joyful
Joined: 30 Aug 2007
Posts: 1376
Location: texas
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 Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:11 pm Post subject: God cannot die |
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The closest I can find to an actual of expression that God cannot die is Habakkuk 1:12, where some translations read similar to the Emphasized Bible translation:
Art not, thou, from of old, O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One? Thou diest not! O Yahweh, to judgment, hast thou appointed him, and, O Rock, to correction, hast thou devoted him:
Other translations read "we shall not die", or similarly.
Regarding this, Gingsburg wrote: "All the ancient records emphatically state that this exhibits the corrected text by Sopherim and that the original reading was: 'Art thou not from everlasting? O Lord my God, mine Holy One, thou diest not.'" -- Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (1897), page 358
In other words, the claim is that the copyists changed the text, so that what we have in the Masoretic text, used almost exclusively by most translations, does not express the original. This idea that the text was changed is based on the notes left by the copyists. Gingsburg studied those notes and claimed that they reveal that many verses to have been changed by the copyists; others have challenged his findings, at least in many cases, in that Gingsburg may have misunderstood what the notes meant. In the case of Habakkuk 1:12, however, I believe that Gingsburg is probably correct, since the context seems to indicate that the prophet was showing that Yahweh has no beginning and the opposite: that He will have no ending, thus "you will not die".
John Gill states:
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This is one of the eighteen passages, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech observe, called "Tikkun-Sopherim", the correction of the scribes, of Ezra, and his company; it having been written, in some copies, "thou shall not die" {a}; asserting the immortality of God, or his eternity to come; and that, as he was from everlasting, so he should continue to everlasting.
Gill, John. "Commentary on Habakkuk 1:12". "The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible". <http://www.studylight.org/com/geb/view.cgi?book=hab&chapter=001&verse=012>. 1999.
In other words, the copyists are alleged to have "corrected" the text so that it would not read that God will not die, but rather that the people will not die.
These copyists claimed to have the authority from God to "correct" the passages, claiming that their authority to do so was originally given to Ezra and Nehemiah allegedly as recorded in Nehemiah 8:8; Ezra 7:6,11, and thus through Ezra and Nehemiah to them. Many even claim that Ezra and Nehemiah themselves changed -- "corrected" -- the text. And yet, when we look at the scriptures given to allegedly support this authority, we do not at all find any such authority given to either Ezra or Nehemiah, except that of copying the text as a scribe. Nehemiah 8:8 relates to teaching the people to understand the Law, not to 'correcting' verses of the text of the Law.
Rashi (1040-1105) states concerning this Habakkuk 1:12:
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The prophet says what art thou silent to all this. Art thou not from everlasting my God, mine Holy One, who diest not?
The English Revised Version of 1885 had a footnote for this verse:
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According to an ancient Jewish tradition thou diest not.
Some have speculated that the Jewish scribes had become superstitious concerning the idea of stating that God will or does not die, and thus changed [acclaimed "corrected"] the text to read 'we will not die."
At any rate, Psalm 90:2 tells us that Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting.
We also have Isaiah 40:28, which states: "Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint." The idea in context is that Yahweh is always there, able to give power to those are faint (weary), since he never faints. (Isaiah 40:29) Thus, if he died, these verses would be untrue.
For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. -- Isaiah 57:15, World English
This scripture also shows indirectly that God cannot die, since he "inhabits eternity." |
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