Thursday, October 15, 2020

1 Chronicles 16:36 and its implications for Psalm 90:2 and Moroni 8:18

In 1 Chron 16:36 we read:

 

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord.

 

The Hebrew for "forever and ever" is ‎מִן־הָעוֹלָם וְעַד הָעֹלָם (literally, "from the 'olam and until the 'olam"; cf. "ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος" ["from the aionos and until the aionos" in the LXX).

 

Why is this interesting? As D. Charles Pyle noted:

 

In this 1 Chronicles passage, it speaks of blessing God forever and ever. But God was not praised in this way by men on earth before those praising him ever began to praise him, so we see the inherent limitation placed on the meaning of the phrasing found there. (D. Charles Pyle, I Have Said Ye are Gods: Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification in Patristic Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New Testament Texts (Revised and Supplemented) [North Charleston, N.C.: CreateSpace, 2018], 220)

 

Such has implications for the common abuse of Psa 90:2 and even Moroni 8:18 among many of our critics as, at least in the Chronicles text, there is a temporal "beginning" to the 'olam and it is not inherently "timeless." For more, see the listing of articles at:

 

Resources for "We Agree with Moroni 8:18" day (18 August)