The Story-Line of Christian Precreation Rhetorolect LESSON 1: HEBREW BIBLE AS A RESOURCE FOR

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The Story-Line of Christian Precreation
RhetorolectLESSON 1 HEBREW BIBLE AS A RESOURCE
FOR NON-TIME BEFORE
GODS CREATION OF THE WORLD

• Precreation discourse concerns non-time, the
  eternity before time came into existence.
• Time came into being when God created the
  world through beginnings.
• In the language of precreation discourse, no one
  except God is able to see non-time. In other
  words, everything is invisible in non-time.

• Click to continue explanation of precreation
  discourse.

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Precreation Discourse cont. (1)

• Precreation discourse creates images of
  non-time in the mind, with the result that it
  makes invisible things visible in the minds of
  humans.
• An important part of this imaging is the
  creation of sequences of events that create
  time.
• In precreation discourse, God brings visible
  things out of the invisible through processes
  that are the beginnings of time.
• Click to read questions with which precreation
  discourse begins.

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Precreation Discourse cont. (2)

• Wisdom discourse, which is the topic of a
  different set of lessons, is based on visible
  things, things that people can see with their
  eyes in the world.
• Precreation discourse, in contrast, thinks its
  way into invisible things, things that no
  person can see except by seeing them in the
  mind.
• Click to read questions with which precreation
  discourse begins.

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Precreation Discourse cont. (3)

• As a result of its focus on invisible things,
  precreation discourse begins with questions
  rather than answers.
• Precreation discourse begins with questions
  about the nature of wisdom
• What is knowing (wisdom) that it can see
  things that cannot be seen with the eyes?
• Where did this knowing come from?
• As precreation discourse continues, it gives
  answers to the questions it raises about
  wisdom.
• Click to read questions with which precreation
  discourse begins.

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Precreation Discourse cont. (4)

• Here are some of the questions with which
  precreation discourse begins
• (1) What is wisdom?
• (2) Where did wisdom come from?
• (3) How can we know what truly is wisdom?
• (4) Since God is the most early being, did
  wisdom come from God? If so, how?
• (5) What can we see through wisdom about the
  innermost nature of God, which is hidden
  (invisible) from our eyes?
• Click to read further explanation of precreation
  discourse.

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Precreation Discourse cont. (5)

• The major emotion associated with precreation
  discourse is joy.
• This emotion brings forth language about
  happiness, exulting, singing, shouting for
  joy, rejoicing, delighting in and being
  delighted.
• In precreation discourse, Gods goal for humans
  is happiness and joy, and the knowledge humans
  attain about God causes them to be delighted with
  God.
• Click to read about Christian precreation
  rhetorolect.

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Christian Precreation Rhetorolect

• Christian precreation rhetorolect envisions
  Christ as present with God in an invisible form
  before God created the world.
• Christian precreation rhetorolect uses the
  following terms to speak about Christ in his
  invisible form
• (1) He is wisdom (can be thought)
• (2) He is image or reflection (can be seen in
  thought)
• (3) He is glory (can be seen as bright
  light)
• (4) He is light (lights up our minds)
• (5) He is spirit, wind, breath (can be felt
  as movement or can be heard as wind or
  breath)
• (6) He is word (can be heard with our ears).
• Click to read about this particular lesson.

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Precreation DiscourseContent of Lesson 1

• This lesson focuses entirely on precreation
  discourse in the Hebrew Bible, which functions as
  a resource for Christian precreation rhetorolect.
• Lesson 2 will focus on precreation discourse in
  Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon (writings in the Old
  Testament Apocrypha).
• Lesson 3 will focus of Gods creation of visible
  things out of invisible things in 2 Enoch (a
  writing in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha).
• Lessons 4 and following will focus on Christian
  precreation rhetorolect.
• Click to read about precreation discourse in the
  Hebrew Bible.

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Hebrew Bible Resource

• In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Job presents
  questions by Job, and questions by God to Job,
  that inquire deeply into the nature and source of
  wisdom.
• The questions by Job and by God move the
  discussion into precreation discourse.

• Click to read questions by Job in Job 27 that
  move the discussion into precreation discourse.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
JOB ASKS ABOUT THE NATURE OF WISDOM

• Job 271 Job again took up his parable, and said,
  
• 2820 Where then does wisdom come from? Where is
  the place of understanding?
• 2821 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all
  living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
• 2822 Destruction and Death say, We have heard a
  rumor of it with our ears.

• Click to continue with Jobs statement.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
JOB ASKS ABOUT THE NATURE OF WISDOM cont.

• Job 2723 God understands the way to it, and he
  knows its place.
• 2724 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and
  sees under the whole sky.
• 2725 He establishes the force of the wind. Yes,
  he measures out the waters by measure.
• 2726 When he made a decree for the rain, and a
  way for the lightning of the thunder
• 2727 then he saw it, and declared it. He
  established it, yes, and searched it out.

• Click to read questions by God to Job in Job 38.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD ASKS JOB ABOUT THE NATURE OF WISDOM

• Job 381 Then Adonai answered Job out of the
  whirlwind,
• 382 Who is this who darkens counsel by words
  without knowledge?
• 383 Brace yourself like a man, for I will
  question you, then you answer me!
• 384 Where were you when I laid the foundations
  of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
• 385 Who determined its measures, if you know? Or
  who stretched the line on it?

• Click to continue with Gods questions to Job.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD ASKS JOB ABOUT THE NATURE OF WISDOM
cont. (1)

• Job 386 Whereupon were its foundations fastened?
  Or who laid its cornerstone,
• 387 when the morning stars sang together, and
  all the sons of God shouted for joy?
• 388 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it
  broke forth from the womb,
• 389 when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped
  it in thick darkness,
• 3810 marked out for it my bound, set bars and
  doors,
• 3811 and said, Here you may come, but no
  further. Here your proud waves shall be stayed?
  

• Click to continue with Gods questions to Job.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD ASKS JOB ABOUT THE NATURE OF WISDOM
cont. (2)

• Job 3817 Have the gates of death been revealed
  to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow
  of death?
• 3818 Have you comprehended the earth in its
  breadth? Declare, if you know it all.
• 3819 What is the way to the dwelling of light?
  As for darkness, where is its place,
• 3820 that you should take it to its bound, that
  you should discern the paths to its house?
• 3821 Surely you know, for you were born then,
  and the number of your days is great!

• Click to continue with Gods questions to Job.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD ASKS JOB ABOUT THE NATURE OF WISDOM
cont. (3)

• Job 3824 By what way is the lightning
  distributed, or the east wind scattered on the
  earth?
• 3833 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can
  you establish its dominion over the earth?
• 3836 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or
  who has given understanding to the mind?
• 3837 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who
  can pour out the bottles of the sky?
• 3926 Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
  and stretches her wings toward the south? 27 Is
  it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and
  makes his nest on high?

• Click to read about the answer to these
  questions in Proverbs.

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Hebrew Bible Resource

• In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Proverbs
  presents an answer to the questions that arose in
  biblical tradition about the nature of wisdom.
• The answer comes in the form of a story about
  Gods creation of Wisdom and how she served as a
  helper to God when God created the world.
• Click to read the story of Wisdom in Proverbs.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD CREATED WISDOM BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF
THE EARTH

• Proverbs 319 By wisdom Adonai founded the earth.
  By understanding, he established the heavens.
• 320 By his knowledge, the depths were broken up,
  and the skies drop down the dew.
• Proverbs 81 Doesnt wisdom cry out? Doesnt
  understanding raise her voice?
• 822 Adonai possessed me wisdom in the
  beginning of his work, before his deeds of old.
• 823 I was set up from everlasting, from the
  beginning, before the earth existed.

• Click to continue the story of Wisdom in
  Proverbs 8.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD CREATED WISDOM BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF
THE EARTH cont. (1)

• Proverbs 824 When there were no depths, I was
  brought forth, when there were no springs
  abounding with water.
• 825 Before the mountains were settled in place,
  before the hills, I was brought forth
• 826 while as yet he had not made the earth, nor
  the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the
  world.
• 827 When he established the heavens, I was
  there when he set a circle on the surface of the
  deep,

• Click to continue the story of Wisdom in
  Proverbs 8.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD CREATED WISDOM BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF
THE EARTH cont. (2)

• Proverbs 828 when he established the clouds
  above, when the springs of the deep became
  strong,
• 829 when he gave to the sea its boundary, that
  the waters should not violate his commandment,
  when he marked out the foundations of the earth
• 830 then I was the craftsman by his side. I was
  a delight day by day, always rejoicing before
  him,
• 831 Rejoicing in his whole world. My delight was
  with the sons of men.

• Click to continue the story of Wisdom in
  Proverbs 8.

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Hebrew Bible Resource
GOD CREATED WISDOM BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF
THE EARTH cont. (3)

• Proverbs 832 Now therefore, my sons, listen to
  me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.
• 833 Hear instruction, and be wise. Dont refuse
  it.
• 834 Blessed is the man who hears me, watching
  daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts.
• 835 For whoever finds me, finds life, and will
  obtain favor from Adonai.
• 836 But he who sins against me wrongs his own
  soul. All those who hate me love death.

• Click for a summary.

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Good Work!

• In this lesson you have learned
  that Precreation discourse talks about
  non-time, when all things were invisible, by
  creating images of the invisible in the eye of
  the mind.
• Precreation discourse begins with questions
  about the nature of wisdom, which is the agency
  that creates images of the invisible in the mind.
• In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Job presents
  questions by Job, and questions by God to Job,
  that inquire deeply into the nature and source of
  wisdom.
• The questions by Job and by God move the
  discussion into precreation discourse.
• Click to continue the summary.

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Summary cont.

• In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Proverbs
  presents an answer to the questions that arose in
  biblical tradition about the nature of wisdom.
• The answer comes in the form of a story about
  Gods creation of Wisdom and how she served as a
  helper to God when God created the world.
• In precreation discourse, Gods goal for humans
  is happiness and joy, and the knowledge humans
  attain about God causes them to be delighted with
  God.
• Click to continue.

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Excellent!

• We will see in future lessons that Christian
  precreation rhetorolect envisions Christ as
  present with God in an invisible form before
  God created the world.
• Christian precreation rhetorolect refers to
  invisible Christ in the following terms
• (1) He is wisdom (can be thought)
• (2) He is image or reflection (can be seen in
  thought)
• (3) He is glory (can be seen as bright
  light)
• (4) He is light (lights up our minds)
• (5) He is spirit, wind, breath (can be felt
  as movement or can be heard as wind or
  breath)
• (6) He is word (can be heard with our ears).
• Click to continue.

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Congratulations!!!!

THIS WAS THE FIRST LESSON on the Christian
Precreation Story-Line. You are now ready for
Lesson 2 on Wisdom in Sirach and the Wisdom of
Solomon in the Old Testament Apocrypha. Wonderfu
l job!