Was the Hebrew God unique?

1. Proverbs 3:19,20 "By wisdom Jehovah founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies drop down the dew.2. The Bible (OT) begins with the statement that God created the heavens and the earth as well as the six days of creation of the earth, sun, moon and an undetermined number of the stars. The Bible (NT) ends with the destruction of the earth and an undetermined portion of the heavens and the creation of new heavens, new earth and even a new Jerusalem.3. The high points of the entire history of the world is given in a fairly sequential manner from beginning to end, indicating that God knows/knew the entire history of the world before the fact. So far those prophecies are proven to be remarkably accurate.4. With the above in mind and considering the overall context of scripture on this topic, Deer's interpretation of the questionable scriptures is correct in that God in his unique ways uses questions et al to educate or otherwise deal with mortal humans having limited knowledge and understanding.4. Summary: God is and has always been both omnicient and omnipotent according to scripture.

---

BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW ---- Jesus said, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near." Luke 21:28

Except of course,So does many other scriptures of other religions,and.We ain't dead yet.

Mama mia! Highlight the text below if that doesn't turn on a light... Abba - world famous Swedish pop group of the '70s and '80s - jar was cracking a joke.Edited by MangyTiger, : Turn on signature

---

Oops! Wrong Planet

Yeah, I'm an ignoramus about pop music. But I would have posted the information about the Aramaic anyway, only to somebody else who was questioning its meaning.

it's not as clear cut as english, but ‘ (aba) is closer to "daddy" (and might be slightly more personal?) and ‘ (ab) is closer to "father" or "dad"younger people and direct children are more likely to use "aba," while adults are more likely to use "ab" while referring to someone else's father.doesn't neccessarily imply baby talk, but it is rather childish, and that may have in fact been the point -- painting christ as god's direct child.however, i can't say for certain, because i don't know ANY aramaic, and vowels and endings tend to be different. however, i've seen very little evidence that jesus, in fact, spoke aramaic. presumably, as a first century jew, he would have spoken aramaic in conversation, but hebrew in the synagogue -- and thus probably spoke to and of god in hebrew and not aramaic. all of the untranslated words of jesus, as near as i can tell, look to be hebrew and not aramaic.

---

The phrase as it has come down to us is "Abba, FATHER" not "Abba, daddy" or "papa." That should say something about how they read it in the Greek even.Scholars I'm familiar with say the various nonGreek expressions of Jesus' that are preserved in the original are Aramaic.

While I am sure that the Christian tradition is to translate it as 'father', the idea that 'father' was in the informal mode in the hebrew matches the jewish attitudes towards god that was developing in the 1st century bce to first century ce. Edited by AdminPD, : Request

jesus didn't speak greek. he spoke hebrew and/or aramaic. i'm unsure how formal the greek "pater" is, or even if greek has formal/informal variations. perhaps it's just the high degree of crossover between biblical hebrew, aramaic and modern hebrew that's confusing me -- maybe more so than i thought. nearly all of the words jesus spoke that are untranslated make sense in modern hebrew. for instance:

quote:

---

— — — ‘

​

eli, eli, lamah shabaqt ani

​

god(my), god(my), why leave(past tense) me?

​

my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?

---

...makes perfect sense in modern hebrew. but ‘ (shabaq) appears to be from aramaic, or at least, only appears in the aramaic books of the old testament. even though it appears in modern hebrew. so what seems to be happening is that jesus is using a lot of words that, while in aramaic, are taken from hebrew -- and the ones that aren't seem to have carried over into modern hebrew anyways (probably due to ezra/nehemiah and daniel).that's why i'm confused. since the choice is between jesus speaking biblical hebrew and aramaic, and not modern hebrew, jesus is speaking aramaic.so, um, nevermind. you're right.

---

elsewhere in the new testament, jesus speaks of god rather informally. it makes perfect sense to me -- fits his personal style, and the socio-religious context of the time. Edited by AdminPD, : RequestEdited by AdminPD, : No reason given.

---

I KNOW Jesus didn't speak Greek. Sheesh. The point was that the Greek word didn't reflect a diminutive meaning to "Abba" and that is deducible from the fact that when fruther translated into languages from the Greek the diminutive was not used.Anyway, glad to be right by you about something for a change. Thanks. Edited by AdminPD, : RequestEdited by AdminPD, : Typo

Rev,Your bringing Zoroastrianism in is a very good point. I first encountered a discussion of the impact of Zoroastrianism on Judaism in Morris Berman's book Wandering God : a study in nomadic spirituality.The exile in Babylon led to the exposure to Zoroastrianism and made some major changes in the Judiasm. I think I'll check the book out again and review it it's been a few years since I read it. It was an excellent book, one I've recommended to many folks.lfen

If Jesus didn't speak Greek, then how did this conversation occur?Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

​

"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

​

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

​

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

​

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
Since the conversation was held in private between Jesus and Pilate, I think there was more chance of Jesus speaking Greek than there was of Pilate speaking Aramaic!Being God and all, surely speaking Greek would be easy to Jesus?Brian.

i suppose that might be a good point, but wouldn't it be latin, since pilate was a roman official? or was greek the "lingua franca" for conversations between romans and judeans?

---

That's a good point about he conversation with Pilate, but it didn't require Jesus to use supernatural power. I jumped too soon to agree that Jesus didn't speak Greek. It's most likely that He did, simply because most Jews in that Hellenized world did, including of course the writers of the New Testament.

yes, and why exactly would a roman official speak greek?