Musing – How important are the differences between Greek and Hebrew thinking?

 

Hebraic Musing – How important are the differences between Greek and Hebrew thinking?

It was the Greeks who ignored the Old Testament after the New Testament came into being.  They were quick to accept the new in place of the old.  No wonder the Old Testament is often ignored by our Sunday Church.

The ancient Greeks celebrated man’s supremacy over nature.  Columns that were designed to resemble human muscles support massive stone roofs.  The columns bulge as if they were muscles clenching under a great weight.  They express man’s triumph over gravity, and the Greek concept of beauty.

The ancient Hebrews celebrated YHVH In contrast.  They were more transcendent in their outlook on life.  They looked to Elohim for answers.  Today we tend to see Hebrew only as a language not a culture, but the Bible is a culturally Hebrew book, even though we are reading it in English.

We, 21st century Americans are devoted to science and technology, walking in the footsteps of the Ancient Greeks who upheld virtues of logic, philosophy, science, beauty, athletics and taming nature.  Greeks gave us sports.  Democracy with voting began in Greece city states, each of which maintain its own laws, goals and customs.  Greek ideas, values and habits have influenced North America with reasoning, governing, treating the sick, and educating the young, to pursue excellence modeled after the Ancient Greek civilization.  The scattered Greek cities each became their own state, maintaining its own goals, laws and customs.  Democracy was first established in Ancient Greece, with each citizen voting by placing a white stone for “yes” and a black stone for “no” in a large clay jar.  Remember the “White Stone” in Revelation 2:17 NKJV – “And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written…” 

Hebrews and Greeks have two completely opposite worldviews regarding religion, culture, government, reasoning and logic.  They are polar opposites.  Greeks were highly visual, expressing perfection through beautiful objects.  For the Greeks, beauty was seen as holiness, whereas emotions represent weakness.  Greek thinkers require logic.  When confronted with contradicting ideas, one must be wrong while the other must be right.  Greek reasoning is linear, following a straight line.  Each new idea on the line redefines or eliminates the previous ideas on the line.  Old ideas are redefined or eliminated by any new idea.  A Greek thinker reading Paul, assumes his reasoning is linear.  They assume Paul replaces the Torah with grace, therefore abolishing the Law of Moses with the New Covenant.  We see this in the Sunday church which began under Greek influence by ignoring the teaching of the Old Testament instructions for Sabbath.  Paul was exposed to Greek as well as Hebrew, so he debated but upheld both Torah Law and Grace.

Hebrew thinking thrives on what appears to be inconsistencies and contradictions in Scripture because they point to the unfathomable wonders of an awe-inspiring Elohim.  In contrast, each step in a Greek argument is tightly linked to the next step, creating rational and orderly arguments.  Hebrew thinking is full of inconsistencies, because Hebrews are comfortable with two opposites both being true.  

Greek thinking has influenced believers who live in the Western world.  Many of us believers act like Greek thinkers and argue theology.  Our Greek thinking drives us to separate from those who interpret scripture differently.  Greek thinking compels Bible believers to be right.  Greek thinkers would rather be right, than to be part of a unified body of believers; but Jesus taught.  “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:” John 17:21-22 NKJV.  Why do we have so many denominations?

Alexandria, Egypt, was the world center for Greek learning in that day.  The Greeks believed Greek philosophy and religion could transform the world.  Many Hebrews learned Greek mythology in the Royal Library of Alexandria, but Greek mythology is symbolic, allegorical, and diametrically opposed to Hebrew thinking

Ancient Greece was wealthy and advanced enough for people to sit and discuss ideas for a living.  Their job was to explore knowledge.  The ancient Greeks pursued a lifestyle of abstract thinking and their own mythological gods.  What did Paul encounter in Athens?  “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.  Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.  Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?  For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”  For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” Acts 17:16-21 NKJV  The Greeks loved the idea of new thoughts and ideas.

The wise men of Greece taught followers to “know self,” and that is the foundation of Western philosophy today, including ours!  Plato understood philosophy to be the best preparation for a good death.  For Greeks, man’s thinking defined who he was; the Hebrews see man as his actions demonstrate purpose.  For Plato, man’s soul was divine, the body was the prison of the soul.  He urged the Greeks to see themselves as imprisoned in the body.  But Paul taught “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV   And that is why when Paul saw the Olympian gods he declared “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:  God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” Acts 17: 23-24  What a contrast in objects of worship!!!  But, what do we worship today?!?!

Points to Ponder

Have we become so accustomed to Greek thinking, we consider it the norm?
Do we recognize the huge conflicts between Hebrew and Greek thinking?

Why have Christians changed the “Sabbath” to Sunday?

Why does Acts 15:28-29 have to tell us to abstain from (1) what has been sacrificed to idols?
(2) from blood? (3) from what has been strangled? (4) from sexual immorality?

Read the whole Bible as a Hebrew book.  The NT did not replace the OT. 

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          December9, 2025            
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”     Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

P.S.  These highlights are from “GREEKS, getting rid of the OLD & moving on to the NEW” by Johanna Hocker (behockers@bevcomm.net)   Her 4 page document with the above points and a lot more is available on request from either Johanna, or from me.