The Standard

How then can mankind be righteous with God?  Or how can anyone who is born of woman be pure?  If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight,  Job 25:4-5 NASB

Righteous – Before we try to answer Job’s rhetorical question, we need to know the standard he employs.  That is the Hebrew term ṣādēq, righteous.  You might think that righteousness is a spiritual category, something opposite of sin.  But the development of this word tells us something else.

This root basically connotes conformity to an ethical or moral standard. It is claimed by Snaith (N. Snaith, Distinctive Ideas of the ot, Schocken, 1964, p. 73) “the original significance of the root ṣdq to have been ‘to be straight.’ ” But he adds that it stands for a “norm.” Perhaps the origin of the word is not so clear or even significant. Words having a secular origin often are baptized into special meanings and a word originally meaning straight may develop easily into a moral term just so canon “rod,” “measuring rule” becomes a standardized list of sacred books. ṣedeq, then, refers to an ethical, moral standard and of course in the ot that standard is the nature and will of God. “The Lord is righteous (ṣaddîq) in all his ways and holy in all his works” (Ps 145:17).^[1]

Stigers’ comment (above) suggests that the standard incorporated in ṣādēq is “the nature and will of God,” but that might be too nebulous for behavioral measurement.  What exactly is “the nature and will of God”?  And how exactly are we to determine it?  Are we aligned with the nature and will of God when we sign a declaration of faith?  When we believe certain creeds or doctrines?  When we perform specific rituals?  When we have the witness of the Spirit in our hearts?  Who can tell?  Do we really know the “nature” of a transcendent Being?  Do we clearly see the “will” of God in human history?  If I follow Stigers’ suggestion, I’m left with a mystery shrouded in the mist of divine purpose.  Was the Inquisition upholding the standard of God’s nature and purpose?  The Spanish Catholic Church thought so.  Were the Crusades God’s will?  The Catholic Church of Europe thought so.  Was Calvin’s decision to have Severtus burned at the stake an act of ṣaddîqah?  The list goes on.

I’m afraid that this standard is simply too ambiguous.  It allows culture and doctrine to determine what is righteous, rather than what God has told us about being righteous.  If I think of ṣādēq, I immediately hear Moses’ saying, “For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far away” (Deuteronomy 30:11 NASB).  What is righteousness?  The Torah.  That reveals God’s nature and will for mankind.  Period.  There are, of course, issues with application, but there isn’t much debate about what God revealed.  The only real issue is whether we will accept Moses’ declaration or dismiss it as too Jewish to be Christian.

And as for Job’s rhetorical question—well, let’s take that up tomorrow.

Topical Index: ṣaddîq, righteous, nature and will of God, Torah, Job 25:4-5. Psalm 145:17

^[1] Stigers, H. G. (1999). 1879 צָדֵק. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 752). Chicago: Moody Press.