In Genesis 18:16-33, we find God and two companions meeting with Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah. God's intent is to destroy the cities. God askes his companions, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do...?" (verse 18). But God wants Abraham's wisdom. In verse 22, God's two companions leave and, according to the NRSV, "Abraham remained standing before the Lord". However, there is an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition that preserves another text at this point and there are very good grounds for believing that it reflects the original. According to the NRSV footnote this ancient tradition reads, "while the Lord remained standing before Abraham". Likewise, the New Jerusalem Bible reads: "While the men left there and went to Sodom, Yahweh remained in Abraham's presence." Scribes tended to smooth out the harder readings. The harder reading, however, tends to be the correct reading, in this case, "Yahweh remained in Abraham's presence." The passage was changed to place Abraham in the role of submission. However, according this ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, God adopts the role of waiting, of submission.
In the following verses (23-33), Abraham's interchange with God is remarkably bold. "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall no the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (23-25) To which the Lord concedes, "If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake" (26). This conversation continued until the Lord agreed to spare the city for the sake of ten (verse 32). Here, it seems, faith is portrayed as struggle rather than obedience. "Israel", as we may remember, means "the one who wrestles with God" ("Islam" means "the one who submits to God"). "Submission" does not seem to be a word that captures the "covenantal" character of the Biblical Story. The Covenant is a struggle between God and Humanity, a sort of power-sharing, not a submissive obedience to a heteronomous God.
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Descartes walks into a bar. The bar tender says "hey renee, the usual?" to which Descates replies "I think not." and he disapears
HAHAHA. Where did you hear that?
Professor Jame Matthew Bonzo. It's joke friday today!! by the by, he told me about the paper he's presenting. PHE - NOM - EN - AL!!!
I'm going.
Landrum told that joke in Religious Authors, but he said Pascal. We gave him a courtesy laugh. He told it after not getting the joke: A Zen Buddhist goes up to a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything."
I think you too hastily dismiss the notion of submission, but I agree that it needs to be rethought. The relationship seems to be one of mutual submission under the covenant, the terms of which are dictated by God.
Abraham begins by introducing himself as a servant; God begins his side of the conversation by summarizing the covenant and concluding that Abraham should be made aware of his plans.
Your paraphrase of God's and Abraham's exchange leaves out the repeated phrases, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes," and, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak." Abraham places himself in a submissive position throughout the story, but so does God. He allows Abraham to judge his plans and to point out where they need to be changed.
Struggle is undeniably a part of the covenant, but mutual submission seems just as strong a thread throughout the biblical narrative.
I agree. I was not attempting to downplay mutual submission, but contest the idea of the covenant as submission to a heteronomous God.
Also, that it is only in Abraham's response that God's will actually takes shape.
This idea allows prayer and lament to contain more meaning than just submission to God's will. I like it. Classical theists tend to view prayer as simply a way to align our will to God's (citing Christ's Gethsemane prayer as an example). However, plenty of biblical text suggest otherwise. Prayer in the bible is used for more than merely submitting oneself to the will of God. It can be used to call God to action or to repentance.
hey chris, i gave bonzo your blog address yesterday, so you might want to hurry up and put something intelligent on here... :) are you comning home today or tomorrow?
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