Posted by:
NOLDS4ME
(
)
Date: April 21, 2017 02:28PM
None of this will matter for Atheists, but the following is important in explaining why Judaism and Christianity have not been able to reconcile over the centuries.
There is a Hebrew reason behind the idea of God as a builder, and that is the word "Av," which is Hebrew for "father." This word is said to come from the root BN"H which means "to build." The father is the agent, i.e. the builder of that which is built - the son, which is "Ben" in Hebrew.
This also explains why the Christian Trinity made no sense to Semitic speakers - since a son is "built," it is created, rather being an uncreated generation. Jews ascribe "Father" to the 2nd sephira of Chochma/Wisdom/Logos, as it is this aspect of Wisdom that creates man - i.e. "in Wisdom hast Thou created us all." The source of the Father is the Crown - or the singularity, called Kether, in Hebrew. The first three sephrioth of the Tree of Life are called "supernals" and are the "economies" of "enumerations" in which the unknowable essence of God interacts with the Universe. The third emanation called Binah/Understanding is called the Mother in Judaism.
"Son" refers to man, who was built by the Father through the formative powers of the Mother.
In Greek, which was the language mostly used by early Christianity, Father and Son have a completely different meaning. Father refers to the singularity - the source of being, and Son is that which is generated (rather than built or created) from the Source. Thus in Christianity, This Kether/Crown was referred to as "Father" and the Chochma/Wisdom/Logos as a generation from the Source is called "Son." Light Judaism, Christianity views creation as originating from Wisdom. Binah/Understanding becomes the Holy Spirit in the Christian Trinity - while in Judaism the Holy Spirit does not refer to Binah, but to the Shechina, which in Christianity is known as "Grace."
Thus, it was linguistic confusion that drove a wedge between the Greek-Christian and the Hebrew-Jewish descriptions of the Supreme Unknowable No-Thing. This confusion already existed between Greek and Hebrew speaking Jews before the time of Jesus. Christianity made the split complete between the two.
Because Jews assume that "son" in Christianity means the same as the Hebrew "Ben," it makes no sense to them that the Son can be considered "God." Similarly, Christians fail to understand that "Ben" specifically refers to a created being in Judaism. The irony is that both Orthodox Judaism and Orthodox Christianity have the same understanding of Divinity, although they use different terms for the same concepts. The real difference is whether a Jew accepts that the person Jesus Christ is both Ben (created Man) AND Uios/"Son" - uncreated, generated Wisdom unified in One Person, born as Jesus. The actual concept is not foreign to Judaism, although Judaism does not allow that Jesus was at this level of incarnation.
Freemasonry frequently uses Hebrew and speaks of the Incarnation of Jesus as "Aben," which means "stone" in Hebrew. Aben is a combination of both "Av" and "Ben." Thus while the language is different from the Greek, it does have the same meaning as the Greek idea of incarnation. Like Jesus, all of humanity should strive to build this Aben within himself - linking his humanity to Divine Wisdom, to become a co-creator, co-builder, with Divinity. Perhaps it is this idea that Joseph Smith used for the idea of man growing into a "god" in the Celestial Kingdom. The idea does exist in Freemasonry, Eastern/Oriental Christianity as well as in Mystical Judaism.
From an Atheist perspective, one could consider that beyond the Universe is the unknowable and within it there is 1.beginning singularity, 2. energies and 3.forces. The various interplay between these 3 give rise to what exists in the Universe. No supernatural explanation is necessary. In a way, the 3 supernals/Christian Trinity are an attempt at a "theory of everything." Mastery of the energies and forces would indeed give man a god-like power in the universe. Whether Atheist or Theist, it is thus important to choose wisely and learn to use power properly for furtherance of life rather than for its destruction.
Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to explain this to many observant Jews who are surprised to find that the Christian Trinity is not objectionable to them, while they still would not accept that Jesus is the Messiah (who indeed will be a Son (Ben) possessing perfect Wisdom (Chochma).