BIBLICAL FAITH IN GOD

To understand biblical faith in God, we must follow its historical development from the beginnings of the ancestors of Israel to the last pages of the New Testament. The Old Testament, where we have to start, sets the right direction for our journey: He expressed the idea of ​​God essentially in two names, Elohim and Yahweh. In these two leading names, God shows the refinement and choice that Israel has in his religious world perfected. At the same time, it is visible as positive a requirement that is completed in this choice and a gradual
reshaping of what was chosen.
1. The problem of telling about a burning bush For the initial text of the Old Testament knowledge of God and faith in God, we can certainly describe the story of the burning bush (Ex 3). In the revelation of God’s name to Moses, he was laid in Israel the basis for a constantly good idea of ​​God. God, hidden and appearing in a burning bush, called Moses for the leader of the nation of Israel; the narrative describes Moses’ hesitation. Moses wants to know clearly the cause of this task and asks for clear proof of his power of attorney. The conversation develops, which remains a mystery all the time: »Moses said to God, “Enough. And I will go unto the children of Israel, and say unto them; Your Godfathers sent me after you. But if they ask what he is named, what can I say? God said to Moses, “I am he who I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Yahweh, The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God 63 James, he sent me to you. That is my name forever; let my name be from generation to generation. (Ex 3, 13-15)

The meaning of this text is clear: it mentions the name “Yahweh” as
the name of God, in which history is rooted from the beginning the emergence of the nation of Israel and its covenant with God and reveals the inner meaning of the name. Hard to understand the word
“Yahweh” is derived from the word stem Hajá – to be. According to the Hebrew consonants, this is possible. Whether this philological corresponds to the true origin of the name Yahweh is, to say the least, uncertain: It is here – as is often the case in
The Old Testament – a theological and not a philosophical etymology. It is not a matter of searching for a verbal-historical initial meaning, but of uncovering its meaning. The etymology is, in fact, a means of discovering the original purpose. To this clarification of the word “Yahweh” by the word “to be” (I am), another attempt to explain is added: Yahweh is the God of the Fathers, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of James. It means: The knowledge of the “Yahweh” is thus to be expanded and deepened. The god thus designated is the same as the God of the forefathers of Israel, who called on him on behalf of EL and Elohim. So what image will we have of God now? What does it mean that God is expressed in terms of being? Here they found it Church Fathers, based on Greek philosophy, unexpected and bold affirmation of his teachings. Greek philosophy saw that is, behind all the things one comes with daily contact, embracing the idea of ​​being, and considered this idea to be a rational expression of the divine. It seems to be in the quoted text also expresses the Bible about God. This appears to confirm unity beliefs and thoughts. The Church Fathers saw this as profound the unity of faith and philosophy, Plato and Moses, the unity of the Greek and the biblical spirit. The identity between philosophical search God and the acceptance of the biblical God by faith in Israel led them to believe that Plato himself had to read the Old Testament and draw his thoughts on God from him – for the core of Platonic philosophy leads indirectly to revelation. So deep, the view could not be deduced only by the power of the human spirit alone.
The text of the Greek Old Testament, held by the Church of the Father, may have given rise to ideas of identity between Plato 64 and Moses, but the dependence is instead the opposite: The Hebrew text of the Bible into Greek was influenced by Greek philosophy and the Greek way of thinking. Under this influence, read and understand the text. The idea that the spirit is intertwined here Hellenic and faith The Bible had to inspire them. They built already a bridge from the biblical concept of God to the Greek thought of it, when verse 14 “I am, which I” translate “I am existing «. The biblical name of God is here identified with the philosophical concept of God. The offense of God’s name has been resolved in broad ontological thinking, faith is engaged in onto logic. It was outrageous to think that the biblical God has a name at all. It is no more than a memory of the polytheistic world that biblical faith in God had to forge the way? In a world teeming with gods, Moses could not say, “God sends me.” Nor: God sends me fathers. He knew that it doesn’t mean anything at all that they will ask him: Which God? But the question is: It was possible to give Plato at all “Existing” name and thus mark it as an individual?
Or is it not the fact that we can name this God, an expression for a completely different idea? If it is essential for the text that we can call God, because he himself conceives novel, then, however, the abyss separating the platinum, which is, as the final stage of ontological thinking, deepens. Just because being there is neither a name nor a name does not give.