Land Lines

It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Genesis 11:2 NASB

East – Today let’s remind ourselves once again about the differences between ancient Near-Eastern thought and the cultural motifs we inherited from the Western Greek civilization. Consider these when you read Scripture:

1. In the thought of the ancient Near-East, naming something brings it into existence via its function and role. Existence is inseparable from operation. What does not perform in relation to me does not exist. This idea is not part of our Western thinking. For the Greeks, naming is simply the assignment of a phonetic sound to an object or idea. There is no essential link between the word and the essence of the thing named. When we read Scripture as if it were Western, we ignore the sub-text meanings of the name-essence relation. But that is a mistake. For example, when the Genesis text says, “Let there be light, and there was light” we are reading about the Hebraic naming relation, not about a Greek scientific explanation.
2. Attributes of the gods (a Greek idea in itself) in ancient Semitic cultures are like standing orders, not ontological conditions (sorry, I know this is a “big” word, but educate yourself a bit). In other words, while Western thought views the “attributes” of God as essential descriptions of God’s very nature, Eastern thought views these descriptions as if they are permanent determined functions. The emphasis is on what the gods do rather than what the gods are. Therefore, ultimate destinies are provisional. What matters is what is happening now and for what purpose. In Greek thought, attributes are descriptions of the nature of a thing. Therefore, it is not logically possible for one entity to have attributes that contradict each other. But Hebrew thought is about relations and roles. God can be the author of good and evil because these terms describe what God does, not who God essentially is.
3. In the ancient Near-East, existence is functional. Something exists because it is defined by the relationships it has, not by an interior sense of self. A term like ish does not mean “man” in our Western sense of the word because we define “man” in terms of space and time. In Hebraic thought, ish is defined by communal relationship, not by physical space-time existence. This is abundantly clear when Adam uses the word ish to describe himself after he is in relation to the woman (Today’s Word, February 15, 2013 ). In the West, we think that something exists because it occupies space and time. But in the East, something exists only when it is fulfilling its purpose. Understanding Genesis 1:26-27 from an Eastern perspective radically alters the meaning of the verses.
4. The Greek world is filled with abstractions. “Time,” “love,” “God,” and “righteousness” are just a few. Because these are abstract terms, they can be applied in a wide variety of situations rendering many different definitions. But in Hebraic thought, the world is not made up of abstract ideas. The world consists of observable behaviors.   For example, God’s attributes are not interior qualities. They are exterior actions. God is what He does. We are what we do. Righteousness is an act, not a state of being. Love is how I behave in relation to God’s instructions about my obligations toward Him and others. Time is determined by what happens (i.e., when the barley comes out of the ground), not by an artificial measurement like a clock. Whenever we read Scripture as if it were about abstract ideas, we are applying a Greek paradigm to the text that was not part of the author’s intent.
5. In Greek thought, morality is determined by the abstract idea of a universal code of behavior. What is evil is whatever violates this abstract code. Therefore, killing human beings simply because they are part of an ethnic group is evil because the universal code suggests that individual guilt is the standard for punishment. But in Hebrew thought, good is what God does no matter what He does. We do not have a list of moral actions that apply to That is Greek conceptualization. God is not accountable to some higher standard of moral behavior. His actions define what it means to be moral. If God creates what appears to be evil, that is because we are applying a Greek idea to a Hebrew God. The standard is what God does, not our list of moral behaviors.
6. Life is hard. Why should faith be any different? We think faith should be easy, but it can’t be any easier than life. In fact, it must be harder since faith is not natural. In Greek thought, faith is a state of consciousness. Some contemporary translations of Hebrews 11:1 convey this Greek idea by suggesting the faith is “confident assurance,” a completely interior, mental condition. But in Hebrew thought, faith is an action, just like everything else. Faith is how I behave in life regardless of life’s difficulties. I am faithful when I trust God and act according to His instructions. I do not have faith as if it were some independently existing quantity I possess. Faith is what I do when it counts.

“And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:22).

Just some things to think about today. Thus endeth the lesson.

Topical Index: Near-Eastern thought, 1 John 3:22, Genesis 11:2