{"id":67677,"date":"2019-12-24T16:55:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T14:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=67677"},"modified":"2023-07-20T12:20:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T09:20:15","slug":"one-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/one-god\/","title":{"rendered":"One God"},"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":[460,384,500,832],"acf":{"old_id":"67677","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"379","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"So what is the source of darkness, death and evil then?\r\n\r\n","content":"

God\u2019s identification of Cyrus as \u201cMy messiah\u201d (1) is problematic. On the one hand, since the term literally means one who is anointed, and since there is evidence that all kings in the ancient world were anointed at their coronations, Cyrus, King of Persia, can easily be so entitled. However, given that he did not step on to the world stage until the middle of the 6<\/span>th<\/span> century BCE, the appearance of his name in the prophecy of an 8<\/span>th<\/span> century prophet is widely cited as evidence that the second part of the Book of Isaiah (beginning with Chapter 40) belongs to a later prophet\u2014often designated \u201cDeutero- (Second-) Isaiah.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Malbim\u2019s* commentary has v. 5 address an idiosyncratically Persian audience, arguing that it is a retort to the Zoroastrian belief in dualism.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to understand these verses, we need to provide a brief introduction. Among the Persians at that time was a widespread belief in dualism. They believed that the world had two beginnings: one produced light, existence, and goodness, and the other was the source of darkness, absence, and evil. They believed that these two beginnings\u2014each one\u2019s sovereignty bordering on the other\u2019s\u2014are in perpetual combat; sometimes one triumphs and sometimes the other, but ultimately the light will vanquish the darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n

These believers maintain that darkness, death, and blindness are not absences but existing entities. Light and darkness are opposite entities, like cold and heat, and they found it difficult to imagine that diametric opposites derive from the same source. Therefore, they said that all goodness derive from one wholly good source while evil, darkness and absence derive from a different wholly evil origin.<\/span><\/p>\n

We, the [true] believers, will respond to these fools\u2026 that darkness, death, and evil are the negation of light, life, and goodness. Rather than independent entities, they are absences. We ascribe to God only goodness and presence because He is intrinsically good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim\u2019s insight is borne out by v. 7: \u201cI form light and create darkness, I make peace (`<\/em><\/span>ose shalom<\/span><\/em>) and create evil (<\/span>ubore\u2019 ra<\/span><\/em>`<\/em>)\u2014 I the LORD do all these things,\u201d which is reformulated in the daily Shaharit (morning) service as \u201cmake peace and create everything (<\/span>ubore\u2019 et hakol<\/span><\/em>).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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