Vos Study #10

Vos Study #10 covers the first half of chapter 6: points 1-2 of 4 about The Period Between Noah and the Great Patriarchs. Point 2 on The Table of Nations is simply a paragraph that highlights the significance of Shem. Point 1 centers on Noah’s prophetic curse of Ham and blessings of Shem and Japheth, the progenitors of all humanity, in three redemptive-historical groups. One quote of Vos for each:

On Ham:

The Old Testament recognizes that among the Canaanites the same type of sin here cursed was the dominating trait of evil. The descriptions given in the Pentateuch leave no doubt as to this [cp. Lev. 18.22; Deut. 12.29-32]. Even among the ancients outside of Israel (Japhetites) the sensual depravity in sexual life of Phoenicians, and Carthaginians in particular, had become proverbial.

On Shem:

This is the first time in Scripture that God is called the God of some particular group of mankind. It is so extraordinary a thing as to inspire the patriarch to the utterance of a doxlogy; ‘Blessed by Jehovah, the God of Shem.’ Resolved into its explicit meaning it would read: ‘Blessed be Jehovah, because He is willing to be the God of Shem.’

On Japheth dwelling in the tents of Shem:

A real political conquest is intended. But ultimately such physical conquest will have for its result the coming of a religious blessing to Japhet. Occupying the tents of Shem he will find the God of Shem, the God of redemption and of revelation, there. The prophecy, both in its proximate political import and as to its ultimate spiritual consequences, was fulfilled through the subjugating of Shemitic territory by the Greeks and Romans. For this blessing became one of the most potent factors in the spread of the true religion over the earth. Delitsch strikingly remarks: ‘We are all Japhetites dwelling in the tents of Shem.’

Bucey and Tipton spend a fair bit of time discussing how the curse of Ham “presses the antithesis”, in a Van Tillian way. They also point out (in a Klinean way) that, this not being a period of intrusion, Ham was not to be immediately executed.

 

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3 Responses to Vos Study #10

  1. charlie says:

    Where the heck have you guys been? The last blog was last year! Are you guys done?

  2. RubeRad says:

    I think CO may have waxed and waned. I haven’t had much to say, been busy teaching LC in sunday school, haven’t kept up with the Vos study even. Zrim hangs out at oldlife, I usually read there but can’t comment because I think I got auto-banned because I left too many links and a computer decided I was a spammer. And I’ve decided that’s OK…

  3. cath says:

    I’m glad somebody asked! Miss the chat around here sometimes.

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