2 Samuel 24:9: What Was Israel's
Population?
The problem is this: 2 Samuel 24:9 has 300,000 less fighting men in
northern Israel than 1 Chronicles 21:5. And 2 Samuel has 500,000 fighting
men from Judah while 1 Chronicles states there were only 470,000. What
is the explanation for these statistical inconsistencies?
As if this were not enough to deal with, both Josephus
and the Lucianic texts (a recension of the Greek Septuagint) of Samuel
record the number as 900,000 for Israel and 400,000 for Judah.
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Hinting and Giving Understanding
According to ancient rabbinic tradition there were various modes of
interpretation for understanding and teaching the Torah (Old Testament).
The most common was "Pardes," meaning "garden of the
Torah," which was an acrostic for the four modes of interpreting
the Torah. The "R" consonant in Pardes stood for "remez"
which means "to hint at something obvious." For example when
Jesus referred to Himself as "the Son of Man," the remez understanding
would be that He was identifying Himself with the apocalyptic Redeemer
of Dan 7:13-14 where the Jewish prophet Daniel spoke of a man called
"the son of man" who would be given an everlasting kingdom
that would never pass away.
In fact just by saying "Son" or "My Father" Jesus
was making blatant statements about Himself to anyone that was familiar
with the Torah, since words like "Son" are scattered throughout
the entire Hebrew Scriptures in identification with the Messiah.
Throughout the entire ministry of Jesus he was fulfilling prophecy,
in every Word He spoke, every place He went, and every thing that He
did. There was nothing that Jesus said or did that was not in direct
fulfillment to some passage or Scripture in the Hebrew Torah. Even when
"He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle" He was
literally screaming the message that He was the first born Son of the
Father according to rabbinic Judaism.
The Coming One
Many times Jesus would make one statement and be quoting or hinting
at four or five different verses in the Old Testament, especially when
He was being attacked by the religious leaders, he would answer their
questions with another question or statement that would allude to the
Scriptures that they were presuming to know so much about and following
so closely. There are numerous examples but for now we will examine
John's question and Jesus' response.
John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, "are you the coming one?"
If we examine the Old Testament we would find a multiplicity of statements
about the Messiah being regarded as "the coming One" in Hebrew
its "haba" which means "to come." One of the most
popular Messianic Scriptures where this word is used is in one of the
Psalms:
Ps 118:26 "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!"
Another Scripture in the Psalms that was regarded in Judaism as Messianic
is in Psalm 40 where it contains the word "haba" spoken by
Christ Himself through David before Jesus was born:
Ps 40:6-8 Sacrifice and offering
You did not desire; My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, "Behold,
I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to
do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart."
Another example is found in the last book of our English Bible:
Mal 3:1 "Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts.
The knowledge and expectation of the "Coming One" was prevalent
during the time of Christ as we can see from a couple of examples:
John 6:14 "Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus
did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world."
John 11:25-27 Jesus said to her, "I
am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may
die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never
die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I
believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into
the world."
(to be continued...)
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All references taken from RBC, Pat Robertson,
Ron Rhodes, Kenneth/Gloria Copeland, Charles Slagle, Smith Wigglesworth,
Selwyn Hughes, Charles Spurgeon, Manners and Customs of Bible Times, The
Complete Bible Handbook, The Spirit Filled Bible(NKJV), The NIV Bible,
God's Promises for your every Need, Idiot's Guide to Bible Mysteries,
Hard Sayings of The Bible, Articles courtesy of Mr Andrew L W Lee. |