For the record, when Christ says one must 'hate' ones family the writers in Greek are translating the semitic form of making comparison: to say one is to care more for X than Y, one would say X is loved and Y is hated... So, for example, 'I like cake better than pie' becomes 'I love cake, but I hate pie'. In context, it's understood that the speaker does not hate pie'. Unfortunately, translations and lack of cultural knowledge have made the statement harder to understand than it ought to be.
When I studied OT Hebrew in seminary, we learned the limitations of the language. It was developed during an age of farmers and herdsman. Kind of action is more important than time of action. As I recall, it only has three prepositions. Superlatives are expressed as comparisons. "King of kings" means "The greatest king". Although the writers of the Gospels wrote in Koine Greek, they spoke and thought in Aramaic (L1, first language), which was intertwined with Hebrew. As Grok 2 summarizes, "Both [Hebrew and Aramaic] were part of Jewish identity and culture."
The older I get—and I won't get much older—the more I realize that the Bible truly is a collection of different types of literature written in different times and places by/to different peoples/cultures. I shutter when I think of how many congregants are led astray by faulty exegesis.
BTW, I have read that when semites yell "Death to America", we shouldn't take it too seriously. They yell "Death to Real Madrid" as well.
I wrote this post several weeks ago. Since then I have come across exactly what you note: hate can be understood to like less, to place in some ordinal order. Something like this.
At the time, I was struggling with acknowledging that Jesus the Christ truly was my Master and still quite insistent on going my own way. Today, I have no problem with that recognition but hold onto so many areas of my life where this has not yet worked its purifying power. I am not alone. Everyone who calls themselves Christian experiences this in some way or other.
Today, my battle has to do more with apathy than outright rebellion and I find this much more disturbing. Apathy is an attitude which doesn't care and is willing to simply drift, while rebellion, even though it may be dead wrong, exhibits passion and skin in the game. Jesus referred to this in Revelation 3:15-16 with this warning to the church at Laodicea.
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
The problem, as I see it, is that most people today suffer from a lack of understanding (wisdom, as you put it) regarding this truth. Christianity is a garment put on, an addition to one's already busy life, something to be played at, yet never really taken seriously. It is an emotional crutch which fills a need to a point and, beyond that, we do not venture. We stay in our own private, safe cocoon and never think about emerging from it as a butterfly. We never realize how much we are capable of in this life. We consign ourselves with picking up the crumbs which fall from the richly laden table and call this good. This is, in my opinion, a major cause of the situation we find ourselves in today, because all it would take to upend the world order for good would be for massive numbers of Christians to become willing to give up everything to reach consistency between their actions and their stated beliefs.
On the other hand, there are those few who do realize what total commitment means, where it will take them, what it will cost, and the reward for taking that road, yet refuse to take the plunge into the depths. I have thought deeply about my own potential and, to be quite honest about it, it has been one of the very few things which has thoroughly frightened me. Such a course of action would mean that everything, everything in my life would have to be served up as "fair game" regardless of the importance I attach to it AND this alone would require an attitude of complete and total trust in God, which is anathema to my own sense of self-preservation. Rebellion still rears its ugly head.
One "proverb" which helps me considerably is seen in Luke 9:61-62, which says,
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, if fit for the kingdom of God."
In plowing a furrow, it is important to pick a point on the horizon as reference and never to lose sight of it. This ensures a straight furrow from beginning to end and, even though there may be jogs and deviations along the way from obstacles hit, it is fairly simple to get back on track. However, if the plowman uses anything as reference or is constantly looking behind him, he will not plow a straight furrow, but will always be meandering.
I apologize for the length of this, but I needed to "preach to my own choir". Again. Thanks for letting me ramble.
For the record, when Christ says one must 'hate' ones family the writers in Greek are translating the semitic form of making comparison: to say one is to care more for X than Y, one would say X is loved and Y is hated... So, for example, 'I like cake better than pie' becomes 'I love cake, but I hate pie'. In context, it's understood that the speaker does not hate pie'. Unfortunately, translations and lack of cultural knowledge have made the statement harder to understand than it ought to be.
When I studied OT Hebrew in seminary, we learned the limitations of the language. It was developed during an age of farmers and herdsman. Kind of action is more important than time of action. As I recall, it only has three prepositions. Superlatives are expressed as comparisons. "King of kings" means "The greatest king". Although the writers of the Gospels wrote in Koine Greek, they spoke and thought in Aramaic (L1, first language), which was intertwined with Hebrew. As Grok 2 summarizes, "Both [Hebrew and Aramaic] were part of Jewish identity and culture."
The older I get—and I won't get much older—the more I realize that the Bible truly is a collection of different types of literature written in different times and places by/to different peoples/cultures. I shutter when I think of how many congregants are led astray by faulty exegesis.
BTW, I have read that when semites yell "Death to America", we shouldn't take it too seriously. They yell "Death to Real Madrid" as well.
I wrote this post several weeks ago. Since then I have come across exactly what you note: hate can be understood to like less, to place in some ordinal order. Something like this.
Might I suggest a footnote, if not an outright edit, making this clear for the reader?
Bionic,
More than a dozen years ago, I wrote and posted an article to my blog on this very subject.
https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2012/07/29/the-cost-of-discipleship/
At the time, I was struggling with acknowledging that Jesus the Christ truly was my Master and still quite insistent on going my own way. Today, I have no problem with that recognition but hold onto so many areas of my life where this has not yet worked its purifying power. I am not alone. Everyone who calls themselves Christian experiences this in some way or other.
Today, my battle has to do more with apathy than outright rebellion and I find this much more disturbing. Apathy is an attitude which doesn't care and is willing to simply drift, while rebellion, even though it may be dead wrong, exhibits passion and skin in the game. Jesus referred to this in Revelation 3:15-16 with this warning to the church at Laodicea.
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
The problem, as I see it, is that most people today suffer from a lack of understanding (wisdom, as you put it) regarding this truth. Christianity is a garment put on, an addition to one's already busy life, something to be played at, yet never really taken seriously. It is an emotional crutch which fills a need to a point and, beyond that, we do not venture. We stay in our own private, safe cocoon and never think about emerging from it as a butterfly. We never realize how much we are capable of in this life. We consign ourselves with picking up the crumbs which fall from the richly laden table and call this good. This is, in my opinion, a major cause of the situation we find ourselves in today, because all it would take to upend the world order for good would be for massive numbers of Christians to become willing to give up everything to reach consistency between their actions and their stated beliefs.
On the other hand, there are those few who do realize what total commitment means, where it will take them, what it will cost, and the reward for taking that road, yet refuse to take the plunge into the depths. I have thought deeply about my own potential and, to be quite honest about it, it has been one of the very few things which has thoroughly frightened me. Such a course of action would mean that everything, everything in my life would have to be served up as "fair game" regardless of the importance I attach to it AND this alone would require an attitude of complete and total trust in God, which is anathema to my own sense of self-preservation. Rebellion still rears its ugly head.
One "proverb" which helps me considerably is seen in Luke 9:61-62, which says,
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, if fit for the kingdom of God."
In plowing a furrow, it is important to pick a point on the horizon as reference and never to lose sight of it. This ensures a straight furrow from beginning to end and, even though there may be jogs and deviations along the way from obstacles hit, it is fairly simple to get back on track. However, if the plowman uses anything as reference or is constantly looking behind him, he will not plow a straight furrow, but will always be meandering.
I apologize for the length of this, but I needed to "preach to my own choir". Again. Thanks for letting me ramble.
Thank you for sharing, Roger.