As-salaam alaikum. I came across this curious passage in the Bible, which seems to reinforce the heretical ways in which the Bible describes God. We already know from other examples in the Bible that “God” is described in ways unbefitting the All-Mighty. Such examples include Genesis 6:6-7 (God “regretted” creating mankind) and 1 Samuel 15:11 (God “regretted” making Saul king). But an even more egregious example of such heresy can be seen in Genesis 18:20-21:
“Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”“
This passage clearly shows that God needed to confirm the reports of the “grevious” sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. He even states that after confirming these reports, he “will know” if the reports are as “bad” as they sound.
Naturally, the Christian commentaries try to down-play this embarassing description of Yahweh’s lack of omniscience. Here are some examples:
“God examines before He punishes (see Note on Genesis 11:5) with the same care and personal inspection as the most conscientious earthly judge” (Ellicot’s Commentary for English Readers).
“Not as if there were any thing concerning which God is in doubt; but he is pleased thus to express himself after the manner of men, and to show that he ascertains the criminal’s guilt before he passes sentence” (Benson Commentary).
“The Lord now proceeds to unfold his design. There is justice in every step of the divine procedure. He comes down to inquire and act according to the merits of the case. The men now depart on their errand; but Abraham still stands before the Lord” (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible).
“God here speaks after the manner of men, and for the example and instruction of judges to search into causes ere they pass sentence” (Matthew Poole’s Commentary).
“…this is spoken after the manner of men; for otherwise God saw all their wickedness, and knew full well the nature and circumstances of it, and how general it was; but this method he proposes to take, to show the justice of his proceedings, and to instruct judges, and set an example to them, not to condemn any without thoroughly examining their cause…” (Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible).
We see in all these commentaries a vague assumption that God is simply “speaking in the manner of men”, and that somehow, this solves the conundrum. But the question is…why? Why is God suddenly deciding to “speak in the manner of men”? Up until Genesis 18, he had no problems speaking in His own manner. In Genesis 6, when mankind’s corruption had increased (causing God to “regret” making them), He had already seen their corruption and did not need to “come down” to see if they were really as corrupt as it appeared!
And Genesis 18 is not even the only time where God seemed to feel the need to “come down” and “confirm” the initial reports. Exodus 3 also demonstrates the same lack of confidence:
“The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.“
Here again, God seemingly “sees” and “hears” the suffering of the Israelites. This isn’t strange as He is supposed to All-Seeing and All-Hearing. The text then states that God has “come down to rescue them”. Here also, there is nothing that strange. God seems to already know the suffering of the Israelites, which is why He has “come down”. But the last part of the passage seems to suggest that God needed to confirm the initial suspicions, for He states that the “cry of the Israelites has REACHED me” and that He as “SEEN the way” they were being treated. If He already “seen” and “heard” the suffering before “coming down”, then why does God again say that the cry of the Israelites has “reached” Him?
Coming back to Genesis 18, and the excuses provided by Christian commentators (which all seem to want to down-play the anthropomorphic descriptions as merely being metaphorical), there is a major detail which renders the commentaries null and void. As the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges explains, when God said that He would “go down” to see if the reports about Sodom and Gomorrah were as serious as they appeared, He LITERALLY was going down:
“The Dead Sea lies in a deep depression to which there would be a continuous descent from Hebron; so that the words may be also understood quite literally. The strong anthropomorphism is in the character of J.”
Amazingly, some Christians have actually come to terms with the concept of a “limited God”. As Doug Ward, a writer for the “Christian Research Institute”, comments (emphasis ours):
“[]n these texts we have seen revealed a God who not only has limited knowledge of the future, but surprisingly even a limited knowledge of the present. Yet this limited knowledge did not distance God from humanity, but rather was seen in relationship with His people.”
In contrast, the Quran declares that God already knew the sins of Sodom and Gamorrah, which is why He sent the angels to rescue Lot (peace be upon him) and his family. The matter had already been decided, and there was no need to “confirm” if the reports about Sodom and Gomorrah were as serious as they appeared:
“[The angels said], “O Abraham, give up this [plea]. Indeed, the command of your Lord has come, and indeed, there will reach them a punishment that cannot be repelled” (Surah Hud, 11:76).
And Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) knows best!
Links:
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/18-21.htm
http://www.crivoice.org/gen18and22.htm
The Quran and Bible Blog 
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Oh, Tony’s Jew friend tried to use the lame “human language” excuse and tried to proceed to teach US about Tawheed.
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The scientists tell us that without the giant ball of light (the sun) we would not exist . This ex-trinitarian jew wannabe would accuse God of idolatry , because God made human life existence dependent on things which God created.
so he will say bs like “Gods will and the atoms in the sun merged ” or “Gods will manifested in the form of the sun”
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@ Tony
I didn’t think it was possible but they might be worse than the Christians.
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a comment concerning concerned reader
“Also, in the Talmud, Elisha Ben Abuyah sees Metaron and says “truly there are two powers” whereupon Metatron recieves lashes to show Elisha he is wrong. So, contrary to your misquote, nobody worships Metatron.”
wait what?! One of your main arguments was that islam deifies people unintentionally, regardless of explicit statements to the contrary. Then you bring a passage in the Talmud where someone see’s metatron, thinks he’s a deity because of the qualities given to him, and then brush it off cause he got wiped afterwards to prove that’s not true. If you can’t see the inconsistency here i don’t know what to tell you. Also nobody worships metatron? what about the various apocryphal and Pseudepigrapha that extol him to the point of being called “lesser yhwh?”
“Just like a Christian does, you are saying “some Jews did X, at one point in time, therefore Judaism as a whole teaches or has taught Y. Thats a fallacy.”
You’re missing the point. You were the one who claimed that our religion deifies people unintentionally. Then cited various groups with deviant beliefs ending with statements like “In other words, idolatry can be idolatry even if you have dressed it up as monotheism, or in the case of Buddhism a non theism. “Idolatry is more complex than saying “I don’t pray to a creature.” You give Judaism a pass because, in your own words “-but the point I was making is that this goes against the law, as Jews posses it.” And yet you ignored explicit quran verses on Isa(a.s) miracles, and instead blamed it for unintentional idolatry regardless. Logically if this is true for Islam then the same can be true for Judaism.
“I have already stated that any idolatry done in Islam is done unintentionaly, without anyone realizing it.”
And you haven’t fully responded to my arguments against that sentiment. The evidences you brought as proof were jewish sources and your own opinion. You already conceded to the point i was making regarding golems and the talmud. You also have yet to address the quotes i brought from the jewish bible. As for your opinion, i hope you can see why i consider it to full of flaws and inconsistency. To be frank, i find it similar to the logic of the heretic concerning metatron in the talmud Sanhedrin 38b. https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.38b.20?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
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As humans, when we have regrets, one of the main things this often entails is that we wish we had done things differently.
No one really denies that the flood story implies God’s omnipotence. But when we’re talking about something like “I shouldn’t have done this, and would have done it differently” (or “will try to do it over again,” etc.), we’re now talking about a mistaken decision, or something that was done without full understanding of what the consequences would have been.
Further, when we look toward the end of the flood story, in Genesis 8:21, it looks like God actually learns or (fully) realizes for the first time — for whatever reason he realizes it then and there — that sending the flood was actually futile: that humanity is in some sense inherently “evil,” simply by virtue of being humanity, and that nothing can really change that.
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