WHO IS GOD? (DEFINITION PLEASE!)

WHO IS GOD?

(DEFINITION PLEASE!)

Brett A. Todd

Christians confess that Jesus is

“dominum nostrum”, our Lord, our

God. But what does this mean when

there is no biblical definition for the

word “God” in the Bible?

Nowhere in the early Semitic writings, which includes the Hebrew Scriptures, is the word, “god” defined. For them, god is god and nothing else matters, only “Fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God'” (Psalm 14:1). As you might guess, this is a problem for the modern Bible reader when trying to answer the question, “Who Is God?” How can you answer such a question when you don't even know what the word “god” means? If you are going to call someone or something a god, then you better know what the word means.  Actually, the closest we come to a definition of God in the Bible is when God says, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14) which basically means that God is undefinable.

Recognizing this problem, some Bible scholars have opted for the approach of “looking backward” to answer the question, “Who is God?” How does this work? For them, since Jesus is God and is the perfect representation of God, then all one has to do is look at Jesus first to know God and God's characteristics. In other words, if you know Jesus and his ministry, then you will automatically know God. Using some rather blunt and faulty grammar to get my point across, for these scholars, “What Jesus is, God is. You know God and God's characteristics by knowing Jesus.”

The problems with this approach are too vast to discuss at this time. However, and more importantly, is the fact that Jesus never claimed to be God. So, the idea that one can look at Jesus and then know God is quite a fanciful idea. Further, we are still ignoring the big white elephant in the room, we don't have a definition for the word “God” in the Bible.

Other theologians in search of a definition of “God” have chosen to rummage through the Bible to find Bible verses describing God's divine characteristics or may we say God's nature. However, this picking and choosing method often leads to false information. For example, most Christians would agree that God is love (1 John 4:8), but what about such Bible stories in which this same God of love commanded the Temple guards to slaughter everyone, including women and children? (Ezekiel 9:6). Does this sound like an all-loving God? Of course not, there is nothing just or loving about killing children. So, as you can see, picking and choosing Bible verses has its negative side to it when trying to answer the question, “Who is God?”

The Bible reader needs to understand that what one book of the Bible might say about God may not be the same in another book of the Bible. Again, there is no unified teaching concerning God and God's characteristics in the Bible. Different authors say different things about God. Sometimes these authors agree, other times they disagree. So who is god? Well, that all depends on which book in the Bible you are reading.

What we do know from early Semitic writings, which include the Hebrew Scriptures is that there are a lot of entities called God. Biblical scholar, Mark S. Smith, has tallied the following list of Gods. They include major and minor deities, demons, dead kings and some living kings, monstrous cosmic enemies, or the dead more generally, deities images, standing stones, and other cultic items and places, as well as stars and legendary heroes.

The characteristic that stands out for each one of these Gods listed above is their supposed “mystical otherness”. They may or may not look like humans but all of these Gods were reported as having done something that the average human has not. But how helpful is this to understand the word “God”? Not too helpful. Remember, according to Smith's research, even a human or a stone can fit this description of mystical otherness.

Smith's list of Gods should not surprise the average Bible reader, not only are these same entities mentioned in the Bible, but the First Commandment of the Ten Commandments strictly forbids the worship of any of them, “...you shall have no Gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Note, it does not say that there are no other Gods, it just says that you cannot worship them in any form. Verses 4 through 5 continue this commandment by saying, “you shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.”

It would seem obvious to these ancient people a definition for the word “God” was not important. Again, God is God and nothing else matters. However, it was important for them that they were worshipping the right God (s).