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Showing posts from January, 2014

The Satanic Census . . . or maybe not

This blog post came from the web site Experimental Theology . The site is operated by Richard Beck who is Professor and Department Chair of Psychology at Abilene Christian University. You can click on the link above go to his site. At the end of this post there are some books and web sites listed that you might find helpful. One of the more interesting contradictions in the Old Testament has to do with the events in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. The story is about a census David makes of Israel. For whatever reason, this census angers YHWH bringing a plague upon Israel. It's not clear why taking a census is so bad. The speculation is that in taking a census David is expressing proprietorship over the people, treating Israel as his property. That's a usurpation of YHWH's position as the true king of Israel. All that is interesting in its own right, but the real puzzles are what I'm about to point out. The first puzzle is why David undertakes t...