Old Emails #2; contradicrions

This paper is from an e-mail I had that was dated :

10/29/2007

In this paper: It talks about the contradictions between Samuel and Chronicles in regards to the census that King David took. Likewise the differences of how the location of the Temple of El was chosen and other things. At the end, you can see my state of mind of how I reasoned with issues, because at that time I was high orthodox.

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In 2 Sam 24, it says that the anger of Yehowah burned against Israel and that He incited David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah."

1 Chronicles 21 says "Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel."

 So was it Yehowah or satan? 

Keep in mind that a spiritual being called Satan didn't exist in the national psyche yet, but only after the exile of Babylon and then Persia

Joab's words differ slightly from the story recorded in 1 Chronicles 21 than in 2 Sam 24, it says that Joab says "why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?" (2 Sam doesn't say this)

2 Sam 24 records that there were 800,000 valiant fighting men in Israel, and 500,000 valiant fighting men in Judah

1 Chronicles 21 says in Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, in Judah, there were 470,000 men who drew the sword

 
1 chron 21 also records that Joab did not number Levi and Benjamin, but 2 Sam 24 does not say this

 

2 Sam 24 just says 'three days of pestilence' it does not say 'three days of the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel" as in 1 chron 21.

 
2 Sam 24 records three different curses to pick from :

one is "shall seven years of famine come to you in your land..."

1 chron 21 says "take for yourself three years of famine"

2 Sam 24 says 'or flee three months before your foes while they pursue you'

1 chron 21 "three months to be swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you" (quite a difference from just being pursued!!)

 
2 Sam 24 'or shall there be three days pestilence in your land?"

1 chron 21 "or else three days of the sword of the LORD, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel"

 

the man with the threshing floor in 2 Sam 24 is "Arnuah the Jebusite", the man in 1 chron 21 is "Ornan the Jebusite" (the Hebrew is close, but not the same)

 

when David sees the angel it is different

2 Sam 24 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, "Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father's house."

and

1 chron 21:"Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces."

 
2 Sam 24 says that Gad came to David that day and told him to erect an altar to Yehowah on the threshing floor of Aranuah the Jebusite

and

1 Chron 21 says Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

 

2 Sam 24 just says that Aranuah sees King David and his servants coming and he runs out to meet them and bows down to the ground

and

1 chron 21 says:
Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons {who were} with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat. As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself before David with his face to the ground.


2 Sam 24 records the price given to Aranuah by King David for the threshing floor:

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

and

1 chron 21 records:
So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.

 
VERY DIFFERENT PRICES!

 
2 Sam 24 records that David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and that the LORD was moved by prayer for the land and the plague was held back from Israel

and

1 chron 21 has a very great miracle occur which is not recorded in 2 Sam 24

Then David built an altar to the LORD there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the LORD and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.


2 Sam 24 ends as above, but 1 chron 21 has more details:

The LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath. At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifice there. For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering {were} in the high place at Gibeon at that time. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the LORD.

The crazy mindset we had at the time:
Basically, 1 chron 21 is much more detailed. I don't know which to believe in detail, but to only take it historically, and as the LORD told you, to only trust the actual words of the prophets as true scripture, everything else is probably not exact, as we can obviously see above! I would hope that samuel would be more true because it is the prophet's writings, or is it?

 

Maregaal, I just pray to our Father, the LORD God of Israel that He forgive our sins and may He send His holy angel to tell us the truth regarding all of these scriptures. Amen.


It would just be so wonderful to hear His voice in these things so that we would know what is the truth and what is not. We have to study much more!!

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So, you can see that we (my family at that time) saw these contradictions and we didn't really know what to do with them... so we often times kept things in the "vague zone." 

In that mentality... we agreed there was a census of some kind and that many people were numbered. Something then happened where people suddenly died soon afterwards and it was about this time that the location for the future Temple in Jerusalem was picked.

That was then in 2007 though. 

Now, however,  since 15 years has past, I can almost throw the whole Tanach away outright. 

Why? Because the elders of Judah that came back after the exile edited our true polytheistic history and so didn't erase certain stories.... but only modified them, thus the polytheism can still be seen and the old Canaanite mythologies. 

So it takes a lot of work for the reader to undo the editing that these elders did.

If you were to judge the true history and un-edited version of Israel with the mindset of today..... you would naturally condemn the Tanach wholesale for being outright "pagan." 

It is one thing to have a favorite deity like El from the rest of the pantheon of Canaan. It is another thing to eradicate the others by morphing them all together. 

Akhenaten was a monotheistic pharoah in Egypt among a polytheistic society, but he didn't morph the other deities with his, in most part anyways. 

What Judah did, however, is gave all the attributes of the other gods to El. 

In reality, however.....

El had a wife (Asherah) and they had many kids or demigods. Baal was just one of those kids and apparently Yehwah too, Dagon, Mot (death), Yamm (Sea), and many others. Even, Baal eventually had kids, one of which is Shalim, who of which "Jerushalem" is named after. Yamm had a sea dragon pet called Lotan, where we see him carried over with his mythologies in the Bible as the "Leviathan." Which shows us that the Tanach is just modified writings from Israel's pagan days or polytheistic days and to this day the old polytheistic views still show its residue. Regardless of the elders trying to change its genuine historical past.

So, eventually,  Yehowah and El morphed into the same person and, as I said, the positive characteristics of the other gods were all put onto or given to this new deity named El/Yehowah. By doing this.... the people only needed to look to one divine being.

What is interesting is this bigger question.... what prompted all this?

I have two theories:

1. The teachings of Zorasterianism might had something to do with it.

2. Maybe mixed with #1, but seeing that Judah still existed as a people and as a national identity, coupled with the facts that the Temple dedicated to El was a real place they did worship at and Cyrus allowed it to be built again and no other apparently. So, El came into the forefront. And, besides He was known already in polytheistic days to be the Father of creation, mankind and all other gods.

Maregaal

1-3-2022

LEVIATHAN or Lotan being destroyed