Jan,
I am a little puzzled by what you have written. You say, "God is not
constrained at all,..." (with which I clearly agree), but later you
write, "...he (God) would not have used concepts unknown to people at
that time." Is this not a contradiction? And, anyway, is not the latter
simply an arbitrary opinion?
You continue, "Nobody here thinks Noah knew as much about biology and
geology as we do...". But surely God's dealings with Noah prior to the
Flood involved no mind-boggling science. He first states His intentions
and gives Noah His reason (Gn.6:13); He then commands the building of
the ark (Gn.6:14), indicates the means of destruction proposed
(Gn.6:17), and so on. Noah's role in these proceedings is simply to
hear, and obey the instructions given. Any erroneous ideas he may have
entertained regarding the true nature of 'the earth', or the extent of
the Flood, were beside the point. He quickly got the idea that - apart
from himself, his immediate family, and a representative selection of
animal life - God intended to destroy 'all flesh wherein is the breath
of life from under heaven...' (Gn.6:17). It all seems clear enough - but
obviously not to an evolutionist. However, I'm glad you agree that He is
not constrained.
Sincerely,
Vernon
Jan de Koning wrote:
> At 12:03 AM 11/06/02 +0100, Vernon Jenkins wrote:
>
>> Robert,
>>
>> Thanks for your detailed account of ancient Hebrew thinking.
>> However, you appear to have overlooked the fact that it is the Lord
>> Himself who speaks His intentions in verses 7, 13 and 17 of Genesis
>> 6. Are you suggesting that He was to be constrained by Noah's
>> understanding of what was proposed? I believe you present us with a
>> 'red herring'. God certainly knew more about the earth than we know
>> today.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Vernon
>
>
> God is not constrained at all, but we are in our thinking. All of us
> are. I find it striking that, despite my remarks in the past, several
> people on this forum still want to read OT scriptures using
> ultra-modern ways of reading and talking. The Bible was written
> thousands of years ago, inspired by God, in a language and using
> concepts known to people living thousands of years ago. Even if God
> would have used modern English he would not have used concepts unknown
> to people at that time. Of course, God would talk to Noah in a way
> Noah would understand, and to Jacob in a way Jacob would understand
> ,and to Israel in a way Israel would understand. We have gone over
> this before, and the subject has never been satisfactorily discussed,
> since we have apparently different backgrounds biblically and
> philosophically. I don't intend to go over this time and again, but I
> would suggest, that we take each other seriously when we state
> something. Nobody here thinks that Noah knew as much about biology
> and geology as we do, so nobody should suggest that God talked to Noah
> in a language he would not understand.
> This is not the first time we go through this discussion. Ever since
> I joined the asa list many years ago it comes up again and again, but
> do not expect that we, long time participants, keep on discussing this
> all the time, repeating ourselves, without ever getting satisfactory
> replies. The same now, no thorough discussions, but just
> generalities, without discussing the arguments the other side brings
> forward.
>
> Jan de K.
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