# Scribe editing location names



## chuckd (Feb 4, 2015)

*Hebrew scribes editing location names*

_And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan._ Gen. 14:14

I recently read that "Dan" could have been an edit, from a scribe after Moses, in order to help Israelites know where this took place. Is this a popular view among those who hold to the textus receptus? Is it acceptable to make edits today to help us know the regions?


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## chuckd (Feb 16, 2015)

bump


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## chuckd (Mar 11, 2015)

last bump


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## chuckd (Mar 11, 2015)

Our family is reading through Genesis so I have a related question over the naming of Beer-sheba.

Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them. Gen. 21:31
And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. Gen. 26:33

Does Beer = oath? If so, shouldn't 21:31 read "Wherefore he called that place Beer..."?


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## ProtestantBankie (Mar 11, 2015)

The Textus Receptus relates to a group of New Testament manuscripts, not to the Old Testament.

As far as the questions relate to Genesis 14:14 I would hold to the wording we have on the basis that there is no good reason to accept the speculation that "somebody added this at some point in time". The Word of God is sure, and this reading of Genesis 14:14 was almost certainly the one that the Lord Jesus had access to himself, he did not correct the record. He affirmed Moses to be the author, not Moses and the scribes that went after him.

From John Gill

"Genesis 21:31
Wherefore he called that place Beersheba,.... Either Abraham or Abimelech, or both, called it so; or it may be read impersonally, "therefore the place was called Beersheba", for two reasons, one implied, the other expressed; one was, because of the seven lambs before mentioned; so the Targum of Jonathan,"and therefore he called the well the well of seven lambs;'" "Beer" signifying a well, and "sheba" seven...."


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## Jack K (Mar 11, 2015)

Myself, I have no problem with the idea that others might have helped with the writing of these books or even made helpful edits for later generations after Moses died, all under the unerring guidance of the Spirit, of course. This is no threat to these books' authority. And Jesus still would have called them the writings of Moses, just as we today refer to books as the work of the main author or even as the work of the leader who commissioned the writing (think speeches of the president), not the work of the editors, researchers, and others who may have aided him. I see no assertion in Scripture itself that the books of the Bible must be the work of a single author working without help, which actually is bad practice for writers generally.


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## arapahoepark (Mar 11, 2015)

I believe Gordon Wenham in one of his OT introductions believes Moses wrote the bulk of the Pentateuch and it later under went revisions and even additions. While I disagree at the amount of additions he believes revisions for location names were common. TD Alexander also cities this in his introduction to the Pentateuch.


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