Mike Heiser in Michael S. Heiser

8 years ago

Question :  When Satan was tempting Eve in the garden, was he tempting her to be like God Almighty (Elohim) or just a spirit being (elohim) small "e"?

Hi Nathan: 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a]and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image,      in the image of God he created them;      male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (NIV) You are taking a narrow definition of abilities as being limited to bio-physical attributes observable in post-fallen humans. (Which means you are forcing that definition on the text; you are eisegeting your definition of "ability" into the text.) This passage does not define abilities as manifestations that are capable of being empirically measured. This definition is too narrow. For example, humans have the ability to learn any human language as infants, but most lose this abilities as we grow (i.e. if you follow the Chomskyan understanding of 1st Language development). Just because we lose this ability, doesn't mean that it isn't an essential characteristic/attribute/trait of being human even if some of us are born deaf, dumb, and mute. Likewise, we have the ability for abstract thinking, symbolic problem solving, introspection and self- awareness. While the results of such abilities are empirically observable, these traits, these abilities, these characteristics of humans aren't directly observable. They are inferred. Whatever scientists and philosophers say are the essential characteristics of what separates humans from the rest of creation are not explicitly evident and empirically observable. So limiting the definition of human abilities to empirically observed attributes, features, traits, or characteristics cannot be logically held because this would mean the social scientific and biological scientific definitions of humanity are also likewise eliminated: neurology, neuro-psychology, neuro-cognitive sciences, linguistics, anthropological, etc. They all infer essential characteristics based on inferences from the empirical data, not directly from empirical observation. They also all make a difference in drawing the distinction between essential characteristics from general and accidental characteristics that are observable with the naked eye. The essential characteristics are hypothesized as being encoded in our DNA which we can not see empirically--only mapped and theorized abstractly. So again, essential characteristics, attributes, features, traits do not have to be empirically observed in the sciences or in theology as your definition of abilities or attributes seem to imply. |------My point. What cognitive scientists and linguistics have postulated as being essential characteristics of humanity are, nevertheless, different from what the Bible itself says. Chomsky and Cognitive Scientists will say our conceptual abilities, including our language faculty and ability to think abstractly and introspectively (self-awareness), are what makes us different from the rest of creation. However, the Bible list our differences based on imperatives utter by God and God's blessings directed to humanity alone. This is why I wrote the following below from my original post. (IN THE GEN 1 DISCOURSE CONTEXT; IN THE GEN 1 PERICOPE) what makes humans different from all the other things and entities God spoke into existence is God's imperatives and blessings pronounced over humanity. Our essential attributes are found in the imperative and blessings spoken about/over us. (Everything in this pericope is about God's creative powers of speaking and blessing; hence, the distinguishing features of humanity are also couched in speaking and blessing metaphors--not in bio-genetic nor in materialistic terminology.) Our etiology (explanation for our origins/purpose) and theological anthropology are, therefore, combined. By undertaking a analysis that compares and contrasts what the agents in this pericope can do and/or have been commanded or blessed to do, we are left with the following regarding humanity. What does this tell us? WE HAVE ARTISTIC and OPEN-ENDED FREEDOM to rule, govern, and design[/order]. It tells us that we have creative and imaginative characteristics that we share only with God. Whereas the Sun and Moon’s realms have been micro-managed; God has simply delegated (spoken) that divine authority to humanity. God has given humanity the freedom to analyze and study, imagine and conceive, to innovative and to rule the Earth. God has displayed “Principle-centered” leadership for the earthly realm. To put it another way, our unique attributes (as listed in this pericope) are that we have been designed by God to fulfill a role and given the authority and (by extension) the ability (however, latent and marred by sin) to bring those imperatives and blessings into fruition and maturation through the second birth, second resurrection, and earthly rule of the new Adam. What God has commanded and blessed us to do will be done. Again, we are speaking to this pericope and not to OT theology or Systematic theology. We are proposing a deep reading of this pericope. Other readings that take in larger pragmatic/discourse contexts are still available.