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SUMMARY
No book of the Bible is eternal for they were written at a point of time. The Word of God on the other hand is not created. It is eternal and has coexisted with God. The believe of multiple personalities within the essence of God is not in contradiction with this, and in fact it explains the apparent dilemma. The books should not be worshipped for they are not God. However The Word is God.
Unitarian views of God, such as rabbinical judaism an islam among others, struggle to explain this. Triunitarism does not.
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During recent debate about the unity of God, it was posted the following question:
If the Torah is the eternal word of God, why not worshipping it?
The issue was brought forward by Dr Shabir Ally in response to Dr Nabeel Qureshi. Qureshi brought forward a dilemma discussed in the past by muslim theologians: since the Qur'an is verbatim the Word of God, revealed to humanity via the Angel Gabriel and prophet Muhammad, it's concluded that it's eternal. If it's not eternal, then it's not part of the creation. And if not created, then it's part of God. Dr Ally questioned if that wasn't the same case for the Torah. The time during the debate did not allow us to hear an answer from Dr Qureshi. I decided to post on this blog some thoughts and quotes to address this question.
First is the Torah eternal? Based on the canonical judeo christian scriptures, it should be clarified that what it's mentioned to be eternal is The Word of God. The books on the Bible are believed to be inspired. In simple words, The Holy Spirit revealed the Word to different human authors who then wrote the different books of The Bible. So, the books are created, and hence not eternal.
As for the Word of God, the Bible teaches that the Word is eternal:
- Let's examine first the Torah:
"We and our children are accountable FOREVER for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions."(Deuteronomy 29:29 NLT)
"I will ALWAYS obey your law, FOR EVER AND EVER. The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. Your word, Lord, is ETERNAL; it stands firm in the heavens. Your commands are ALWAYS with me and make me wiser than my enemies. Your statutes are my heritage FOREVER; they are the joy of my heart. Your righteousness is EVERLASTING and your law is true. Your statutes are ALWAYS righteous;. All your words are true; all your righteous laws are forever".(Psalm 119)
- In the Prophets we find
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8
- and last but not least it's found Isa saying in the Injil:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. "(Matthew 5:17-20 NIV)
"For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle [a tiny mark in the original spelling of a word] will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." Matthew 5:18 "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17 "1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.(...) 14 The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth". John 1:1-3,14 HSCB
Orthodox Rabbinical Judaism has uphold the view that The Torah is eternal. And they have been wrestling for centuries to explain how can it be eternal but created (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Written_Law.html):
"Jewish tradition holds that "Moses received the Torah from Sinai," yet there is also an ancient tradition that the Torah existed in heaven not only before God revealed it to Moses, but even before the world was created.
In rabbinic literature, it was taught that the Torah was one of the six or seven things created prior to the creation of the world. According to Eliezer ben Yose the Galilean, for 974 generations before the creation of the world the Torah lay in God's bosom and joined the ministering angels in song. Simeon ben Lakish taught that the Torah preceded the world by 2,000 years and was written in black fire upon white fire. Akiva called the Torah "the precious instrument by which the world was created". Rav said that God created the world by looking into the Torah as an architect builds a palace by looking into blueprints. It was also taught that God took council with the Torah before He created the world.
Other Jewish sages, however, disregard the literal belief that the Torah existed before all else. Saadiah Gaonrejected this belief on the grounds that it contradicts the principle of creation ex nihilo. Judah Barzillai of Barcelona raised the problem of place. Where could God have kept a preexistent Torah? While allowing that God could conceivably have provided an ante-mundane place for a corporeal Torah, he preferred the interpretation that the Torah preexisted only as a thought in the divine mind. Similarly, the Ibn Ezra raised the problem of time. He wrote that it is impossible for the Torah to have preceded the world by 2,000 years or even by one moment, since time is an accident of motion, and there was no motion before God created the celestial spheres; rather, he concluded, the teaching about the Torah's preexistence must be a metaphoric riddle."
As we see in John 1:1, the Word was with God and The Word was God. Perhaps this verse can explain clearly why In the Christian view there isn't a dilemma. In the very same chapter we are told that the Word became flesh. This is mentioned to be Jesus. So the dilemma that Dr Ally claimed to apply to Christians is resolved by the view of multiplicity of persons within the unity in essence of God.
As for those who could think that this was invention of Christianity, I'd propose to review writings from 1st century BCE Orthodox Judaism, from the school of Hilel. Let's review writings which present the jewish view before the time of Jesus. The Aramaic Targums are Aramaic translation and paraphrases (Mishnaic paraphrases) of the Hebrew Scriptures. These were read year in and year out publicly in places where Jews spoke Aramaic and little Hebrew. In Specific, the Targum Yonathan, authored by Yonathan Ben Uzziel, pre-dates the time of Christianity (1st century BCE). Yonathan Ben Uzziel was a recognized disciple of Hilel, the head of one of the most (if not the most important) sages school in the first century BCE.
In the Targum Yonathan of the book of Isaiah, several verses in which the Masoretic text does not explicitly mention the Messiah, The Targum of Yonathan does. Such is the case of Isaiah 9:6:
- The Prophet said to the house of David, For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and He has taken the law upon Himself to keep it. His name is called from eternity, Wonderful, The Mighty God, who liveth to eternity, The Messiah, whose peace shall be great upon in His days (isaiah 9:6 translated from Aramaic to English from the Targum Yonathan).
The targumist paraphrasis of this verse clearly says that:
- The Messiah is Eternal
- The Messiah's name is Eternal
- The Messiah's name is the Mighty God
The books of the New Testament clarify for us that The Word of God and The Messiah are the same person, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach, Jesus Christ or Isa Al Masih. We therefore see that even within pre-christianity Judaism there were pointers to show that God was one but containing multiple persons within it, including the Word of God
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