By the numbers:

• 42/50 in the Hebrew Bible
• 39/50 referred to being fearful in the sense of reverence (Hebrew yare or yare' or yirah)
• 8/50 in the New Testament
• 8/50 (all in the NT) referred to being fearful in the sense of terror (Greek phobeó or phobos)
• 3/50 referred to being fearful in the sense of dread (Hebrew pachad)

All but three of the Hebrew Bible uses of fear held a connotation of reverence. To put this in terms that may be better understood by modern readers: imagine your favorite celebrity has unexpectedly arrived at your local hangout spot, say a coffee shop for example, and you eagerly approach them to get your picture taken with them. The fear of not knowing how they might respond coupled with your admiration of them is essentially the sort of reverential fear that the authors hoped to evoke in their readers. Likewise (and sticking with the coffee shop analogy), the other three instances in the Hebrew Bible use fear with a connotation of dread; in this scenario, you realize that your boss has also arrived at this café, but you are supposed to be at home on a sick day. Meanwhile, all eight of the New Testament uses of fear pertain to the typical meaning: to be afraid of something.

Researching the situations in which fear was used, I found that in six cases (all but one in Leviticus, the other in Revelation) God was directly commanding his followers to fear him. Similarly, Jesus commanded that God should be feared once in both Luke and Matthew. In twenty-seven instances, there was no command to fear given in the context of the verse. In the remaining fifteen verses, the respective authors issued a command to fear God.

So what about our question: does God want his devout followers to be afraid of him? The short answer is an emphatic yes. The big picture implied by the connotations of the Hebrew words used in the oldest manuscripts seems to indicate that God’s followers should have a reverential fear for their creator with a hint of dread at the Lord’s incredible power. The New Testament’s Greek words, however, suggest that God’s people should fear Him as they fear most things in their lives – sincerely and cautiously.

#bible #christianity #judaism #oldtestament #newtestament #readerquestion

Sources:

[1] Hebrew Concordance – https://biblehub.com/hebrew/ [2] Greek Concordance – https://biblehub.com/greek/

Eric B – BA History, Minor in Religious Studies
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Christians can set aside differences in the specifics of the nature of the godhead and agree that there is a God who created the Universe. However, anyone who has ever read from the Bible knows that many names and titles are used throughout the text to refer to the divine creator. Each of these names and titles hold unique meanings that reveal the history of the Christian and Jewish faiths, and exploring these will enhance one’s understanding of the totality of God as presented across the Bible – first in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament. No details will be offered regarding the English translations of God’s names, such as God, Lord, the Father, etc.

The names and titles of God present in the Tanakh (Old Testament) showcase the foundational understanding of God as he reveals himself to his followers. Perhaps the most widely known name, YHWH, is also the most common iteration to appear in the Tanakh. This name, also referred to as the Tetragrammaton (named for its composition of four constants), was the one which was revealed to Moses in Exodus. [2] YHWH evidently resembles the third person singular imperfect form of a verb, which means “to be;” this implies YHWH means “He is” or “He will be” or even at a deeper level “to live” or “to breath.” [3] This goes on to impart the idea that God of the Israelites was unique among contemporary gods of their neighbors in that he was and is a living god, the “author of life.” [2]

The next most common name associated with God is Elohim. [2] This name has a complex and largely unknown origin, but some scholars suggest it originated from an old Arabic verb alih, which may mean the name would translate as “He who is the object of fear or reverence,” but there is no certain answer. [2]

A similar name, El, is present in the Tanakh. This title, like Elohim, was used outside of early Jewish traditions in those of other neighboring nations to refer to other deities. It simply means “God,” and it is often used in conjunction with another word, such as in another name for God, El ‘Elyon (“most high God”). [2] Another case, El Shaddai, is used frequently in the Book of Job. Shaddai refers to God as “the Almighty,” but the root word’s meaning imparts a translation of “devastator” or “destroyer.” [2] This may suggest that the author of Job wanted to convey God as a being of unspeakable power and used this name to that end.

Other common names for God in the Tanakh are Adonai, meaning “my Lord,” and Ba’al, which worked as an equivalent to YHWH but also served as an element in compound names like Jerubbaal. [2] Comparably, YHWH and Elohim often appear alongside another name for God, Ẓeba'ot (“hosts,”) such as YHWH Elohe Ẓeba'ot (“YHWH God of Hosts.”) [2]

The point of the matter is that the God of the Tanakh cannot be simply reduced to anything quite as simplistic as “God” or “Lord” without the loss of the powerful, historical roots of the deity of the Christian and Jewish faiths. Foregoing the exceedingly prevalent forms like YHWH for the generalized God deprives the believer of the depth of the textual meanings behind God’s names.

For brevity’s sake, I will include a list of some of the names for God found in the Tanakh instead of detailing them at length before continuing to the New Testament.

Table 1 [4]

Unlike the Tanakh, the New Testament was authored largely in Greek, and the names and titles of God used reflect Greek traditions instead of Hebrew ones. The most common name found in the New Testament is Theos, which was the translation of the Hebrew name Elohim into Greek. Theos was usually used to refer to God the Father. Similarly, the name Kyrios, meaning “lord” or “master,” frequently appears to refer to God in a similar fashion to the Hebrew Adonai, but it is also used at times to refer to Jesus.

Due to the complexity of the various Greek names used to refer to God as a single entity or as a dual meaning to refer to the Father or Jesus, I will provide a list that will share a few of the most common, least ambiguous names used in the New Testament.

Table 2 [4]

#bible #christianity #judaism #oldtestament #newtestament #readerquestion

[1] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/christian-denominations-by-the-numbers.html

[2] https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-of-god

[3 ] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yahweh

[4] https://www.bartehrman.com/names-of-god

Eric B – BA History, Minor in Religious Studies
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In the oldest available Hebrew manuscripts of the Book of Jonah, the scene of Jonah being swallowed uses the word הַדָּ֔ג (had·dāḡ), meaning “of the fish.” [1] This translation merely informs the reader that the creature that swallowed him was a fish, not a whale or other aquatic animal. We know this because there were words to describe these other creatures in use in other places in the Bible, such as תַּנִּין (tannin) meaning “dragon, serpent, sea monster” and לִוְיָתָן (Livyathan) meaning “Leviathan... a wreathed animal, a serpent, dragon.” [2]

The Hebrew text alone does not fully attest to our understanding of the passage, but it does provide a strong foundation. This is strengthened through the interpretation of the story in the Greek Septuagint. The translators used the word κῆτος (kētos), which means “a sea monster, huge sea fish, whale.” [3] While this word could be used to mean a whale, it did not serve this purpose in Jonah. The Greek-Hebrew concordance of the Bible reveals that kētos was used only in parallel with the Hebrew dāḡ and tannin. Additionally, Greek writers did not use kētosto strictly refer to any one type of sea creature, rather it was used to broadly describe any large sea creature. [3]

Through the knowledge of the translation history of the verses in Jonah, a clearer vision of the story’s themes can take shape. The most evident themes revealed throughout the Book of Jonah are repentance, obedience, and God’s mercy. Briefly, the elements of the story suggest its authorship dated to around the 8th century BCE, during which Israel and Judah were under the control of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. [4] Consequently, God’s followers were exiled from their homeland and sought divine intervention to return to their lands. The community’s desires are reflected in the themes of the story. The Israelites sought to repent for their perceived transgressions against God and worked to obediently follow God’s law in order to earn God’s mercy, thus in the story the Ninevites earn the mercy of God thanks to Jonah’s message of repentance and obedience.

#bible #christianity #judaism #oldtestament #readerquestion

[1] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/haddag_1709.htm

[2] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8577.htm ; https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3882.htm

[3] https://biblehub.com/greek/2785.htm

[4] https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1170/the-book-of-jonah/

Eric B – BA History, Minor in Religious Studies
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Understanding why the artists in western culture so often choose an apple is, like most other curiosities in the Bible, difficult to answer directly. One factor in this popular depiction is that the apples that are common in the western world today share a common ancestor in a species still available today: Malus sieversii. [1] Based on its prevalence in Central Asia, it is likely that apple trees were a common sight in Antiquity in the Middle East. That alone does not explain the acceptance of apples as the forbidden fruit. Some scholars suggest it may have been the result of a Latin pun, following its translation into Latin in the 4th century CE by St. Jerome. [2] In this pun (or perhaps a misunderstanding), Eve ate the mālum(apple) and contracted malum(evil). [2] These translators did not have the benefit of a direct translation from the Hebrew, which simply used a generic term (peri) for the fruit hanging from the tree.[2] Not to mention that during Jerome’s lifetime malus did not strictly refer to an apple. Rather, it could have been used to describe “any fleshy seed-bearing fruit.” [2]

The only conclusion that can be drawn with certainty is that the there was a fruit hanging from this tree. That said, one can further speculate from information in the surrounding verses. It is noted that Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their genitals, and it is not a substantial leap to conclude that they may have simply grabbed leaves from the tree which they had just eaten to fashion their coverings. [Gen. 3:6-7] Regrettably, this matter is without a definitive answer, but the presence of figs and fig trees throughout the Bible, one could argue, imparts a powerful thematic logic for choosing a fig tree as the species of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

#bible #christianity #oldtestament #readerquestion

Sources:

[1] https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/malus/malus-sieversii/

[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/30/526069512/paradise-lost-how-the-apple-became-the-forbidden-fruit

Eric B – BA History, Minor in Religious Studies
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In Jesus’ time, the dogwood grew To a stately size and a lovely hue. ‘Twas strong and firm, its branches interwoven. For the cross of Christ its timbers were chosen. Seeing the distress at this use of their wood Christ made a promise which still holds good: “Never again shall the dogwood grow Large enough to be used so. Slender and twisted, it shall be With blossoms like the cross for all to see. As blood stains the petals marked in brown, The blossom’s center wears a thorny crown. All who see it will remember Me Crucified on a cross from the dogwood tree. Cherished and protected, this tree shall be A reminder to all of My agony.”

Additionally, some individuals point to the fact that dogwood trees bloom in April around Easter Sunday, marking the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion.

While the Middle East is home to a broad array of flora and fauna, the dogwood tree (Genus Cornus) is not, however, one of its native trees. In fact, the dogwood trees most Americans are familiar with (Cornus florida) are only native to eastern North America and parts of northern Mexico.[1] With that said, there is at least one species of dogwood that may well have grown in Israel during the lifetime of Jesus, Cornus mas. This variety does not produce the blossoms described in the poem above. Cornus mas actually produces small yellow flowers that eventually become bright red fruits. Cornus mas also flowers earlier in the year than the Cornus florida of North America.[2]

The question of whether or not Jesus was crucified on a dogwood cannot, of course, be answered with absolute certainty. The available evidence suggests that it is unlikely he was crucified on a dogwood cross, and he certainly was not crucified on a dogwood species native to North America. Unfortunately, there is no record of what wood was used for the crucifixion of Jesus. The word used in the Greek New Testament translations is staurós, which simply refers to “an upright stake, hence a cross (the Rom. Instrument of crucifixion).”[3] It is also worth noting that the word had the previous connotation of referring to a pole or pale (a stake on which one is impaled).[4] With that said, it is entirely possible that the cross that Jesus carried may have only been the cross-beam that would be attached to a pole at the site of execution. It has been noted by scholars that Romans crucified people with varying means, and the details provided by the New Testament do not reveal a definitive answer.

#bible #christianity #newtestament #readerquestion

[1] https://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Cornus%20florida.png.

[2] Steve Whysall, “Cornus mas,” Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, B.C.), October 5, 2009, https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/cornus-mas.

[3] Strong’s Greek Concordance, s.v. “stauros,” accessed March 14, 2024, https://biblehub.com/greek/4716.htm.

[4] Gunnar Samuelsson, Crucifixion in Antiquity, (Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 241.

Eric B – BA History, Minor in Religious Studies
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