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Another good Torah writing day. Now we're 25.7% done; it creeps up and creeps up!
Today I wrote the bit where tribal wars rage around Avram's domain, and he musters up a force and goes out to do a bit of fighting. Specifically, he gets together a little army of three hundred and eighteen people.
Now hear what Nahum Sarna has to say about the number 318 in his commentary:
I think that's marvellous. It's something to do with the way traditionalists will perform the most extraordinary mental gymnastics to prove that the text is entirely literal, and how here we have examples of Modern Scholars performing equally extraordinary mental gymnastics to prove that the text is entirely symbolic.
Today I wrote the bit where tribal wars rage around Avram's domain, and he musters up a force and goes out to do a bit of fighting. Specifically, he gets together a little army of three hundred and eighteen people.
Now hear what Nahum Sarna has to say about the number 318 in his commentary:
The fact that this figure is unparalleled in biblical literature and does not conform to any of the usual schematized or symbolic nunber pattersn has been taken as proof of its literal authenticity. However, attention has been drawn to two extrabiblical examples of the number 318, which may suggest its use as a literary device to indicate a large group: a scarab of Amenhotep III (14th cent. BCE) records the arrival of his bride, Princess Giluhepa of Mitanni, together with 317 harem women, making a company of 318 in all; the grand total of all persons who suffered violent death in the course of the four days' fighting reported in the Iliad comes to 318. It has been noted that 318 is the sum of the twelve prime numbers from 7 to 47, which may explain its use symbolically. It remains to be proved that these two examples are not meant to be precise and that the concept of the prime number was recognized in early times.
I think that's marvellous. It's something to do with the way traditionalists will perform the most extraordinary mental gymnastics to prove that the text is entirely literal, and how here we have examples of Modern Scholars performing equally extraordinary mental gymnastics to prove that the text is entirely symbolic.
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