Greco-Jewish Theology
Exalted be the living God* and praised,. He exists—unbounded by time is His existence.* He is One—and there is no unity like His Oneness. Morning Blessings, ArtScroll Siddur, p. 15
Unbounded by time – The line above is from the morning service in the Jewish Prayer Book. The asterisks in the sentence indicate that there are commentaries at the foot of the page. Regarding the phrase “unbounded by time,” we find Rambam’s comment: “the principle of God’s timelessness, with neither beginning nor end, implies that He cannot be dependent in any way on any other being: the timebound is inherently inferior to the timeless. Nothing can exist without God, but He depends on no one and on nothing.” Rambam’s analysis sounds like most of the Christian theologians I have read. Do you find that surprising? I do—and I don’t. Let me tell you why.
I find it surprising because it is so non-Jewish. Oh, wait, it’s not non-Jewish. It’s non-biblical. The God of the Bible, as Heschel so clearly demonstrates, is intimately involved with His creation, so much so that He actually partners with the creation to bring about His desires. In fact, He risked His own intentions by creating other free will agents who could oppose Him. This is why Heschel makes the point that God is in search of Man. The creation isn’t finished. It requires the cooperation of God and Man, and therefore, God depends on Man’s choices to bring about His desired ends. According to Rambam, God depends on nothing whatsoever. This means the biblical portrayal of God must be false. I am sure that isn’t what Rambam thought, but his philosophy got in the way of his exegesis. Of course, it could be a matter of equivocation. It is true ontologically that God does not depend (for His existence) on anything. If that’s what Rambam meant, then we’re good. But that can’t explain the comment that anything timebound is “inherently inferior.” Timebound and timeless are philosophical ideas, not biblical ones. They fit the attribute theology of a transcendent God. But this isn’t the kind of God who shows up in the Bible. If Rambam only meant that God exists forever, that is, temporally without beginning or end, then that makes the biblical God make sense. But a God who is “outside” of time (timeless) is a philosophical, Platonic god, not YHVH. So, I’m surprised.
And I’m not surprised. Hellenism and Greek philosophy have a powerful effect on the world, including Jewish thinkers. Jewish sages of the Middle Ages promoted this Greek transcendental God, believing that elevating God far above the creation protected His dignity. Heschel comments:
“The Greek word ‘pathos’ implies suffering, and in the Greek view, pathos is necessarily passive; in the state of pathos, a person is affected and directed by an agent outside himself. The person who is thus affected finds himself in a relation of dependence upon the agent, comparable to the relation of cause and effect. From very early times, it was felt that God could not be affected in such a way. God, the Supreme Cause, could not possibly suffer from or be affected by something which is effected by Himself. Passivity was held to be incompatible with the dignity of the Divine. It was on these grounds—the conception of a First Cause and its dignity—that pathos was rejected.
Such a line of reasoning may be applicable to a God derived from abstraction. A God of abstraction is a high and mighty First Cause, which, dwelling in lonely splendor of eternity, will never submit to human prayer, and it will be beneath its dignity to be affected by anything which it has itself caused to come into being. But it is a dogmatic sort of dignity which insists upon God’s pride rather than love, upon His decorum rather than mercy.
The God of the prophets continues to be involved in human history and to be affected by human acts. It is a paradox beyond compare that the Eternal God is concerned with what is happening in time.”[1]
“Authentic Jewish thought evaluates the emotions in a manner diametrically opposed to the Greek view.”[2]
But Heschel’s last remark contradicts Rambam. If “authentic” Jewish thought rejects the Greek transcendental God, then Rambam’s view isn’t authentically Jewish. It’s Greek. Nevertheless, here it is in the Jewish Prayer Book. Greco-Judaism is alive and well. Jewish believers may be on the other side of the chasm when it comes to the Messiah and the Torah, but when it comes to the basic philosophy behind the conception of God, at least one arm of Judaism is just as Greek as its Christian counterpart. Both owe their foundation to Parmenides and Plato even if they claim Moses.
Topical Index: timelessness, Rambam, Heschel, Hellenism, Siddur
[1] Abraham Heschel, Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism (Free Press Paperbacks, 1959), p. 122.
[2] Ibid.
