Good and Bad
By: Jeff A. Benner
Very few sermons in our Western synagogues and churches would include the passage "I [God] form the light and create darkness, I make peace and I create evil, I am the LORD who does all of these" (Isaiah 45:7) as our Western mind sees these two forces as opposing opposites while the Eastern mind sees them both as equals and necessary for perfect balance. In the Western mind, God is only good and therefore unable to create evil. The Eastern mind sees God as a perfect balance of all things including good (tov in Hebrew) and evil (ra in Hebrew).
It should be noted that the English word "evil" has no Ancient Hebrew equivelant, while most English translations will use the word "evil" it is usually the Hebrew word "ra" which simply means "bad". In the Ancient Hebrew mind there is no such thing as an "evil" person or thing. To understand the words "good" and "bad" from a more Hebraic understanding these words should be understood as "functional" and "dysfunctional". God is both functional (such as seen in the Creation story of Genesis one) as well as dysfunctional (such as the destruction of the flood).
Our western mind classifies all things in two categories, either it is "good" or it is "bad". One is to be sought, cherished and protected, the other is to be rejected, spurned and discarded. Let us take light and darkness as an example. We see light as good and darkness as bad. The idea of light brings to mind such things as God, truth and love. Darkness on the other hand invokes Satan, lies and hate. To the Orientals, including the Hebrews, both are equally necessary as one cannot exist without the other. In the Bible God is seen as a God of light as well as darkness “And the people stood at a distance and Moses approached the heavy darkness where God was.” (Exodus 20:21). If you stare at the sun, which is pure light, what happens? You become blind. If you are standing in a sealed room with no light, what happens? You are again blind. Therefore, both light and darkness are bad and yet, both are good. In order to see we must block out some of the light as well as some of the darkness.
The two poles of a magnet are north and south. These two poles create balance, they are not morally good or bad, but necessary ingredients of physics that compliment each other. Good and bad are more like the north and south poles of a magnet than our Western conception of good and bad.
Can good exist without the bad? Absolutely not, how could you judge something to be good if you cannot compare it to something bad? The same is true for all other concepts. Cold cannot exist without heat, or short without tall, far without near, or large without small. Our western mind usually ignores these extremes and seeks to always find the "good" or the “bad”. The Eastern mind is continually seeking both the "good" and the "bad" in order to find the balance between the two. Even Solomon recognized this when he said “Do not be overly righteous” (Ecclesiastes 7:16).
Throughout the scriptures this search for balance is found, yet ignored by Westerners who do not understand the significance of balance.
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/12_goodbad.html
Dualism in the Bible -- How The Hebrews Saw Good and Evil
by Morocco 16 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Morocco
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Woodsman
Good post. I have noticed different stages in the way the Books of the Bible address bad, evil, Satan, heaven and hell.
I'm sittng here drinking a beer so I'm not going to write a long post with quotes but I find it interesting that the Bibles position changes as the Hebrews and Christians were exposed to other religions and philosophies. The earlier books of the Bible are very much as you state.
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Satanus
Therein lies the fundamental disease of christianity, imo. This dichotomy propagates throughout the judeochristian civilisations and creates the need for conflicts/wars. In the usa, many efforts at change come under the title 'war' - war on poverty, the drug war, to name a couple.
Most mystics see the ultimate unity beneath all things. Yin and yang are within the same circle. Void & matter, high pressure & low pressure are necesary. If all was solid matter, nothing would be possible. If all was high pressure, nothing would be discernable. Emptiness/space is necesary for there to be something.
S
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Narkissos
What is portrayed in this text as intemporal "Hebrew thought" is actually a remarkable though exceptional moment within Hebrew thought: the early monotheism -- pure monotheism -- phase of Deutero-Isaiah (6th century BC), both under the influence of and in reaction to Persian (Zoroastrian) dualism of light vs. darkness, good vs. evil.
With the later invention of the devil, dualism eventually wins in Jewish (and Christian) thought. In popular (= politically usable) monotheism God has to be good and someone else has to be bad. And the poles are not equal: the apocalyptic scenarii end up in the totalitarianism of light ("no night" in Revelation, symptomatically).
Dualism suits the default binary "logic" of our minds. Yes or no. Either / or. Unfortunately it hardly suits anything else and the more we indulge in it the more it makes us blind to reality as an endless flow of shapes and colours and differences.
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Morocco
Narkissos: Dualism suits the default binary "logic" of our minds. Yes or no. Either / or. Unfortunately it hardly suits anything else and the more we indulge in it the more it makes us blind to reality as an endless flow of shapes and colours and differences.
I disagree. I think that since good and evil are so polarized that they would better suit binary logic. Good, evil. Black, white. 1, 0. I think dualism, not only in god but also in nature or the universe would be ill-suited for a binary logic because it is the between space, the fractional matters, that hold the truth. It's the interaction of two separate things, not those things themselves.
Just out of curiosity, how do you come to the opinion that a sense of dualism fits binary thought and doesn't suit anything but that? -
lovelylil
interesting thoughts. I am going to bookmark it for later. I am currently reading the Hebrews scriptures again in the Tanakh and it is reading slightly different than most bibles I use. This one is translated from the original Hebrew language. Anyway, I noticed for the first time that Satan is rarely mentioned in the Hebrew texts. He is in Genesis in the Garden and a few minor texts later, such as Job but not really anywhere else. He and the Demons seem much more prevelant in the NT.
One Priest I know said that "Satan" or the "Devil" represented everything that is in opposition to God or Good. And that "he" is not a real person. However, even Jesus refered to the Devil as "he" (a spirit person?). Or was there another meaning to what Jesus said? I was also thinking about the WT claim that Satan must be a person in order to offer Jesus the kingdoms of the World. This is not really a good arguement because it could have been Jesus' inner struggle not to achieve greatness in the world that was being spoken of here. In other words, an inner voice (inside himself) and not an actual person. Of Course the WT will say this is impossible as Jesus was perfect. However, even a perfect person has the ability to sin, doesn't he? The fact that he does not sin when he could is what makes him perfect. Sorry for rambling on.
I am not saying I don't believe in Satan as a person, just that the so called "proof texts" that show he definately IS a person do not really hold the wieght I previously thought. These days I really scrutinize things more than I did in the WT. Any thoughts on this?? Lilly
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Narkissos
Morocco
I think that since good and evil are so polarized that they would better suit binary logic. Good, evil. Black, white. 1, 0. I think dualism, not only in god but also in nature or the universe would be ill-suited for a binary logic because it is the between space, the fractional matters, that hold the truth. It's the interaction of two separate things, not those things themselves.
How do you understand the word "dualism"? I for one meant (as I thought was clear) dualism as the bipolar opposition of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, as is characteristic of Zoroastrian and much later OT thinking.
Lovelylil
He is in Genesis in the Garden
You cannot even count on that one: the serpent of Genesis is not identified to Satan in this text or anywhere else in the Old Testament. It is -- guess what -- a snake.
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plmkrzy
To understand the words "good" and "bad" from a more Hebraic understanding these words should be understood as "functional" and "dysfunctional".
Isn’t this the equivalent of free will?
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lovelylil
Narkissos,
That is true, it only says snake. But, Revelation 12:9 speaks about The great dragon, the original serpent. This text identifies that "serpent" as the Devil or Satan (from the Garden) who misleads the earth. Satan here is also called a "dragon".
In the OT, serpents or dragons are used metaphorically to depict enemies of God. (see Psalm 74:14, Isaiah 27:1) Thus anyone in opposition to God could be called a serpent, dragon, or leviathan (another term used). Also Satan means "slanderer" and Devil "opposer". Most Christians think of Satan as only one fallen Angel. While that might be true, really anyone who slanders or opposes God could be a Satan. Satan - the fallen Angel is only the orginal slanderer and opposer of God, according to the Bible. But this does not mean he is the only one or that this title (which is really what "Satan" is) applies only to him. Hope this makes sense.
Quite interesting. Its surprising how much you can learn with your WT blinders off. Lilly
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tetrapod.sapien
interesting stuff morocco! i see the tendency toward dualism in the west as well. and it's interesting how dualism works to a degree, before begining to sort of fall apart. and monism seems absurd, at first, to the mind steeped in dualism.
it's funny how humans have made this journey from a primitive form of monism, to a life of duality, only to eventually begin the long trek forward to monism again, in some sort of evolved way. and i actually see the account in genesis of adam and eve and the trees of knowledge and eternal life as metaphors for this journey.
tetra