[B-Greek] Rm 9:7a Seed of Abraham or Children of Abraham

Harold Holmyard hholmyard at ont.com
Sat Apr 29 17:15:16 EDT 2006


Juan Stam wrote:

>Greetings from Costa Rica:
>
>Harold and Doug: I think the omission of Dan and Ephraim from Rev 7 needs
>some other explanation. Were they the only tribes to bring idols into
>Israel?  Testament of Dan describes Dan's apostasy but also their
>forgiveness and restoration.  In the territorial list of Ezq 48. the tribe
>of Dan is in first place and Ephraim is also included. Most of the tribes
>listed in Rev 7 no longer existed. John of Patmos seems to have tampered
>with his list on purpose, so that his readers/listeners would not take it
>literally. In literal terms, it would be impossible for twelve distinct
>tribes to each have exactly the same population of 12 thousand. In fact,
>Judah alone (I understand) had considerable more than 12,000, and Benjamín
>perhaps fewer.
>
>  
>
HH: I didn't realize we were talking about the omission of Dan and 
Ephraim from Revelation 7, but Revelation 7 does not claim that all the 
tribes have only 12,000 people. It is saying that 12,000 people were 
chosen from each tribe. The tribes did not necessarily die out, and God 
would know who was from what tribe. John may use round numbers with a 
symbolic flavor, based on the twelve tribes of Israel and giving a 
multiple of 12 at the end, 144,000 (12 x 12,000).

Yours,
Harold Holmyard



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