Surely he would have been aware of such a broad evolution in understanding of the very basic, the defining event in the history of his religion, and would have taken steps to ensure that his story was correctly understood.
Really? What steps might those have been? Please tell me how an author can assure that someone does not misunderstand or misinterpret what he writes. I might be able to use it with allend.
He would either have omitted the midrash altogether, or made it clear that it was not to be taken literally.
Really? What steps might those have been? Please tell me how an author can assure that someone does not misunderstand or misinterpret what he writes. I might be able to use it with allend.
Well, the author can remain alive and tell everybody what he meant when they misinterpret it. But that only works for so long.
I guess that the author (in this case ultimately, God) could do the analogous thing. And set up an organization to explain the written word. To judge its meaning. And, being God, He would protect this organization from teaching wrongly.
Voila!
SD