Hello
@geralduk,
The words used, and their meanings, are very important. Quibbling about them, as Euphemia has said, is not good. However, I do not believe that this is what is happening here.
The grammatical rules of a language are set, aren't they? They are there to provide a sure framework for understanding the true meaning and function of words. To dispute them is to take away the confidence we have in words and their meaning, and leaves us without a solid basis upon which to ground our understanding.
However, the way the Holy Spirit uses the words of Scripture, can be determined by comparison. So, regardless of the rules of grammar, we can know, by the way He uses them, what those words are intended to convey.
Geralduk, you have called into question the notations in my Bible, in which I was informed that the word heaven is always plural, simply because you have been told otherwise by others. With respect, that is not a solid bases upon which to reason. Please seek an authorititive source of information on the Hebrew meaning of the word used in this case, and then you will be able to speak with authority.
Strong's concordance defines the word as (quote):-
* I don't find that particularly helpful. I think I will stick to comparing the way the Holy Spirit uses the word, to determine how to understand it, myself.
In Christ Jesus
Chris
By your own argument I will return it to you . "You have called into question the notations(!?) in my Bible"
Your own argument such as it is can be used against you ,For you or others have called into question my bible.
I refuse to reduce this to simple personality or matters of opinion.
I draw your attention to the post of 'Abdicate' who kindly instructed me in the Hebrew about this matter.
I draw your atention to the fact that eh also asserted right at the beginning that the Hebrew word in question "is always plural"
Yet in the same post he uses the word HEAVEN to denote the abode of God or where Gods throne is.
But before God I questioned a Jew who I believe as a rabbi and he said the word can also be singular .
I have also heard it confessed by Hebrew scholars also that it can be singular also.
So the assertion that it "always" and can be only plural is simply that an assertion.
My argument ;which no one has addressed at all as to WHY it should be HEAVEN and not heavens is in my view odd . For it is both reasonable it does not violate biblical and sound doctrine nor contradict any other scripture .
I arrived at my conclusion that it should be heaven by biblical argument and surveying most scripture that appliesd ot the matter .
Some oen was tempted to suggest that the heaven where Gods throne is and all the host of heaven " were not created "at all.I would assume either they did not realise the import of what they were saying or were too rushed in the sayi9ng of it to come to such a conclusion. But it does indicate how one error can or does lead to another in the defense of an error .
You said "notations" Do I understand that to mean either notations in your Bible or in a Hebrew Bible/commentary?
I care not a wit about another mans notations if by them it misleads people.
I do call into question versions of the Bible that have mistranslated it even from the beginning .
As I said before I refuse to reduce it down to you and me and hopefully you will not take any of this as some personel attack.
My authority is the scriptures themselves .Not my understanding of Hebrew or English as it were.
My argument (which no one has adressed at all) is a biblical argument that argues by the logic of the scriptures themsleves .
In the beginning God created the HEAVEN and the EARTH.
and it was ONLY the earth that was in darkness .
Not heaven.
That heaven God created in the beginning must be the heaven of Gods throne.
and NOT the "heavens" of earth which follow it.
I would also draw your atention to the fact that if we are BORNagain we are born of HEAVEN .
For there is that which is of HEAVEN and that which is of EARTH.
Do you see then how important this is ?
For if you deny HEAVEN which some misguidedly have and some versions have as in "in the beginning God created the SKY and the earth"(student bible) Then do you not deny your own birth as it were?
Again I am not accusing you or I am simply shwping what great contradiction such a renedition of Gen 1:1 has.
in Christ
gerald
