Yesterday, I posted "The curious incident of the cock at dawn," in which I wrote as if from an alternate timeline and used the story of Peter's three denials before cockcrow to explore questions of agency and fate and whether Peter could have acted otherwise than it had been prophesied that he would act. For reasons related to the "alternate timeline" conceit, I modified the biblical text to say that the cock would "call out" rather than "crow."
This morning, I checked Synlogos and clicked a few of the links. Both Dark Brightness and Vox Day had posted links to a long article called "How to Build a Small Town in Texas." I didn't read the whole article but skimmed it a bit and noticed this illustration: a map of a Belgian town, with a caption inviting the reader to imagine "the invigorating call of roosters in the morning."
Later I brought up the app I have been using to listen to the entire Bible read aloud. It was at the beginning of John 14 -- that is, just a few verses before the one highlighted by BibleGateway, and immediately after "The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice." I wrote my "cock at dawn" post well before reaching this point in my Bible listening, and an earlier draft even included a reference to John 14:1: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."
5 comments:
I'm not sure how Wright can claim that Jonah's prophecy was a failure. Jonah attempted to flee to Tarshish in order to escape the LORD's command to cry out against the people of Ninevah. Jonah refused to go because he detested the Ninevites and knew very well they would repent in sackcloth and ashes; and thus escape destruction. Therefore, the future wasn't changed, because although no one knows the mind of the LORD, it sure seems like He wanted the Ninevites to repent; and through the unwilling Jonah, He got what He wanted.
The prophecy “failed” only in the sense that it did not come true. Jonah had said unconditionally, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 4:3), but the city was not overthrown. Either it was a false prophecy all along, or the Ninevites changed the future.
Of course in terms of the Lord’s presumed purpose in sending Jonah to Nineveh, the prophecy was a resounding success!
As I haven't read Wright's book, I thank you for the clarification.
Still, prophecy does not equal prediction. The OT prophets were not psychics. One of the major, if not the major point of prophecy was to call the people to sincere repentance. The prophets made dire prophecies, but the people of the Bible knew that the LORD could be swayed through true repentance. The LORD, being omniscient, knew the Ninevites would repent if He sent his (unwilling) servant Jonah. And in light of the severe penalties for false prophecies and false prophets, the fact that Jonah wasn't put to death and his story was included in the canon should also tell us something.
I haven't read Wright's book, either; just searched for "Jonah" and read the paragraphs that mentioned him.
"The LORD, being omniscient, knew the Ninevites would repent if He sent his (unwilling) servant Jonah."
This is where we differ. The Ninevites had free will, and no one, not even God, could know for sure in advance what they would do.
No, no. I agree with you on free will and how God couldn't have know for sure what the Ninevites would have done. The LORD deals in probabilities. And I'm no Calvinist. The comparison of Jonah and Oedipus is an interesting one though.
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