Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Stephan Huller wrote:ΙΣ, saving his people out of Egypt a second time, destroyed the unbelievers

Stephan Huller wrote:the Mekhilta

Another interpretation: YHWH is a man of war, YHWH is His name.
Because, when the Holy One Blessed be He was revealed at the sea,
He appeared to them as a young man making war.
YHWH is His name. He appeared to them at Sinai like an old man, full of mercy:
I beheld 'til thrones were set down. (Daniel 7:9)

So as not to give an opportunity to say "There are two powers in heaven."
Rather YHWH is a man of War .

(Another interpretation:) YHWH is a man of War. YHWH fought in Egypt.
YHWH fought at the Sea. And He is at the Jordan, He is at the Arnon streams.
And He is in this world, And He is in the world to come.
He is in the past and He is in the future to come.
As it is said: Behold now, that I, even I, am He, etc. (Deut. 32:39)
Thus says YHWH, the king of Israel , etc. I am YHWH, the first and the last, etc. (Isa. 44:6)

An early (Marcionite?) work incorporated into Eznik's On God:

And He is called "fire," according to that one, "Your God is a consuming fire." (Deut 4:24) And so, let us see if God might be only "a consuming fire." But see here! Since another prophet made clear that the same spirit is light, according to that one, "The Lord is my light and my life. \; cf. Mic 7:8) If He were only a consuming fire, how would He be called vivifying light? Thus is it not clear that where custom requires, there He is called "fire," and where good temperedness is required, there "vivifying light." But He Himself is beyond fire and beyond light and beyond the many names He takes on account of His different remedies. And when He wants to appear to His holy ones, He does not appear in any other forms, but only in the forms of man whom He made according to His own image. And it is not that it happens to no purpose, but rather so as to demonstrate the excessive love which He has for man. And again, so that He might improve man beforehand in order to lead him into knowledge, so that when He would send His own son as man to the world, they would not consider it strange at all. Above all, they would know He was actually revealing Himself in the forms. Just as when He descended into the Garden to Adam, He employed a footstep like a man. (Gen 3:8-10) And when the Son stood beside Abraham with two angels, it suited Him to eat dinner in his tent. (cf. Gen 18:8) And having conversed with Abraham on the mountain, He dispatched His two young men, angels taking the form of man, to Sodom to the beautiful hospitality of Lot. (cf. Gen 19:1) And having set afire without altering, He permitted human voice to the angel in the bramble, allowing the man of God instead of the previously offered one to converse with Moses. (cf. Ex 3:2) And having given human form to his general Michael, He showed [him] to his commander Joshua on the field. (cf. Josh 5:13-14) And having dispatched an angel to the house of Namue to speak with him, he was presented in human form. (cf. Judg 13:3) And from time to time, almost having become a man, He would talk with Moses, His friend, mouth to mouth, , hand to hand. (cf. Ex 33:11) And to the man found to be a king according to his own heart, when he was afflicted by blows, , He would show him an angel in the form of a man, sword in hand. (cf. 2 Kgs 24:16-17) And to Ezekiel, He made appear a driver in human form, flame-shaped and fire-tongued in a chariot composed of various forms. And He showed to him cherubim composed of various wild beasts, and a cherub's hand extended like a man's from the midst of the cherubim. (cf. Ezek 10:1) extended like a man's from the midst of the cherubim. (cf. Ezek 10:1) And He himself sometimes would appear like an old man, (cf. Dan 7:22) sometimes like a youth, for one or another [manifestation] of Providence, having taken on the form for a cherished man (cf. Dan 9:23;1o:11) [On God p. 88 - 89]

Ephrem on the Marcionites

And if they say that he was far from him, infinitely far, if it was a mountain immeasurable and an endless path, and a vast extent without any limit, then how was that Stranger able to proceed and come down the immeasurable mountain, and (through) a dead region in which there was no living air, and (across) a bitter waste which nothing had ever crossed? And if they make the improbable statement that "the Stranger like a man of war was able to come," well if he came as a man of war-[though he did not come), (take the case of) those weak Souls whom he brought up hence, how were these sickly ones able to travel through all that region which God their Maker and Creator was not able to traverse, as they say?

Stephan Huller wrote:So the correct reading here is Jesus? there is a

Stephan Huller wrote:god named Jesus who led the Israelites out of Egypt once and again at the beginning of the Common Era?

Stephan Huller wrote:How do you propose that this god 'Jesus' was distinguished from 'Jesus' the son of Nun in the manuscripts of the Jews?

Stephan Huller wrote:Where are these manuscripts which mention a god 'Jesus' which saved the people from Egypt?