Study 7 Growing Theological Understandings
‘The Bible writings represent the best, most earnest efforts of inspired, but nevertheless flawed, human beings, bearing witness to God’s presence and work.’
and
‘The Bible is the gradual revelation of God by God to humans over a long period of time.’
Taking these as the bases for continuing discussions, it is appropriate to investigate further, whether or not there was a growing understanding and/or a growing revelation over time. Is there progress of thought and movement in the story presented by the Bible as a whole, particularly regrading the concetps of God?
A study of the history of the Israelite religion and later, the Jewish religion, reveals that much change and development took place over the centuries. A chart of the history of Israel, with major events listed, as well as prophets and Old Testament books, is avaible for printing.
Significant events include the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, the division of the kingdom into Israel and Judah after the reign of Solomon, the fall of Samaria and thus the end of Kingdom of Israel, the Fall of Jerusalem and the Exile in Babylon as well as the Return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple and the nation. Many other important events occurred in the life of the nation as depicted in the Old Testament, but these listed could be considered as major.
Over this long period from 2000 BCE to the time of Jesus, the religious struggles of the Israelites/Jews were influenced by the religions of neighbouring nations, either by incorporating their ideas and practices, usually after modification, or by actively resisting and rejecting them. They were also influenced greatly by what happened to them as a nation. The exile, in particular, had a profound affect on their religion, how they viewed God and their relationship with God.
At least four points regarding the beginnings of the Israelites religion are worth comment.
Firstly, the Bible is unique in the ancient middle‑eastern world with its theological framework of monotheism, the principle that there is only one God. This belief of the Israelites in one god emerged only after centuries of struggle. Even though they worshipped only one God, it appears that early in their history, at least, they accepted the possibility of the existence of other gods.
Exodus 15:1 –
Lord, who among the gods is like you? Who is like you, wonderful in holiness? Who can work miracles and mighty acts like you?’
This could point to the Canaanite background in which the religion of the Israelites was evolving. Among the deities of ancient Canaan, the most important god was called El.
The existence of other gods is presumed by Psalm, 82:1 –
God takes his stand in the court of heaven to deliver judgement among the gods themselves.
This psalm, which could have been written 300 or 400 years after King David, pictures God exercising judgment in the ‘assembly of the gods’, reducing these other gods to the rank of angel or prince. Ideas of the existence of other gods persisted for a long time . This is poetry but the idea still lingered.
In Psalm we have in 82:7 -
‘This is my sentence: Gods you may be, sons all of you of the high god, yet you shall die as men; princes fall, every one of them, and so shall you.’
In Exodus 12:12 -
On that night I shall pass through the land of Egypt and kill every first-born of man and beast. Thus, I will execute judgement, I the Lord, against all the gods of Egypt.
Here the writer has God, the Lord, speaking of the gods of Egypt. They are included amongst those who feel the powerful activity of the god of Israel. It would appear these gods are not regarded as only stones or graven images.
The first commandment of The Ten in Exodus 20:3 states -
You shall have no other god set against me.
They are to worship no other god. The issue at stake was not the existence of other gods but rather, which god should be worshipped.
In the early religious history of the Israelites, comparisons are often made between the gods. The very fact of comparison presupposes existence.
Numbers 33:4 (From the Good News Bible) states -
By doing this, the Lord showed that he was more powerful than the gods of Egypt.
The concept of jealousy, attributed to God in the Old Testament, is connected with the worship of other gods, including the Golden Calf. The second commandment of The Ten warns about the results of worshipping other gods.
Reading from Exodus 20:4‑6 -
You shall not make a carved image for yourself nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I the Lord your God, am a jealous god. I punish the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generations of those that hate me. But I keep faith with thousands, with those who love me and keep my commandments.
The concepts of idolatry and adultery were very closely linked in the Old Testament. The Israelites had a covenant with God, and they had to remain faithful to God, just as a husband and wife had to be faithful. The importance of this single‑minded worship was also connected with the purity of their race,
as Exodus 34:14‑16 demonstrates -
You shall not prostrate yourselves to any other god. For the Lord’s name is the Jealous God, and a jealous god he is. Be careful not to make a covenant with the natives of the land, or, when they go wantonly after their gods with sacrifices to them, you may be invited, any one of you, to partake of their sacrifices, and marry your sons to their daughters, and when their daughters go wantonly after their gods, they may lead your sons astray too.
The possibility of other gods existing goes unchallenged.
Against all this, however, there are a number of occasions when, in Deuteronomy, God is acclaimed as the only god.
Specifically, Deuteronomy 32:39 -
So now that I, I am He, and there is no god beside me.
or as the Good News Bible has -
I, and I alone am God; no other god is real.
A significant transition in much religious thinking occurred during the period of the exile in Babylon. An increasing number of Jews now lived outside the land of Israel. Ethnic solidarity was paramount for them, and this was best symbolised by their worship of the one god. After the exile, the temple served as a unifying symbol and spiritual centre of Judaism.
The destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70 CE was a crippling catastrophe that altered the history of the Jewish people forever.
Monotheism, the belief in one god, gradually became unchallenged, but it took until the exile and afterwards for the Jews to believe that the god they worshipped was indeed the only god and that this god had created all things. A growing rejection of the very existence of other gods is highlighted in Isaiah 44:9-10, written probably during or after the exile -
Those who make idols are less than nothing; all their cherished images profit nobody; their worshippers are blind, sheer ignorance makes fools of them. If a man makes a god or casts an image, his labour is wasted.
By the time we come to New Testament times, monotheism is firmly established. There is no further debate. The matter is closed. When the matter of worship is raised, issues of the attitude of the worshipper are paramount not the question of monotheism.
From ancient times up to the time of the New Testament teachings, there was considerable growth in theological understanding, or a progressive revelation by God, or both. Monotheism has always been one of the foundational aspects of Biblical theology and religion, maybe not universally held but always important. Monotheism is unshakeable in the New Testament.
Secondly, in ancient cultures, gods were thought of as localised. A particular god had authority and power in a specific locality and the tribes who lived in that area would be protected by that god and, in turn, they would worship him/her/it. Refer back to the above quote from Numbers 33:4 which mentions ‘gods of Egypt’.
Localisation of gods and their power was a serious issue for the Israelites, particularly when, after the Exodus, they settled in the Promised Land. Canaanites, who inhabited the land, had their local gods in Canaan, Baals. These were considered to have power over crops and human life and intervened on behalf of childless couples. Usually, the local Baal was a warrior god and he fought wars for or with his worshippers.
As they practised their religion with their God Yahweh, the Israelites could have incorporated some of the concepts regarding Baal, from the Canaanites. Alternatively, they could have originally had similar beliefs.
Like Baal, Yahweh was seen as the one who would give or withhold fertility to both humans and the land. Some examples are found in Genesis 18:13‑14 -
The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say “Shall I indeed bear a child when I am old?” Is anything impossible for the Lord? In due season I will come back to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.
Genesis 20:17‑18 -
Then Abraham interceded with God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his slave-girls, and they bore children; for the Lord had made every woman in Abimelech’s household barren, on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
Genesis 30:2 -
Jacob said angrily to Rachel, “Can I take the place of God, who has denied you children?”
Regarding the fertility of the land, Yahweh, like the Canaanite Baal, was seen to be in charge.
Ruth I:6 states -
Thereupon she set out with her two daughters-in-law to return home, because she had heard while still in Moabite country that the Lord had cared for his people and given them food.
and Solomon's prayer for rain in 1 Kings 8: 35‑36 -
When the heavens are shut and there has been no rain because thy servant and thy people Israel have sinned against thee, and when they pray towards the place, confessing thy name and forsaking their sin when they feel punishment, do thou hear in heaven and forgive their sin; so mayest thou teach them the good way which they should follow; and grant rain to thy land which thou hast given to thy people as their own possession.
Yahweh, like the warrior Baals, was the Lord of Hosts. Very early in their history these hosts were understood to be the human armies of the Israelites, and God led them into battle.
Samuel 17:45 -
...but I have come against you in the name the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel which you have defiled.
There are numerous other examples of the belief that Yahweh fought for Israel or conversely used the military enemies of Israel to punish them. It could be said that later in their history they saw the hosts more in terms of the heavenly hosts warring against evil.
Early in their history there was, from time to time, confusion regarding the God, Yahweh, and the Baal of the Canaanites both in the religious rites and in the general experience of the Israelites. This sometimes led to idolatry which was absolutely condemned by the prophets and priests alike.
The local nature of gods brought a particular problem to the Israelites when they were in captivity in Babylon, in exile. Psalm 137 is entitled in some Bibles, The lament of Israelites in exile.
It commences -
By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the willow-trees we hung our harps, for there, those who carried us off demanded music and singing, and our captors called on us to be merry: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?’
This was not primarily a cry of home-sickness. It was not a lament about being separated from their homeland but of being separated from their God. The Temple in the Israelite religion was a place where God’s presence was available in an extraordinary way.
Psalm 43:3 states this -
Send your light and your truth; may they lead me and bring me back to Zion, your sacred hill, and to your Temple, where you live.
Yet in exile they experienced that their god was still with them. This realisation grew into accepting God’s knowledge and care beyond ‘his home’ in Jerusalem.
In Psalm 139:7-10 we read -
Where can I escape from thy spirit? Where can I flee from thy presence? If I climb up to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in Sheol, again I find thee. If I take my flight to the frontiers of the morning or dwell at the limit of the western sea, even there thy hand will meet me and thy right hand will hold me fast.
When we come to the New Testament, in the gospels we read of the injunction in Matthew 6:5-6 referred to in Study No. 4, to pray in a private room and God, who is there, will hear our prayer.
Also in Ephesians 4:6 we read -
... one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
There is certainly growth in the theological understanding from a god living and exercising power in a small specific locality moving to a god of universal immanence, remaining within, indwelling, inherent, to a god who is omni-present, present everywhere at the same time.
Thirdly, throughout the Bible, but particularly in the Old Testament, there is a continuous use of anthropomorphisms regarding God. ‘Anthropos’ is the Greek word for man or human, and an anthropomorphism, when speaking of God, is a statement that uses words, emotions and concepts that refer to humans and their activities.
God sits, Psalm 47:8; shuts the door, Genesis 7:16; walks, 1 Kings 8:25; goes about, Deuteronomy 23:14; goes away, Genesis 18:33; calls, Exodus 24:16; pours out, Joel 2:29; fights, Joshua 10:42; destroys, Jeremiah 15:7‑8; kills, Genesis 38:7; strikes down, Exodus 12:29; speaks, Joshua 8:18; listens, 1 Kings 17:22; looks, Isaiah 18:4; sees, Matthew 6:6; smells, Genesis 8:21; laughs, Psalm 2:4; whistles, Isaiah 7:18; touches, Job 19:21; blesses, Joshua 17:14; forgives, Exodus 34:6-7; etc.
God has hands, 1 Peter 5:6; arms, Isaiah 40:10; ears, Nehemiah 1:6; eyes, Ezra 5:5; feet, Nahum 1:3; etc.
God is stated as experiencing the human emotions of jealousy, as stated above, anger, Numbers 25:3, Isaiah 5:25 and numerous other readings; hatred, Ezekiel 13:20; love, Deuteronomy 10:18, Hosea 3:1 and numerous other readings; is weary, Jeremiah 15:6; takes delight in, Deuteronomy 28:63; pities, Jonah 4:11; etc. etc.
God is sorry about what he has done, Genesis 6:6-7, changes Gods’s mind, Exodus 32:14, wants to find out, Genesis 18:20, remembers, Genesis 9:15, etc.
Most of these texts are poetry or poetic. Using poetic licence, the concepts communicated are not necessarily to be taken literally. However, although it is extremely difficult to speak of God in ways other than with anthropomorphisms, these are used constantly in the Old Testament without much effort to move beyond them. God is conceived as a super-human.
God lives and acts; these are both anthropomorphisms. God is always referred to as the Living God and he is always doing things. The Bible refers to God as The God Who Acts. The Bible teaches that God is deeply involved in human history. Indeed the whole of the story of the Bible is built on the idea that God acts.
In the New Testament, this idea is continued, - God sent his son, another action. The Bible teaches that God is the basis of all things and that all things exist because of God. God makes all things happen and without God nothing could happen. Job 37:5‑24 comments on this, particularly regarding nature. In verse 5 from the Good News Bible we read -
At God's commands, amazing things happen, wonderful things that we can’t understand.
and verse 12 in the same translation -
They do all that God commands, everywhere throughout the world’
This whole chapter dwells on the workings of God through nature.
Anthropomorphic language is everywhere in the Bible. One might reasonably ask, ‘Could it be any other way?’
Has there been any progress in theological thought here? I think so. We could trace the growth of understanding, or the progress of revelation from a god, who was apparently affected by soothing smells:
as in Genesis 8:20-21 -
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took ritually clean beasts and birds of every kind and offered whole-offerings on the altar. When God smelt the soothing odour, he said within himself, ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man.........
who isn’t quite sure about things, Genesis 18:21 -
I must go down and see whether their deeds warrant the outcry which has reached me.
a god who changes his mind, Exodus 32:14 -
So the Lord relented, and spared his people the evil with which he had threatened them.
a god who can get angry, Numbers 25:3 -
The Israelites joined in the worship of the Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry with them.
and one who shows compassion, Hosea 2:19 -
Israel, I will make you my wife; I will be true and faithful; I will show you constant love and mercy and make you mine forever.
When we move to the New Testament it is stated that God is spirit (for the reference see later notes), that God who is above all and through all and in all (for the reference see later notes) and that God is love (for the reference see later notes)
We have movement from an anthropomorphic picture to an abstract concept, a tremendous development whether by human struggling to understand or by divine revelation or by both. This is not to say that anthropomorphisms are no longer used or that they are not helpful and even necessary. Because of the limitations of language and the tendency of us all to think concretely, we continue to talk about God anthropomorphically.
Fourthly, the God of the Bible is a God of covenants. A covenant is an agreement between the two parties. The Biblical covenants involved God, sometimes with an individual and sometimes with his chosen people. In some covenants both parties have obligations and benefits, such as in the covenants with Moses and with Abraham. In others, there seems to be an obligation only on God, such as in the covenant with Noah, with Phinehas the priest, or with king David.
The covenant with Noah is stated in Genesis 9:8-17 -
God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now make my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, all birds and cattle, all kinds of animals with you on earth, all that have come out of the ark. I will make my covenant with you: never again shall all living creatures be destroyed by the waters of the flood, never again shall there be a flood to lay waste the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I establish between myself and you and every living creature with you, to endless generation: My bow I set in the cloud, sign of the covenant between myself and earth. When I cloud the sky over the earth the bow shall be seen in the cloud. Then will I remember the covenant which I have made between myself and you and living things of every kind. Never again shall the waters become a flood to destroy all living creatures. The bow shall be in the cloud; when I see it, it will remind me of the everlasting covenant between God and living things on the earth of every kind.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between myself and all that lives on the earth.”
There seems to be no obligation on Noah although he is told not to eat blood.
With Abraham the covenant is stated in Genesis 17:1-11 -
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “ I am God Almighty. Live always in my presence and be perfect, so that I may set my covenant between myself and you and multiply your descendants.” Abram threw himself down on his face, and God spoke to him and said, “I make this covenant , and I make it with you; you shall be the father of a host of nations. Your name shall no longer be Abram, your name shall be Abraham; I will make nations out of you and kings shall spring from you. I will fulfil my covenant between myself and you and your descendants after you, generation after generation, an everlasting covenant, to be your God, yours and your descendants after you. As an everlasting possession I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now aliens, all the land of Canaan, and I will be God to your descendants.” God said to Abraham, “For your part, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation. This is how you shall keep my covenant between myself and you and your descendants after you: circumcise yourselves, every male among you. .....”
There are requirements for Abraham to live in God’s presence and be perfect and for him and his descendants to practise circumcision. Then God will make Abraham the father of many nations and will give them the land of the Canaanites forever. There seems to be obligations on both sides.
(Note. Today, some fundamentalist Jews refer to this everlasting covenant when they say, ‘We will not trade land for peace. This land is ours for all eternity. It was given to us by God.’)
Covenant is mentioned in the stories of Moses as being crucial to the relationship between God and God’s people in the wilderness after their release from slavery in Egypt. In Exodus 24:7 the Book of the Covenant is mentioned -
Then he took the book of the covenant and read it aloud for all the people to hear.
Blood was an integral part of the covenant with Moses and the people.
Exodus 24:8 -
Moses then took the blood and flung it over the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you on the terms of this book.
This thought continues into the New Testament. See later notes.
With Moses the covenant is stated in Exodus 34:10-11 -
The Lord said, “Here and now I make a covenant. In full view of all your people I will do such miracles as have never been performed in all the world or in any nation. All surrounding peoples shall see the work of the Lord, for fearful is that which I will do for you. Observe all I command you this day; and I, for my part, will drive out before you the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hitites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.”
In this covenant there are very definitely obligations on both sides. Moses and the people are to keep God’s laws and God will wipe away their enemies.
With Phinehas, the priest, it is stated in Numbers 25:10-13 –
The Lord spoke to Moses and said “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away for the Israelites; he displayed among them the same jealous anger that moved me, and therefore in my jealousy, I did not exterminate the Israelites. Tell him I hereby grant him my covenant of security of tenure. He and his descendants after him shall enjoy the priesthood under a covenant for all time, because he has showed zeal for his God and made expiation for the Israelites.”
This covenant is a reward for services rendered and there seems to be no obligation on Phinehas except to be a priest. It is rather disturbing that the services rendered were the murders of a Midianite woman and an Israelite. For this service he and his descendants become priests!? See Numbers 25:6-9.
The covenant with David is stated in 2 Samuel 3:9 -
But now, so help me God, I will do all I can to bring about what the Lord swore to do for David: I will set to work to bring down the house of Saul and put David on the throne over Israel and Judah.....
In 2 Samuel 23:5 it is stated -
Surely, surely my house is true to God; for he has made a pact with me for all time, its terms spelled out and faithfully kept....
or as the Good News Bible -
And that is how God will bless my descendants, because he has made an eternal covenant with me, an agreement that will not be broken, a promise that will not be changed.
In Psalm 89:3-4 we read -
You said, “I have made a covenant with him I have chosen; I have sworn to my servant David, I will establish your posterity for ever, I will make your throne endure for all generations.”
Like with Phinehas, there seems to be no obligation on David’s side, but God promises David that he and his descendants will be kings for ever.
The style of the new covenant stated in Jeremiah 31:31‑34 seems radically different to previous covenants. From the Good News Bible we read -
The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. ..... I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. None of them will have to teach his fellow countryman to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I the Lord have spoken.”
There seems to be a significant shift in making the covenant ‘personal’, not with the nation as a whole but with everyone individually. In this passage the only obligation on the people is to be God’s people. By putting the law ‘within them’ it could be understood that this means they need to keep it.
The New Testament covenant is also stated as being new.
Mark 14:24 has Jesus saying -
This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, shed for many.
The writer of 1 Corinthians, relating the tradition that he is passing on, has Jesus stating that his blood seals the new covenant.
In 1 Corinthians 11:25 we read -
In the same way, he took the cup after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.”
Does this covenant have obligations for both parties? Is it a covenant of grace? When there are obligations on both parties in a covenant is it a covenant of grace?
We seem to have a great deal of movement in the realm of covenant through the Bible. When we compare the covenant with Phinehas and the covenant spoken of in Jeremiah and in the New Testament there are some significant differences.
As well as the four aspects discussed above, monotheism, localisation, anthropomorphisms, and the covenant, we are given many different emphases in the Old Testament, regarding the nature of God.
As we listen to the emphases of the different prophets, we could give an inadequate one‑liner for some of them -
Amos and Micah ‑ a god of wrath, a god of Justice,
Hosea ‑ a god of faithfulness and love,
First Isaiah ‑ a god of holiness,
Second Isaiah ‑ the One and only incomparable god,
Jeremiah ‑ a god with whom all can have an inner relationship,
Ezekiel - a holy god who eventually gives hope,
Ruth and Jonah - a god of all nations.
The New Testament builds on some of the concepts of the Old Testament. All the writers of the New Testament have these as part of their religious heritage. However, Jesus changed many of them. He speaks of God as Father in a radically new way.
There are numerous examples of this, a notable one at the beginning of the Lord’s prayer.
In Matthew 6:9 we read -
This is how you should pray: “Our Father.........”
The New Testament writers speak of God as spirit.
John 4:24 states -
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.
The New Testament writers speak of God who in Ephesians 4:6 is -
...over all and through all and in all.
The New Testament writers speak of God as love.
1 John 4:16 states -
God is love; he who dwells in love is dwelling in God and God in him.
The New Testament writers speak of God as timeless and eternal in Revelation 1:8 -
“I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the sovereign Lord of all.
Regarding the whole issue of progressive revelation or growing understanding by humans, Richard Rohr, who has been quoted previously, states that the Bible, in its unfolding drama, goes ‘three steps forward and two steps back’.
I believe there is movement. There is progress in beliefs and understanding. We have covered some aspects of the Biblical story that demonstrate this clearly.
The New Testament concentrates much more on Jesus and virtually says that if you want to know about God, look at Jesus. This is taken up in Study 10.
Quotations and questions for discussion
Some of the ancient images and concepts of God are not helpful to people today.
We are limited by language when we speak of God. If we don’t use words relating to human emotions and activity, we are not able to speak of God at all.
Monotheism is not an issue today. The many different religions are the different human ways of approaching and understanding the one God. Do you agree?
Has the ‘covenant’ concept any value for today?
With the extra 2000 years of theological reflection some of the ideas of Jesus may be regarded as no longer ‘radical’. If there has been growing theological understanding since the 1st century, ‘Would Jesus have thought of God differently today than he did in New Testament times?’
Print Booklet (Download and print double-side, flip on short edge) The text of the bookblets has been edited somewhat and because there are many pictures in the booklets, all reference to them has been omitted.