BibleProject - God’s Word, Spirit, & Wisdom - God E11

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

Starting point is 00:00:17 and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode. God's glory, God's word, and God's spirit.

Starting point is 00:00:37 These are some of the most religious sounding words in the entire Bible, if you've ever heard religious people talking, ever gone to church, you're going to hear these words used and they're used so often that their meaning can get pretty confusing. Today on the Bible Project Podcast, we are going to dive into these and a few other strange phrases in the Bible. I'm Tim Mckey at the Bible Project and this episode, John and I are going to finish our

Starting point is 00:01:04 conversation discussing God'skey at the Bible Project, and this episode, John and I are going to finish our conversation, discussing God's attributes in the Bible. If you're just joining us, here's a quick recap of where we've been. In the Hebrew scripture, God is complex. He's both above all and transcendent, but then also depicted as present, close, interacting relationally with his world. The often does that through human mediators, we talked about the person of Moses and his role.

Starting point is 00:01:29 We also talked about spiritual beings through whom God interacts with the world like the angel of the Lord. Last week, we started looking at how God interacts with the world through his attributes, specifically God's name and God's glory. This week, we're going to look at God's Word, God's Spirit, and God's glory. This week we're going to look at God's word, God's spirit, and God's wisdom.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Now that first one, when you hear the phrase God's word, most people think of a written text. But here's what's fascinating. The first time that the phrase the word of God appears in the Bible, it's in the story of Abraham in Genesis 15, where we read, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. So when we meet God's word for the first time,

Starting point is 00:02:12 it's something visual, it's something Abraham sees. Now, it seems so weird to us that in our minds, we often paraphrase it and think like, oh, well, God appeared to him. But it doesn't say that. It says, the word of God was visible to Abraham. John and I are going to explore this theme through the stories of Samuel, the story of Jeremiah, and it's going to land us all the way in the Gospel of John 1 where we read, in the beginning

Starting point is 00:02:38 was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was with God and the word was God. Just like God's name and God's glory. In the scriptures God's word is something that is God and distinct from God. And the Gospel of John is of course going to claim that that word was Jesus. We're gonna explore all of this and more on today's episode. So thanks for joining us.

Starting point is 00:03:03 Here we go. We're talking about God. We've covered a lot of ground, but right now we're focusing on talking about God's attributes, specifically his glory, his name. We talked about last time, and then we're gonna talk about his wisdom and his spirit and his, what's the other one? The word of God.

Starting point is 00:03:27 And how these attributes kind of get really, they become almost like more than attributes in a way. Yeah, there's language to use about them that they become characters, distinct characters, in the stories where they appear, where they can do stuff. Uh-huh. And sometimes it's just a figure of speech. It seems like God puts his name in the temple and it lives there. where they can do stuff. And sometimes it's just a figure of speech. It seems like God puts his name in the temple, and it lives there, and you can seek it.

Starting point is 00:03:51 But then other times it's God's glory, which appears, and it's a human-like figure that appears. And it's described as God's glory. But it's described as God's glory. It's not described as God, but as His glory. It's God's glory. And I guess the reason why we're talking about this in this conversation is because the bigger context is how does God interact with humanity?

Starting point is 00:04:13 We're looking at depictions and biblical stories of how God interacts with the world. And there's a variety of ways. One of them is through these. Through his attributes. Personified attributes.. Personified attributes. Personified attributes. Yeah. Meaning the attributes get a personality of them.

Starting point is 00:04:30 Yeah, they come to take on a personality. God has attributes like anything has attributes. Yeah, that's right. Anyone or anything. This table is wood. Yep. It's flat. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:42 But I wouldn't ever start talking about the flatness of this table as its own distinct object. The table is an object, the flatness is an attribute. Same with people. I would talk about you and your intelligence. But Tim's intelligence wouldn't become character. I don't interact with Tim's intelligence. I interact with Tim. But there's something unique about God's personhood. His identity. God's identity is unique in such a way that when you start talking about his attributes, his attributes kind of get a life of their own. That's right. And not just any attributes.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Much in the classic tradition of Christian theology, there's a certain set of philosophical attributes like he's omnipresent. Yeah, when I talk about those. All knowing, so these are actual biblical vocabulary. It's not an infinite list. God's name, God's glory, God's word, spirit, or wisdom. The ones we're talking about, and these all have in common that they become entities that are of their attributes of Yahweh. But then again, language is used about them

Starting point is 00:05:52 that gives them their own kind of function distinct from Yahweh. Okay, so we've already talked about God's name, His reputation, but then His reputation can live in a building. Live somewhere. Yeah, God. It would be given to someone. Yep, yeah, it can be placed in. Placed in. Live somewhere. Yeah, God would be given to someone. Yeah, yeah, it can be placed in. Placed in someone else. Yeah, and then Jesus says, given to him. Yeah. God's glory.

Starting point is 00:06:14 We looked at a handful of visions that different prophets have. So what all these visions of God's glory having common is that they see a human figure, or a human like figure sitting on an exalted throne that's on some kind of platform. It's very much like what you'd see if you'd go into any ancient throne room. So this is like what they see. And what Ezekiel sees is a mobile, I call it the God mobile. I didn't make that up some friends of mine in grad school in the Hebrew department.

Starting point is 00:06:47 But what they see is one of these same things, but mobile on it with four chariot wheels and they call it the glory of Yahweh and it can move around. The glory of Yahweh comes to Ezekiel and of course it's God's glory so when a voice comes from the throne it's Yahweh speaking. But it's Yahweh's glory moving around. It's the subject of the verbs. And there's other biblical passages that talk about God living in the temple.

Starting point is 00:07:11 Now, the only time that's referred to as His glory, though, is in the Ezekiel passage. These other ones in Exodus at Mount Sinai with the 70 elders, they didn't talk about God's glory being there. They just talked about it. Yeah, Isaiah, the glory is used in Isaiah passage. The whole earth is full of his glory, and of which I'm seeing the epicenter right here. But remember, this is all

Starting point is 00:07:31 high-dil... You're just connecting all these because they're all connected to this image. Yeah, they're hyperlinked because they're all seeing the same divine reality. Okay. And so what is said in one biblical passage informs how you think about all the others. Got it. And certainly that's the case for readers of these scriptures, once they're reading them all in light of each other, in Jesus' time period, they're connecting all this. Yeah. Oh, just like in the book of the Revelation,

Starting point is 00:07:57 the vision that John sees in chapters four and five is a brilliant copy and paste weave of Exodus 24, Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6, all the visions of the divine throne in Hebrew Bible, John's just sewn them all together and then put a lot of lamb on the throne. Next to the throne. Next to the throne. Yeah, that's Daniel's that's a new addition. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:23 Anyway, so that's God's glory, and it'll come into play. Because it's similar to the angel, it's a human figure. So I always just imagine this was God, but you're saying, well God's not a human figure, so it must be something different. Where else have I seen a bright, shining human figure that's merged with God's identity? Oh, the angel of the outweigh. Okay. Interesting.

Starting point is 00:08:42 So God's glory is apparently a human form of an exalted King, a human-like King figure. Or that's God himself, they're seeing, go away that himself. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we could draw this. It's like, when does God appear in human form in the Hebrew Bible, as the angel of the hour way, as God's glory. Oh, so that's a... So, are these two different things, or are they the same thing? That's the question. For a reader of all these texts that have been collected, are meant to be read as a unity,

Starting point is 00:09:12 that's a natural question that's being put to you. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Okay. All right, so now we're gonna go to God's Word. Now we're gonna go to God's Word, and these all build on each other. All right.

Starting point is 00:09:22 Yeah, first time that the phrase, the word of Yahweh came to Pseonso. It's a very common phrase, especially in the prophets. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. Now, I just always imagine that just must be a common Hebrew idiom or phrase. Turn a phrase.

Starting point is 00:09:42 Turn a phrase. Like, if I was a king, and I sent someone, the word of the king is here a phrase. Yeah phrase. Yep. Like if I was a king Mm-hmm. I sent someone the word of the king is here correct. Yeah, it's like you get a message. Yeah, yeah It is yep. Yeah, totally. Yeah, and that's what it seems to mean in a lot of these cases where it's Ezekiel wakes up And he's just got a heavy sense of What God's saying to him. It's a psychological, cognitive experience they're waking up with. Sometimes it's because they've had a crazy dream

Starting point is 00:10:08 and then they wake up and be like, oh, here's what the message is. So here's what's fascinating. The first time that that phrase appears as you're reading through the Hebrew Bible isn't in the prophets. It's in Genesis in a story about Abraham, Genesis 15. After these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abraham

Starting point is 00:10:27 in a vision. The unique thing here is in a vision. A vision is not something you hear. It's something you see and hear. And it's chazone, it's the word to see. Something that you see. Yeah. Are you with me? Abraham's having a vision in which he experiences Yahweh who's going to come and talk to him. And the way it's described is that the word of Yahweh came to Abraham in a vision. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:00 So Yahweh came to Abram. Yeah. The word of Yahweh came. That's right. This is a standard phrase like Jeremiah, chapter 11. Okay. It's one of, seriously, 40 examples I could show you. The word of Yahweh, which came to Jeremiah, saying, quote, Here are the words of the covenant.

Starting point is 00:11:18 So it's the prophet wakes up to a message or an idea. Okay. And he calls it the word of Yahweh. He says, Oh, the word of Yahweh came to me saying it's a verbal message, the idea and a verbal message. Okay. What's unique about this story in Abraham and the first time this phrase appears is that the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a visible form. Oh. It's something he sees. So it would be normal to talk about the word of Yahweh coming in this audible sense, and that's how you would describe

Starting point is 00:11:52 if you're hearing from God, you're hearing his words. Correct. So you're hearing the words of Yahweh, but it's awkward, it's weird to say, I had this vision of God, but to say I had this vision of the word of God. Yeah, what you'd expect is to say, yes, Yahweh appeared to Abraham in a vision, saying,

Starting point is 00:12:10 yeah, or giving his Word something. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's sound awkward, but its plain sense is relatively clear. What the sentence is saying in its simple faith value meaning is the Word of Yahweh, the Hebrew word for word. It came visible. The Hebrew word for word is Dvar. And it will get translated as logoths in Greek, in the Septuagint.

Starting point is 00:12:33 Yeah, it's depicted as a character that can appear to someone visibly. That's what the sentence seems to mean. Now, it sounds odd, so usually we paraphrase it in our minds as, oh well, God appeared. Yeah, just a weird turn of phrase. And spoke. Yeah. But that's not actually how it's phrased,

Starting point is 00:12:52 because it's very capable of putting things away. It's a once in a while. But instead, they didn't have to say it in an awkward way. Correct. So not to jump the gun, but like when John in his gospel talks about the word of God, Jesus being the word of God, he's drawing on this. Yeah, that's where we're going. That's where the train's heading.

Starting point is 00:13:11 That's where the train's heading. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So in other words, as you're reading through, this is how the Hebrew Bible is designed. Very often, this is just like in our conversation about the Canaanable story and meditation literature. Yeah. Things will be worded intentionally in an awkward or strange way to make you pause.

Starting point is 00:13:31 They're talking about it. And then go, that's a weird thing to say. It's weird to say that the word of God showed up. Indivisibly. Indivisibly? Like, what does that mean? What does that mean? And then you talk about an actual thing that can show up.

Starting point is 00:13:45 Exactly. That's what you're supposed to ask. And it's the natural question that arises. And then you're supposed to tuck it away. And then, right, the collectors, the authors, the prophetic, spirit-guided people who put the whole thing together have planted bread crumbs all throughout the rest

Starting point is 00:14:01 that he reliable to keep developing this theme. So let's look at another one. Okay. And it's not for a way, is it's in the book of Samuel. Okay. Fairly well known story when Samuel was a little boy working in the temple at Shiloh. And here's how the story begins. Okay.

Starting point is 00:14:17 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to Yahweh before Eli the priest. Eli's in charge. He's just a little kid. He's like the altar boy. Now the word of Yahweh was rare in those days. Same phrase, Jesus. And visions were infrequent. Once again, the same phrase as in Abraham's story. Now Samuel was lying down in the temple of Yahweh, where the arc of God was. He apparently had a little room near the... Jesus.

Starting point is 00:14:49 Yeah. Then Yahweh called Samuel. Samuel wakes up and says, here I am. And he ran to Eli saying, it's me, you called for me. But Eli said, no, I didn't call you, go lie down boy. So it goes and lies down. And then verse seven, Samuel did not yet know Yahweh, nor had the word of Yahweh, and once again, been revealed, or been made visible to him. Then Yahweh came and stood and called, like at the other times, Samuel, Samuel. Speak, and then Samuel says, speak for your servants listening. So once again, the word of Yahweh was rare.

Starting point is 00:15:34 Visions were infrequent. Yahweh comes and speaks to Samuel, and then the vocabulary of Samuel didn't know Yahweh, nor had the word of Yahweh been made visible. That's the strange phrase here. That's right. That the word of Yahweh had not been made visible to him. Yeah, been revealed, been seeable. Yeah, you could say, well, that's just a metaphor.

Starting point is 00:15:58 To turn a phrase, what he means is God hadn't showed up to speak to him. But once again, it's the word of Yahweh and what's connected to it is a verb that means to be seen. There it is. Just keep reading, whatever. You just tuck it away. You're like, oh, there's another one of those things.

Starting point is 00:16:15 Strange. That reminds me of Genesis 5. Meditate on it. Go forward. Okay. The next one where this happens is Jeremiah. I'll let you read it. And I put in bold the phrases.

Starting point is 00:16:25 Jeremiah won. Yeah, from opening, opening, yeah, verse, the words of Jeremiah, son of Ilkia, to whom the word of Yahweh came, which is the same appeared was the word of Yahweh was. Now the word of Yahweh came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Then I said, Oh Yahweh, Elohim, I don't know how to speak, I'm just a youth.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Then Yahweh said to me, don't say I'm just a youth. Then Yahweh stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. Yahweh said to me, look, I have put my words in your mouth. So again, the narrative sequence is important. So what comes to Jeremiah? The word of Yahweh, okay. The word of Yahweh. Then the word of Yahweh starts speaking and speaks as if it's Yahweh. Before I formed you, yeah, the one of my, then who does in verse six, who does Jeremiah respond to? When he addresses the

Starting point is 00:17:22 word of Yahweh, the response to Yahweh, Elohim. Yeah, so he's talking to God. Then Yahweh stretches out. His hand. A hand. Now there's been no visionary language here, like I saw Yahweh on the throne. You with me? So the word of Yahweh came to me.

Starting point is 00:17:39 Which could have been an audible thing. Yeah, exactly. But then all of a sudden, we realize there's something. He's seeing, yeah, he's interacting with a person. This person has a hand that he sees. And then the hand touches his mouth and says, my word is in your mouth.

Starting point is 00:17:57 And then he gives Jeremiah the word, the prophetic word to speak on God's behalf. So again, this isn't so explicit. It's actually so subtle, we mostly read over these like the passages. But when you stop and look, plain sense, ponder, you go, oh, the word of Yahweh is Yahweh and it has a hand.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Do I have a category for Yahweh coming in visible form, talking, interacting with people, and that figure is Yahweh and distinct from Yahweh coming in visible form, talking, interacting with people, and that figure is Yahweh and distinct from Yahweh. Oh yes, it was the angel of Yahweh, but in all these passages, it's the word, the word. And also the glory. And also the glory appears as a human figure. Yep, yeah, so there you go.

Starting point is 00:18:41 So these are the texts that caused Jewish readers in the pre-Christian period before Jesus to go back to the opening sentences of the Bible and begin noticing things. And they're not the things that you would notice when you are reading the Bible for the first time. Yeah. But of course, this is meditation literature. So it's designed so that when you finish reading it, you go back and read it all over again and Notice things that have been put there intentionally to not be noticed on the first time. Yeah, okay But on the 14th time and the 28th time it's on so just think about the first sentences That in this will open up of the Bible in the beginning Elohim. A spiritual being. Yep.

Starting point is 00:19:26 Created the heavens and the earth. Now, the earth, the land, was wild and waste. To whova, vova. To whova, vova. Darkness over the surface of the deep. And the spirit of Elohim, the ruach, the invisible, personal presence and life energy of Elohim was moving, literally hovering, fluttering, suburb, to bird word. That rhymes. Moving over the surface of

Starting point is 00:19:54 the waters, then God spoke, God speaks a word, let there be light, and there was light. God saw the light was good, separated, and on it goes, then the whole chapter gets divided up into ten acts of God, speaking a word. So right here in the opening sentences, you have Elohim creating, how, by what means? Well, the spirit is hovering. The spirit, and so think spirit is breath to develop the metaphor. Where does breath come in and out of? Of a human. So nose and mouth.

Starting point is 00:20:30 And when I speak, what's coming out? Words. Breath. So breath. Breath. One of the ways Spirit can come out is in the form of words. And so this all seems intentional. You have God speaking and what comes out is the spirit.

Starting point is 00:20:49 And what happens when God utters sends out his word by means of the spirit out of wild and waste comes a garden. So this all seems very intentional. They're all God. Yeah. But I've read through the Hebrew Bible and been paying attention to all this. Now I have three shelves. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:11 I've multiple shelves on my mind that are... We haven't talked about the Ruach of God in this. No, we will. We will read after. It's kind of the word, God's word, transitions us into God's spirit. Okay. But it's because they're related in the first sentences of the Bible. Yeah. Elohim. Elohim's spirit. But it's because they're related in the first sentences of the Bible.

Starting point is 00:21:35 Elohim, Elohim's breath and Elohim's word. And in both cases, they are active. They're Elohim's way of being personally even physically present within the world. And they have physical visible results in the world. And it's Elohim, but it's distinct. Yeah. There you go. So in Genesis 1, we get Elohim, who's creating everything, who he knows Yahweh. Yeah, that's just referred to as Elohim. Yeah, on page 1. And there's a complexity in his identity right away.

Starting point is 00:22:02 Yeah, right away, right from the first. Because it's Elohim creating Mm-hmm, but then what's actually out there doing anything? What's the Ruaq of Elohim? Mm-hmm. The life energy the spirit the breath Mm-hmm, and it's hovering over the surface of the waters and then what does God do? Mm-hmm God then speaks Let there be light and it's really easy to just jump over that. I mean, like, okay, God's just speaking,

Starting point is 00:22:27 but now if we take this shelf of, well, we know we've seen over and over this time where the word of God, the word of Yahweh comes. And it seems to be something, it is Yahweh, but also distinct in a way. And so now, all of a sudden, you're like, well, the rock of God here seems the sameweh but also distinct in a way. And so now all of a sudden you're like, well, the ruck of God here seems the same but also distinct. And then when we got the word, yeah, and then yeah, having meditated on this, you go, wow, there's three, there's three kind of distinct things, persons that all make up

Starting point is 00:23:02 three entities by which God relates to the world in the opening sentences of the Bible. And just in case you're worried that we're just making this up, we know that later biblical authors reflected on this and drew attention to it. So I just have one example from Psalm 33. And it's a sort of paired poetic lines. Psalm 33, verse 6, and then later on the poem verse 9, by the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made, all their hosts, the armies, all their armies, by the ruaach of his mouth. For he spoke, and it was, he commanded, and it's stood. And the poetic parallelism is usually trying to draw, help you draw connections between the two things in each poetic line.

Starting point is 00:23:52 So obviously the word and the breath is related, because you, right, you speak out words as you breathe out. But then at the same time, there are distinct entities in the poetic lines. So here's the biblical poet who is tracking with this, aware of these different ways that God interacts with the world on page one. Yeah. Which then leads us to ask, okay, so let's talk about the spirit. Now we're talking. They all lead to the next one.

Starting point is 00:24:19 It's really interesting. They're all hyperlinked. Yeah. We could have done spirit first and then word. Yeah, I thought about why did I do that.. Yeah, I thought about, what did I do? Oh yes, I did that because then the spirit connects you to wisdom, which is the last one. So we've talked a lot about, we spend a lot of time

Starting point is 00:24:33 talking about. We have a podcast series on spirit, we have a video on spirit. The Hebrew word is rural, it has many meanings, breath, wind, but all in common it seems to be this like energizing life force, which then when applied to God becomes actually very personal attribute of his. Yeah, invisible energy moves the trees,

Starting point is 00:24:58 but then when they start, biblical authors start talking about the invisible energy that moves and animates me, They speak of it as a person. They use verbs and language as if it's a person. You can offend the Holy Spirit. So in Isaiah, in a poem, and I didn't, I should have put this down, I don't think I did, in a poem in Isaiah 63, we're reflecting back on the wilderness wanderings and they rebel against God and grieve his Holy Spirit. You're like, well wait, they grieved God.

Starting point is 00:25:33 Yes, they grieved his Spirit. Yeah, he's real. His personal presence that was there. But once again, it's just like the angel. It's Yahweh. Yes, and it's Yahweh Spirit. It is Yahweh and distinct from Yahweh So I mostly just have I have some examples here that are interesting Once from the prophet Micah where he's reflecting back on his

Starting point is 00:25:58 Experience of being called as a prophet and it's in Micah chapter 3 and he says, I am filled with power with the Rua of Yahweh, the Spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and with courage. So you've got somebody who's full of justice, courage, and power, and he attributes all this to the empowering personal presence of Yahweh, the Spirit, to do what, to go launch a major social critique on Israel's leaders for neglecting the poor, mostly his message. So here's the point to be made, is that when the Spirit's talked about by people, it's an experience of God as they are experiencing him. So just like glory, to say that's the glory of God, they use a distinct word, glory. This is a particular physical manifestation,

Starting point is 00:26:52 but that's not all of who God is. Like just like your room, your teenage room, it displays your glory. Now that tells me some things about you, but it's not you, it is you. You made it where you live, but then it's also distinct from you. You are more than just the posters on your wall. And so in the same way, glory and spirit, it seems, are ways of biblical authors to talk

Starting point is 00:27:16 about how these biblical prophets and so on. They experienced a real experience of God. They call it spirit. They call it glory. But at the same time, it's imminent, but at the same time, they call it spirit, they call it glory. But at the same time, it's imminent, but at the same time they want to protect that God is more. He's more than that. That makes sense. Yeah, that God's identity is such, he's so much, he is.

Starting point is 00:27:38 You know, that when you do encounter him, you would be encountering an aspect of him. Right. And that aspect would be so full and so complete in a way, because he is so he is. So if you're just like his spirit or his word, it would seem like it is. It appears like a complete entity. Yeah. Yeah. Which is Yahweh. Yeah. It appears like a complete entity, which is Yahweh. But then to say, well, that's Yahweh would be short-changing what Yahweh actually is. Yes. So you'd have to say both, well, that's Yahweh,

Starting point is 00:28:13 but that's also the word of Yahweh. Yes, it's an aspect of Yahweh. It's an aspect of Yahweh. It's the communicative aspect. It's the word. It's his majestic aspect, the glory. So by nature of the transcendence of God, Yes, you have to then create a category in which you can experience God in a distinct way from God.

Starting point is 00:28:34 Yeah, in a way that's God, but also an aspect that is distinct from Him. It's not the whole Him. This is actually pretty intuitive. It is a bit intuitive. But even like, if I were to show up to work one morning and I haven't had any coffee and I'm just not fully present and maybe even a little crappy or something.

Starting point is 00:28:58 And you and I tried to have a conversation. You would put that into a context of the, me, the Tim. Yeah, Tim, you don't really seem like you're near. Yeah, we would even say like, we would talk about that Tim as a different Tim. Yeah, Tim, where are you? I would say, we have a language. We say, I'm not myself today.

Starting point is 00:29:16 I'm not from the same. So even we, relationally have a framework for interacting with a person and we'd say, well, that's not really them. Yeah. Or you introduce somebody to a friend and they make a bad first impression and then you're like, oh, you didn't really meet him. You didn't really meet him.

Starting point is 00:29:32 So it's that same type of thing. When you meet somebody even in a moment, you're not meeting the whole of them, you're meeting an aspect of them. And we have language that makes it seem like it's them and distinct from them. I've never thought of this before. It's really good now. It's really, really interesting. But I think the difference,

Starting point is 00:29:50 and an important difference is that on your best day, when I'm hanging out with you, I'm hanging out with Tim. Yeah, that's true. Yes, yeah, yeah. And you'd be like, oh man, this is, I feel myself, and I'm experiencing you as yourself. Mm-hmm.

Starting point is 00:30:04 Where there's something about the nature of God, which is so transcendent that I'm not going to be able to hang out with God. It's more about my fully hymns. That's right. It's more about my finite limitations as a human being. It's my finite limitations. My experience of God will always be partial than limited. So let's use kind of classic example if like I'm a gerbil. It's not classic. It's not a clap, never heard you say that before. So I'm a gerbil and I'm hanging out with Tim, right? You and I hang out, I'm your like favorite gerbil.

Starting point is 00:30:39 And I'm experiencing Tim and I'm experiencing maybe like maybe you're like grooming me or letting you're playing with me. And I'm playing on a wheel and I'm experiencing maybe you're like grooming me or letting you're playing with me and I'm playing on a wheel and I'm experiencing like the love of Tim right? Okay, I'm gonna try and take it this seriously. This is serious. This is serious. That's right serious company Do you want me to use someone else? That's fine. Okay, go ahead. And I'm experiencing the love of Tim. And my gerbil, in my gerbil brain, my gerbil size brain, I'm experiencing that.

Starting point is 00:31:13 But I couldn't ever say as a gerbil to my gerbil friends, like I experienced Tim. I probably would say that. But if I was like sophisticated enough of a gerbil, I would realize like what I experienced was just an attribute of Tim. There's no way I can relate to Tim like another human could relate to Tim. So another human could see Tim fully. I can experience you fully in a way, but if I was a gerbil I couldn't yeah And so you have Yahweh who is a divine being who's transcendent yeah by that we mean so other

Starting point is 00:31:51 It would be like us hanging out the only Elohim who can generate a universe and yeah, probably like gerbals Yes, in that regards yeah Less so even Highly exalted gerbals. Yes Gerbals with the image of Yahweh. Yeah, Less so even. Highly exalted gerbals. Yes. Gerbals with the image of Yahweh. Yeah. And so it's actually very, I guess highly aware of these biblical authors

Starting point is 00:32:13 to be able to realize like, you know, I'm not actually experiencing Yahweh for holy. I'm completely. I can't. He's transcendent. When I experience it, though, it feels feels it's very real. It feels very real It feels like I'm I'm coming into contact with someone. Yeah, but it's not Yahweh completely. It can't be yeah, but it is Yahweh Yes, so if you wrestle with that

Starting point is 00:32:38 Suddenly you have this category that we're yeah Yeah, yeah, and if you were to develop language for it, you get these personified divine attributes. If I was really astute, gerbil, talking to my other gerbil friends about the ways of Tim, I'd be like, guys, Tim's ways are above our ways. Oh my god. Now I'm extremely uncomfortable. Well, it just is a human, right? It's like, why is Tim using all those weird,

Starting point is 00:33:06 making all those weird noises with his mouth, talking to someone else? Yeah. With someone else. I don't know. His ways are above our ways. Why does he have clothes on his body? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:33:15 His ways are above our ways. The thing he does. Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's very helpful analogy. I don't know if it is completely helpful. No, I'm it's imperfect in some way. I'm sure It's a spirit. The spirit of Elohim, God's personal life giving present, when biblical authors and Israelites saw individuals acting Moses style. Because Moses reflecting God.

Starting point is 00:34:16 Yeah, Moses, remember that story where he said, the spirit of Yahweh came on a bunch of those other elders. It's a story in Numbers, chapter 11, and it's awesome. And then Josh was like, hey, you know, there's a few too many elders who are empowered. There's two other guys, L. Dad and me, Dad, who were like outside in the camp

Starting point is 00:34:35 and they're acting like it, too. And then Moses was like, oh man, I wish everybody. I wish all these people. Because I wouldn't have to put up with their crap. Yeah, we all just know what to do. Yeah. So, biblical authors, Israelites were aware when they saw unique humans in this Moses mode of an exalted, truly image of God human. So Micah's saying, that's what I feel like when I speak the word of Yahweh. That's the power to speak justice, to speak

Starting point is 00:35:03 truth to power. It's God's own life giving presence. David, actually most of the kings, but David in particular, was aware of this empowering spirit to rule Israel well in first Samuel. Joseph, we actually talked about this in the video. Joseph was aware of, and actually Pharaoh, and people around Joseph were aware that he was somebody in whom the spirit of Elohim was.

Starting point is 00:35:29 So that seems like then it would be in that's a normal category for kind of agent thinkers that can be filled with the spirit of Elohim. Yeah, yeah, it's an exalted human who becomes energized and therefore instrument of God's purpose. That though, it seems like we have categories for this and it's transfixed. Like this person is possessed. Yeah, we talked about this. We talked about this. When we talked about spirit, this is actually a cross-cultural idea

Starting point is 00:35:57 that leaders and the specifically artists and crafts people, the muse, talk about the muse, or genius, idea of genius originally comes from a spirit that communicates the genie, creative ideas to you. And actually, and that's connected. So Joseph is said to have wisdom and understanding through the spirit of God.

Starting point is 00:36:20 So David rules in the power of God, Micah speaks justice filled filled by the Spirit. Joseph is a really good administrator in federal government. And then the last example that we also talked about this in the Holy Spirit video are those artists. Yeah, Betzele. Betzele. Who, like Joseph, is filled with the Spirit of God with wisdom and understanding. So this connects us now to, we talked about this also, that the Spirit can come to be used for a meaning to talk about your mind, the invisible thoughts and ideas that you have that have

Starting point is 00:36:58 visible, actually become visible, visibly effective in the world. Yeah, and Hebrew I would go, I'm gonna call that my Ruaach. Yes. In English we would call that our mind. Yeah, so in Isaiah 40, then God's Ruaach is his mind. This is Isaiah 40, who's measured the Ruaach of Yahweh, who's informed him with advice, with whom did he take counsel and gain knowledge. So Yahweh's ruach is his

Starting point is 00:37:27 purposes, his thoughts, and then those can meld with human purposes and thoughts, in which case you'd say those people are filled with the Spirit. Okay, so we've got the name, got glory, got word, and then got spirit. And the whole point of got spirit is actually it doesn't ever appear as a physical entity. It just embodies people. Yeah, but it's always a human involved. So the name can be put in that angel. Right.

Starting point is 00:37:55 And that's a human figure when the angel appears. When God's glory appears, what they see is the exalted human royal figure. When God's spirits in the men sometimes sometimes a glory in the tabernacle or glory and oh but the glory in the tabernacle is the glory of God over his throne. The Ark of the Cup which when Ezekiel sees it is yeah he actually sees a human human figure. That's right. In theory if you go in there the whole point of the icon of the ark is that you see nothing. Because you shouldn't, you can't limit, right? Yahweh to any one visible

Starting point is 00:38:30 thing. Yeah. That's why you make no idols. Right. But if you're just talking about the glory of God, then also you can. Yeah. Apparently. It's interesting. It is interesting. But then we're talking about spirit. There's always a human involved. but it's another human who becomes like Moses, an exalted human, an instrument of God. So I'm trying to think about our two shelves that we started with. There's one where it's kind of this being that appears as a human that's Yahweh

Starting point is 00:38:57 and distinct from Yahweh. And then there's humans that become these elevated humans who truly image God. That was our first one. That was our first one. When the spirits at work, it's Yahweh, and distinct from Yahweh, working through an engulfed human, or a human that's become the perfect conduit

Starting point is 00:39:16 for God's purposes. Okay, so we're gonna have to find ways to draw this. You have like four, I know. We have like four shelves and I'm seeing and they're kind of connected a little bit. So you've got the four shelves. Yeah, seems like it. You got the image, well, maybe, I don I know we have like four shelves and I'm seeing and they're kind of connected a little bit So you've got the four shelf. Yeah, sounds like it You got the image well, maybe I don't know get the image of God kind of shelf of like here's a human being fully human connected to God and

Starting point is 00:39:36 Then you've got the shelf of here's the angel of Yahweh who is distinct from Yahweh, but also Yahweh who is distinct from Yahweh but also Yahweh. That's a shelf, that's a crazy shelf. And then you've got now the shelf of divine attributes, the word, the name, the glory. And then I guess when I say the fourth, there's kind of like, we're calling the spirit an attribute. And maybe that's where I'm getting caught up a little bit because I guess I don't think of my mind as an attribute or I don't think of my

Starting point is 00:40:10 I see your presence my yeah, I think of it as more of just like another Part of me a way of talking about you yourself Yeah, I guess what's the difference between an attribute and just and because an attribute is a way of talking about you But my mind is the way I interact with everything. Yeah, right? Yeah, yeah So an attribute of mine might be that I'm friendly but I can never be friendly without my mind Yeah, and you can't as human human, be present without your body.

Starting point is 00:40:46 Your body is equivalent to your presence. Right. Right, yeah, exactly. But the whole point of an Elohim, whether it's the chief Elohim Yahweh or the other Elohim, is that they're not embodied. Yeah, they're disembodied. Right, and so they're...

Starting point is 00:41:04 But the mind, I know I have a mind. That's right. Yeah. And it's not a physical thing. Well, this has been a debate in philosophy for a long time. Yeah. Is the mind simply an emergent entity from all synapses firing? Or is it a non-physical entity that emerges? When neuroscientists talk about the mind, they separate from the brain. So the brain is the physical thing. The neurons, the electricity firing through the neurons, the whole structure of the brain,

Starting point is 00:41:37 and all the other systems in your body. Yes. That connected to you. But when they talk about the mind, they're talking about this non-physical abstract idea in which it's the way that it's the patterns of electricity and it's the information that is stored. It's like a computer program.

Starting point is 00:41:59 It's like a software. It's like what is software? It's just information. But it creates an environment for which things to be understood and processed and executed. But it actually physically doesn't exist. Software doesn't. Right? So that's why they talk about it. Okay. Really? So even like a material naturalist, somebody with a material naturalist worldview wouldn't would say that our mind is distinct from the brain or is our mind simply our experience of our brains. Well, I don't know. I mean, I don't know either. But I think a naturalist would say that the mind comes from it emerges from but is distinct.

Starting point is 00:42:44 It is distinct. Interesting. I wish I knew more. Another life I would want to go into neuroscience. This is all connected to like just information theory of information, which is that what is information? Right. And how is it passed along?

Starting point is 00:43:02 And so a computer uses ones and zeros and then it can create any sort of information with that and then stores it in The hardware is silicon right made out of chips. Yeah, our hardware is carbon Yeah, and that formed in neurons and then the electrical currents that go through that But we are processing the same thing information. I see. This abstract idea of information. Yeah. It does not exist physically.

Starting point is 00:43:32 Yes. But we're computing it in a different way with our brains. Yeah. We don't even really understand how we do it. Yeah. Right. Yeah, we have no clue. Quantum computers that they're developing is a different type of hardware

Starting point is 00:43:51 That would require a different type of software, but it's still yes just computing information and Live in the land much stranger than ours Yeah, that's really fascinating. So I think when you're talking about your mind. Yes, you're talking about this abstract. Yeah, yeah structure Yeah structure that you are consciously aware of. That's processing this information. So this is what makes it difficult for modern people who have a more materialist or naturalist worldview to conceive of a being with a mind with no hardware. Right, with no hardware. Right, with no hardware, right? Yeah. Because the whole point of this concept of God

Starting point is 00:44:27 has got spirit with a mind and purpose is there's information processing happening with visible effects, but no visible hardware. Yeah, that's interesting. So, these are a really advanced form of technology. Uh-huh. Which is entirely possible. Sure.

Starting point is 00:44:47 Or yeah, some other category. Yeah. Or it's made up. Right. Yeah, or it's made up. Or it's made up. Right. Or it exists in a dimension or a mode that we just don't understand.

Starting point is 00:45:00 It's not detectable by us yet. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. And then you get into strength area and the whole account. How did we get here? I don't know, man. We're talking about the mind of God.

Starting point is 00:45:11 Oh yeah, we're talking about, yes. Yeah, God's spirit, their biblical passages that use the word spirit to talk about God's mind or purpose that can influence another mind, a human and work through a human mind. Kings, prophets, and artists through a human mind, kings, prophets, and artists.

Starting point is 00:45:27 And I think how we got there was I was just saying, we understand that the mind is something like physical. That's right. And you were like, do we? Yeah. I think that's true. So what's interesting in this connection about God's spirit is it's God,

Starting point is 00:45:41 but it's also the way that God is experienced in certain moments by these people. So it's not all of God, go back to that analogy. It's an aspect of God's mind and purpose. And then, but the visible effect of that is all kinds of things, justice, insight or wisdom. Actually, spirit and wisdom are really connected throughout the Hebrew Bible. When you see somebody acting under the influence of God's spirit, one of the most common things that they're doing is doing something that requires wisdom or insight.

Starting point is 00:46:16 That happens with Joseph. The first time it appears. It happens with the artist, Betzalal, the second time it appears. And then, interestingly, that leads us to the last divine attribute that I want to talk about, and it's all interconnected to the word and the spirit. God's wisdom.

Starting point is 00:46:33 God's wisdom. So, let's start with a couple statements, one from the book of Proverbs chapter 3, verse 19. By means of wisdom, Yahweh founded the land, he established the heavens by his understanding. So earlier we had that poem that was reflecting on Genesis 1 that said, by the word of Yahweh and by the ruaq, the spirit, the heavens were made. And here in Proverbs it's saying that the wisdom of Yahweh created. I mean, it's a wisdom. And I already know if I've read through the Hebrew Bible a bunch of times. When I'm full of the spirit, I'm full of wisdom.

Starting point is 00:47:36 Yeah, one of the most common things that people have when they're full of the spirit is wisdom. So it makes perfect sense that you can say Yahweh's word, Yahweh's spirit, Yahweh's wisdom. So it makes perfect sense that you can say, yeah, always word, yeah, always spirit, yeah, always wisdom. They're all different ways of saying how God made the universe. Jeremiah 10 is another just classic example. He made the land by his power. He established the world by his wisdom, by his understanding. He stretched out the heavens. So this is clearly a common category the biblical authors have. Yeah, always wisdom. The biblical book where wisdom takes on a life of its own. We've made multiple videos about it.

Starting point is 00:48:15 And talked about it at length. Proverbs. Proverbs. And how wisdom is depicted as a literary person, a influential urban woman who goes out throughout the city, calling out that people find her, embrace her, and listen to her. And it's interesting, she's depicted as a, yeah, influential urban woman,

Starting point is 00:48:42 and she's depicted as a prophet, because she goes out and speaks with divine authority. Yeah. And people, if people listen to her, they're listening to God. And in Proverbs, they're talking about wisdom. It doesn't say God's wisdom, it just says wisdom. Hmm. Well, she'll say wisdom is the fear of the Lord, fearing Yahweh. So yeah, it's clear that this is another way of relating to Yahweh, but it's by listening to her. Lady Wisdom. Lady Wisdom, yeah. And so she gives a speech in Proverbs chapter 8. It's a whole persuasive speech to get you to listen to her.

Starting point is 00:49:20 And the last card she pulls to try and convince you, one card is, hey listen, anytime you see a king doing justice, he's been listening to me. Yeah. Anytime you see just laws. Pulled out a roller dex here. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Starting point is 00:49:35 She's like, you know who I work with? Yeah, you know who I work with. We do, we do, we do. So my clients. Yeah, that's right. Why is this king's? Why is this king's in the world? Yeah, all that.

Starting point is 00:49:44 Yeah, it's good. Wise kings. Yep, Wise kings in the world. Yeah, all that. Yeah, that's good. Pull out the roll of death. And then she pulls out the ultimate card, the Yahweh card. And she says, actually, you know who I worked with. Yeah, my biggest client. My biggest client, then she uses the first word of the Bible in the beginning. She says, Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of his way before anything.

Starting point is 00:50:08 I was there with Yahweh. From ancient times I was appointed, and then in Proverbs 830, she uses a unique Hebrew word that Bible nerds have been debating about for millennia. She says, I was beside Yahweh in the beginning as an Amon, an Amon, delighting day by day before him. And I put a couple different English translations over it in front of you. Essentially, the word could mean in some kind of apprentice or trusted person in training. Yeah. And so that comes out in some English translations, or it could mean someone entrusted to you like a child or an infant who needs to be cared for. Can we either of those things?

Starting point is 00:50:53 Yeah, there's pros and cons on either side. So the new international version actually kind of just dodges and just translates, I was constantly at his side filled with delight day after day. The English standard version, new American standard, NRSV says, I was beside him like a master workman, daily his delight. So how they translate here, you walk away going, oh, Yahweh used wisdom like a tool.

Starting point is 00:51:21 Mm-hmm. So it's Yahweh's wisdom. It's a literary depiction, a poetic depiction of God building the world by wisdom. But once again, it's a literary depiction where the wisdom is Yahweh's attribute, but it's distinct. Classic King James goes for the interpretation of the word that it's a nurse laying or a child that I was beside him as one brought up by him. In which case it's Yahweh has fostered wisdom. Why wouldn't King James just say I was beside him like a child? Because that interpretation

Starting point is 00:51:56 of Amon, the Hebrew word, is one entrusted or raised by. So there you go. That's actually a long rabbit trail. Sure. That we could go down. Mm-hmm. All that to say is wisdom is the same bill that all these other divine attributes have been. And it maps on the always spirit and always word. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:52:20 What's the significance that this is a woman? I mean, before everything's been very masculine. Yeah, that's right. Well, the word, Hebrew word for wisdom, hochma. Yeah, Hebrew, like actually most languages have what's called a grammatical gender. And it doesn't map onto any clear connections between masculine nouns or more masculine things. It doesn't work like that. It's own logic. Yeah, it's own system, and different languages have different systems of what they assign masculine or feminine. So it seems like one part of how this

Starting point is 00:52:57 poetic personification gets spun out is because the noun is its office feminine. 1 個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個個 So here's something cool. Yep. If you look at the Gospel of John, the opening sentence of the Gospel of John. Yeah. This is all connected in your mind. You'll see the opening sentences of John are drawing words and ideas from the shelves we've been looking at. Specifically the word, the spirit and wisdom.

Starting point is 00:54:15 So in the beginning. Very clear. Very clear. He's replaying Genesis 1 before your eyes. And what he says is in the beginning was the word. And we talked about the word being there already in Genesis 1 when your eyes. Yeah. And what he says is in the beginning was the word. And we talked about the word being there already in Genesis 1 when God spoke. Yep, God spoke. And then we saw that the word of God is itself somehow distinct from God, but also God.

Starting point is 00:54:35 It can appear to people, it has hands, it can appear as a human figure, touching Jeremiah's mouth. So these are the breadcrumbs as a good Bible reader. You've been meditating on. Yes. And John has meditated on. And now as he's coming to pen about Jesus, he's pulling it all together. Yep. So he's going to draw and call Jesus before becoming human. The word. Now when he says in the beginning was this personified divine attribute of God. He's also pulling on Proverbs 8. The wisdom was in the beginning with God. We just read that. So in the beginning was the word and then he has this line that once again, it seems like bad math. The word was with God and the word was God.

Starting point is 00:55:30 Right. He's coming out and saying what we've been kind of dancing around. Yes. Which is, this attribute seems distinct but the same as God. Yes. It's the basic shelf created by, in the Hebrew Bible, God's identity is complex. And there are entities which appear that are Yahweh and at the same time are distinct from Yahweh. How well it's you're gonna say it. And so this is how John puts it in this clear of language as he can. This word that we met in the human figure of Jesus, Jesus was the word that you read about in the Hebrew Bible and he was with God distinct and was God. He is Yahweh and body. He goes on. He was in the beginning with God just like wisdom. He was back then.

Starting point is 00:56:22 So just like through wisdom and through the word, all things came into being through him. Sorry, you're bringing wisdom in the mix just because wisdom was because we know from probably that wisdom was also there in the beginning. Yeah, probably. They is itself rereading Genesis one and placing wisdom. And here's another reread of Genesis one, In Genesis 1, in the beginning, God, by what means, by His Spirit and by His Word.

Starting point is 00:56:49 Proverbs comes back and rereads Genesis 1. It says, hey, God's wisdom was in Perth. It's wisdom, lady wisdom. It's a slot of Spirit and Word. Yeah, got it. And now John's doing it, and he's putting word, Jesus as the word and as the wisdom slot in the beginning. So therefore all things, if he's the wisdom in the word, all things came into being through

Starting point is 00:57:13 him, apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and that life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness. This is all for sentences of Genesis. Light, darkness. Yeah, life and all that. Then if you go down to verse 14, we'll really draw it together. So the word became human.

Starting point is 00:57:37 And flesh. That's right, flesh. So that word became human, and you're like, oh yeah. The word stretched out its hand, Jeremiah. The word has had a physical appearance before. Yeah, the word has appeared as a human before in the Hebrew Bible. But this time it's not just appearing as human, it's actually flesh. Correct. It's not just appearing as a human, it is a human. And here's the second thing the word did, the word set up a temple. Tabernacle. Tabernacle among us, and we saw his glory. His, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his of God's word, his purpose. He's the physical embodiment of God's code and God's glory, which lived in the temple

Starting point is 00:58:29 and also the period of... And appeared as a human. And exalted and thrown to human as the King of the Universe. And then he says, we saw his glory, glory as the unique begotten one, the only begotten one, from the Father, full of grace and truth. So the only begotten one, from the Father full of grace and truth. So the only begotten, what he's now doing is he's pulling on teachings of Jesus.

Starting point is 00:58:52 Jesus' fundamental way of referring to the one who sent him and the one that he presented as his father, and then he called himself the unique son, who is distinct from the father and one from the father. But Gautin means what is that word? Oh weird word. Hey everybody, this is Tim from the future who's rudely interrupting Tim and John from the past. However, John just asked a really important question about the meaning of this phrase only begotten son to describe Jesus, and Tim of the past answer was a little bit rambling and not very succinct and thoughtful. At least as Tim of the future would prefer, so I'm going to replace the old answer with

Starting point is 00:59:40 Tim of the future's answer, which is right now. So the question John asked is, what is this phrase? The only begotten Son. It appears just a few times in the New Testament. One is right here in the Gospel of John chapter 1. It also appears in the most famous Bible verse in the New Testament, John 316, for God's I love the world that he sent his only begotten son and a few other times in the New Testament. So here's the thing, is if that's the version of a John 316 that you know, the phrase only begotten son, you actually know from that fact that it's an older Bible translation. The King James, the New American standard, the revised standard all have this this phrase, the only Becoughton

Starting point is 01:00:25 one. However, if you look at almost all of the modern translations from the past 50 years or so, you will notice that they don't use the phrase Becoughton at all, like the NIV or the ESV, all read the one and only sun. So there's been a debate, probably actually a few generations old now, and mostly settled, that this phrase, the Greek word is monoghanace, that's used to describe Jesus. There were some, an older generation of Greek scholars thought that this word meant the only born, that the phrase Genet in the Greek phrase Greek word monoghanace, they thought that the Genet's

Starting point is 01:01:05 The phrase Genet in the Greek phrase Greek word monoghenes, they thought that the genes, part of that word refers to the Greek word Genato, which means to be born. However, there's been a whole new, recent set of research studies done that the root word of that is not only born, but rather only of a kind. So that's why all of the most up-to-date Greek dictionaries, I'm just looking here at the like standard Greek dictionary that Biblical scholars use by Frederick Danker and Walter Bauer. And the entry, the first set of meanings is the only one of its kind, or the one and only.

Starting point is 01:01:39 So what this word means, what John is doing is he introduces Jesus. He's going to call Jesus the Son of God. However, as you've learned from the series, there are other being, spiritual beings that can also be called the sons of God. They're talked about all over the Hebrew scriptures. However, John wants to preserve this phrase that Jesus used of himself, the Son,

Starting point is 01:02:04 and the idea that all over Jesus' teachings that God was his father. But John uses this word, the one and only Sun, the monogamous Sun, to distinguish Jesus from any other being that could be called the Sun of God. Why does he want to distinguish it? Because as he can go on to claim, the Jesus is the one and only son because he is both distinct from the God of Israel, and he is the God of Israel at the same time. And so I know the math doesn't work on that one, right? It's like one plus one is one, but that's the claim that John is going to try and make. And so it's actually kind of important, I think, that we shift our language away from only begotten,

Starting point is 01:02:49 primarily because to say that Jesus is the only born son, misunderstandings of that word have led to a number of offsuits from Orthodox Christian tradition that claim that Jesus is the first and supreme created being from God. He is not identical for sharing in the identity of the God of Israel himself. So that's not what this word means,

Starting point is 01:03:16 rather it's saying that Jesus is the one and only unique son of all the other spiritual beings because he actually shares in God's identity and is one with God. And then the rest of the Gospel of John is going to spell out what exactly that means. So anyway, that's Tim of the Futures clarification of Tim of the past. John is now going to summarize and wrap up this whole conversation. Yeah, let me just walk through this again. So in the beginning was the Word.

Starting point is 01:03:48 We know in the beginning God created, we also know God created with His rock and with His words. We know that the Word in Hebrew Bible, the word of Yahweh becomes a character in and of itself. We know that also from Proverbs 8, that in the beginning wisdom was there creating. So there's all this rich literature to pull from the Old Testament that when we get to John 1 and he's saying in the beginning was the word, all of these things are coming to mind. And then he says the word was with God, so distinct, but the word was God. So also Yahweh himself. And through the word, everything was made, life, light shines, you know, that's creation. And he's saying all this to

Starting point is 01:04:40 introduce Jesus. So he's making this claim that this is Jesus was. Jesus wasn't just merely a human. He was the word who became human, became flesh, and tabernacle and we saw his glory, which is another attribute of God. Cool. So here's one concluding thought, and this will launch us into the New Testament and what the apostles are saying about Jesus.

Starting point is 01:05:09 It's a very common misperception that the concept of the Trinity and the idea of God as Father, Son, and Spirit is a Christian innovation that it's foreign to the Bible, totally other, the Word doesn't appear in the Bible, Trinity. Right, the word Trinity doesn't appear. And so therefore it's a later, hundreds of years later, that Christians are imposing a foreign set of categories in language onto Jesus and onto the Hebrew Bible. So in biblical scholarship, that idea has been thoroughly unraveled and disproven That has not happened on the popular level however, and so what you get is Christians who are just like well the Trinity. I guess so I don't know I don't know how that comes out of the Bible, but okay, sure or you get people for whom it becomes a real stumbling block for them.

Starting point is 01:06:06 And so, yeah, essentially, what we're saying is that these are all Jewish ideas that emerge from the Hebrew Bible. And when you go back to the literature of this period, you see Jewish scholars, they're all tracking with all this stuff. These aren't foreign. And talking about God in these complex ways was not viewed as compromising their belief in one God. You see all these complex things happening in the same books as statements as,

Starting point is 01:06:35 there's no God besides me or there's only one God. So for ancient Israelites and Jews, this all is a part of their understanding of a complex God. And what Jesus and the New Testament authors are going to do is then say yes, and that complex God has met us in the person of Jesus who is the surprising but also completely connected fulfillment of all these ways of talking about God. Thank you guys for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast. If you have a question after listening to these episodes of the God series, and I can't imagine anybody listening to it and not having a zillion questions,

Starting point is 01:07:19 so send us one of them. At info at join the Bible Project dot com, we're going to be hosting more Q&R episodes throughout this series as we go on. If you can send us an audio recording of your question, keep it to around 20 seconds, and also introduce yourself and where you're from, we'd love to hear from you.

Starting point is 01:07:39 The Bible Project is a nonprofit animation studio in Portland, Oregon. We make videos and other resources available for free to help everybody from all walks of life understand the story that the Bible is trying to tell us and to know how it leads to Jesus. We're able to do this because of the support of generous people like you all, thanks for being a part of this with us.

Starting point is 01:08:02 Hi! My name is Jasmine, and I'm from Portland, Oregon. I use the Bible projects. Well, what I use is the big gray book that has like, simplifies things, but tells you exactly what the Bible is saying in each chapter. The Read Scripture book. And I think it's absolutely amazing.

Starting point is 01:08:23 What I really enjoy about the Read Scripture book is because for those that may have a hard time like understanding Bible and Scripture, I think it really helps people to really like connect all the pieces together. So I use the Read Scripture book and then I go to the actual like Scripture and like in the Bible to connect pieces because sometimes it can be

Starting point is 01:08:47 a little bit confusing for me. And I love the visuals that they have and the read scripture book as well. Yeah, it's like made reading the Bible really fun for me. So, income to life. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We are a crowdfunded project by people like me.

Starting point is 01:09:06 Find free videos, study notes, and more at thebiboproduct.com. you

BibleProject - God’s Word, Spirit, & Wisdom - God E11

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