JTB.SDG
Puritan Board Junior
Hi,
I'm studying Joshua 7 and meditating on the ways Achan is set forth as a type of Adam; he alone sins but the whole camp is cursed on account of it. I'm no Hebrew scholar and need some help. I vaguely remember the discussion of "the ban" in seminary days but am a bit rusty. I looked up the uses of the word, and was surprised to find first, that it's the same word used for the camp of Israel becoming "accursed": IE, Achan took some of the things under the ban and so the whole camp of Israel itself became "banned." (There's a reason I'm sharing all this, please be patient). Well, I was also surprised to find that the Hebrew word used for both "the ban" and "accursed" is (transliterated): "Herem" or "Harem". I serve in a majority Muslm country and this immediately stood out to me, as foods and other things that are the most strongly prohibited in Islm are considered "Haram". I know there are very close similarities between Hebrew and Arabic but I don't know enough of the details. When I looked up the Arabic understanding of Haram it's almost identical to the Hebrew understanding of Herem/Harem. But I'm no expert. Can we be sure there's a relation?
PS, the reason I added all the other stuff is if there IS indeed a connection, I find this significant in general and also in witnessing to Muslms: Achan took what was Harem, and what it did is made the whole camp of Israel Harem. With many other parallels from Joshua 7 to Adam's sin in Genesis 3, there is already a strong connection with the doctrine of imputed sin. But it strikes me as a wonderful way to explain the gospel to our Arabic friends: What Scripture teaches is that it's not only certain sinful activities that are "haram"--we ourselves naturally, every one of us--is haram before God.
I'm studying Joshua 7 and meditating on the ways Achan is set forth as a type of Adam; he alone sins but the whole camp is cursed on account of it. I'm no Hebrew scholar and need some help. I vaguely remember the discussion of "the ban" in seminary days but am a bit rusty. I looked up the uses of the word, and was surprised to find first, that it's the same word used for the camp of Israel becoming "accursed": IE, Achan took some of the things under the ban and so the whole camp of Israel itself became "banned." (There's a reason I'm sharing all this, please be patient). Well, I was also surprised to find that the Hebrew word used for both "the ban" and "accursed" is (transliterated): "Herem" or "Harem". I serve in a majority Muslm country and this immediately stood out to me, as foods and other things that are the most strongly prohibited in Islm are considered "Haram". I know there are very close similarities between Hebrew and Arabic but I don't know enough of the details. When I looked up the Arabic understanding of Haram it's almost identical to the Hebrew understanding of Herem/Harem. But I'm no expert. Can we be sure there's a relation?
PS, the reason I added all the other stuff is if there IS indeed a connection, I find this significant in general and also in witnessing to Muslms: Achan took what was Harem, and what it did is made the whole camp of Israel Harem. With many other parallels from Joshua 7 to Adam's sin in Genesis 3, there is already a strong connection with the doctrine of imputed sin. But it strikes me as a wonderful way to explain the gospel to our Arabic friends: What Scripture teaches is that it's not only certain sinful activities that are "haram"--we ourselves naturally, every one of us--is haram before God.
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