Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jkk@aiai.edinburgh.ac.uk (John Kingston) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: 1 Kings 13 Message-ID: Date: 24 Nov 89 03:37:39 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh Lines: 31 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu [This is a comment on the discussion about 1 Kings 13, in which the an unnamed prophet (who we are calling Foo) is lied to by another unnamed prophet (who we are calling Bar). --clh] At least it's a Jewish name :-) [The original posting that raised this issue asked several questions about how we should take it: 1) do we take it at face value, or assume it got garbled? 2) which of the prophets were true prophets? 3) Bar seems to have been set up. By whom? 4) Did the author of Kings have any views on the episode? --clh] I don't see a reason to disbelieve the story. The way I look at it, the key to understanding it is that prophets can speak God's word even when they are not living in accordance with God's word. [Look at the story of Balaam for an example - there's also a bit in Revelation which gives a bit more information about Balaam's character and motives]. Hence, both Foo and Bar are true prophets. I sympathise with Foo's predicament, trying to decide between God's previous word and (apparently) a new, contradictory message from God. A difficult decision to make, especially when you're hungry and one way gets you a good meal. John Kingston, AI Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland E-mail jkk@uk.ac.ed.aiai, phone 031-225 4464 ext. 213 FAX: 031 226 2730 Arpanet: J.Kingston%uk.ac.ed@nfsnet-relay.ac.uk TELEX: 727442 UNIVED G