Terrible Hornets: Mythical or Miracle?
Summary:
Typically, real things/events in Israel's history also left an indelible mark on the collective memory of the people. These sometimes were reduced to "mythic" status, but throughout human history & personal experience, people who take such dual meanings (the literal & metaphorical senses) with their fullest impact realize that the Bible is no mere myth. There were hornets & they were a terror. Some only remember a story about terrible events. Some translators & scholars like to think of the Bible as nice poetry, but not necessarily as a record of God's dynamic impact on reality.
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(This is, I believe, the greatest error of C.S. Lewis & the co-hort of Inklings. It is why I am a "fundamentalist" rather than a conservative or a liberal.) Actually, an interesting thing to note about the Hebrew word for heavens: it is a dual - Not a singular or a plural, but a dual. There are few words that are like similarly consistently dual throughout the Hebrew text. Jerusalem is another. Whenever you see an
ending in the OT "-em" it may be "-ayim" in a more direct transliteration. I think this is part of why God wanted it to be so clear that the Lord is One (Sh-m and 'loh-m could easily otherwise have become like the gods of the nations ... In India, what began as
monotheism degenerated into a nasty selfish nationalistic pantheistic polytheism. Greece was the same way.) [Readers: Please correct any mis-transliteration of the spelling of Hebrew roots.]
The dynamic nature of God though, then becomes hard to comprehend to Muslims who seek unity through the legalities of God rather than the Personality of God. Hence, the deadly nature of Islam.
Okay, enough prattle.
Peace,
Mert
LINKS FOLLOW:
[cut & paste to assemble the links]
Of course for Bibles:
http://www.biblegateway.com
/passage/?search=Deut%207:20;%20Josh%202
The NASB on Biblegateway generally has the best footnotes / cross-references.
This site has lots of translations too & study tools galore!
http://www.studylight.org
====
Easton has a simple definition of Hornets:
http://www.studylight.org/dic/ebd/v
(Smith's is an older dictionary, not necessarily any more reliable.)
The ISBE is a standard & a little more thorough:
http://www.studylight.org/enc/isb/v
Nave's is sort of like a concordance, topically arranged:
http://www.studylight.org/con/ntb/v
Language tools are also available (Hebrew, Aramaic, & Greek) & more useful if you have
the right fonts:
http://www.studylight.org/lex/heb/v
Okay. That's it.
Peace,
Mert
Typically, real things/events in Israel's history also left an indelible mark on the collective memory of the people. These sometimes were reduced to "mythic" status, but throughout human history & personal experience, people who take such dual meanings (the literal & metaphorical senses) with their fullest impact realize that the Bible is no mere myth. There were hornets & they were a terror. Some only remember a story about terrible events. Some translators & scholars like to think of the Bible as nice poetry, but not necessarily as a record of God's dynamic impact on reality.
===
(This is, I believe, the greatest error of C.S. Lewis & the co-hort of Inklings. It is why I am a "fundamentalist" rather than a conservative or a liberal.) Actually, an interesting thing to note about the Hebrew word for heavens: it is a dual - Not a singular or a plural, but a dual. There are few words that are like similarly consistently dual throughout the Hebrew text. Jerusalem is another. Whenever you see an
ending in the OT "-em" it may be "-ayim" in a more direct transliteration. I think this is part of why God wanted it to be so clear that the Lord is One (Sh-m and 'loh-m could easily otherwise have become like the gods of the nations ... In India, what began as
monotheism degenerated into a nasty selfish nationalistic pantheistic polytheism. Greece was the same way.) [Readers: Please correct any mis-transliteration of the spelling of Hebrew roots.]
The dynamic nature of God though, then becomes hard to comprehend to Muslims who seek unity through the legalities of God rather than the Personality of God. Hence, the deadly nature of Islam.
Okay, enough prattle.
Peace,
Mert
LINKS FOLLOW:
[cut & paste to assemble the links]
Of course for Bibles:
http://www.biblegateway.com
/passage/?search=Deut%207:20;%20Josh%202
The NASB on Biblegateway generally has the best footnotes / cross-references.
This site has lots of translations too & study tools galore!
http://www.studylight.org
====
Easton has a simple definition of Hornets:
http://www.studylight.org/dic/ebd/v
(Smith's is an older dictionary, not necessarily any more reliable.)
The ISBE is a standard & a little more thorough:
http://www.studylight.org/enc/isb/v
Nave's is sort of like a concordance, topically arranged:
http://www.studylight.org/con/ntb/v
Language tools are also available (Hebrew, Aramaic, & Greek) & more useful if you have
the right fonts:
http://www.studylight.org/lex/heb/v
Okay. That's it.
Peace,
Mert
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