{"id":66322,"date":"2019-12-01T00:23:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T22:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=66322"},"modified":"2023-06-23T07:45:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T04:45:34","slug":"god-the-one-and-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-the-one-and-only\/","title":{"rendered":"God The One And Only"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[383,384,982,404],"acf":{"old_id":"66322","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64700,"related_cahpter":"361","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"So who is he always doing battle with?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opening of this chapter speaks about a future moment when God does battle (\u201cwith His Great Strong and Powerful Sword\u201d) against the sea-reptile, Leviathan \u2013 which would seem to suggest the heretical view that there is another power which can battle the Almighty.\u00a0 Some commentaries understand that this battle must be a metaphor for God choosing to subdue enemy nations, and not of an actual battle against a different, rival mythical force (see Targum, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Talmud (in Bava Batra 74b) follows the simple reading of the text and argues that this does, indeed, speak of God\u2019s destruction of a great sea creature, but still the Leviathan is just another creation of God, and not an independent rival to Him. Later, in 51:9-10, there is talk about God\u2019s battle with the serpent or \u201cTanin\u201d and with \u201cYam\u201d and \u201cRahav.\u201d Many commentaries take these all to refer to the nation Egypt, the splitting of the sea, and the Exodus, and not as another primordial power of sea or chaos overcome by the Creator (Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak). The Talmud also takes 27:4 to mean that God had a duel and overcame the force \u201cCheimah,\u201d \u201cAnger,\u201d although the verse is simply understood as merely saying that God has no anger.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, \u201cDeath\u201d or \u201cMavet\u201d is not an independent power in Jewish thought, as the prophet demonstrates again and again that control over Life and Death belongs to God Himself, and not any rival power. 28:15-18 talks about people who have made a covenant with Mavet, although this text can be understood not as imbuing Mavet with independent power but a covenant with God about death. (It is also possible that the people\u2019s words are not meant to be taken literally). Jeremiah 9:20 uses a vivid image of \u201cdeath entering our windows\u201d but that text can also be taken metaphorically or as personification, and not as granting \u201cDeath\u201d independent corporeal form. Lastly, 38:18 goes even further in personification and even granting independent will to death \u201cFor She\u2019ol will not thank you, Mavet will not praise you.\u201d\u00a0 Most commentaries argue this verse is talking about those that live in She\u2019ol or death being unable to praise God (see Targum, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak) and not that Death, \u201chimself,\u201d would praise God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The belief in an all-powerful God generally involves rejecting the belief in forces that rival God, and so these verses are taken as poetic flourishes, or as a description of God&#8217;s interactions with His own creations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Destruction of Leviathan, 1865 engraving by Gustave Dor\u00e9 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":66323,"id":66323,"title":"is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan","filename":"is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-the-one-and-only\/is27-destruction_of_leviathan\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is27-destruction_of_leviathan","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":66322,"date":"2019-11-30 22:23:33","modified":"2023-12-10 12:31:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":482,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan-241x300.png","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","medium_large-width":482,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","large-width":482,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","1536x1536-width":482,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","2048x2048-width":482,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","post_full_size-width":482,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan-337x420.png","home_baner-width":337,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"God The One And Only","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"So who is he always doing battle with?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":66323,"id":66323,"title":"is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan","filename":"is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-the-one-and-only\/is27-destruction_of_leviathan\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is27-destruction_of_leviathan","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":66322,"date":"2019-11-30 22:23:33","modified":"2023-12-10 12:31:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":482,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan-241x300.png","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","medium_large-width":482,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","large-width":482,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","1536x1536-width":482,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","2048x2048-width":482,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan.png","post_full_size-width":482,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is27-Destruction_of_Leviathan-337x420.png","home_baner-width":337,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66324,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66322\/revisions\/66324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}