“The best data we have concerning the Big Bang,” Arno Penzias, the Nobel Laureate remarked, “are exactly what I would have predicted if I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole"
“The best data we have concerning the Big Bang,” Arno Penzias, the Nobel Laureate remarked, “are exactly what I would have predicted if I had nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole"
GENESIS 1:1-5
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day…
Far away in the beginning,
Dwelt the Word in God Most High…
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in His own image,
in the image of God He created them;
male and female He created them. (Gen. 1:26–27)
Central to both the ancient world of myth and the modern world of science is the idea of power, force, energy. That is what is significantly absent from Genesis 1. God says, “Let there be,” and there is. There is nothing here about power, resistance, conquest, or the play of forces. Instead, the key word of the narrative, appearing seven times, is utterly unexpected. It is the word tov, good. Tov is a moral word. The Torah in Genesis 1 is telling us something radical. The reality to which Torah is a guide (the word “Torah” itself means guide, instruction, or law) is moral and ethical. The question Genesis seeks to answer is not “How did the universe come into being?” but “How then shall we live?” This is the Torah’s most significant paradigm shift. The universe that God made and that we inhabit is not about power or dominance but about tov and ra, good and evil.1 For the first time, religion was ethicised. God cares about justice, compassion, faithfulness, loving-kindness, the dignity of the individual, and the sanctity of life.
…In 2008, Yale philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff published a magisterial work arguing that our Western concept of justice rests on the belief that “all of us have great and equal worth: the worth of being made in the image of God and of being loved redemptively by God.” There is, he insists, no secular rationale on which a similar framework of justice can be built. That is surely what John F. Kennedy meant in his Inaugural Address when he spoke of the “revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought,” that “the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.” Momentous ideas made the West what it is, ideas like human rights, the abolition of slavery, the equal worth of all, and justice based on the principle that right is sovereign over might. All of these ultimately derived from the statement in the first chapter of the Torah that we are made in God’s image and likeness. No other text has had a greater influence on moral thought, nor has any other civilisation ever held a higher vision of what we are called on to be.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
I envied no one more than the two disciples who encountered Jesus on the Emmaus road in Luke 24, whose hearts burned as an incognito Christ led them on a backcountry hike through their Bible, when “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27)...
In the very next story after his encounter at Emmaus, Jesus made another surprising appearance, this time to the rest of his disciples...
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Luke 24:44
(Reading the Bible With Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg)
IF THERE BE such being as a God, and He can speak to a child, and if God spoke to a child in the garden, the child would, of course, say that God lived in the garden. I should _not think it less likely to be true for that. If the child said, "God is everywhere, an impalpable essence pervading and supporting all constituents of the Cosmos alike" ─ if, I say, the infant addressed me in the above terms, I should think he was more likely to have been with the governess than with God. So if Moses had said God was an Infinite Energy, I should be certain he had seen nothing extraordinary. As he said He was a Burning Bush, I think it very likely that he did see something Extraordinary.... When the learned skeptic says: "The visions of the Old Testament were local, and rustic, and grotesque," we shall answer: "Of course. They were genuine."
~G.K. Chesterton: "Christianity and Rationalism" (The Blatchford Controversies. 1903)
When Moses asked this deity’s name at the burning bush, God’s strange response was: eyeh asher eyeh, which means “I am that I am,” or “I will be what I will be” (see Exod. 3:14). Moses must have been stopped short by this remarkable reply. Pagan gods had names that likened them to heavenly objects, such as “sun” (Shamash) or “moon” (Yarikh), or to human rulers, such as “king” (Molech) or “exalted lord” (Baal Zebul). But this God’s name was utterly unlike any other because this God was utterly beyond description. Just as his sanctuary was devoid of images or idols, his name also did not offer a likeness for comparison. This strange, superhuman entity that Israel had encountered was completely beyond human imagining. Through God’s name he was proclaiming how he would reveal himself: “I will be known by what I do.” God didn’t just flash lightning bolts from a thundercloud or define himself to Moses philosophically. Instead he redeemed his people from slavery, fed them manna daily, protected them from enemies, and delivered them to the promised land. He instructed them with his laws and rebuked them through the prophets. This is why the Hebrew Bible doesn’t actually contain much theological discussion. Rather it shows wide-screen, front-row footage of God’s mighty acts in history. It records the visceral, moment-by-moment emotions of Israel’s tempestuous relationship with God, from exaltation to despair and back again.
Theologian Karl Barth puts it this way: “No attempt is made in the Bible to define God—that is, to grasp God in our concepts. . . . The Bible tells the story of God; it narrates His deeds and the history of this God as it takes place on earth in the human sphere. The Bible proclaims the significance and the importance of this working and acting, this story of God, and in this way it proves God’s existence, describes His being and His nature. The Bible is not a philosophical book, but a history book, the book of God’s mighty acts, in which God becomes knowable to us. “
This is why the Old Testament is more comfortable with paradox and seeming contradiction than Western readers are. The Bible simply assumes that Israel had an unparalleled encounter with a being who was utterly outside human experience. It makes no attempt to explain or defend the strangeness of this mysterious entity. It merely describes Israel’s powerful encounters with God through history.
Lois Tverberg, Reading the Bible With Rabbi Jesus
Exodus 3:1-6
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the LORD saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. “Do not come any closer,” the LORD warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
(Artwork: Moses before the Burning Bush, by Domenico Fetti. Oil on canvas, A.D.1613-14; Kunsthistorisches Museum - Vienna, Austria)
Moses Sees the LORD’s Glory
One day Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people up to the Promised Land.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You have told me, ‘I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.’ If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. And remember that this nation is your very own people.” The LORD replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.” Then Moses said, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. How will anyone know that you look favorably on me—on me and on your people—if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.” The LORD replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.” Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”
The LORD replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.”
The LORD continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.”
Exodus 33:12-23 ESV
The Burning Bush
19. It is upon us who continue in this quiet and peaceful course of life that the truth will shine, illuminating the eyes of our soul with its own rays. This truth, which was then manifested by the ineffable and mysterious illumination which came to Moses, is God.
20. And if the flame by which the soul of the prophet was illuminated was kindled from a thorny bush, even this fact will not be useless for our inquiry. For if truth is God and truth is light—the Gospel testifies by these sublime and divine names to the God who made himself visible to us in the flesh — such guidance of virtue leads us to know that light which has reached down even to human nature. Lest one think that the radiance did not come from a material substance, this light did not shine from some luminary among the stars but came from an earthly bush and surpassed the heavenly luminaries in brilliance.
21. From this we learn also the mystery of the Virgin: The light of divinity which through birth shone from her into human life did not consume the burning bush, even as the flower of her virginity was not withered by giving birth.
22. That light teaches us what we must do to stand within the rays of the true light: Sandaled feet cannot ascend that height where the light of truth is seen, but the dead and earthly covering of skins, which was placed around our nature at the beginning when we were found naked because of disobedience to the divine will, must be removed from the feet of the soul. When we do this, the knowledge of the truth will result and manifest itself. The full knowledge of being comes about by purifying our opinion concerning nonbeing.
23. In my view the definition of truth is this: not to have a mistaken apprehension of Being. Falsehood is a kind of impression which arises in the understanding about nonbeing: as though what does not exist does, in fact, exist. But truth is the sure apprehension of real Being. So, whoever applies himself in quietness to higher philosophical matters over a long period of time will barely apprehend what true Being is, that is, what possesses existence in its own nature, and what nonbeing is, that is, what is existence only in appearance, with no self‐ subsisting nature.
24. It seems to me that at the time the great Moses was instructed in the theophany he came to know that none of those things which are apprehended by sense perception and contemplated by the understanding really subsists, but that the transcendent essence and cause of the universe, on which everything depends, alone subsists.
25. For even if the understanding looks upon any other existing things, reason observes in absolutely none of them the self-sufficiency by which they could exist without participating in true Being. On the other hand, that which is always the same, neither increasing nor diminishing, immutable to all change whether to better or to worse (for it is far removed from the inferior and it has no superior), standing in need of nothing else, alone desirable, participated in by all but not lessened by their participation—this is truly real Being. And the apprehension of it is the knowledge of truth.
26. In the same way that Moses on that occasion attained to this knowledge, so now does everyone who, like him, divests himself of the earthly covering and looks to the light shining from the bramble bush, that is, to the Radiance which shines upon us through this thorny flesh and which is (as the Gospel says) the true light and the truth itself.
A person like this becomes able to help others to salvation, to destroy the tyranny which holds power wickedly, and to deliver to freedom everyone held in evil servitude.
St. Gregory of Nyssa
“Thus it is that activity directed toward virtue causes the soul’s capacity to grow through exertion; this kind of activity alone does not slacken in intensity by the effort, but increases it. For this reason we say that the great Moses, as he was becoming ever greater, at no time stopped in his ascent, nor did he set a limit for himself in his upward course. Once having set foot on the ladder which God set up (as Jacob says), he continually climbed to the step above and never ceased to rise higher, because he always found a step higher than the one he had attained. He denies the specious kinship with the Egyptian queen; he avenges the Hebrew; he transports himself to the desert where there is no human life to disturb him. He shepherds within himself a flock of tame animals. He sees the brilliance of the light, and renders his approach to it unburdensome by removing his sandals. He brings his countrymen out to freedom; he sees the enemy drowning in the sea; he makes camp under the cloud; he quenches thirst with the rock; he produces bread from heaven. By stretching out his hands he overcomes the foreigner. He hears the trumpet; he enters the darkness; he slips into the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle not made with hands; he learns the secrets of the divine priesthood. He destroys the idol; he supplicates the divine Being; he restores the Law destroyed by the evil* of the Jews; he shines with glory.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-394) Life of Moses
*Deuteronomy 1:35 - ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb…’ and Moses restores the Law, Deuteronomy 5 & 6.
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Rabbi Sacks:
“Just as God created order in the universe, so are we called to create order in our personal lives and in society as a whole. We are God’s image; we are God’s children; we are God’s partners. Within us is the breath of God. Around us is the presence of God. Near us is the home we build for God. Ahead of us is the task set by God: to be his agents of justice and compassion. Never has a nobler account been given of the human condition, and it challenges us still.”
Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
PSALM 90
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
In the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:
But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
Exodus. 40:34–38
JOHN Prologue:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
1. Moses in the beginning of the history and writings of the Old Testament speaks to us of the objects of sense, and enumerates them to us at length. For, In the beginning, he says, God made the heaven and the earth, and then he adds, that light was created, and a second heaven and the stars, the various kinds of living creatures, and, that we may not delay by going through particulars, everything else. But this Evangelist, cutting all short, includes both these things and the things which are above these in a single sentence; with reason, because they were known to his hearers, and because he is hastening to a greater subject, and has instituted all his treatise, that he might speak not of the works but of the Creator, and Him who produced them all. And therefore Moses, though he has selected the smaller portion of the creation, (for he has spoken nothing to us concerning the invisible powers,) dwells on these things; while John, as hastening to ascend to the Creator Himself, runs by both these things, and those on which Moses was silent, having comprised them in one little saying, All things were made by Him. And that you may not think that he merely speaks of all the things mentioned by Moses, he adds, that without Him was not anything made that was made. That is to say, that of created things, not one, whether it be visible or intelligible was brought into being without the power of the Son…
John Chrysotom 408AD
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