The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture Quotes

“The fact is that man’s mind is limited, and his understanding only partial. The biblical narrative makes this point unequivocally with respect to Moses, in reporting that he could not see God’s face, but only his back.59 And it was no less true of the other prophets of Israel, who saw things in different ways because each of them was limited in his understanding, and to his own point of vantage.60”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“Proverbs is in many respects a work on ethics, presenting arguments concerning the manner in which moral precepts relate to life and the good; Job investigates the reasons good individuals (and, by implication, good nations) should suffer catastrophe; Esther seeks an account of how God’s will works in political circumstances in which one sees nothing but the decisions and deeds of human actors; and so forth.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“If the relationship between man and God were supposed to consist of man’s acceptance of a paragraph of propositions that “raises among ourselves no other questions,” there would be no sense at all in God’s promising that if man inquires and seeks, he will be told “great things” that had until now been hidden.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“the God of the Hebrew Bible is not in the business of demanding belief in some fixed body of propositions. The biblical God is portrayed as revealing his truths and unleashing his deeds in response to man’s search for truth. He even longs for man’s questioning and seeking. Indeed, his preference for human beings who seek and question is such as to have given rise to an entire tradition of biblical figures questioning God’s decrees, conducting disputations with God, and at times even changing God’s mind – including Abraham’s argument with God over the justice of destroying Sodom; a series of occasions in which Moses challenges God’s intentions to destroy Israel; Gideon’s questioning whether God has not abandoned Israel; David’s anger over what he sees as God’s unjust killing of one of his men; and the arguments of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Havakuk, Jonah, and Job questioning God’s justice.60 In all of these cases, man is shown as able to challenge God’s decrees and yet have the respect of God as a consequence.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“It is the biblical stories of dissent and disobedience, then, that give us the courage to wrestle with man and with God where we must.149 Such a posture is the only guarantee that the Mosaic law itself, whose interpretation is in the hands of men, will continue to serve as an expression of justice and of God’s will.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“Suffice it to say that the God of Israel loves those who disobey for the sake of what is right, and is capable of being pleased when a man has used his freedom to wrestle with him and to prevail, so long as the path on behalf of which he struggles ultimately proves to be the right one in God’s eyes.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“What is created is a space in which a certain discourse arises, and a search for truth that is, in effect, unending.61 The reader who takes up the Hebrew Bible is thus invited and challenged to take up a place within this tradition of inquiry, and to continue its elaboration out of his or her own resources.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture

“the purpose of the biblical editors, in gathering together such diverse and often sharply conflicting texts, was not to construct a unitary work with an unequivocal message. It was rather to assemble a work capable of capturing and reflecting a given tradition of inquiry so readers could strive to understand the various perspectives embraced by this tradition, and in so doing build up an understanding of their own.”
― Yoram Hazony, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture