Statement: Greek philosophy accepted a one, perfect god (contrary to the then Greek theology); so did the Jews, Jesus, and the evangelists, and that is what they also preached.

 

Response: The "one, perfect god" of Greek philosophy is an unknowable abstract being who exists in a timeless, static, ideal, impassible state-of-being so removed from humans that it is argued by some that he is not even aware of our existence, or of the existence of the physical creation. This necessitates the existence of a certain intermediate being (or beings) that is the actual agent of the creation. One version has that intermediate being known as "the Logos."
 

The Jews on the other hand, as well as Jesus and the apostles, taught that God DIRECTLY created the heavens, the earth, and everything in them and that he did it ALONE. They teach that God is intimately related to humans and the creation; that God is knowable, that God desires us to know him, indeed commands us to know him.
 

• Isaiah 55:6a: Seek the LORD while He may be found.

• Jeremiah 4:22a: My people are fools; they do not know me.

 

If God commands us to know Him, and calls us fools when we do not, it would certainly follow that knowing Him is possible, and that He desires us to know him.
 

The one god of the Greeks is not knowable. Nor does he desire to be known. He is impassible, he has no desire. We cannot relate to him. He is knowable only through intermediaries, if at all. The one god of the Hebrews is knowable, desires to be known, and commands us to know him - personally and directly. Yes, the one god of the Hebrews is invisible, dwells in unapproachable light, and ALONE possesses inherent immortality. These characteristics, however, do not prevent us from knowing him. The characteristics of the abstract one god of the Greeks, on the other hand, DO prevent us from knowing him.
 

When Paul was in Athens, he did not proclaim to them the one god of Greek philosophy. He proclaimed the god that they worshipped as "unknown." He said,
 

"What you therefore worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything."
 

This is the Hebraic conception. God DIRECTLY and ALONE made the world and everything in it. This is incompatible with the one god of Greek philosophy. The God of the Jews was "unknown" to the Greeks, according to Paul. But that isn't all.
 

"And he made from one [that would be Adam] every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, THAT THEY SHOULD SEEK GOD, IN THE HOPE THAT THEY MIGHT FEEL AFTER HIM AND FIND HIM. YET HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH ONE OF US..."
 

The one god of Greek philosophy IS far from us, unlike the one god of the Hebrews. 

 

Paul's subsequent quote of Aratus is NOT a general affirmation of Greek philosophy. I will not go into it here. That would be another paper and would be beside the point I am making here. My point here is that Paul proclaimed, both to uneducated common Greeks, as well as Greek philosophers, that the God that he (Paul) was speaking of was UNKNOWN to them. He told them that they had lived in "times of ignorance". He expounded the classic Jewish conception of Yahweh, alone the maker of heaven and earth, and informed them of the resurrection of the MAN that God had appointed by which he (God) would judge the world. This is very un-Greek-like.

Just because Greek philosophers and Jews both believed in "one god" does not mean their concepts were the same or even similar. In fact, they are diametrically opposed. If scriptures like, "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts..." occur to you (and they should) please read the context and see that this is speaking to evil men only and not humanity in general. Remember that God revealed himself to Moses and showed his ways to Israel. Consider God's behavior in relation to Israel, how he strives, pleads, cajoles, and goes through emotional cycles with them, like a father with a rebellious child. This is NOT the abstract, ideal, static, timeless, impassible god of Greek philosophy. The two concepts of God are not compatible.

 

The following is from an article titled, The Influence of Paganism on Post-Apostolic Christianity by George T. Purves. It was originally published in Presbyterian Review 36, October, 1888.
 

But if the means for the combination of philosophy and Christianity had thus been prepared, the comparison of Justin's [Justin Martyr-150AD] writings with those of the New Testament reveals also the effects of the combination on Christian thought. Its first effect was to impair the Christian doctrine of God's nearness and personal relationship to believers in this world, and to remove Him in thought to a great distance, as merely the First Cause of all existence. In other words, the immanence of God was forgotten in the emphasis laid on His transcendence. Such was the aspect in which the current philosophy, especially in its Platonic forms, regarded Him. It made Him the abstract Existence, who could only affect the material world through the agency of intermediate beings. The unity of God had been established on the ruins of the popular mythologies; but the Divine Being had been reduced in thought to an unknowable Abyss from which energy proceeds. Now, the very doctrine of Christ as Mediator between God and man provided a point of connection by which this abstract conception of God was likely, if not prevented by careful attention to New Testament teaching, to enter the theology of the Church. The effect, at any rate, was to destroy the fine sense of the Father's nearness, which Christ had taught, and to break the delicately adjusted balance between divine immanence and transcendence which is found throughout the New Testament. Justin, for example, speaks of God in terms of philosophy rather than of Christianity. He declares that the terms Father, God, Creator, Lord, and Master tell nothing about God's nature, but are mere appellations to describe His manifested activities. God "remains ever in the super celestial places, visible to none and never holding intercourse directly with any." (Dial. 56.)...Furthermore, the influence of philosophy led to the representation of Christ as the incarnate Reason of God. The Johannine doctrine of the Logos was thus rationalized, and the consequences were many and injurious. It was this, in fact, which led to the undue emphasis on the divine transcendence to which we have just referred. Christ the Mediator, being the incarnate Reason, filled the space between the creature and the Creator, and removed the latter to an unapproachable distance. But the Logos, while in a sense divine, appeared inferior to the Supreme Father, a sort of intermediate Being between God and man. Hence, Justin represented Him as the product of the Father's will and, while of His essence, subordinate to Him in both person and dignity.

 

Greek Philosophy said, "[God] remains ever in the super celestial places, visible to none and never holding intercourse directly with any."  But Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3)

 

Back to: Illustrations of the Differences Between Greek and Hebraic Categories of Thought