I heard a preacher say (TV) yesterday that the dash in Exodus 32:32, was put there because some ancient Rabbi deleted some of Moses words? Have you ever heard anything about this? Thanks, Weaver Mills
After consulting numerous written sources, I only encountered two instances where the “dash” was addressed. All other sources that I consulted, instead, simply treated the message contained in the verse and compared Moses’ statement with similar expressions throughout the Bible.
Both references below to the “dash” in Exodus 32:32 discount the theory you heard on TV. However, the first citation below acknowledges that some critics come to a similar conclusion, which you heard on the program to which you referred.
We are amazed at the scholars who make an ellipsis [sic] (an incomplete sentence) out of this. All it needs is proper punctuation, just as we have taken the liberty of rendering it here. Punctuation is altogether a human thing, anyway, and we have as much right to punctuate it accurately, as others do to make an ellipsis out of it by leaving out a comma! [“Exodus 32:30ff,” James Burton Coffman Bible Study Library. (Abilene: ACU Press) 1989.]
For a similar form of expression, in which the conclusion is left to be supplied by the mind of the reader, see Dan 3:15; Luke 13:9; 19:42; John 6:62; Rom 9:22. [“Ex 32:7-35,” Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database. (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft, Inc.) 1997.]
Personally, having complete confidence in God’s willingness and ability to communicate with mankind in written language and preserve it, I would be slow to side with the critic you heard and more readily embrace the quotations above. Not everyone views the Bible as the final, complete, inerrant, religious authority given by God to humanity forever, though I am not the least ashamed to do just that.
