The Perfect God
As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. Psalm 18:30 NIV
Perfect – Perfection is one of God’s attributes listed by Thomas Aquinas. The list also includes omniscience, omnipotence, eternal, immutable, etc. I’m sure you’re familiar with the ideas even if you don’t know the theological vocabulary (like, for example, what Aquinas means when he says that God is “simple.” He doesn’t mean cognitively immature). Most of our English Bibles follow the theological conclusions of Aquinas in the translation of this verse. For example:
As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. KJV
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. NKJV
This God—his way is perfect; the promise of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. RSV
But notice the differences in the NASB:
As for God, His way is blameless; the word of the Lord is refined; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. NASB
Four major versions use the word “perfect.” Only the NASB chooses an alternative, “blameless.” Furthermore, you can see that the second word in each verse follows the implications of the first, with “flawless,” “proven,” “proves true.”
But the Hebrew doesn’t reflect this Greek philosophical theology. The Hebrew word is tāmîm, a word that describes an “entire” day, a “full” group, an “unblemished” sacrifice, a “fulfilled” commandment, or a “complete” commitment. For example, “They were to be ‘wholly’ God’s; for, even here, ‘the words which are rendered in English by “perfect” and “perfection” denoted originally something other and less than ideal perfection”” (IDB, III, p. 730).[1] “Perfect” is not a biblical idea. In case we didn’t realize this before, the citation of Leviticus in Yeshua’s announcement in Matthew 5:48 does not say, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In Hebrew, this is about full devotion, not perfection. But by the time the Greek-thinking theologians transformed the text, it was in alignment with the philosophy of Parmenides, the father of “perfection” as an ontological ideal. Only the NASB acknowledges the Hebrew difference, translating tāmîmas “blameless,” a far cry from “perfect.”
Have you lived under the tyranny of perfection? Did you think that the only way you could meet God’s standard was to be “perfect” like Him? I’m here to set you free. God doesn’t ask for perfection and you couldn’t manage it anyway. Matthew Wilson conclusively demonstrated that the idea of holy in Scripture is about full devotion, not moral or ethical sublimity. Perfect is not a biblical word.
Feeling better?
Topical Index: tāmîm, complete, full, entire, blameless, perfect, Matthew 5:48, Psalm 18:30
IDB Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. G. Buttrick, 1962
[1] Payne, J. B. (1999). 2522 תָּמַם. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 974). Chicago: Moody Press.
