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Jas 3.1
Jas 3.1
1:57 AM
I am stunned that this hasn't received more attention:
2
Q: In 2 Peter 1:20-21, is Peter referring to all Scripture, or is he referring more specifically to the prophecies that are recorded in Scripture?

Jas 3.12 Peter 1:20-21 says the following (in the NASB): But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This verse is a favorite go-to text fo...

authorial-intent 2-peter
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
2:23 AM
@Jas3.1 I'm hoping somebody answers it. (I'm not equipped to.) It sounds important.
Is there an answer in here amongst the, err, rhetoric? I can't tell any more. (I also can't tell if he's torqued at me or if that's just his style.)
 
Jas 3.1
Jas 3.1
2:58 AM
@MonicaCellio he assumes the verses apply to all of Scripture, as most Christian commentators do
I don't think they do, but I'm reluctant to hold on too tightly to an interpretation that every scholar that I trust says is wrong!
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Jas3.1 which, the ones he's cited? My problem is more basic: this sounds like a mix between an "inspiration" argument and a sermon, and I'm having trouble seeing the actual answer.
 
Jas 3.1
Jas 3.1
I may post an answer to this effect, but I'm hoping someone will defend the traditional view first.
@MonicaCellio oh I thought you were asking if there was an answer to my 2 Peter question in the linked answer
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Jas3.1 oh! Sorry, unfortunate juxtaposition of chat messages. No, that was a stand-alone question, not addressed to you in particular.
 
Jas 3.1
Jas 3.1
@MonicaCellio I have mixed feelings about his answer. I would prefer to have a more direct answer to my question, with more formatting for organization, and a more step-by-step procedure, but I also recognize that everyone has their own style, so I'm hesitant to get too nit-picky as if he needed to think & write the way I do.
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Jas3.1 yes, people have their own styles and that's important. We do still want them to answer the question. I can't tell if this does but it's buried, or it does clearly and I'm being dim, or what.
 
Jas 3.1
Jas 3.1
3:15 AM
@MonicaCellio I'm in the same boat.
I figure I'll let the voters sort it out.
@MonicaCellio Do you have any plans to answer my question about chiasm?
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
3:27 AM
@Jas3.1 not currently. It's an interesting question, but I don't feel I have anything useful to offer in an answer. But now that you've asked it an insight might surprise me out of nowhere someday; that happens sometimes. But if you're waiting on me, don't.
 
 
2 hours later…
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
5:01 AM
@Jas3.1 Your question was my second choice for a bounty. I did try and study it a bit, but haven't formed any conclusions yet.
 
 
8 hours later…
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
12:49 PM
1
Q: Family - Extended or Nuclear?

taurivalorI have a question on family - There are many verses in Bible which points out that Man shall leave his parents after marriage. Few of these are: Mat 19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Mat 19:6...

marriage
I think there's a good question in there but this might need to be refined. But the main reason I'm bringing it here is to ask: how should this be tagged?
 
 
2 hours later…
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
2:25 PM
Does anybody who's more familiar with the Revelation questions want to review this question? Does it make sense? (It seems to cut off in the middle.) Is it a dupe? Some of the text looks vaguely familiar.
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
2:51 PM
@MonicaCellio That question could perhaps be refined into one about Genesis. The two verses in Matthew and Ephesians are Jesus and Paul quoting Genesis anyway.
@MonicaCellio Perhaps something along the lines of what it means that "a man leaves his father and mother" and whether the lives of the patriarchs conform to that idea.
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal yeah, that would be an improvement. And it would probably be better then to focus on Genesis, since (as I said in a comment) I don't think there's gonig to be much evidence outside Tanakh anyway.
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
@MonicaCellio This one looks similar at least:
5
Q: Are there any rules on which things in Revelation must be interpreted literally and which symbolically?

brilliantAre there any rules on which things in Revelation must be interpreted literally and which symbolically? The one that comes from the back of my mind is that if a certain thing or a character is already given an interpretation in the book itself — like the martyrs in white robes in Revelation 7:13-...

hermeneutical-approaches revelation
@MonicaCellio Looks like Caleb just deleted that question.
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal aha, good find!
@Soldarnal oh good. No need to mark as a dupe then.
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
@MonicaCellio Looks like it was a copy of the bottom 2/3rds of the question by brilliant anyway
@MonicaCellio Would you mind if I asked you a theology question?
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal yup, took some existing content and rearranged. There was another question this morning like that (gone now), and then this one showed up a couple minutes later so I was suspicious.
@Soldarnal nope. You may ask me anything; if I don't want to answer I won't. :-)
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
3:02 PM
@MonicaCellio Obviously Judaism is not trinitarian; I'm curious how references to the Spirit of God are understood? Is God's Spirit identical with God?
Or what's going on for example when like in Exodus 31:3 someone is filled with the Spirit of God?
I guess: do you know of (are there any) any good resources on a Jewish view of God's Spirit?
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal there is a notion of ruach hakodesh, which would be literally "holy spirit" but I tend to avoid that since we don't mean what Christians mean by that. It is often the vehicle for prophecy (like with the 70 elders, but it also shows up for individual prophets later). I'm actually currently studying (with one of my rabbis) some midrashim on "how prophecy works", which touches on this, but that's not a good entry point. Let me see if I can find you something.
Here's a little bit, but that doesn't have a lot of detail. I'm linking it because it reminded me that sometimes they also talk about the shekhina rather than the ruach ha-kodesh descending on prophets. The shekhina is the "in-dwelling presence of God"; it's the word that's used when God descends to occupy the mishkan at the end of Exodus.
The shekhina is described as an aspect of God (same as the judge, or the merciful, or...). I think the ruach ha-kodesh is a little different, not an aspect per se but a thing of divine source. I'm sorry that's very fuzzy.
Oh, there's a wikipedia article -- should have known. It says the term is sometimes used for prophecy (as I said) and sometimes as a metonym for God, citing Encyclopedia Judaica. I haven't read the EJ article, but it tends to be reliable.
Have I helped, or made things worse? :-)
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
3:57 PM
@MonicaCellio Sorry, didn't mean to drop off; I got called away into something. This is very helpful, thanks.
@MonicaCellio Interesting: The rabbinical understanding of the "Holy Spirit" has a certain degree of personification, but it remains, "a quality belonging to God, one of his attributes".
That's pretty similar to what you stated
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal no problem -- I got called away briefly right as you asked, too!
@Soldarnal yeah, I have the impression that the Jewish understanding of God, divine attributes, and such is much less clear than Christianity's. So there's definitely not a "separate but triune" entity called the Holy Spirit, but God does have a spirit that is used in various ways. So more like an attribute than a part.
Also, the rabbis of the talmud personify all sorts of things (like wisdom, truth, the evil inclination...), not because anybody believes they can be anthromorphized, but as a means to understanding. Aggadah isn't meant to be taken literally.
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
@MonicaCellio I'm learning all kinds of things following these links, with more questions. :) Are the "Writings" not considered prophecy ever?
That one link notes that Daniel is not considered a prophet and that the book of Daniel is classified under Writings - which so is Psalms, yet Peter in Acts 2 calls David a prophet.
Which is curious because that link states that Daniel is not a prophet because his visions were not for the people of his day. But Peter's understanding of prophecy seems to be based on "seeing what was to come."
(Sorry, thinking out loud - I was just thinking last night because of Jas3.1's question about "prophecy of Scripture" and which parts of the Tanakh were considered prophecy.)
Anyone have any objections to me protecting this question?
18
Q: What's wrong with cooking a kid in its mother's milk?

lindelofIn the Pentateuch there are at least three repetitions of the following prohibition: Exodus 23:19b (ESV) You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Exodus 34:26b (ESV) You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. Deuteronomy 14:21b (ESV) You shall not b...

exodus deuteronomy torah
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
4:17 PM
@Soldarnal hey no problem; we're in chat, not answers on main. :-) I don't know as much about Daniel as I should. Writings (the "kh" in "Tanakh") is scripture, but Prophets ("na") collects the "explicit" prophets, I guess. David is also said to be a prophet and, as you note, Psalms is in Writings. And just to muddy the waters, Prophets also includes Judges and Kings.
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
@MonicaCellio Judges and Kings are part of the Former Prophets, correct?
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal What do you mean by Former Prophets? (They're not part of the "minor prophets", if that's what you're asking.)
 
Soldarnal
Soldarnal
Nevi'im
{| style="border:none;float:right;width:10em;" |- | |- | |} Nevi'im (, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh), between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (writings). It contains two sub-groups, the Former Prophets (, the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and the Latter Prophets (, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets). Many of the writings of the Latter Prophets are thought by scholars to be older than the narratives of the Former Prophets which precede them in the canon, and were profoundly influ...
 
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
@Soldarnal ah, ok -- hadn't heard the term before, but yes.
@Soldarnal go for it.
 
TRiG
TRiG
@MonicaCellio Makes me think of Tom Lehrer.
 
 
6 hours later…
Jon Ericson
Jon Ericson
10:48 PM
@JonEricson Erg. I hoped that would be bigger. @MonicaCellio: The answer seems to be to let Community♦ bump the question. ;-)
 
 
1 hour later…
Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio
11:53 PM
@JonEricson Community only bumps questions with no up-voted answers. If nothing got up-votes there's probably nothing ready to be accepted. My question is about cases where you got an ok answer but you're holding out to see if you get something better.
 

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