A traveler's blog

In the book of John, Jesus told his disciples that he was the light of the world.  His words were as follows:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12 ESV)

If you’ve ever been in a pitch dark place, it’s not hard to know that even the smallest bit of light makes itself very obvious.  ”Darkness” (σκοτία) is a complete absence of the light.

As a child, I was afraid of the dark.  My fear of the dark was so bad that most nights I would lie awake, terrified of the dark, and afraid to close my eyes because it made the room seem even darker.  When my oldest sister started making me go to church at the age of 12, I was taught that granddaddy of old school praise songs, “This little light of mine”.

“Don’t let Satan “whoosh” it out, I’m gonna let it shine”  Really did not seem to help much in alleviating the fears that I had.  In fact, the thought that Satan wanted to come to “whoosh” out the lights made things much worse.

I always slept with the door open at least a crack.  But my comfort from crack (no drug related connotations!) would be cut off when my mother would turn off the hallway lights and go to sleep.  Those nights were long…

The Greek text in John 8:12 has an emphatic emphasis on Jesus’ command to “NOT” walk in the darkness.

οὐ μὴ περιπατήσῃ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ (John 8:12 BGT)
literally translated is: not.NOT.walk (continually).in.the.darkness

When you see the two negatives οὐ (not, lest) and μὴ (not, no) together, it’s doubly negative (not a double negative, as in Engulismish) there is an extra emphasis on what is not.

Darkness and light are concepts that children seem to grasp with ease.  As a child, I feared what lived in the dark because I felt that it was evil, and out to get me.  I would did everything in my limited power to create situations where there would be light, but as a child and on my own power, I always failed.

But now I know that Jesus really, really stresses that as a Christian, I have the light of life.

It’s no mistake that the New Testament was penned in Koine Greek (the language of the commoner).  The open invitation of the Gospel is reflected in the accessibility of the scriptures to the everyday person.  Inclusion, it’s a very important concept in scripture.

The Old Testament has a theme of inclusion in it as well.  From the time the Israelites left Egypt, to the settling in the land.  There were always strangers and aliens among them.

But there is something else about the text that a lot of readers miss. The conjunction ”waw” (circled in red in the picture) is the most frequently occurring word in scripture.  It occurs 50524 times in the Hebrew Bible!  But more interestingly to note is it’s meaning: and, but, also, even, then.  The connotation of Grace in relation to these words is often overwhelming.

• ¹But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.  Genesis 8:1
• ⁷And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.  Genesis 45:7-8
• ¹⁴and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns.  Deuteronomy 16:14
• ¹⁵But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.  Psalm 49:14-16
• ⁷It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples Deuteronomy 7:7

The conjunction also occurs in a negative (from our view-point) context as well, reminding us that, while God is full of grace, He is also just.  One might argue that without justice, there would be no need for grace.  But (waw) without justice the world would be in complete chaos.  Sin has it’s consequences.  Even though (waw) we were dead in our sin, God choose to save us.

God’s love and grace are very strongly proclaimed as one reads through the Hebrew Scriptures.  He’s not just the old grouchy dude on a high cloud somewhere, that a lot of people who don’t read the Old Testament assume the Old Testament makes Him out to be.  He’s not exclusionary either.  He’s the God who chooses to include us.

²¹“So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel.  ²²You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. ²³In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord GOD.  Ezekiel 47:22-23

The Hebrew Bible, known as the Old Testament to Christians, has been a central text to the three major monotheistic faiths of the world: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Although I am a graduate student, whose studies literally must be based on the scriptures, I feel that it’s not absolutely necessary for one to get overly technical or critical of the text.  A critic tried that once, a very long time ago, and it led to the fall of man.  According the book of Revelation, the critic was a serpent: “Satan”…

The Hebrew Bible starts with these words: “In the beginning God”.  It says quite a bit.  God was at the beginning doing something, but when did the beginning start?  When He did something?  But that would mean that God would have to be, before THE BEGINNING to actually begin it all.  He was there (where?) before the beginning, but what do we make of that?

To think that God is outside of space time can help.  He sees all things from a different perspective (or dimension, if it suits you better), like today’s 4 year olds watching cartoons on ipads: replaying, rewinding, fast forward, starting in the middle, somehow downloading $$$ of stuff knowingly (or knowingly).

Maybe a better example would be a simple timeline.  As you look at the timeline, you can see everything at once.  This does not really solve much of anything considering how abstract we have to be to: a) think up another dimension b) think up how that dimension came to it’s “beginning”.  Even if we get that far, we can ask another question: “why did God even begin?”  The deeper we go, we find out how much deeper there is to go.

I think that’s why our journey involves “faith”.  The whole reasoning thing can only take us so far.  We know that it was God who created, and that His creation was good.  Part of me thinks that He wants us to try to know, but not be able to know, and have it drive us a bit crazy if we try too hard.  We need to submit the questions to Him.

Now if only we can find out where that serpent came from, and how it had the capacity to temp to sin when sin had not yet entered the world.