[Avodah] "God who knows the future"

[Arie Folger]

R'nTK wrote:
> TK: The sixth one, "all the words of the Nevi'im  are true."  How can
> the Nevi'im know the future if Hashem Himself doesn't  know the
> future?

Actually, who says that the prophets knew the future? The overwhelming
majority of prophecies are not predicting the future. On the contrary,
they are revealing (or more correctly: emphasizing) a likely future if
people do not change their ways. In other words, almost all prophetic
knowledge is contingent. (That, of course, puts Avraham's prophecy
where he was revealed about 400 years of estrangement and enslavement
in stark contrast and begs the question why that prophecy is different
from all others.)

Ah, but I sense some will tell me that David prophesied about events
400+ years later, namely the destruction of the First Beit haMiqdash
and the eventual return to Tsiyon. But ... you surely know that no
less than Rav and Rabbi Yo'hanan taught that the final redactor of
Tehillim was not David, but Ezra, and several commentaries have thus
understood various psalms as having been composed hundreds of years
after David passed away. Ps. 137 is a nice case in point, but Ps. 46
is another one (see Ibn Ezra there IIRC).

In conclusion, I see no reason to think that prophecy requires Divine
foreknowledge of all events. You and I may not feel well with Ralbag's
view, but you have not disproved it.

Kol tuv,

-- 
Arie Folger,
Recent blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
* Rabbi, wie stehen Sie zur Einäscherung?
* Biblical Advice for the Internet Age iii
* Speaking To Your Kids About Personal Safety
* Chance Favors the Concentration of Wealth, Study Shows - What's
Torah's Alternative?
* Biblical Advice for the Internet Age ii
* The Ecologically Correct Funeral
* The Goodly Tents of Jacob
* Biblical Advice for the Internet Age