Category Mistakes
“Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
Perfect – When the translators of Matthew used the English word “perfect” as the equivalent of the Greek teleios, they made a terrible mistake. Yes, the Greek word teleios does mean “perfect.” It also means “to be complete, to be fully grown, to be finished.” But none of these translations come close to what Yeshua is telling His audience. You see, the idea of God’s perfection isn’t found anywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. Yeshua could never had said, “Be perfect as God is perfect,” because that concept is not Hebrew at all. It is Greek, through and through.
Of course, if you look at the reference that Yeshua quotes (Leviticus 19:2), you will find that the Hebrew says, “Be holy as I am holy.” So, translating the word teleios as “perfect” is already a mistranslation of the text. In fact, this is one of those cases where the translator of Matthew’s Hebrew gospel uses the wrong Greek word to begin with. It should have been agathos, as anyone who knew the Hebrew text would have realized. But this simple word mix up is not really the problem. The problem is really found in the worldview of the Greeks versus the worldview of the Hebrews. And Yeshua is definitely not Greek in His perspective on life.
What is the difference on this point? The idea of perfection is a mental abstraction. It is the postulation of a static state of being where no alteration is necessary. It is the thought of absolute completeness. Perfection is the postulate of rational extension. Let’s see if I can explain it another way. Think about your concept of perfection. Is there anything in your experience or in the experience of any person that you would call perfect? Is there anything that cannot accept a single atom of improvement? Can you think of anything that you could not imagine as just a tiny bit better? I can think of something that fits that category. Numbers. There is no possible improvement to the number 3. It is perfect. Of course, it also is completely a rational category. It is not part of the real world where I live. Oh, there are a lot of groups of three things, but the number 3 doesn’t exist on its own in my world. It is merely a rational construct to help me deal with things in the real world. It has heuristic reality but not ontological reality. It’s a tool, not a thing.
Perfection is like that. It is an imagined extension of rational thinking. So, why is this so different from the Biblical view of God? Because God is not defined by the extensions of the categories of reason. The Hebrew concept of God is grounded in my confrontation with Him, not in my rational deliberation about Him. In Scripture I encounter who God is, not what God is. Greek thinking is speculation about the nature of God. Hebrew thinking is reaction to confrontation with God. One is an exercise in rational deliberation. The other is awe-struck numbness before a God who is beyond all my deliberation. If I am Greek, I attempt to examine God in categories of thinking. If I am Hebrew, I fall before Him and worship. The Greek attempts to answer the question, “What is divine?” The Hebrew is asked to answer the question, “What must I do in the face of the divine?”
Now read Matthew 5:48 from a Hebrew perspective. It’s not even enough to say that Yeshua really meant, “Be holy as I am holy.” To be holy is to confront the God who exceeds all categories of human reasoning and yet demands that we live in such a way that we reflect who He is. To be holy is to live in such a way that He is present in my being. That is not about a rationally constructed category called “perfect.” That is about doing what He demands regardless of my ability to understand it.
For the Greek, reason requires that I know before I choose to do. For the Hebrew, holiness demands that I respond long before I will ever hope to know. And if I ever know, it will be because He chooses to reveal to me what I could never come to understand with my own intellect.
Plato asked, “What is perfect?” Moses asked, “What must I do?” There is a world of difference between the two.
Topical Index: perfect, teleios, agathos, holy, Matthew 5:48
Ahmein brother Skip!
Realizing the truth … one word at a time! 🙂
When we see Matthew Chapter 5 unfold Yeshua begins with a picture of what we should look like … what it means to be “kedoshim” 5:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: …..
Yeshua then warns what will be if we do not carry out the purpose of being the light! Yeshua then confirms Torah! Yeshua then expounds upon Torah (like Moshe … DEVARIM) but with the authority of life and death! (Just like Moshe revealed to Israel)! Finally Yeshua returns us back to 5:2 while exhorting us to be kadosh like our Abba!
As you point out Skip … no abstracted ideas at all …. behavioral actions!
Hi Drew,
I share your preference for concrete prose and action-oriented behavior.
But, for example, the book of Revelation is very abstract when compared with the concreteness of Mark.
And I think some Signs of the Prophets are very abstract.
And so is the old Rabbinic maxim: God’s seal is Truth 🙂
No doubt my brother! There is always the balance between the literal, the passages that are both literal and abstract (for multiple audiences and time frames) and of course the abstract …. i.e. Revelations.
The focus on behavior in my comment was specific to the concreteness of our walk. Most assuredly we can think (praise Adonai) but the end game of faith is behavior. And admittedly to some extent behavior is fashioned as applications of abstracted thoughts as well as just good old submission and being led in Spirit.
So in good Jewish fashion …. he (on the left) is correct and he (on the right) is correct as well! 🙂
I agree with your declaration! 🙂
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and how is my heavenly Father “perfect”? according to Reginald Heber (circa 1826) “Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.” (from the hymn Holy,Holy,Holy.)
Yes.. holiness demonstrated in the daily common round of life. Our Father has asked this of us. “Be ye holy, for I am holy”. And holiness is the way to health, peace and happiness! What we really need to remember about holiness though is this: “Holiness is not the way to Christ, Christ is the way to holiness.” Sanctification is a crisis followed by a lifelong process. Until we draw our last breath, our Abba is working on us and in us to conform us to the image of the Perfect one- the Lord Jesus who is the Christ. And how did Christ demonstrate His love for the church? Selfless and sacrificial love. I don’t know about those reading these words but I know the man I shave every day has miles to go yet. I will daily submit and surrender myself to the only ONE I know who is able to conform me to the image of the son. And I know it is G-d who worketh in me, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. ..”Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”
“Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
If you want to retain the incorrectly translated word, perfect, you might want to make the following modifications:
Therefore, you are NOT perfect, but what your heavenly Father WANTS FOR YOU is perfect.
Just when you think you can begin to wrap your mind around the concept of holiness….POOF…it slides further away. Interestingly, we actually get closer as we pursue it. This accounts for the pressing forward, obedience by obedience. As we pursue Him by studying Him, listening for His voice, and imitating His actions, we pursue Him on the highway of holiness. Holiness was never intended to be an end all at the end of the rainbow like Nirvana or the self made man into god as the new-agers promote. Holiness is the zoe life that resides within the heart of those God calls unto Himself as He tells us that without holiness, no one will see Him. That being the case, I choose to pursue!
Everyone goes Hebrew when a real confrontation with YHWH happens.