This is the most incredible thing. I was looking up the references in Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis and ran across this web site called followtherabbi.com where there is an absolutely fascinating interactive multimedia applet called Thinking Hebrew:
Amazing. Especially the ones on Thinking About God and Thinking About Truth.
3 comments:
Oh my gosh. What can I say. The Greeks were so wrong.
No wonder we can't figure out what the scriptures are all about.
Our western culture is descended from Greek civilization, isn't it. Wow.
The thing I had the most fun with is about THE EXISTENCE OF GOD:
The Hebrew thinker assumes the existence of God. The bible starts out, "In the beginning God..." If you like it, keep reading. If you don't buy that, the rest of it isn't going to mean anything to you. The Greek thinks up 50 proofs why we can say for sure there is a God.
But the thing that's really got me thinking is the one about TRUTH OVER TIME. Greeks, he says, see truth as static and unchanging. Hebrews see truth as unfolding.
Hebrews see truth as developing. It's not static. It's not "This is the truth and it'll never change." But, truth develops. Classic example: I know God said at the beginning of the Bible a man and woman will leave and marry. One man, one woman. Why does it take him thousands of years before it's finally said, "husband of one wife", one spouse? Well, says the Hebrew, it takes a long time for people to arrive at an understanding of truth. God didn't immediately ask them to have the full grasp and concept of truth. So it developed. Boy does that bother me. Truth is truth: it should never change! For an Easterner, Truth is truth: but truth develops as God works His plan.
This notion of "timeless truth", did it really come from God, or did we get that from the Greeks?
I think I still may be a little too Greek because I tend to try to reconcile the changing nature of truth with something like this: "Well, truth is truth and always has been, but truth has to work itself out through the story. Right and wrong have always been, even though they haven't always been known."
Of course, it's kind of arrogant, the implication that NOW WE DO KNOW. Fully. Yeah, whatever.
And the other problem, even using the example above, is that God told David when he stole Uriah's wife (his little ewe who was as a daughter to him) that if David had wanted more wives, he would have given him more. So it's really not that people didn't "get it". It is that the truth itself is unfolding, going through stages (I didn't say changining, but maybe I will have to give that up, too.)
Honestly, I have met many Greeks (Americans) who don't have a problem with truth unfolding per se. But it's not because they have a deep holistic resonance with the heart of God. It's because they're selfish and unconcerned with the nature of truth and how it affects themselves and others in an unfolding way.
They don't have a problem with unfolding truth until you ask them something like, "You're going to heaven because you believe in Jesus, right? Well, are those Jews that lived back then before Jesus going to heaven? How could they go to heaven without confessing with their mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believing in their heart God raised Him from the dead? Too bad for them, I guess, huh? And lucky you."
But even more than this is how truth changes over time within my own life. Things true yesterday are not as true anymore. And some things are more true today. Kind of like certain ingredients are absolutely essential to the recipe, but they have to be removed before eating.
wow, this helps me digest the last year of my life.
I'm a Hebrew follower at a Greek church, been part of a Greek cell group, and have been hearing advice and "counsel" from Greeks Galore (locally).
No wonder my heart has been screaming "NO, you fools! You just don't get it!"
Lord, help me find some more Hebrews...
Post a Comment