Assumptions, Greek vs Hebrew

In the last few weeks I worked on two cars that belonged to Christians and both had their radios turned to “K love” I think.

As I listened it occurred to me it was like listening to my Alma Mater. I received a graduate degree from all the contemporary Christian music I listened to. Doctrines were layed down all over the place without it ever being pointed out that doctrinal statements were even being made. Most listeners would deny that layer after layer of doctrine is being catechized into the listener.

Using music that touches the emotions, with song after song all reinforcing certain basic assumptions is a very effective way to teach. Things that had been assumed, not necessarily drawn from Gods word. But it was unthinkable that elements were not correct or other more important and foundational doctrines might be missing. We all had the holy spirit, we loved God and each other, we all were Christians. For many modern Christians, you go messing with the doctrines of ”K love” and sparks will fly!

Recently I have been paying attention to four areas, and surprisingly, how they overlap. One is the fear of God as depicted in the NT. Another is how the NT describes Christians, how it labels, even defines us, and comparing that with how most American Christians have been trained to see ourselves. The third one is the modern conception of Christian Liberty and how it collides with some basic NT life framework that was emplaced by God. The fourth area is how does God in the NT reveal himself to us, and how have the great church fathers described their walk with God. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox etc

Paul Washer noted the difference in how WE emphasize and how Hebraic writers would emphasize. Repeating, for emphasis.

The following is from Christian Overman ( a student of Francis Schaeffer) from his book “Assumptions that affect our lives” In this book he tried to help us modernists see how our thinking can be so different from biblical thinking.

From pg10,11 he constructs a romantic scene at a wedding ceremony where the Groom says to the bride…”My darling your belly is like a heap of wheat” and the bride responds, ”oh my love you say the kindest things!” (I know, I know, some of you are saying hey Dave we have wives and kids reading some of these…..) Try it on your wives men, they will melt like butter, no?

Overman points out that it sounds strange to us but not to Solomon 3000 yrs ago. We have been taught to think in greek fashion, ….photographic impressions…a primary emphasis is placed on how things are experience by the human eye…..in their literature (Greek) you will often find vivid images, full of color and detail, like a motion picture. The ocean is described as as “wine-blue water” for example and the story of the Odysseus building his raft describes him trimming tall trees with a bronze ax having an olive wood handle and using a chalk line to to plain the planks truly straight.

For the Hebrews, on the other hand, what is of primary concern is the essence of things. For them content came first while external form came second.
He gives the example of Noahs Ark, how no description other than bare facts are given. Three levels, width, length, height , type of wood…The essence of the matter is, this boat is big, sea worthy, and fully functioning... But no visual detail, was the roof flat or sloped, gentle or steep, no description of the tools, what color was the flood waters, etc.

…four gospel accounts of the life of Christ , not one author provides a physical description of Jesus. Think about this for a moment. If you had written one of the gospels yourself, wouldn’t you have given at least a brief description of the Lords physical attributes? The fact is we don’t even know if he was tall or short. Yet we have a craving to know how he appeared, as evidenced by the many paintings of Christ our various artists have done,…..

The primary focus of attention upon Jesus in the bible is on his thought, speech and interaction with others. The essence of his being is the focal point. His internal qualities rather than his external shape. His content rather than his “form.” ….

So back to Solomon and his bride description, we can see its about her essence and that he is communicating the…. hope of bearing many children…. something of great value….

Just another aspect to be aware of.