Why it is important not to love the God of the Bible

The corpus of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic literature found in the Bible, the epigraphic finds, Ben Sira, the Dead Sea scrolls, and the cognate Northwest Semitic literatures hold a special attraction for Jews, Christians, and those with abnormal interests alike. Below the fold, I provide a nice long list of people who belong to the online community of those who read ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and possibly other NW Semitic languages, with fire in their belly.

I take this opportunity to point out something that is not always understood. It’s possible to love the biblical literature without loving the God of which the Bible speaks. There is even a sense in which it is precisely the believer who cannot and must not love the God of the Bible.

It is sometimes maintained that a disenchanted view of the gods is conveyed in the Ugaritic epic literature. After reading about the exploits of Baal and Anat, is it realistic to think that one will be more inclined to worship them? Not really. There is something to be said for the view that the epics present a playful and even jaundiced view of the gods of the pantheon.

It is rarely pointed out but is nevertheless true that something like that is the case with respect to the God of which the Bible speaks. The Bible after all contains words of extreme despair in the face of what the God to be worshipped does and does not do.

In short, someone who is not on occasion perfectly aggravated by what God does and does not do, is bereft of biblical faith.

Read the Psalms, the Prophets, Job, Lamentations, and Qohelet if you don’t believe me. If the New Testament is your thing, don’t forget the opening of Romans 8.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a “taste and see that the Lord is good” believer. Most of the time. Some of the time. Once in a while. I guess it depends on which day you talk to me. You get the point.

I mention it only as a way of confiding with atheist friends and wannabe believers alike that I feel their pain. Perhaps, indeed, I feel the pain of atheists more than they do. Jilted love is harder to take than the absence of a relationship altogether.

Or is it?

Here’s the list, in no particular order:

Tim Bulkeley, David Miller, Eric, Jenelle, David Hymes, Ben Byerly, David Guttmann; Mississippi Fred MacDowell; Stefan Green, Ben Johnson; Anthony Loke, Chris Heard, Jim Getz, Michael Pitkowsky, Duane Smith, Alan Lenzi, James Gregory, Brian Fulthorp, Brian LePort,  Michael Halcomb; Cristian Rata, Simon Holloway, Claude Mariottini; Eric Welch, Airton José da Silva, Jeff Garcia; Danny Zacharias; Tony Siew, Martin Shields; Søren Holst; Angela Roskop Erisman; James Bradford Pate, Pete Bekins, Dave Belman, Phil Sumpter, Mike Heiser, Bob MacDonald, Rob Holmstedt, Jan Joosten, David Reimer, Ken Penner, John Cook, J. C. Poirier (these folks do not have blogs of their own, but have made signal contributions to online discussion), Susan Pigott, Fred Putnam, Nathan Stitt, J. P. van de Giessen, Michael Helfield, Chip Hardy, Steve Cook, Ros Clarke, Matthew Lanser, Doug Magnum, Peter Enns, Calvin and Mandy Park, Art Boulet, Adam Couturier, Kevin Wilson, Chris Brady, Iyov, Richard, another Richard, Karl Moeller, Stephen Pfann, Henry Neufeld, Matt Morgan, James McGrath, Darrell Pursiful, Suzanne McCarthy, George, Rick Mansfield, the people over at Evangelical Textual Criticism (to be sure, the goof-offs hardly ever post about text criticism of the Hebrew Bible: I’m beginning to think they are all Marcionites), Jim Davila, Peter Kirk, Cláudia Andréa Prata Ferreira, Jim West, Scott Bailey, Karyn Traphagen, Meg, Wayne Leman, Jesse Griffin, Ken Brown, Keith Williams, Peter Long, David Frank, Steve Runge, Andrew Compton, David Curwin, Suzanne McCarthy, Daniel and Tonya, Kevin Edgecomb, Levi, Ed Cook, James Spinti, Jay Crisostomo, Nathan Bierma; Nathan Stitt; Ekaputra Tupamuhu, Jared Callaway; Chris Weimer, Rebecca Lesses, Eddie Arthur, Randall Buth, Charles Halton, and Ranger.

I know I am forgetting others. I just don’t know which ones. For example, there are NT bloggers who, one must assume, read their Hebrew Bible without difficulty, just like divas of their field with names like Joachim Jeremias and Martin Hengel. But you know, assumptions are dangerous.

If you want to be added to this list of online community members, let me know. If I assume you read Hebrew and/or Aramaic but you don’t, contact me privately, and I will remove your name quietly and stealthily. Join the huge crowd of reprobates if you must. Better yet, isn’t it about time that you learned Hebrew?

I do keep a list of online people who have been brave of enough to admit that they are ashamed of not knowing Hebrew. I pray for them everyday. You know who you are.

Comments

[dr peter long]

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[Ranger]

What are "wannabe believers?" BTW, I read Hebrew and can struggle through Aramaic readings, but I don't have a blog.

[Peter Head]

You are right that at ETC we haven't exactly fulfilled our whole Bible mandate recently. I don't think that makes us either goof-offs or Marcionites, but it is a pity.

[JohnFH]

Dr. Long,

Of course, you can subscribe to this blog's feed in a variety of ways. Many do.

Ranger,

I'm happy to list you.

Peter,

Glad my caustic note caught your attention. I love ETC, but here's hoping you can convince someone like Peter Gentry to blog for you on occasion.

[JohnFH]

Ranger,

the phrase "wannabe believer" assumes that the expression found in the gospels, "I believe, help thou my unbelief," is the prototypical situation of all believers.

[Keith Williams]

I do read Hebrew (though not as often as I ought), but the fire is usually in my head rather than my belly. Immersion is the only solution, and there really isn't a good excuse.

I'll make sure to do an NLT through the years post from the Hebrew Bible at least once this year.

[Mike Aubrey]

I'm brave enough to admit my Hebrew doesn't go beyond the Alphabet, and unfortunately, for the foreseeable future it will remain that way. I'm not in a position to learn Hebrew right now in a manner that would be satisfying. When I learn Hebrew, I don't want to simply learn the grammar in a seminary class. I want to speak it and develop it from there.

[David E. S. Stein]

John,
Re: "it is precisely the believer who cannot and must not love the God of the Bible. . . . . Someone who is not on occasion perfectly aggravated by what God does and does not do, is bereft of biblical faith."

This line of reasoning appears to presume that you cannot (or should not) love someone whom you find aggravating. Is that really what you mean to say?

Rather, perhaps love isn't really love unless it persists despite aggravation.

[JohnFH]

Keith,

I will list you above. I'm happy to hear the NLT blog will highlight the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament on occasion.

Mike,

It used to be fairly easy for someone as bright as you to get a scholarship to go to Israel for a year. Entire families goes. Don't forget to check out Randall Buth's biblical ulpan center.

David,

You are absolutely right. But I'm reminded of my years in Sicily. I never heard the expression "ti odio" "I hate you" more often than I did then. It was always said to someone in the context of a fierce and unbreakable love.

Isn't that kind of like the story of the three rabbis who, not long after the Shoah, put God in trial? They quickly convicted him. After a short pause, one of the rabbis said, "Well, I guess it's time for prayers."

My point: the difference between a very conflicted faith brought on by circumstances and the atheism of an Ivan Karamazov, is just that: the prayer at the end.

But your point, I admit, is better still: love isn't really love unless it persists despite aggravation.

[Damian]

You can add me to the list of people who don't read Hebrew...yet. But it's on my list. I have to learn this stuff on my own steam - I'm not a student - so it takes time. Where d'you advise I start?

[JohnFH]

Hi Damian,

My first suggestion, if you are in or near a metropolis, is to find a teacher through a local synagogue. There are often tutors available, the same people who help kids get ready for bar and/or bat mitzvah, and interested Jewish adults. But if you offer to pay a teacher the going rate (not cheap, BTW, but you get what you pay for), I doubt you will be refused as a student. You will be able to go at your own pace and meet with your teacher based on your schedule.

You might set as your first goal the ability to follow a good part of the liturgy in a Sabbath eve liturgy. That will be an experience in itself, something you will never forget.

[James Gregory]

I read Hebrew, but not nearly as much as I read Greek. I have worked through one sentence of Aramaic. I know no other ANE languages.

I think your blog post is best summed up with your comment, ". . .love isn't really love unless it persists despite aggravation."

[JohnFH]

James,

I will be sure to list you above.

And you're right: the comment you note, which derives from Rabbi David Stein, is a very nice segue and conclusion to what I wrote in the body of the post. BTW, the Talmud is full of amazing segues of that kind. David has excellent teachers.

As for the carnival, here's hoping it will come together soon. Tyler Williams of Codex, to be sure, informs us that he and his colleagues at Taylor have been told they will be shutting its doors forever in a few months. Tough times.

[James Gregory]

Thank you for adding me to the list.

I anxiously await the carnival, but I realize that during this time things will either be delayed or simply neglected altogether. Sad on many levels, but most of all for the school and the staff.

[Jesse Griffin]

John,

Nice blog, I follow your posts and enjoy them. I do also read Hebrew. I'm studying at Gordon-Conwell right now and looking to teach OT and Hebrew in the future. You have some great resources here, keep it up!

Thanks

[Ranger]

John,
Great comment on studying at the local synagogue. I had never thought of that. Whenever I come back to the states for a year in 2011, I might just do that as a refresher.

[Ken Brown]

Thanks for that post! I just spent the last two days fact-checking a piece on Numbers 31, and I needed to hear it.

Which is another way of saying: I too can read Hebrew and Aramaic, though only with the aid of a lexicon.

[someguy]

How can you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength while also not loving him? Perhaps the Bible itself is te battle ground of the war between good and evil, and the devil gets his shots in to take our love of God away.

[Ranger]

someguy,
I think you would admit with me that sometimes its hard to believe and love God, and that sometimes its easy to be very angry at him.

When the tsunami hit the coasts of not only Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but also my beloved Malaysia, ripping children from their fathers arms...fathers who were doing everything they could to hang on to their children who were surely swept to their death...I was angry at God and didn't love what I saw happening. Whenever my mother would bring me along to volunteer with her at the Mother Theresa home in Sana'a, Yemen and I would see babies with sickening deformities who could only survive off the slop which the nuns could afford and would die only receiving the love of these giving women...I was angry at God...and still am as I think about it now.

The thing is that if the Hebrew Bible and New Testament are our picture of how to live before God, this is exactly how we should feel and act. In fact, God wants us to be angry at such pain and injustice. I scream at God alongside the Psalmist, and feel disillusioned like the disciples on Holy Saturday.

And yet I have faith in the God who was abandoned by God on the cross...I think this is what John is getting at here.

[JohnFH]

Ranger,

I agree with you.

[Chris Smith]

I *wish* I knew Hebrew!

[Jenelle]

Thank you for adding me to the list, but I do confess that though I have fire in my belly at times, I can not yet read the ancient languages. I would like to, nonetheless!

[Brian]

I guess for me I try to stick with what I know - so that ends up being my anchor - when the waters get too rough I can hold on to what I know and the rest will work itself out (that aggravation part). Does this mean I avoid the difficult issues, not necessarily. It just means I don't worry about letting difficult issues knock me down too much because I focus on sticking with what I know.

Does this make sense?

[JohnFH]

Hi Brian,

1 Corinthians 13:12.

[Brian Fulthorp]

exactly.