The Temptation of Deity

From: Indepen (adc8@columbia.edu)
Date: Sat Dec 30 1995 - 10:20:13 EST


It seems to me that we won't get far with attempting to apply rational
categories to the Trinity, especially as it concerns the question of
Jesus's capacity to be tempted (tried). Theologians have grappled with
these issues for many centuries.
        A related problem is the status of Satan. God is good, and yet
the tradition has it that God created a supernatural being who is evil and
attempts to make humankind do evil. That is not a paradox we can resolve
rationally.
        Can God sin? By definition, no. Earthquakes and cancers that
kill millions have to be accepted as God's will and not God's sins, even
though they cause the good people to suffer. Likewise those acts of Jesus
that look and sound like sin, e.g., his cold and almost violent statements
to his mother ("Woman, what have I to do with thee?" etc., or his violent
rather than peaceful dealings with the Temple moneychangers) cannot be
regarded as sin if we accept Jesus as God.
        Rather than attempt to resolve what theology has never been able
to rationalize, and, recalling that this is a Greek Bible discussion
group, perhaps a more manageable topic would be the meaning of the word
"sin" in the Bible. In Hebrew, KHATAUAU, in Greek hAMARTIA. Are these
the same? I don't know Hebrew so I can't comment for certain, though I
have the impresssion that it simply means breaking the law. But the Greek
term has the sense of a missing of the goal, or a straying away from the
right path. The emphasis is placed on aim, on the journey, the quest for
the goal, the good place. Sin is what makes us miss our shot or gets us
off the track.
        Commentary?



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