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Bruce,
I think that's sort of how I both view it and am concerned about it. I don't doubt that there is some Divine paradigm present in the Hittite treaties and I would guess that they borrowed from what they knew from the light of nature (a rememberance of God's interactions with mankind perhaps).
My concern is the latter and, if Moses did redefine some of the paradigm they recalled then looking at the Hittite expression of it might get us offtrack as well.
I think there's a misunderstanding that I'm trying to rend any cultural relevance from the text of Scripture. The question, really, is not whether or not there might have been similarities/dis-similarities but that I see the similarities pressed to the point of confidence that "...this is how the Hittites viewed a Royal Grant and so we can learn something new about what God was doing with Abraham....." I'm just not so sure but maybe if I studied it more I would be less concerned.
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