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“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

(Romans 8:2)

 

 

Gad the Prophet – Wikipedia

 

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gad (Hebrew: גָּד, Modern: Gad, Tiberian: Gāḏ, "luck", /ɡæd/) was a seer or prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the writings of Jewish historian Josephus. He was one of the personal prophets of King David of Israel and, according to the Talmudic tradition, some of his writings are believed to be included in the Books of Samuel.[1] He is first mentioned in 1 Samuel 22:5 telling David to return from refuge in Moab to the forest of Hereth in the land of Judah.

 

The next biblical reference to Gad is 2 Samuel 24:11–13 (1 Chronicles 21:9–13) where, after David confesses his sin of taking a census of the people of Israel and Judah, God sends Gad to David to offer him a choice of three forms of punishment.[2]

 

Gad is mentioned a final time in the Books of Samuel in 2 Samuel 24:18, coming to David and telling him to build an altar to God after God stops the plague that David had chosen as punishment. The place indicated by Gad for the altar is "in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite".

 

1 Chronicles 21:18–19 tells of an encounter Gad had with the angel of the Lord.

 

A tomb attributed to Gad is located at Halhul.[3]

 

The Chronicles of Gad the seer

Main article: Book of Gad the Seer

The words, or chronicle, of Gad the seer are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 29:29 and are generally considered a lost text.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Book of Gad the Seer (Hebrew: דברי גד החזה, romanized: diḇrê Gāḏ ha-ḥōzeh) is a presumed lost text, supposed to have been written by the biblical prophet Gad, which is mentioned at 1 Chronicles (1 Chronicles 29:29). The passage reads: "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer."

 

Some traditional Rabbinic commentaries understood this to be a reference to the books of I and II Samuel which were started by Samuel himself and completed by Nathan the Prophet and Gad the Seer.[1]

 

Pseudepigraphic book of the same name

There is a pseudepigraphic book by the same title, extant in the form of a manuscript from the Jews of Cochin, India. The manuscript now in the Cambridge Library is a relatively recent (19th century) copy. According to Solomon Schechter, this manuscript was copied from a document purporting to be from Rome, and the late linguistic forms and features of the Hebrew manuscript, as well as its substantial similarity with some medieval Kabbalistic literature and some aspects of Christianity, indicate a relatively late date. He therefore regarded it as not dating back to antiquity.[2] However, according to Professor Meir Bar Ilan, although some linguistic aspects of the Hebrew manuscript are of late date, there is evidence that the book originated in approximately the 1st or 2nd century A.D.[3][4][5]

 

A scholarly edition of the book was published in August 2015, edited by Professor Meir Bar Ilan of Bar Ilan University. The book also includes an English translation of the original text.[6] The work is included in the contemporary The 120-Book Holy Bible and Apocrypha Collection: Literal Standard Version (LSV).[7]

 

 

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