Friday 26 March 2010

The Lord will be Seen

Genesis 22:14 wayyiqrä´ ´abrähäm šë|m-hammäqôm hahû´ yhwh(´ädönäy) yir´è ´ášer yë´ämër hayyôm Bühar yhwh(´ädönäy) yërä´è

Literally - Abraham called the name of that place, "The Lord will see"; that they might say to-day, On the mount the Lord will be seen

what do you think?

4 comments:

Si Hollett said...

Not knowing Hebrew, I can't comment on the translation.

The NIV has "So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

And the ESV has "So Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."

Both these translations point to provision from the Lord (which is found 2000 years later, when, wearing thorns on his head, like the Ram of Gen 22, God's son is at that place and, unlike Isaac, is killed). The LORD had provided a ram to be sacrificed instead of Isaac, but later the LORD will provide himself as a bigger offering.

"The LORD will see; on the mount, the LORD will be seen." puts a different emphasis on it. I've not fully thought that through (by a long shot), but my initial thoughts are that there are more temple connotations with "be seen" than "will provide". The LORD sees the sufferings of Israel and that leads to the Exodus, he goes and sees for himself Sodom and Babel - there's judgement and salvation when the LORD sees.

Anonymous said...

The LORD will both see and be seen in that place: Trinity!

God the Son amazingly walking among men, being seen.

God the Father seeing Him, and being well pleased.

For what purpose? Sacrifice.

yemsee said...

heh.. i'll leave it to the Hebrew student to make more sense of it

nice new blog =)

Anonymous said...

thanks!
i suppose one could comment on the imperfect form not primarilly expressing tense (future) but aspect (imperfective)in BH.

This aspect is expressing continious, unfinished action and so by implication future or present tense is the best translation (very rarely past tense).

future tense seems best here, altough the Lord continously sees. It is not like he has stopped seeing at any point or that he will only see in the future. It is continous into the future.

for 'will be seen' God was to continiously reveal himself to the people of God by the second person of the trinity - the Son, but in relation to the sacrifice context it clearly indicated that God will be seen as a sacrifice.

Up until the cross God was SEEING other sacrifices made for him in the temple (on the mountain).
At the cross God was SEEN as being THE sacrifice (on the mountain).