Page 254 - 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 233
• In God’s realized requirements, reflected by God’s design and specifica-

tions for the world (the laws of nature). These requirements are imposed
on all living creatures. The human race has no choice, or free will,
whether to comply with these requirements or otherwise. The design
is already there, engraved in the “product” (the universe). Furthermore,
no scientific argument can possibly explain the existence of the laws of

nature, let alone why these can so successfully be formulated in terms of
mathematical expressions. There is no logical necessity that enforces the
existence of the laws of nature.
• In God’s yet-unrealized requirements, expressed by moral code
that had been conveyed to humanity by such scriptures as the Ten
Commandments and derivatives (like “Before the blind do not place a
stumbling block”). Fulfillment of these requirements awaits implemen-

tation by humankind, as the Bible conveys in no uncertain terms: “And
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he rested

from all his work which God had created to do” (Genesis 2:3). This
peculiar description of what God had created (“work”) and the destiny

of that work (“to do”) attests that some part of the design is yet awaiting
humanity “to be done.” There are unfulfilled divine requirements that

need fulfilling. The prophet Micah explicitly uses the word “require”:
“He has told thee, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require
of thee, but to do justice, and to love true loyalty, and to walk humbly
with thy God” (Micah 6:8).

All allusions in the Bible to “good” and “bad” may be easily traced to either

one or the other of these two categories: conformance to specifications (consistent

with the perception of God as the source of the laws of nature), or fulfilling God’s
moral requirements (those not yet engraved in the world’s design ).
Examples:
1
• “And the Lord God said, It is not good [tov ] that the man should be
alone” (Gen. 2:18)—meaning “It is against man’s nature to be alone; we
need conformance to specifications . A madam has to be created.”

• “And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to
him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad” (Gen.
31:24)—meaning, “Behave yourself; show moral conduct.”
• “And if it be a beast, of which men bring an offering to the Lord, all
that any man gives of such to the Lord shall be holy. He shall not alter
it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at