Page 252 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 17 BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE, GOOD AND BAD
CHAPTER 17 BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE, GOOD AND BAD 231
the requirements of some customers. For these customers, the product was of

sufficiently high quality (good). For example, the product label could have been

placed in a wrong position, in violation of a written specification, but with no
material consequences to the customer.
With this framework for “good” and “bad” in mind, four possible scenarios
may be conceived:

• Product conforms to all specifications and to all of the end-user require-

ments: product is good and of high quality.
• Product conforms to all specifications but not to all of the end-user

requirements: product may be good or bad, dependent on which end-
user requirements are not met.

• Product does not conform to all specifications , but still meets the
requirements of the end-user: product may be good or bad, dependent
on which end-user requirements are not met.
• Product does not conform to all specifications and also does not meet

most end-user requirements: product is bad.
With these definitions of “good” and “bad,” taken from modern quality engi-

neering , it is indeed surprising to realize how consistent the Bible is with these
definitions, as one observes biblical usages of the combination of “good” and

“bad,” or just “good,” or just “bad.”
Let us start with the very first usage of “good” in the Bible. The sentence “And

God saw that it was good [or very good]” repeats itself seven times in the depiction
of creation (Gen. 1). It is apparent that “good” here means that what was created
complied with the Creator’s design , or requirements—namely, it was conforming

to specifications (the latter are obviously identical to the requirements; in earth-
bound human experience, this is not always so). One realizes that in “God saw

that it was good” there is no human moral element to the qualification “good” for

that which was just created.
When we search the Bible for combinations of “good” and “bad,” we find out

that these combinations refer mainly to two possible meanings:
• Nondeparture (or, conversely, departure) from specifications ;

• Compliance (or lack thereof) with requirements—that is, with moral
requirements of God.