Such a Mind as This: A Biblical-Theological Study of Thinking in the Old Testament

SUCH A MIND AS THIS

A BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL STUDY

of THINKING in the OLD TESTAMENT

Richard L. Smith

such a mind of this

A Biblical-Theological Study of Thinking in the Old Testament

Copyright ©

2021

Richard L. Smith. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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November 17, 2021 9:23 AM

Table of Contents

Title Page

Permissions

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Divine Milieu

Chapter 2: Edenic Epistemology

Chapter 3: Exilic Epistemology

Chapter 4: Pharaoh’s Folly

Chapter 5: Qohelet’s Quest

Chapter 6: The Fool’s Errand

Chapter 7: Foolish and Senseless People

Chapter 8: Redemptive Epistemology

Chapter 9: A Heart to Understand

Chapter 10: A Learning Community

Chapter 11: My Servant Job

Chapter 12: Out of the Whirlwind

Chapter 13: The One Who Knows

Chapter 14: God Gave Learning and Skill

Postscript: Community Gardens

Bibliography

What is the difference between intellectuality and intellectualism? In this deeply learned defense of Christian wisdom, Richard Smith deftly navigates the relevant biblical-theological evidence for the importance of right thinking. Much of today’s anti-intellectualism is based on misguided views of spirituality. Smith gently but firmly disarms contemporary prejudice and winsomely presents a liberating alternative.

—William Edgar

Professor of Apologetics, Westminster Seminary

In this unusual book, Smith calls us to think, to use our minds, and to ground our thinking in the truth that God has given us in his inspired and infallible word. Smith has issued a call for bold, radical, God-centered, countercultural, life-transformative thinking. . . . Just think how different the church will be when we all use our minds as God intended them to be used. Just think!

—Daryl McCarthy

Director, European Leadership Forum Academic Network

A fascinating study of the human mind and its thinking processes beginning before the fall, and then looking at the effect of sin on the human mind and thinking after the fall. Smith gives a tour of the epistemological developments of the mind’s relationship to God. . . . Smith then builds a case for a redemptive epistemology that will help people use their minds to the glory of God.

—Richard P. Belcher Jr.

Professor of Old Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary

In today’s world, while science and technology are advancing at an unprecedented pace, most persons display a disturbing loss of interest in thinking properly about crucial life issues. This is always bad, but lack of understanding and discernment becomes catastrophic when it comes to the Christian faith. In this book, Smith provides an effective, strong antidote against this suicidal trend, if we only are willing to take it.

—Fernando D. Saraví

Associate Professor of Physiology, National University of Cuyo

Christians like to say that they think ‘biblically,’ but what does that mean? . . . Taking multiple deep dives into a variety of types of Old Testament literature, . . . Smith draws a picture of what it means to think as a people in covenant relationship with their Lord. Smith has done a huge service by exploring what the Old Testament has to teach us about what it means to let the Bible guide our thinking and living, how to love God with all our minds.

—Ted Turnau

Lecturer in Culture, Religion, and Media, Anglo-American University

Readers of this work will experience in a fresh way their calling to be thinkers and learners in the context of God’s creation. In addition, readers will receive . . . invaluable insights into what it means to love God with one’s whole mind in the larger context of learning to love God with all that one is and has. Smith provides an important tool for all of us who do pastoral ministry and mission among university students and teachers.

—Josué Olmedo

Logos and Cosmos Initiative Coordinator, IFES Latin America

"John Calvin began The Institutes of the Christian Religion, ‘Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. Richard Smith has done a wonderful job exploring how these two knowledges are connected in the Old Testament. His book shows how the biblical message both answers and corrects the deepest questions of humanity outside of Eden, making the Bible (and this book!) worthy of the most serious consideration.

—Thomas K. Johnson

Senior Theological Advisor, World Evangelical Alliance

This book is dedicated to my friends

and fellow thinkers in Buenos Aires.

Together we are learning how to love God with the mind.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

and with all your soul and with all your might."

—Deut 6:4–5

Permissions

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide, www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture marked NKJV are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.

Scripture texts marked NAB are from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The illustration Building and Filling from J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1, Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2005, is used by permission.

The illustration Erroneous Knowledge from Dru Johnson, Biblical Knowing: A Scriptural Epistemology of Error, Cascade Books, a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013, is used by permission.

The poem extract I Would Like to Rise Very High from Michel Quoist, Prayers, Sheed and Ward, 1963, a division of Rowman & Littlefield, is used by permission.

Acknowledgments

I have learned from many excellent teachers, especially at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. But five in particular have aided my work. Cornelius Van Til, John M. Frame, and William Edgar explain the complex nature of human thought with biblical-theological sensitivity. (Behind them, one hears the voices of John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, and Herman Bavinck.) Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. and G. K. Beale illuminate the multi-dimensional nature of the biblical narrative. (Behind them lies the influence of Geerhardus Vos and Herman N. Ridderbos.) And recently, two scholars have contributed much to the field of biblical epistemology: Dru Johnson and Ryan O’Dowd (who have relied on the insights of Michael Carasik, Jaco Gericke, and Yorum Hazony).

Bruce Barron edited every page and challenged many assumptions. His counsel and encouragement were indispensable. John Marshall also read the complete text and made many suggestions. Jeffrey Foster assisted with biblical–theological argumentation and Hebrew exegesis. I benefited from insightful commentary on various chapters from Keith Campbell, Steven Garrett, Osam Temple, John Jenkins, Paul Wright, and David Hard.

I have also learned much from my friends in Buenos Aires, where I live. Their questions, creative ideas, and desire to learn inspire me. My first wife, Karen (d. 2002), showed me how to fear God. My second wife, Viviana, models perseverance. She prayed for me regularly and to great effect while I was writing this book. And most of all, I am grateful to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who patiently teach me from Scripture every day how to love God with all my mind.

Introduction

God only pours out his light into the mind after having subdued the rebellion of the will by an altogether heavenly gentleness which charms and wins it.

—Blaise Pascal, Pensées

C. S. Lewis, in his universally acclaimed The Screwtape Letters, showed how imagining what temptations are in the devil’s mind can provide deep theological insight to Christians. Likewise, Os Guinness’s The Last Christian on Earth creatively envisioned strategic planning between a chief lieutenant of Satan and his representative in a major city of the United States. Since this is a book about thinking, let us begin with a similar creative thought experiment.

Thinking Long-Term

Many years ago, the demons held a very important summit meeting. The topic of discussion was how to marginalize the church and minimize its influence so that Satan’s agenda could advance without hindrance.

The group leader remarked, The Master wants us to generate some new ideas about how to frustrate Jesus’ agenda. In the past, we initiated many worthwhile projects that had both short- and long-term benefits. And the Master was pleased. During the earliest days of what they call the church, we sowed division and persecution. We implanted lots of mischief, what they call heresies, to distract and confuse them. We undermined their so-called gospel by endless combinations like Jesus and Judaism, Jesus and philosophies, and Jesus and other religions. We can justifiably congratulate ourselves, but not for long, for there is much more to accomplish.

The spirits all declared, We’re ready!

The leader continued, But now, the Master wants a nuclear option. We’re looking for a way to stunt the growth of the enemy’s sect once and for all! The floor is open. Give me something really promising to tell the Master. And remember—he’s not patient and doesn’t tolerate failure!

I know! I know! exclaimed an enthusiastic demon. Let’s greatly increase our efforts to corrupt them from within with greed and hypocrisy.

The leader responded sardonically, We’re doing that already. Give me something new.

Another spirit commented, Why don’t we try an apocalypse of some kind and end this charade quickly? How about a plague, world war, or natural disaster? The few who survive, we can pick off one by one at our leisure.

The leader sighed impatiently, Yes, of course. But the Master in his supreme wisdom determined that we need something else, a new subversive paradigm. So, as I said, give me something different! Inspire me!

Just then, the leader spotted a new member sitting quietly off to the side. You, over there! Speak up! Do you have anything useful to contribute?

The newbie replied meekly, Um, well, yes, sir. Maybe.

Enlighten us, then, before I throw you out of here!

Well, sir, he stated barely above a whisper, I have listened carefully to all the excellent ideas of these esteemed colleagues, but I propose a new paradigm, as you requested.

Hurry up! demanded the leader.

"We’ve not been able to completely eradicate the enemy’s cabal, as you said so eloquently. I suggest, therefore, that we allow a small, Christian sect to survive, but on our terms and our timetable, rather than trying again and again to eliminate them."

The leader said, That is indeed a radical departure from our strategic plan. Go on.

"Thank you, sir. My plan consists of two parts. First, we’ll lead them to redefine spirituality. No longer will they believe that their so-called gospel—what we know to be heresy—applies to all of life. That must stop! They must come to believe that spirituality is private and subjective. It will be something they feel, but never anything they think. We can teach them that spirituality exists to promote self-fulfillment. We must train them, also, to think that their so-called salvation concerns only their souls, so that their gospel has nothing to do with the world they live in."

Interesting, commented the leader, growing more intrigued.

Part two consists of injecting dualism in their thought and conduct. We should introduce the concept of the sacred and secular dimensions. Since their new spirituality will be egoistic, the church will progressively neglect all exterior dimensions, such as society and ideas, because these are secular. And they’ll come to view Sunday as religious, but Monday through Saturday as secular. As a result, slowly, they’ll develop two modes of thinking and behaving: one set for spiritual times and actions, the other set for secular times and actions.

The leader leaped to his feet. Now I’m getting interested!

"Because of the sacred–secular divide, we’ll train them to think only on Monday through Saturday—in the secular realm. A few of them might make a positive impact on society, but no one will associate their spirituality with their ideas, if they generate any ideas at all. We can even train them to focus on how and when thinking, and never on why or what thinking."

The newbie let his pause hang in the air for a moment and then added, In other words, sir, we’ll make them stupid and irrelevant! We’ll let them have just enough religion to pacify them. And when the End comes, we’ll eliminate them easily.

Awesome! declared the leader.

Furthermore, we will erode confidence in their book of lies, what they call ‘scripture.’ We will undermine its credibility and its false claims so that it will become less and less plausible. Over time, the infamous sect will lose its intellectual foundation and its members will become far less discerning. In this way, they will learn not to listen to the great impostor Jesus anymore.

Every demon in the room strained forward, hanging on his every word.

"And meanwhile, practically speaking, they’ll cede the world to us! We’ll do the thinking! In fact, we’ll make them afraid to think! We’ll implement our agenda! We’ll use our proxies and our strategic methods! And all the while, the kettle will get hotter and the little Christian frogs will cook even faster."

The leader interjected, Fantastic! I hope the rest of you idiots were listening carefully! As for you, come with me! We must talk with the Master now!

The Present Evil Age

This story is obviously a fantasy, but it resembles the devil’s intellectual profile provided in the Scriptures. Satan is an incisive thinker and supremely intelligent. He carefully plans and ponders his every move, like a champion chess player. He thinks strategically, both short- and long-term. He considers every contingency and countermove. He is a master teacher, grooming his demonic horde with a fiendish mindset so that they learn his ways and mimic his priorities. Together they execute his plan for the world under his guidance.

In addition, the devilish agenda the story imagines is in accord with the warnings of Scripture. Tactically, a long-term plan that renders believers stupid and irrelevant is brilliant, from the devil’s point of view. He realigns our thinking with folly and wickedness. He spouts data that misinform and manipulate. He fills our minds with trivia and distraction. He wants us to ignore, misunderstand, and misapply God’s revelation, on both the individual and social levels. He skews our sense of identity as God’s image. He associates our epistemological stewardship with dystopian ends.

Satan’s program uses every conceptual machination available against humanity, including syncretism, disorientation, and disinformation. It undermines the intellectual plausibility and existential credibility of biblical faith. It deconstructs the Scriptures. It redefines spirituality to minimize the mind and promotes secularism to delegitimize religion. Intellectual disloyalty, anti-intellectualism, and rank ignorance are its weapons of choice. But above all, the demonic realm strives to still God’s voice so that people will not and cannot hear.

In the Old Testament, the devil seemingly plays a relatively small role. (We need the New Testament to fill out his true epistemic profile.) His presence is often implicit. He shows up, however, at pivotal epistemological moments. In Genesis 3, he queried Eve seditiously, Did God actually say? In Job 1, he insinuated with incredulity, Does Job fear God for no reason? In Daniel 10, he hindered the acquisition of knowledge concerning the meaning of prophecy.

The post-edenic, epistemological milieu is very complicated and enigmatic thanks to the influence of sin and Satan. The mental universe is populated by many voices, good and malevolent. There are competing pedagogues, divergent epistemological agendas, and flawed participants. The whole Old Testament is a battlefield between the human mind and God’s revelation. And lurking in the chronological and epistemological background is the diabolical dissembler who questions the veracity of God’s word. The devil plays a role in how and what we think. Without question, Christians require discernment and wisdom to navigate the present evil age (Gal 1:4; see also Eph 2:1–3).

Stupid and Irrelevant

For some time, Christian scholars have lamented the degradation of evangelical thinking. Albert Mohler writes, for example, We are in big trouble . . . . Choose whichever statistic or survey you like, the general pattern is the same. America’s Christians know less and less about the Bible. He adds, Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge.¹ A plethora of evangelical leaders lament the mindlessness of modern evangelicalism. Consider these comments:

If Christian laymen do not become intellectually engaged, then we are in serious danger of losing our youth

. . . 

. There can be no question that the church has dropped the ball in this area.²

If we abandon thinking, we abandon the Bible, and if we abandon the Bible we abandon God. The Holy Spirit has not promised a short-cut to the knowledge of God.³

At root, evangelical anti-intellectualism is both a scandal and a sin. It is a scandal in the sense of being an offense and a stumbling block that needlessly hinders serious people from considering the Christian faith and coming to Christ. It is sin because it is a refusal, contrary to the first of Jesus’ two great commandments, to love the Lord our God with our minds.⁴

David R. Nienhuis notes that most of his seminary students—future Christian leaders—are deeply misinformed about basic Bible doctrines. According to Nienhuis, God functions as divine butler-therapist or a nice, permissive dad with a big wallet.⁵ Students cannot integrate Bible characters and events within the broader Old and New Testament narratives or within the biblical worldview. Moreover, Brent A. Strawn asserts that the influence of the Old Testament in the church is waning significantly. He writes, For many contemporary Christians, at least in North America, the Old Testament has ceased to function in healthy ways in their lives as a sacred, authoritative, canonical literature.⁶

In 1994, prominent evangelical historian Mark Noll wrote, The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.⁷ In 2011, he published a cautiously optimistic reassessment of Christian intellectuality, but he maintained that this intellectual recovery does not possess theologies full enough, traditions of intellectual practice strong enough, or conceptions of the world deep enough to sustain a full-scale intellectual revival.⁸

My personal experience has confirmed these concerns. Christian laypeople suffer from profound anti-intellectual inertia. They are all too often willfully naive and blissfully unaware by choice. They are sometimes curious, but usually uncommitted. They are not prepared to read, write, or reflect deeply. They are unwilling to submit to programmatic learning or qualified teachers. They think like consumers, shopping for knowledge, learning formats, and instructors that conform to their buying preferences. Their infatuation with entertainment, consumerism, and digital chatter does not leave time or energy for gaining insight. They prefer junk food for their minds. They are addicted to triviality. They live as the demons depicted at the beginning of this introduction wanted them to live—with intellectual simplicity, private religiosity, and subjective spirituality.

Many evangelicals downplay analysis and rigorous thought. Some fall for fake news and conspiracy theories hawked by social media gurus. They do not listen with discernment to the voices that call out to them. Reasoning from Scripture and theological education are not considered useful endeavors. In short, many believers minimize and misuse the intellect. They do not recognize how sin impacts our reasoning. They do not know how to love God with the mind.

At the scholarly level, the lack of biblical–theological understanding is also acute. Evangelical thinkers in all fields invest many years of study and thousands of dollars in gaining an academic degree and a viable career. But how many hours and dollars do they invest in acquiring biblical understanding? Paul M. Gould observes, While experts within their own particular fields of study, Christian professors often possess a Sunday school level of education when it comes to matters theological and philosophical . . . and the result is a patchwork attempt to integrate one’s faith with one’s scholarly work and an inability to fit the pieces of one’s life into God’s larger story.⁹ This lack of biblical–theological understanding is likely to be manifested in their understanding of epistemology, their integration of faith and learning, and their apologetics.

We should know better. The Old Testament teaches that we will not honor God with our minds or reflect his glory if we lack knowledge and discernment. John M. Frame explains that Christians have a God-given stewardship of the mind and intellect, adding, It is remarkable that Christians so readily identify the lordship of Christ in matters of worship, salvation, and ethics, but not in thinking. But . . . God in Scripture over and over demands obedience of his people in matters of wisdom, thinking, knowledge, understanding, and so forth.¹⁰ Indeed, the Old Testament shows that we are designed for thinking. Clearly, a Christian mind is a terrible thing to waste.

How This Book Helps

This book was written for Christians who want to develop their minds in a distinctly Christian fashion and grow in discernment. These readers struggle with a sense of intellectual dissonance. Many experience conflict between what they hear (or do not hear) in church and what they observe in the world. They express boredom with insipid sermons. They lament teaching that stresses how-to knowledge but rarely why or what thinking. They hear applications but they want more biblical rationale, more worldview. They recognize intuitively the essential link between mind and motivation, ontology and epistemology, theology and ethics; but they do not know what the Bible teaches about these issues. They are curious and seek a worldview that is intellectually compelling and attractive to outsiders. They want to understand the full breadth and depth of biblical teaching and to use it to interpret themselves and their surrounding culture.

Reflective Christians desire to know where to draw the lines of intellectual assimilation. They want to discern the difference between the common good and biblical distinctives. They desire to survive epistemological and ontological pluralism—and, indeed, even to thrive in this milieu, carrying their solid biblical grounding into the world around them.

Several friends have told me how they sense this dissonance between typical Christian thinking and their own aspirations. (Their names have been changed.) Matthew is a university professor who struggles with the hegemony of naturalism among his faculty colleagues. Mary strives to articulate the biblical worldview through painting. George tries to reconcile the Bible and biology. Paul endeavors to integrate the Bible’s teaching about economics with marketing and entrepreneurism. Martin has a vision for Christians in politics and public policy. Sylvia wonders how to reconcile faith and philosophy. Douglas searches for links between Christian spirituality and the naturalism of his psychology department. Deborah feels threatened by the secular worldview propagated by her school of medicine. Patricia wants to discern the impact of the internet and social media on how we think as followers of Christ. All these thinking Christians seek relevant information from the Bible and Christian tradition on how to strengthen intellectual self-awareness and discernment.

A Book of Knowledge and Wisdom

The Old Testament shows that we are built for intellectual curiosity. God wants us to ask questions—and to find the answers in his communication to us. Indeed, God created the whole world as a school in which every experience is an invitation to think and learn. Every aspect of creation, the natural world, ourselves, and our relations is revelatory. All true facts speak to us about God. God, the great teacher, created human beings as his pupils—in his image. We are homo discens, the being who learns. We must bring our brains to God.

Demonstrating our love for God with our minds and then using our growing understanding to bless others are essential. Cogent and pious thinking is a critical aspect of serving God. This involves a process of diligent study, moving from ignorance and illusion to understanding and wisdom. We must all enroll in God’s school.

In fact, the Old Testament overflows with intellectuality. It contains a vast vocabulary and numerous idioms associated with thought and argumentation. God appealed to Israel in Isaiah’s day, Come now, let us reason together (1:18). Fools, on the other hand, think to themselves, There is no God . . . . I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity (Ps 10:4, 6). We are responsible for what we should know and how we ought to think.

Furthermore, the Old Testament calls us repeatedly to what we could call intellectual piety—loving God with our minds, not just our emotions. Psalm 1:1–2 says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 25:4–6 provides a prayer for knowledge: Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. According to Proverbs, the simple are called to heed the reasoning of God through the voice of personified wisdom: Whoever is simple, let him turn in here! . . . Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight (Prov 9:4–6).

Thus, those who would be wise must apply their mental capacity to honor God as careful stewards. The wise are passionate for God’s instructions and objectives. They listen carefully and implement what they learn resolutely. They are zealous, attentive, and thorough with respect to themselves and their family, community, and church. They confront the difficult and enigmatic questions of the Christian life with insight. They discern dangers in their thinking, desire, and behavior, as well as internal threats within the community and external threats from other worldviews.

What You Will Learn from This Book

By comprehensively examining Old Testament teaching concerning the mind, this book promotes a spirituality that puts thinking in its proper place. It explains what God requires intellectually of his vice-regents. It shows that our world is a labyrinth, but that God’s revelation is our reliable guide. This book will motivate readers to strive for mental piety, wisdom, and intellectual development, for the glory of God and the fulfillment of our mandate on earth.

The Old Testament is a learning laboratory. It provides both bad and good examples of discovery. Fools and folly function as a foil, showing us how not to think, both personally and corporately. Wise thinkers in the Old Testament model how to love God with the mind. They also demonstrate how to pray about what, how, and why we think. In this way, we learn from our ancient brethren. We discern their principles and practices of faith and learning. We learn about their epistemological boundaries. And we see how thinking functions within the Old Testament narrative.

This book shows why Christians should not minimize or misuse the intellect. It explains how sin impacts our ways of thinking. It shows how saints in the Old Testament learned to love God with the mind. It highlights the importance of the fear of the Lord in all manner of thinking

In these ways, the book helps us exercise better stewardship of our minds. It increases our intellectual self-awareness. It fosters discernment and alleviates our biblical ignorance. It teaches us to determine carefully to whom we listen. And it will set us on the path to wisdom. This text affirms a basic truism of the Old Testament epistemology: intellectual holiness yields intellectual wholeness.

How This Book Is Organized

This book unpacks aspects of the Old Testament’s teaching about the mind and thinking. It provides detailed exegesis of important passages and explanations of critical concepts. It draws out many significant inferences and applications. It explores the critical assumptions underlying Old Testament intellectuality, as well as its practical and theoretical implications.

Three basic questions animate this text: How did Adam think before the fall into sin? How does mankind think since the fall? And most of all, how does a sinner learn to love God with the mind in the Old Testament?

Four basic epistemological orientations organize this study:

Chapters 1–2 focus on edenic epistemology. Chapter 1 highlights aspects of God’s character and thought, displayed in the act of creation that Adam was to imitate as his vice-regent. The chapter describes how God modeled four traits that functioned prominently in Adam’s stewardship and commission. Chapter 2 focuses on Adam’s learning environment and the divine teacher, exploring the intellectual relationship between the Creator and his servant before sin disrupted the world.

Chapters 3–7 deal with exilic epistemology, both individual and systemic. (Punitive epistemology is also considered in chapter 7, in connection with Isaiah 6:10.) Chapter 3 surveys the dramatic scene at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It analyzes the dialogue between Eve and the serpent and then outlines the disruptive, destructive, and deceptive trajectory depicted in Genesis 4–11. Chapter 4 provides the first of four characterizations of folly, describing the intellectual sinfulness embodied in the worldview of Egypt and the mentality of Pharaoh. Chapter 5 examines the self-directed and twisted quest for knowledge related by Qohelet (the Preacher) in the book of Ecclesiastes. Chapter 6 details the anatomy of foolishness in the book of Proverbs. Finally, chapter 7 considers the prophets’ critique of apostate Israel in light of Assyria’s theocratic ideology.

Chapters 8–14 highlight redemptive epistemology. Chapter 8 explains in greater detail the mindset that God approves. It examines two godly thinkers in the Old Testament and describes important aspects of a mind that is attuned to the Lord. Chapter 9 examines in depth the epistemological teaching of Israel’s covenant as stipulated in Deuteronomy. Chapter 10 concerns the infrastructure of knowledge acquisition that is depicted in Deuteronomy. Chapters 11–12 focus on Job’s mental and emotional outlook, presenting him as a paradigmatic knower of God. He represents aspects of both exilic and redemptive thinking—the epistemic best and worst of humanity. His story also reveals the glory of the Lord as our merciful teacher. The last two chapters concern the intellectual challenges of Israel’s exile. Chapter 13 focuses on Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in 29:1–9. Chapter 14 summarizes Daniel’s engagement with the Babylonian worldview.

My aim in this book is to provide primary data about knowing in the Old Testament within its conceptual context: creation and covenant, the fall into sin, and redemption. With this theological and epistemological resource, perhaps readers will experience with Pascal God’s pouring out of his light into the mind. Hopefully, more Christian believers will turn from anti-intellectualism and illiteracy and will learn to love God with all their minds, reasoning like the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do (1 Chr 12:32).

1

. Mohler, The Scandal of Biblical Illiteracy,

1

.

2

. Craig, In Intellectual Neutral,

9

.

3

. Piper, Think,

123

.

4

. Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds,

11

–

12

.

5

. Nienhuis, The Problem of Evangelical Biblical Illiteracy.

6

. Strawn, The Old Testament Is Dying,

4

–

5

. He adds, though, "If the Old Testament dies, the New Testament will not be far behind it

. . . 

. The data show that it is the language of scripture as a whole—not just that of the Old Testament—that is seriously threatened" (

18

, emphasis in original).

7

. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind,

3

.

8

. Noll, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind,

165

.

9

. Gould, The Outrageous Idea of a Missional Professor,

7

.

10

. Frame, A History of Western Philosophy and Theology,

5

.

1

The Divine Milieu

Of all visible things, the universe is the greatest; of all invisible realities, the greatest is God. That the world exits we can see; we believe in the existence of God.

—Augustine of Hippo, The City of God

Imagine the Garden of Eden. What was it like to live in a world where sin and evil were only a possibility? This question—and many more—cause us to wonder about the environment in which the first couple appeared. Envision a setting where everything was a delight waiting to be discovered. Curiosity and exploration were unhindered by fears of any kind or sinful motives. Interaction with God was completely natural, innocent, and delightful. There was no limit on creativity or thought; Adam and Eve were like toddlers exploring the world for the first time, hand in hand with their father. All their intellectual capacities were directed toward honoring God and developing creation. They were completely focused upon learning to govern God’s house and extend his reign throughout the earth.

In this opening chapter, I characterize the God who made the world and the world that he made. These two factors, God and his creation, situated Adam and Eve as thinkers. The next four sections of this chapter deal with God as divine king, as architect and house builder, as divine economist and benefactor of mankind, and as philosopher. After that, I consider the bond that exists between God and the creation. I conclude with a few observations about the Creator and the environment in which Adam and Eve served God with their minds.

Divine King

In Genesis 1–2, we see at least three ways in which God’s royal authority and absolute control were manifested. First, God enacted his rule by divine decree and sovereign deed. He addressed the heavenly council with royal prerogative, using the first-person plural (Let us make man in our image, 1:26).¹ His will was enacted by divine fiat, with speech that expressed God’s thought and intention. There were royal decrees: Let there be (an object) and Let it do (an action). There were execution reports (and it was so) and evaluation reports (God saw that it was good).² There were declarations and deeds showing God’s intentionality: naming, purpose statements, commands, and benedictions.³

The royal authority of this passage is most clearly shown in the naming process. In the Old Testament and the ancient Near East, naming was a right and obligation of those in authority, an essential aspect of sovereign rule. To announce a name was to call into existence, take dominion, declare identity, foretell destiny, or establish a covenantal relationship. For instance, Pharaoh Neco annexed Judah and appointed Eliakim as his vassal king, but renamed him Jehoiakim (2 Kgs 23:34). David named his son Solomon, but God called him Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord (2 Sam 12:24–25). And of course, God revealed his name to the Israelites, I am who I am (Yahweh), as their Lord and deliverer from Egypt (Exod 3:14–15).⁴

Similarly, God named everything in Genesis 1. God defined existence when he created the heavens and the earth. The verb called (the) appears various times in connection with the physical and temporal parameters of existence: day and night (1:5, 6), heaven (v. 8), and earth and seas (v. 10). He brought form to the void and filled his handiwork with animate creatures and inanimate objects. By means of his divine imperatives (let there be), royal actions (gathered, set, bring forth), definitional infrastructure (to rule, according to its kind), and blessing, God established dominion, declared purpose, and revealed functions. He affirmed ownership of creation and unilaterally established a relationship with the world as sovereign lord.

Second, God established his reign through the institution of the seventh day (the Sabbath). Each of the previous six days began and ended with a repeated formula: days one through six began with God’s creative speech and ended with the announcement, There was evening and there was morning. Genesis 2:3, however, is different in form and content. The seventh day begins with a proclamation (God finished) rather than an enactment (God said). In fact, the phrase seventh day is repeated three times, indicating its significance (vv. 2–3). Richard H. Lowery notes, Breaking the pattern stressed the uniqueness of the seventh day and opens the door to an eschatological interpretation: the sun has not set on God’s Sabbath.⁵ Likewise, W. J. Dumbrell commented, The unending Sabbath day provides the context in which the ideal life of the garden is to take place . . . . Since this divine purpose for creation existed before the fall, it will continue beyond it (Heb 4:9–11).⁶ For these reasons, the seventh day is unending, open-ended, and future-oriented. It is the eschatological and providential context for the multi-generational image of God.⁷ The seventh day set history in motion and demonstrates God’s rule over time.⁸

The seventh day was also marked by the enthronement of the sovereign king. In the final act of creation, God rests (shabbat in 2:1–3). In the Old Testament and the ancient Near East, rest was often associated with the overcoming of adversaries, the establishment of God’s temple, building the king’s palace, and the extension of his rule through empire, as well as social peace and economic prosperity (at least for the elite). According to Meredith G. Kline, God created the heaven and earth to be his cosmic palace and his resting is the occupying of his palace.⁹ Lowery observed, Elsewhere in the Bible ‘rest’ describes political stability, the ability of a people or monarch to secure order and successfully govern the land.¹⁰ By instituting the Sabbath, God affirmed his reign and power over everything that he made—including time. Creation, therefore, is not the master, and nature is not divine. Indeed, rather than the animistic and henotheistic¹¹ deities that appeared to govern nature or rule a location, God declared his supremacy over all would-be claimants to the divine throne and all creation.

Third, God named his representative and vice-regent on earth—Adam "our image (tselem) after our likeness (demuth)" (Gen 1:26).¹² The word for image (tselem) is used seventeen times in the Old Testament, always referring to a physical image or representation of someone or something else. It appears four times in the Genesis prologue with reference to the image of God, once to Seth as Adam’s image, and six times in the Old Testament referring to idols. The second term, likeness, occurs again with tselem in Genesis 5:1, 3, and alone in 9:6. However, Genesis 1–2 teaches that being the essential likeness of God (but not being God) prohibits recklessness or autonomy. Bruce R. Reichenbach writes, Humans are not independent, on their own in the kingdom to pursue their own interests. Created and claimed by the Monarch, they owe him obeisance and worship.¹³ As we will see in the next chapter, the image of God is a functional facsimile, an analogous representation, delimited by ontology and stewardship. Adam was accountable to God as vice-regent, and God was his template.

Divine Architect

The Bible depicts creation as a building with architectural terminology. Genesis 1–2 presents God as a designer and artificer, constructing with care, attention, obvious pleasure, and self-investment (as a good artist), a coherent, harmoniously functioning cosmos, according to a well-thought-out plan.¹⁴ The following diagram provided by J. Richard Middleton shows how the Creator filled the void and assigned the structures of creation. He imposed order and produced fruitfulness. On days one to three, he created static regions; on days four to six, he occupied them with mobile occupants:¹⁵

Building and Filling

Indeed, God’s design reveals splendor, stability, and perpetuity. James W. Skillen wrote, The creation is an architectural wonder. It is a tent, house, or palace-temple God has built.¹⁶ In Genesis 1–2 the verb made (asa), appears often (1:7, 16, 26, 26, 31; 2:2, 3, 4, 18) and create (bara) twice (1:1, 21). Construction terms describe the Creator’s engineering, such as separate, (1:4, 7), gathered (1:9, 10), appear (v. 9), and set (v. 17). Elsewhere in the Old Testament, the artful and well-organized blueprint of creation is characterized by the verb lay a foundation (yatsar), rendered as laid the foundations of the earth (Job 38:4; Pss 102:25; 104:5; Prov 3:19; Isa 48:13; 51:13, 16; Zech 12:1) or by the expression pillars of the earth (1 Sam 2:8; Job 9:6; Ps 75:3). Expressions of God’s architectural power include the following:

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? (Job

38

:

4

)

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. (Ps

102

:

25

; cited also in Heb

1

:

10

)

When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. (Ps

75

:

3

)

The Scriptures affirm that God’s world is firmly established, because it is architecturally sound and well-built. After the flood, God promised, While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease (Gen 8:22). Isaiah wrote that God spread out the heavens and they stand forth together (48:13). Psalm 93:1 declares, The world is established; it shall never be moved.¹⁷ Proverbs 8 portrays God’s architectural prowess in the words of Lady Wisdom:

When he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. (vv.

28

–

31

; see also Job

28

:

25

–

27

)

In fact, Genesis 1:2 declares that the Spirit of God was the source of architectural wisdom: The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The expression Spirit of God appears only eleven other times in the Old Testament.¹⁸ The Spirit enabled prophetic utterance, miraculous deeds, and wisdom. For example, Pharaoh asked with reference to Joseph, Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God? Joseph was discerning and wise in dealing with the upcoming famine (Gen 41:38–39). Likewise, God called Bezalel to build the tabernacle and filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs (Exod 31:3–4a). In other words, as God by his Spirit made the world with skill and artistry, so human beings created in his image are enabled to perform God-ordained tasks with Spirit-inspired wisdom.¹⁹

Genesis 1–2, therefore, shows that the Spirit of God was intricately involved with God’s work in creation, especially his creative architectural wonder, life-generating power, and divine decrees.²⁰ Psalm 33:6 declares, By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. The Spirit provided the architectural wisdom that built the natural forms on days one to three and filled them with animate and inanimate objects on days four to six. He made the world plenteous and beautiful, so that Adam and Eve would flourish. With reference to the realm of nature, Psalm 104:30 says, When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

The type of structure God designed and assembled with the Spirit’s wisdom was a temple. As Middleton wrote, Heaven, where God’s throne or dwelling is often said to be located, does not transcend creation, but is structurally part of the created cosmos.²¹ This seems to be the significance of God’s declaration in Isaiah 66:1–2, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be. Creation as sanctuary also makes sense of Psalm 119:90–91: Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.²² Everything created, animate and inanimate exists to honor and serve God.

Clearly, therefore, God’s garden was the archetypal temple where Adam and Eve worshipped and served the Creator. Genesis depicts Eden as a garden sanctuary in which man as priest and king offers worship at the center of the world.²³ T. Desmond Alexander wrote, The case for Eden being a divine residence rests largely on the striking parallel that exists between the Garden and later Israelite sanctuaries.²⁴ For instance, both were sacred spaces where human beings encountered God. In Eden Adam enjoyed God’s presence, as did the priests in the tabernacle and temple. In the garden, Adam was to cultivate and keep or work and take care of the garden (Gen 2:15). Significantly, these two verbs (abad and shamar) appear together elsewhere only with reference to the responsibilities of the Levite priests in the temple (Num 3:7–8; 8:26; 18:5–6).²⁵ It appears that whenever real estate is sanctified by God (Eden, Canaan, Israel’s tabernacle or temple, and later the church and the whole earth), the divine king is present and his rule prevails.

Divine Economist

As we saw earlier, God the king and architect called forth the life support systems (air, light, land, vegetation) essential for the sustenance of his reign. He commanded every living thing to produce according to its various kinds. He provided fruits, grains, and an abundant supply of water. He ordered space, separating land, sea, and celestial objects. He ordained time and regularity, calling forth the twenty-four-hour cycle, seasons, and Sabbath. He also designed the world as his temple and human beings for worship. In short, God established all the necessary conditions that human beings require—indeed, they presuppose the Creator at all times (Dan 5:23; Rom 2:4).

To put it another way, God built a house and established an economic environment (an oikonomia) where human beings could flourish.²⁶ Economics in the ancient Near East concerned household management and stewardship, both cosmic and terrestrial. Oikonomia referred to the mechanisms, logistics, structures and practices that cause mankind to thrive, as well as the natural environment that supports them. Biblical economics asks: is there equity and opportunity, justice and compassion for all? Do order, satisfaction, and productivity characterize the social relations of the estate (oikos)? Oikonomia concerned the stewardship of the householder’s assets and the well-being of his inhabitants.²⁷

Genesis 1–2 portrays Eden as the ideal economy, the epitome of household creation and estate management. With an imaginative eye to aesthetics and order, God constructed his house, his garden of delights. Eden, in fact, means bliss, delight, or pleasure, with nuances of contentment and prosperity. In God’s garden, human beings enjoyed everything he provided: status, abundance, productive work, intellectual stimulation, creative expression, human intimacy, and a significant calling within a secure environment. This edenic nexus was a stable and plenteous setting, created to enable mankind to prosper in every way. In fact, Lowery points out that the verb to create (bara in Gen 1:1, 21) is used once as to fatten oneself (1 Sam 2:29) and many times as the adjective fat.²⁸ In the ancient world, corpulence indicated health and prosperity. Thus, it seems that God created a fat world for Adam and Eve to thrive and even satiate themselves with God’s plentiful provision. From the moment of setting Adam in Eden, God destined man to luxuriate.²⁹ In God’s house and within his oikonomia, there was peace, prosperity, and more than enough for all. He properly managed his assets and the welfare of his residents.

Reichenbach provides a helpful summary of God’s garden economy: It is the Lord God who is the giver, who in his wisdom and love establishes the economy of provision. And a complete economy it is, for all that human beings have comes from God.³⁰ For Adam, the steward of creation, the garden supplies his total wants—the physical and the spiritual. And in God the divine economist, We find the complete giver, the giver who cares for the total person, who sees to it that nothing is to be wanting in our experience.³¹

The image of God as omnipotent economist and benefactor of mankind is preserved throughout the Old Testament.³² The Greek term for benefactor (euergetes) appears in the Septuagint fourteen times in reference to God’s goodness (for instance, Pss 13:6; 78:11). The omniscient benefactor is the sovereign patron, for everything belongs to him and he alone has the right of disposal: Everything under heaven belongs to me (Job 41:11b; Pss 24:1; 50:10–12; 95:4–5; 108:8). God is generous with his resources, though, and this is often a cause for worship (for instance, Pss 31:19; 107:35–38; 147:8–9, 14). Psalm 23 offers an especially poignant depiction of the beneficence of God’s oikonomia:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord