We are walking in today: Hebrew Mind versus Greek Thought Part 4
Witness deceive throughout the Bible: H6601 pathah --to be enticed, be deceived; to persuade, seduce
The Torah testifies...............
Deu 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, H6601 and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
The prophets proclaim..................
2 Sa 3:25 Thou knowest Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive H6601 thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest.
The writings bear witness...........................
Pro 24:28 Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive H6601 not with thy lips.
Jer 29:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the Most High of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
ATHENS OR JERUSALEM?
Scholar Marvin Wilson asks the following question, “What is the inner world of biblical thought? What is the cultural mind-set of the authors of Holy Writ? Are we to understand the Bible chiefly through the eyes of Hellenism (Greek thought and culture) or through the eyes of Judaism (Hebrew thought and culture)? Obviously, the last question focuses on the New Testament. Most scholars affirm an essentially strong Jewish background to Gospel studies and to the life and teachings of Yahusha. But scholars debate widely the background of the writings of Paul, ‘apostle to the Gentiles’ (Rom. 11:13)” (Our Father Abraham—Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1989, p. 5). Wilson continues, “Indeed, today convincing evidence challenges the earlier widespread belief that Paul’s writings bear the distinctive mark of Platonism. In sum, contemporary Christians have strong reasons to question any approach to Paul which finds the primary roots of his theology in Hellenism, Gnosticism, or mystery religion. “Paul upheld the goodness of the Jewish tradition of Torah. Indeed, Paul ‘came to understand the Christian life as patterned after that of Judaism: it was for him not the antithesis but the full flowering of that Faith.’ This meant for Paul, Diaspora Jew that he was, a deep rooting in the Hebrew Scriptures and rabbinic thought. Paul was proud of being a Jew (2 Cor. 11:22), in his words, ‘a Hebrew of Hebrews...a Pharisee’ (Phil. 3:5). As in the case of ancient Israel, so with Paul, the Most High channeled ‘His word thought by Hebrew minds...’” “If one is to interpret the teaching of Paul—and, indeed, all of Scripture—correctly, one must understand his background and the context in which he wrote. Krister Stendahl has wisely observed that ‘the task of biblical studies, even of biblical theology is to describe, to relive and relate, in terms of presuppositions of the period of the texts, what they meant to their authors and their contemporaries.’...[Paul’s] inner world of the spirit reflects primarily his Hebrew heritage, fed from sources which originally flowed from Jerusalem. So at the core, Paul’s theology was essentially Hebraic...” (Wilson, p. 8). As Wilson states, we can establish that “the authors in both the Old and New Testaments, find their primary orientation in the Semitic culture of the East,” and that Christianity does not derive from pagan, Hellenistic sources, or from speculative world-views, and neither is it a syncretistic religion deeply rooted in mystery cults, Gnostic sects, naturalistic philosophies, or polytheistic thought. Rather, the Christian faith is divinely revealed and is securely anchored in the Hebrew Bible —the [Torah], Prophets, and Writings. The Most High breathed his word into the minds of the biblical authors within a Jewish cultural environment. Consequently, for us, in the most succinct terms, ‘to ignore Hebraic ways of thinks is to subvert [a proper biblical] understanding.’ We must, therefore, focus on the language and thought-patterns found in the Scripture so that we are able to penetrate the mind of the Hebrew people. When we enter their civilization and view it through their eyes, we find that the contour of their thought is vibrant, rich, and colorful. It has its own nuances and features” (Wilson, p. 135). Thorlief Boman affirms Wilson’s assertions above and adds, “As the New Testament writings show, [Yahusha and the Apostles] were firmly rooted in the Old Testament and lived in its world of images. Shortly after the death of the Founder, however, the new religious community’s centre of gravity shifted into the Greek-speaking Hellenistic world, and after the year 70 [when the Temple was destroyed], the community was severed finally from its motherland: Christianity has been the religion of Europeans ever since. It is significant, however, that despite their absolute authority the words of Yahusha were preserved by the Church only in the Greek language. Not only are these two languages essentially different, but so too are the kinds of images and thinking involved in them. This distinction goes very deeply into the psychic life; the Jews themselves defined their spiritual predisposition as anti-Hellenic. Once this point is properly understood, it must be granted completely” (Hebrew Thought Compared With Greek, London, SCM Press Ltd., 1960, p. 17).
HEBREW THINKING IS DYNAMIC; GREEK IS STATIC
“If Hebrew thinking it is to be characterized, it is obvious first to call it dynamic, vigorous, passionate, and sometimes quite explosive in kind; correspondingly Greek thinking is static [harmonic or resting], peaceful, moderate...” (Boman, p. 27). This is evidenced in the syntax of the Hebrew sentence compared with that of the Greek (and other western languages). “The action-centered life-style of the Hebrews (which we will address more fully later) is often reflected in Hebrew sentence structure. The English language usually places the noun or subject firs in the clause, the verb or action-word: for example, The king judged. In the narrative of biblical Hebrew, however, the order is normally the reverse. That is, the verb most often comes first in the clause, then the noun; thus, He judged, the king” (Wilson, 137). Boman says, “The verbs especially, whose basic meaning always expresses a movement or an activity, reveal the dynamic variety of the Hebrew’s thinking” (Boman, p. 28). He goes on to explain that even Hebrew verbs which express a position like sitting or lying is done by a verb which expresses movement (ibid.). Therefore the verb, the action word forms the basis of Hebrew thinking and even those verbs which Westerners might consider to be stationary or positional in nature, to the Jewish mind, or not. As we shall understand more fully as we progress, for the Hebrew everything is in transition, moving toward something and is in process. “Motion and standing are not opposites as they are for us, but they are so closely related to on another that together they can form a unity. Movement is carried through to a standstill, or seen from the other side, standing is viewed as the result of rising or a placing” (Boman, p. 29). “It is characteristic of Hebrew and the other Semitic languages that all of these verbs designate first of all the ‘becoming’ of the conditions and qualities in question. It is really more correct to say that we are dealing here with neither a ‘being’ nor a ‘becoming’ but with a dynamic third possibility, therefore more an ‘effecting’ as in the case of the verb lighten which means not only to be bright or become bright but also to make light effective, i.e. illuminate” Boman concludes a study of various Hebrew verbs by saying, “Our analysis of the Hebrew verbs that express standing, sitting, lying,, etc., teaches us that motionless and fixed being is for the Hebrews a nonentity; it does not exist for them. Only being which stands in inner relations with something active and moving is reality to them...only movement (motion) has reality. To the extent that is concerned Hebrew thinking at all, static being as a predicate is a motion that has passed over into repose” (Boman, p. 31).
Shema Selah who has beguiled you to think outside of your character?? Dear Hebrew brother and Hebrew sister? Return to the Most High and turn away from the Greek mindset that the world has given you! https://youtu.be/nxPjfQpKdtE
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