Biblical brain teasers
Have been reading the Old Testament again recently. Some thoughts occur:
1: If King Solomon was the wisest person to ever live, before or since (Kings 11:12), was he wiser than Christ?
2: If Adam and Eve had children, and then sinned, but the child refused the serpent's offer, it's natural to assume that the parents would be kicked out of Paradise, not the child. Since the entire Earth was cursed due to their actions, would Creation then be split up 50/50 for Fallen Humanity and Pure Humanity?
3: If Adam and Eve had sinned while Eve was pregnant, how would God resolve the need to banish the sinning mother and preserve the pure baby in Paradise?
1: If King Solomon was the wisest person to ever live, before or since (Kings 11:12), was he wiser than Christ?
2: If Adam and Eve had children, and then sinned, but the child refused the serpent's offer, it's natural to assume that the parents would be kicked out of Paradise, not the child. Since the entire Earth was cursed due to their actions, would Creation then be split up 50/50 for Fallen Humanity and Pure Humanity?
3: If Adam and Eve had sinned while Eve was pregnant, how would God resolve the need to banish the sinning mother and preserve the pure baby in Paradise?
posted by Guy Haraldsson | Friday, June 16, 2006
1 Comments:
Dante has a fun little answer for that first one in the Paradiso.
St. Thomas Aquinas in the Heaven of the Sun makes the comment that "no other ever rose with so much vision" (X.114) in speaking about Solomon. This puzzles Dante, and St. Thomas' response essentially can be reduced to the fact that Solomon was the wisest person ever to live in terms of particular (i.e. political) wisdom, for "it was as a king that he had asked/ for wisdom that would serve his royal task" (XIII.95-96) and is therefore granted the "matchless vision" (XIII.103) that is "kingly prudence" (XIII.103). Christ is, however, perfect in all (general) wisdom.
This is, of course, not orthodox theology, but it's an interesting way to handle the problem nonetheless.
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