Jesus Mean?
Explaining
the Sermon on the Mount
and
the Parables
in Simple
and Universal
Human Concepts",
by
Anna Wierzbicka,
Oxford University Press,
2001.
From
the
Introduction,
part 11,
pages 20 and 21:
11.
The Meaning
of
the Word
God
Throughout this book, I will try to explain the meaning of Jesus' parables and sayings in simple words that, evidence suggests, have equivalents in all languages.
The reader, however, will quickly notice one exception to this central methodological principle: most, if not all, explications proposed here include the word God, which neither stands for a simple, indefinable concept nor has semantic equivalents in all languages.
This exception is deliberate and, I believe, justifiable.
God is a key concept in Jesus' teaching, and it recurs constantly in different contexts and in different configurations.
If we tried to explicate this concept every time it were mentioned, our explications would be overblown and hard to read.
It makes far more sense to explicate it once, at the outset, and then treat it as a unitary semantic molecule.
In explaining what the word God meant in Jesus' speech, we must try to separate what Jesus was saying about God from what he meant by the word God as such.
It seems reasonable to assume that he used the word God in a sense that could be understood by his first listeners, that is, in a sense derived from and consistent with the Hebrew Bible.
First, the God of the Hebrew Bible -- like the God of the New Testament -- is a personal God, that is, "someone" rather than "something"; someone who "knows," "wants," "speaks," that is, "says things," even "hears," and arguably "feels".
Thus:
(a) God is someone
Second, the biblical God is "someone good."
Theissen and Merz (1998:274) say that "the God of Jesus is the God of Israel: a blazing fire of ethical energy which seeks to change people in order to kindle the love of neighbor in them," and also that "it is characteristic of Jesus' understanding of God that God will soon ... come to power as the unconditional will for the good."
Leaving aside metaphors like "blazing fire" or "ethical energy" and trying to separate Jesus' teaching about God from his understanding of the very concept of God, we could say that the references to both ethics ("changing people") and eschatology ("coming to power") belong to what Jesus teaches about God.
But the reference to God's "unconditional will for the good" touches on this God's very identity: if Jesus were not teaching about someone (someone who has a will) and someone inherently good, we would not know whom he was talking about.
(b) this someone is someone good
Crucially, this "someone good" who is the subject of Jesus' teaching and preaching is not someone human; it is someone radically different from people, and in fact someone unique: there is no one else like this someone (this someone is not "a god"; this someone is the one and only God).
(c) this someone is not someone like people
(d) there isn't anyone else like this someone
Theologians often say that the biblical God is "the ultimate reality," "the first and last reality," and so on (see, e.g. Kung 1980).
Phrases of this kind are metaphorical and, of course, are not couched in simple and universal concepts, but what they hint at can be expressed in a non-metaphorical way by drawing, in particular, on the simple and universal concept EXIST (THERE IS).
Thus, to begin with, Jesus' God is eternal, that is, exists always (has always existed and will always exist):
(e) this someone exists always
Furthermore, in contrast to everyone and everything else, this someone exists as a creator, not as a creature.
In simple concepts, this contrast can be formulated as follows:
(f) everything exists because this someone wants it to exist
(g) people exist because this someone wants them to exist
(h) this someone exists because this someone exists, not because of anything else
Although (h) is paradoxical and does not sound exactly like simple everyday language, its phrasing is nonetheless simpler and clearer than that of philosophical phrases like "the ultimate reality."
In support of component (h) I would also note that it is anchored in the biblical language itself, notably in God's self-revelation to Moses (Exodus 3:14): "I AM WHO I AM" -- a statement that also sounds paradoxical and mysterious.
Finally, I suggest that the biblical God is "the living God" -- and that the phrase (e.g., John 6:69) is as at home in the language of the Bible as "the eternal God" (e.g., Deuteronomy 33:27, Matthew 16:16).
This brings us to the following overall explication of the biblical concept of God, in which Jesus' teaching about God is anchored:
God
(a) God is someone (not something)
(b) this someone is someone good
(c) this someone is not someone like people
(d) there isn't anyone else like this someone
(e) this someone exists always
(f) everything exists because this someone wants it to exist
(g) people exist because this someone wants them to exist
(h) this someone exists because this someone exists, not because of anything else
(i) this someone lives
Whether or not some further components should be added to this "definition minimum" (see Wierzbicka 1985:214-218) is debatable.
Arguably, however, those listed above are necessary to explicate the biblical concept of God.
+++
Theissen and Merz 1998 =
"The Historical Jesus:
A Comprehensive Guide",
by
G. Theissen
and
A. Merz,
Fortress Press, 1998
Kung 1980 =
"Does God Exist?"
by
Hans Kung,
translated
by
Edward Quinn,
Doubleday,
New York, 1980
Wierzbicka 1985 =
"Lexicography and Conceptual Analysis",
by
Anna Wierzbicka,
Karoma,
Ann Arbor Michigan, 1985
+++
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