Texts in Conversation
2 Samuel 14 compares David to the angel of God in his ability to determine good and evil, using language similar to Genesis 3:5, where this knowledge is associated with becoming like God. The similarity suggests that 2 Samuel may have originally referred to God directly, like Genesis, but was changed to harmonize with later traditions.
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Genesis 3:5
Hebrew Bible
4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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2 Samuel 14:17
Hebrew Bible
16 Yes! The king may listen and deliver his female servant from the hand of the man who seeks to remove both me and my son from the inheritance God has given us!’ 17 So your servant said, ‘May the word of my lord the king be my security, for my lord the king is like the angel of God when it comes to deciding between right and wrong! May the Lord your God be with you!’” 18 Then the king replied to the woman, “Don’t hide any information from me when I question you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king speak.”
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Two forms, mal’akh and mal’akh Yahveh are not only the most numerous but also the most evenly distributed within the HB. Together they constitute over 80% of all the “angel”-juxtapositions. The rest of the constructions is scarce in numbers and appears irregularly. In addition, the word mal’akh never appears in plural when juxtaposed with the tetragrammaton, what seems to be in accord with the interpolation theory: due to the grammatical decorum, the “angelic” addendum simply had to be in singular form. However, this does not apply to the word elohim, characterized by its polysemy. Although plural from the morphological perspective, it might very well denote the name of the one of the biblical deities or designate a group of divine beings ... This seems to be the case in Genesis 32:12 where Jacob sees mal’akhey elohim ‘olim ve-yordim. If to interpret the sullam not as a mere ladder but a form of ziggurat or a staircase connecting the heavenly abode with the (under)world, then the hypothesis that the narration had previously described the polytheistic pantheon seems more justifiable. Accordingly, only at a certain stage of transmission the numerous elohim wandering up and down had been preceded by mal’akhey and thus “degraded” from their hypothetical initial divine status to that of a mere servants. Of somewhat similar nature seems to be the expression ke-mal’akh (ha)elohim applied towards the king David in 1 Samuel 29:9, 2 Samuel 14:17; 19:28. It cannot be excluded that the phrase initially accommodated the direct reference to the deity but at a certain moment had been updated to suit the theology of a more transcendent god ..."
Kosior, Wojciech
The Angel in the Hebrew Bible from the Statistic and Hermeneutic Perspectives, Some Remarks on the Interpolation Theory
(pp. 55-70) The Polish Journal of Biblical Research, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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Riddle me this: In the Gen 2 story, during mankind's interaction about the tree, why was the Serpent wrong when he said eating the fruit would make them like God? Because they already were. Genesis 1:26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our LIKEness."
May the Spirit of the O ...