More boring lists. Chronicles is my least favorite book of the Bible so far. The only thing remotely interesting today is this statement:
When David took his census, he did not count those who were younger than twenty years of age, because the Lord had promised to make the Israelites as numerous as the stars in heaven.It is interesting only in so far as it makes no sense. The first part does not, in any way that I can understand, follow from the second part.
New Testament
Paul talks about the importance of faith in having a right relationship with God. While I have not done a through study, it seems to me that faith in the Bible (at least so far) is applied differently than faith today. Faith is never considered necessary for belief in God or belief in Jesus' power to perform miracles. Rather, faith applies to the idea that God will keep his promises or that Jesus is the Messiah.
Consider this fragment from today's reading:
God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the deadIn isolation, I think the modern English speaker would assume that "believe in him" means "believe in his existence". However, in context, it is pretty obvious that Paul is referring to believing in God's promises.
To some degree, faith was not applied to the idea of God's existence because the idea of some sort of deity or deities was taken as a background fact. Until we advanced enough in our ongoing development of finding better ways to explain things, the idea of external conscious beings was as defensible an explanation as any.
But still, I find the contrast between modern and Biblical usage interesting.
Psalms and Proverbs
Nothing of particular note, although I do agree that helping the poor is a good idea.
That's an interesting way of thinking about faith. I guess that it is true that there probably weren't many atheists in those days. That said, it did probably take some faith to renounce your belief in other gods and to decide to follow an invisible God.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't know if this ties in exactly, but in making a point about the importance of actions, James says to his audience, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder" (James 2:18). He goes on to say that "faith"--the belief in one God--is useless without works.
So...thinking about your ideas of faith, I would say that my final analysis is this: while faith in God's existence was probably easier during Biblical times, it WAS still faith. However, it was just a starting point. To have the faith that Paul speaks of in Romans 4, you have to believe in more than just God's existence. You have to believe in his promises to the point that you treat things that are not as if they are. Abraham did just that when he left his home to follow God, and, of course, when he believed God's promise about his offspring.
Also, I ordered Harris' Understanding the Bible since my library didn't have it. My library does have Armstrong's "biography," so I can just check that one out. Thanks again for the recs.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it did probably take some faith to renounce your belief in other gods and to decide to follow an invisible God.
ReplyDeleteExcept that, until after Judah was destroyed, even the Israelites did not renounce their belief in other gods. They were simply following the god they perceived as the most powerful.
Other than that, good points.
Also, you're welcome on the recommendations. I hope you enjoy them!