{"id":62981,"date":"2019-09-17T15:12:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T12:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62981"},"modified":"2023-04-10T17:59:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T14:59:59","slug":"false-prophets-sycophants-programmers-and-plagiarists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/false-prophets-sycophants-programmers-and-plagiarists\/","title":{"rendered":"False Prophets: Sycophants, Programmers, and Plagiarists"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[927,506,463],"acf":{"old_id":"62981","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38322,"related_cahpter":"309","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Hundreds parroting verbatim each other\u2019s purported divine communication belies claims of it emerging from their \u201crelationship\u201d with God","content":"

How does one distinguish between genuine and false prophecy? Ahab, the Israelite king, consults four hundred alleged prophets who respond unanimously in favour of his plan to wage a military campaign against Aram. However, Jehoshaphat, the Judahite king, suspicious of this inflated group of sycophants who endorsed what was already known to be his Israelite ally\u2019s decision, insists on consulting another prophet. The Talmud ascribes Jehoshaphat\u2019s incredulity to the awareness that \u201cno two prophets prophesy in identical language [<\/span>signon<\/span><\/em>].\u2019\u2019 This profound insight anticipates Martin Buber\u2019s understanding of false prophecy some two millennia later who asserted, \u201cGod has truth, but He does not have a system. He expresses his truth through his will, but his will is not a program.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Any authentic relationship between God and a human being is rooted in dialogue unique to the particular moment and individual involved and thus inimitable. Authentic relationship can never be programmatic. Hundreds of individuals parroting verbatim each other\u2019s purported divine communication evidences a platitude that belies claims of it emerging from their \u201crelationship\u201d with God.<\/span><\/p>\n

This test which exposed that mass gathering of prophetic charlatans carries over into Zedekiah\u2019s subsequent false corroboration of it. Zedekiah conducts a street performance, touting \u201chorns of iron\u201d as symbols of certain victory for Ahab: \u201cWith these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of them\u201d (11).<\/span> He appropriates a stale and dated image unique to Moses\u2019 blessing conferred on Joseph\u2019s tribe at the end of Deuteronomy, \u201cLike a firstling bull in his majesty, He has horns like the horns of the wild-ox; With them he gores the peoples…These are the myriads of Ephraim, Those are the thousands of Manasseh.\u201d (33:17).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Zedekiah strategically chooses his dramatic implements to appeal to Ahab since Manasseh and Ephraim are associated biblically with his Northern kingdom as opposed to Judah and Benjamin in the South. The very term for the wild ox whose horns symbolize Joseph\u2019s sons\u2019 strength (<\/span>RAM<\/span><\/i>) resonates with the enemy\u2019s name, Aram (<\/span>ARM<\/span><\/i>), bolstering its pretense. The false prophet plagiarizes a prophecy shorn of its original context, formulaically applying it to the current situation. Ahab hears only victory but ignores Sinai and God in whose name Moses originally bestowed that blessing –<\/span> \u201cThis is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, bade the Israelites farewell before he died. He said: The LORD came from Sinai<\/span>\u2026<\/span><\/i>\u201d (Deut 33:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

The one who granted those Deuteronomic blessings \u201cto the tribes of Israel together\u201d was a king – \u201cAnd there was a king in Jeshurun\u201d (33:5). Commentators offer three different identifications of the \u201cking\u201d: Moses, God, or Torah. Perhaps that presents an ideal amalgamation of all three as the model king to which Ahab\u2019s corrupt kingship is an affront. When a king like Ahab governs only in his own self-interest and divorces the throne from God and Torah which it represents, he can no longer discern between prophecies that emanate from God and those that do not.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":62982,"id":62982,"title":"1kings22-Plagiarism","filename":"1kings22-Plagiarism.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/false-prophets-sycophants-programmers-and-plagiarists\/1kings22-plagiarism\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings22-plagiarism","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62981,"date":"2019-09-17 12:12:21","modified":"2019-09-17 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