Mark

We are obviously not even on the same page to begin with. My view is that what was written by the author needs to be understood within his culture, intention etc.

Everyone else (apart from Gazza) seems to think that the time of writing is not important. Therefore this whole discussion will never be on the same page.

However i have never heard any evangelical scholars attempt to understand the menaing of a passage and the words within that passage, without understanding the culture it was written in, whether that be the hebrew or greek influences. Sure Moses was not there at creation, but he is writing historical narratives for the Israelites under God’s inspiriation. Now since Christianity believes that God uses human agents to write his word, i am perplexed at any view that deliberately ignores the writers culture and audience.

I do hope therefore that all of you here who do not think the hebraic culture is important in understanding the writing within that culture, are consistent with your over literal view of scripture throughout all of scripture. If you were to be consistent, any appeal to understand ‘kephale’ from wihtin the greek culture for example, would be irrelevant for you guys. You can’t have it both ways, but it seems you are all just arguing irrationally.

How can you even attempt to understand what naming represents reading it from a 21st century perspective- it doesn’t work and does injustice to the text. Therefore this discussion on naming will never produce any fruit because we are simply interpreting the text from different perspectives.