Bancea Gábor

Contributed content

2007

Canaanite Abominations as Presented in the Book of Deuteronomy. A Theological Evaluation. Before entering in the Promised Land the people of Israel were told not to follow the forbidden practices of the polytheistic nations (Deut 18, 9–14), to avoid all kinds of magical and superstitious practices designed to discover the will of gods, or even to compel the gods to action in certain ways. The occult, superstitions, divinisation, sorcery, spiritualism were abominations all to Yahweh and brought about His judgment. Yahweh made His will known through revelation, by the aid of His prophets, whose words would be clearly understandable to the people in contrast with the ambiguous and mysterious spells of those who worked with magic and divinisation. Israel must be blameless in regard to every form of divinisation, magic or spiritism. In our day when we can see the rise of a „new paganism”, moreover when spiritualism, astrology, teacup reading and the like are widely practised, these injuctions given to ancient Israel have a particular relevance. This presentation is trying to understand the present will of God with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to tell the difference between religion and revelation. A short survey is being made to define the aspects of Israelite religion, a product of revelation through the prophets of Jahweh in contrast to the religions and magic void of revelation. The exegesis of the biblical passage from Deut 18,9–14 enables us to search to the different forbidden Canaanite practices. Some attempts are being made towards a possible new translation of the words denoting forbidden practices. The will of God was to be discovered by a prophet and not by a magic worker, a diviner or a spiritist. Israel has to observe the guidance of Yahweh, who will provide a succession of prophets until the day when He will send them the Messiah, the eschatological Prophet Jesus Christ, His Son – who will save His people from damnation. He has the words of eternal life. Jesus asked the twelve: You do not want to leave too, do you? Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6,67–68)

PublicationResearch article2007Református Szemle 100.1