One God Report 74) Is the "memra" the pre-incarnate Son of God? (part 1 with Troy Salinger)
We welcome Troy Salinger back to the podcast. Troy is a theological blogger (Let the Truth Come Out) and house painter. In a series of previous One God Report podcast episodes (#54-59) Troy discussed the supposed “Pre-incarnate Appearances of the Son of God in the Old Testament: Truth or Myth".
Troy systematically showed the claim that Jesus the Son of God literally appeared to people like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, etc., is a myth - the claim is untrue.
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In the next couple of episodes Troy examines the claim that an Aramaic word, “memra”, which means a “saying, statement, word, declaration, command” which appears in the Targums (Aramaic translations of the Old Testament) is evidence that there was a second god-figure appearing to people in the Old Testament, and that this second god is the pre-incarnate Jesus.
The “memra” claim goes hand-in hand with the claim that the Jews during the time of Jesus believed there were “two powers in heaven”, and that these two powers were both somehow literally God. People like Michael Heiser have popularized this theory today. Heiser says Jews believed in “two “Yahwehs”, one unseen and one seen. The seen Yahweh was supposedly the memra in the Aramaic Targums.
Troy has examined these claims and shows them to be completely false.
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2:00 Trinitarian impetus for claiming "memra" is a 2nd divine figure - trying to find a Jewish religious cultural background for a multi-person God.
05:28 – the meaning of “memra”
09:00 – misinformation about memra from apologists
16:58 – how memra is NOT used in the Targums. It is not a substitute for the Hebrew word “davar” (word). Neither is memra used to denote a second divine being.
19:30 – the Aramaic word for davar (word) is not memra, but “pitgama”
22:57 – Dr. Michael Heiser is a main popular source for misconceptions about memra
25:04 – How memra IS used in the Targums. Memra is always an addition to the Hebrew text, and it is a substitute way of saying God himself.
27:20 – Targum experts explain what memra is and is not.
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Troy Salinger blog: Let the Truth Come Out
https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/author/troysal/
https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pre-incarnate-appearances-of-the-son-of-god-in-the-ot-truth-or-myth-part-2/
#michaelheiser, #two powers in heaven, #memra, #preincarnate Christ
Time stamps:
2:00 Trinitarian impetus for claiming "memra" is a 2nd divine figure - trying to find a Jewish religious cultural background for a multi-person God.