ezAad -
Quote:
6. Gen. 18
Abraham experiences a theophany: God reveals Himself to Abraham. In this event Abraham sees three men. "And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo,......". Abraham lifted up his eyes, he looked and 'lo': that is Abraham looked or watched three times. The looking of Abraham is described very extensive and what did he see? Three men. Why would God reveal Himself by the representation of three men? This must have a special meaning. Do you know why?

There is no special meaning here. You are fitting this passage to what you want to believe. Yes, Abraham had a theophany, but it was not in the form of these three "men". We learn in the Torah that no person can actually see G-d and live. Abraham's theophany was a vision, not an actual sighting of G-d.

Here 'men' appears in Hebrew as "anashim", which is the plural of "ish". The Hebrew term ish has several meanings man, husband, person, someone, anyone, and it is used in all these senses in the Hebrew Bible, as well as stranger, i.e., some anonymous, unknown person (e.g., in Gen 24:29). In Gen 18:2, it is apparent from the rest of the narrative that these strangers were actually angels in disguise, each with their unique mission (according to Jewish tradition & belief, angels can carry out only one mission at a time) - one to let Sarah know about her impending conception of Isaac, another to bring the news about Sodom, and the third one to rescue Lot. Note how Abraham invited them into his tent and gave them some food (Genesis 18:6-8). Do you think that G-d needs to be fed?

The beginning of the chapter, as well as the rest of it, clearly differentiates between G-d and the '3 men'. Theres no question that the Creator is 'around' on the 'scene' all the time, amd there are also the three angels who are His messengers. Gen 18:17-33 describess Abrahams intercession for Sodom, and the passage clearly shows that the angels departed toward Sodom, so that Abraham was addressing G-d and not one of them. A thorough knowledge of the Hebrew language here is critical in being able to sort out in which verses Abraham is talking to G-d and in which hes communicating with the angels. Unfortunately, the common Christian translations seem to lose track of this.

Does your "OT" have Genesis 19? In Gen 19:1 you find two of the three angels who visited Abraham, where the third one, who had the mission of announcing that Abraham would have a son (Gen 18:10), had left after having finished the mission. In Genesis 19:5,10, these angels are also referred to as men.

You need to reconsider your interpretation of Genesis 18.

UriYosef