The Hebrew Connection
For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13
Freedom/Serve – Sometimes, the intimate connection between Hebrew thought and the New Testament documents just doesn’t show itself in Greek or in English. That’s unfortunate since it deprives us from seeing the deep thinking here. To understand what Paul is writing, we need to look at the Hebrew words and know how this rabbi treated them.
In Hebrew thought, God’s Word is inspired right down to the letters. That means that every letter of the original (not simply the words) is exactly what God wanted. This implies that the letters themselves carry a message. There are many examples in rabbinic literature of the treatment of letters as God-breathed information carriers. Once you have this in mind, then you can understand why “freedom” and “service” are so intimately connected.
One of the ways that Hebrew thinkers illuminate God’s inspiration of the letters is to notice what happens in Hebrew when the consonants are reversed. This often results in a new word that is connected to the old word in some important way. When Paul says that we are called to freedom, he doesn’t have the Greek word in mind. He is thinking of the Hebrew word hafash whose consonants are H P S (the H sounds like “ch” in Chanukah, the P has a sound like “f” and the S has a “sh” sound). But when I reverse the consonants (from HPS to SPH), I get the word shafach, a word that means “to serve”. As a rabbinic Jew, Paul would certainly have been familiar with this reversal technique. So, when he points out that freedom means service, he is doing nothing more than illuminating the inspired character of the letters of the Hebrew Bible. In other words, Paul is writing as a good Jew, not as a Hellenized Christian. From Paul’s point of view, if you want to understand the true character of freedom, you must see that it is intimately connected to service to others. No one who serves only himself is really free.
By the way, Jesus makes the same connection when He says that you must serve one of the two masters. Freedom is never license to do whatever you want. It is always connected to serving. Jesus was simply being a great rabbi, honoring the inspired letters of the Hebrew Bible.
It’s a tragedy that our contemporary Christianity does not see these powerful connections. Instead, we think of comments like this verse in Galatians in terms of the Greek idea of freedom (without restraint). We don’t see the Hebrew thought, inspired by God Himself, that freedom means service. So, we have endless debates about how much I am free to do what I want. We agonize about the ethical demands of freedom. We are dismayed when our “freedom” doesn’t lead to fulfillment. And all of this is the result of not knowing exactly how God wrote the Book.
Topical Index:
For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13
The Hebrew Connection
Freedom/Serve – Sometimes, the intimate connection between Hebrew thought and the New Testament documents just doesn’t show itself in Greek or in English. That’s unfortunate since it deprives us from seeing the deep thinking here. To understand what Paul is writing, we need to look at the Hebrew words and know how this rabbi treated them.
In Hebrew thought, God’s Word is inspired right down to the letters. That means that every letter of the original (not simply the words) is exactly what God wanted. This implies that the letters themselves carry a message. There are many examples in rabbinic literature of the treatment of letters as God-breathed information carriers. Once you have this in mind, then you can understand why “freedom” and “service” are so intimately connected.
One of the ways that Hebrew thinkers illuminate God’s inspiration of the letters is to notice what happens in Hebrew when the consonants are reversed. This often results in a new word that is connected to the old word in some important way. When Paul says that we are called to freedom, he doesn’t have the Greek word in mind. He is thinking of the Hebrew word hafash whose consonants are H P S (the H sounds like “ch” in Chanukah, the P has a sound like “f” and the S has a “sh” sound). But when I reverse the consonants (from HPS to SPH), I get the word shafach, a word that means “to serve”. As a rabbinic Jew, Paul would certainly have been familiar with this reversal technique. So, when he points out that freedom means service, he is doing nothing more than illuminating the inspired character of the letters of the Hebrew Bible. In other words, Paul is writing as a good Jew, not as a Hellenized Christian. From Paul’s point of view, if you want to understand the true character of freedom, you must see that it is intimately connected to service to others. No one who serves only himself is really free.
By the way, Jesus makes the same connection when He says that you must serve one of the two masters. Freedom is never license to do whatever you want. It is always connected to serving. Jesus was simply being a great rabbi, honoring the inspired letters of the Hebrew Bible.
It’s a tragedy that our contemporary Christianity does not see these powerful connections. Instead, we think of comments like this verse in Galatians in terms of the Greek idea of freedom (without restraint). We don’t see the Hebrew thought, inspired by God Himself, that freedom means service. So, we have endless debates about how much I am free to do what I want. We agonize about the ethical demands of freedom. We are dismayed when our “freedom” doesn’t lead to fulfillment. And all of this is the result of not knowing exactly how God wrote the Book.
Topical Index: Freedom
