sees as inferior is exactly the one which sits best with the majority of the faithful? This is true even for a person who can digest the nuances of the ahistorical approach to the Torah. Something went wrong while submitting the form. When Terah saw his idols shattered and scattered all over the floor, he accused Abram. 36 And Terah entered the room and found all the idols fallen down and broken, and the hatchet in the hand of the largest, which was not broken, and the savory meat which Abram his son had made was still before them. Therefore, by necessity we would need to distill from his historical persona what parts of his life were his own choice, (i.e. What does the Bible say about idolatry? Ep 200 | Luke 12-17; John 11, Come Follow Me 2023 (May 1-7), Ep 199 | John 7-10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 24-30), Ep 198 | Matthew 18; Luke 10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 17-23), Ep 197 | Matthew 15-17; Mark 7-9, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 10-16), Ep 196 | Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5-6, Come Follow Me 2023 (March 27-April 2). 16 And Abram came to his fathers house and saw twelve gods standing there in their temples, and the anger of Abram was kindled when he saw these images in his fathers house. This Abraham is entirely in the hands of heaven (in a different and positive sense). Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. 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. Abraham told him that a woman came in to make an offering to the idols. It is a post-biblical story imagining the early life of Abraham. The Midrash has also been discussed in the contexts of complete, unquestioned faith. 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? The plot point of Abrahams fattempted murder for his beliefs is found in four source texts. If he had possessed the spirit which his son had, he would have said there is no power with these gods; but he did not, and Abraham had to flee from his fathers house, confiding in the Lord, who gave many promises to him and concerning his posterity. Will Gods story be diminished if we do not connect it with the actions of specific people, as great as they may have been? Recounting the Census: A Military Force of 5,500 (not 603,550) Men, Reconstructionism Reconciles Rationalism and Revelation, Rabbi Chiyya said: Terah was an idol worshiper. Berean Standard Bible Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles. The idols argued about which one should eat the offering first, then the largest idol took the stick and smashed all the other idols. Although the book focuses on a period of time later than that discussed herethe period of David and Solomonnevertheless, the rhetorical force of the essays that express reservations similar to that expressed aboveessays that come from very different scholarsdemonstrates the tangible reality of the emotional power that stands behind the truth problem. I must admit that I could not personally identify with any of the (admittedly thoughtful) analyses in that collection, and this is probably due to my own alternative way of thinking about this problem, as described in this essay. It is about humanitys religion and its faith, its moral struggles, its successes and failures, its hopes and aspirations for greatness, its dream of breaking into the world of the infinite and clinging to God.