Subject: Genesis,chapters1-4:True accounts or not |
Bible Note: Right, Tim! Your thoughts bring to mind also the "Higher Criticism" of the book of Isaiah. At last count I believe they had "drawn and quartered" him; that is to say, they, the advocates and practitioners of Higher Criticism, in going about their business of being modern scholars, had determined that there were perhaps as many as four Isaiahs. This determination has been based on no hard evidence, but ostensibly by a subjective impression that somehow the style of writing seemed not quite uniform throughout the book. This is flimsy "evidence" indeed. If you have ever read any of the detective stories of Dorothy Sayers featuring the witty and charming Lord Peter Wimsey, and compared them with some of her more serious theological dramas and verse, you will see a distinct difference in style. Are we to conclude, therefore, that Dorothy Sayers was two or more different people? Nonsense! ..... The case for differences in style is only a cover-up for the real reason to suggest multiple Isaiahs. The thrust of the message from the Higher Criticism school is that it gives them opportunity to air their belief that supernatural prophecy is impossible. So they postulate that there was more than one Isaiah in order to align the book of Isaiah more within the parameters of their own skepticism. In the same manner, translation of the Bible in the hands of liberal translators frequently yields watered-down readings. An example of note is in Isaiah 7:14, in which some less conservative versions render the Hebrew ALMAH as "young woman" instead of "virgin." In their view, everybody ought to have sense enough to know that a virgin can't give birth to a child. --Hank |