Blinded by the light...

The Character of God:  Glory

New Testament, Greek doxa

Luke 2:8-14, 9:28-36
John 1:1-5, 9-14; Matthew 24:29-31
Acts 22:1-11; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Hebrews 1:1-4; Revelation 15:1-8
Revelation 21:9-27

Other Aspects of God's Character

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Luke 2:8-14, 9:28-36 (2/7/11)

It has often been said (although I’m sure not by any of you) that in the Old Testament (OT), God is wrathful and judgmental, and in the New Testament (NT), God is loving and merciful.  People who say this have apparently never read either the OT or the NT!  Whenever you hear this, you may say, politely, that the speaker mistaken.

In fact, not only the character of God but also the vocabulary describing God is nearly identical in the Old and New Testaments.  We’re going to test this idea by looking at most of the words we are studying in both places – one week in the OT, and one week in the NT.  Now, you are probably asking, “How are we going to do that, since the OT is in Hebrew, and the NT is in Greek?”  Excellent question!  By the third century B.C., many Jews, maybe even most, didn’t speak or read Hebrew – they spoke Greek.  Seventy rabbis got together and translated the scripture (our OT) into Greek.  (Septuagint [SEP-tua-jint] means “70”, and is abbreviated LXX.)  The Greek version of the Bible was the Bible for most first-century Jews, even in Palestine and Judea. 

So if a Hebrew word like cabod is translated into the same Greek word most of the time – which it is – and that Greek word is used in similar contexts in the NT, then we can be pretty confident that the writers of the New Testament had the same idea in mind as the OT writers.  The Greek word for cabod, glory, is doxa.  Cabod is translated doxa in the LXX the great majority of the times it used.  We will see this week that, just like cabod, doxa is associated with light, sometimes so bright as to be blinding; clouds filling the area; and a goodly portion of awe and even fear. 

Which brings me to a truly glorious insight sent in by fellow-reader Gail B.:

With this scripture I had an "I never noticed" moment... "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" in my Bible  OR  your version... "among those with whom He is pleased."   Never caught the restrictive phrase limiting who on earth was to receive "peace."  Always thought it was a "blanket" peace on ALL the earth.  I think there are a lot of Christmas greetings (cards, etc.) that just say "Peace on Earth".  Even at the rejoicing of Christ's birth there was judgment.

I added the bold italics at the end so that you would be sure to see her main point.  The primary reason we never noticed the restriction before is that only the more modern translations – which are based on more recently discovered and better manuscript support than the King James – have that wording.

What I never noticed until Gail pointed it out is that this better and more-restrictive translation is fear-inspiring.

Luke 2:8-14, 9:28-36 (My translation)
Now, there were in that same vicinity shepherds camping out and keeping watch over their flock at night.  And an angel of the Lord stood over them, and the doxa of the Lord shone all around them, and they panicked.

The angel said to them, “Don’t panic!  For, look, I am bringing you good news of great joy, which is for all the people, because to you is born today in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this is the sign to you:  you will find a babe swaddled and lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying,

“Doxa to God in the highest
And on earth peace
Among those with whom he is pleased!”

[Years pass.]
About eight days later, Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up to a mountain to pray.  While he was praying, his face changed, and his clothes became radiantly white.  And look!  Two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in doxa glory and talked about his death, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. 

Peter and those with him were burdened down with sleep, but having waked up, they saw his doxa glory and the two men standing with him.  And when they left him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it’s good that we are here.  Let’s make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah” – he didn’t know what he was saying.  After he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; they were afraid when they entered the cloud. 

A voice said from the cloud, “This is my chosen son:  listen to him.”  And when the voice sounded, Jesus was found alone.  And they kept quiet and reported nothing to anyone at that time about what they had seen.

John 1:1-5, 9-14; Matthew 24:29-31 (2/8/11)

So I know that I was just going to mark the words we are studying with bold italics, but today I’m marking three other words just for fun.  John wrote the gentlest of the Gospels – pretty surprising considering what a hot-tempered young man he was – because his attitude is that if people would just love each other, all problems would be solved.  He also wrote the Gospel with the most puns and word plays, I think.  We’ve seen before that katalambano can mean either understand or seize; “grasp” and “master” have this same double meaning in English.  What I never noticed before is that John uses two other words, paralambano and lambano, in this same opening passage.  You have to understand the Word; you have to associate with the Word; you have to welcome the Word into your life.

Anyway, on to glory.  The glory of the Son is the glory of the Father.  And the glory of the Son is to shine in the darkness.  Is it just me, or is the glory of the Son so dazzling that it appears to darken the sun, moon, and stars?  Also notice, as usual, the clouds and loud sounds, in this case the voice of the trumpet.

John (My translation)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and nothing that was made was made apart from him.  In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not katalambano grasp it.

The true Light, who enlightens all humanity, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.  He came to his very own, and his own did not paralambano associate with him.  But to whoever lambano received him, he gave power to become the children of God – to those who believed in his name, born not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of a man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and built a house among us, and we observed his doxa glory, doxa glory as the unique one from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Matthew (My translation; Jesus is speaking, paraphrasing first Joel 2:10 and Isaiah 13:10, and then Daniel 7:13*)
Immediately after the tribulation of those days,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light,
And the stars will fall from heaven,
And the powers of heaven will be shaken.


And then will be manifested the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then will all the tribes of the earth beat their breasts in sorrow, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds from heaven with power and great doxa glory.  And he will send his angels with great trumpeting, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

*Note for Inquiring Minds:  Remember I said yesterday that usually the NT quotes from the LXX?  This is much less true of Matthew.  Either he did his own translations from the Hebrew, or Jesus did the translating and Matthew wrote down what he said.  My own experience in Greek and with my Greek teacher suggests that either of these options is perfectly feasible; there’s no way to choose between them with the information we’ve got.

Reader Question: What’s your evidence that John was hot tempered? I've often thought of Peter that way, but not John... I picture him humble and gentle. (2/12/11)

Response: Our fellow-reader is wise to question my opinion, because I could easily be wrong, but here’s why I think so.

Now, since we know that Peter = Rock, and that Jesus gave him this name as a symbol of something about Simon, I think it’s fair to conclude that he gave James and John a name that symbolizes something about them.
• Mark 3:16-17. [Jesus] appointed these twelve. He gave Simon the surname “Peter,” and he gave James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James the surname “Boanerges,” which means “Sons of Thunder.”

Here’s an example that John Barclay calls “arrogant,” but it looks to me more hot-tempered:
• Mark 9:38. John said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we saw some guys casting out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he wasn’t one of us.”

Here’s one that’s self-explanatory. Some Samaritans wouldn’t let Jesus into their village, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem.
• Luke 9:53-54. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

In Barclay’s commentary The Gospel of John, there’s story from Eusebius, who got the story from Irenaeus (died ca. 202 A.D). Iraeneus had listened to Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. Cerinthis was a leader of the Gnostic heresy. Eusebius wrote, “The apostle John once entered a bath to bathe; but, when he learned that Cerinthus was within, he sprang from his place and rushed out of the door, for he could not bear to remain under the same roof with him. He advised those who were with him to do the same. ‘Let us flee,’ he said, ‘lest the bath fall, for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.’ ” “Boanerges was not quite dead,” Barclay concluded.

Acts 22:1-11; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (2/9/11)

Those of you who have children or grandchildren know that Today’s Modern Toy is held into the box with a minimum number of twist ties equal to twice the age of the child, each one about 6 inches long and twisted all the way to the end.  So on Christmas morning I was trying to figure out how to get my Lego™ man flashlight out of the box.  I did not realize that (1) the on button was in his tummy, (2) my thumb was about to land on his tummy, and (3) the LED lights in the foot are carefully aimed at the customer.  …  I saw spots for several minutes.

Saul didn’t just see spots when he was surrounded by the glory of God – he was blinded by a light much brighter than the noonday sun.  He heard an awe-inspiring voice.  In Acts 9:6, some of the manuscripts say that he was trembling and astonished, and even though scholars don’t think this was in the original manuscript of Acts, we can well believe that it was true.

So it is interesting to me that in 2 Corinthians Paul talks about the blindness of unbelievers, in contrast to the light of the knowledge of the doxa of God, which enlightens our hearts. 

Acts 22:1-11, Paul is speaking to a mob in Jerusalem. (My translation)
“Gentlemen!  Brethren and fathers!  Listen now to my defense before you.”  Hearing that he was addressing them in Hebrew, they became silent. 

He said, “I am a man, a Jew, born in Tarsus, Cilicia, but raised in this city.  At the feet of Gamaliel I was instructed with exactness in the Law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as all of you are today.  I persecuted this Way to the death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison, as both the chief priest and all the elders will testify.  Indeed, I received letters from them to the brethren and went to Damascus to bind the ones who were there and bring them to Jerusalem for punishment.

“As I was traveling along and getting close to Damascus, around noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone all around me.  I fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, sir?’  He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ The ones with me did see the light, but they did not hear* the voice of the one speaking to me.  And I said, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ and the Lord said to me, ‘Get up.  Go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything that has been assigned for you to do.’ 

“And since I couldn’t see from the doxa glory of that light, those with me led me by the hand into Damascus.”

2 Corinthians 4:4, 6 (Bible in Basic English)
4  Seeing that it is God who said, Let light be shining out of the dark, who has put in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the doxa glory of Christ, who is the image of God...
6  For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the doxa glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

*Inquiring minds:  Possibly “understand.”  The three passages that talk about this event are not 100% consistent, which is only to be expected from a vision.  Actually, they are more consistent than one report of a vision often is; see our passages from Ezekiel last week and from Revelation later this week.

Hebrews 1:1-4; Revelation 15:1-8 (2/10/11)

When we first started looking at the glory of God, what I mostly expected to find was praise and honor (which is what you find in the dictionary), with maybe some associated brightness and some awe (which is what you find when the angels are singing, “Glory to God”). 

But so far what we mostly have found is fire, smoke, clouds, thunderous voices, blinding light, awe, and fear.  So maybe we should be a little taken aback that the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s nature.

Hebrews 1:1-4 (Bible in Basic English)
3  Who, being the outshining of his doxa glory, the true image of his substance, supporting all things by the word of his power, having given himself as an offering making clean from sins, took his seat at the right hand of God in heaven;

Revelation 15:1-8 (Bible in Basic English)
4  What man is there who will not have fear before you, O Lord, and doxazo give glory to your name? because you only are holy; for all the nations will come and give worship before you; for your righteousness has been made clear.

7-8  And one of the four beasts gave to the seven angels seven gold vessels full of the wrath of God, who is living for ever and ever. And the house of God was full of smoke from the doxa glory of God, and from his power, and no one was able to go into the house of God, till the seven punishments of the seven angels were ended.

Revelation 21:9-27 (2/11/11)

Our final reading on “glory” comes from the next-to-last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation.  In the end, there is no fire, no smoke, no cloud, no thunder, no blindness, no awe, no fear.  All that remains is the indescribable beauty and brightness of the glory of God.

Revelation 21:9-27 (My translation)
Then one of the seven angels – those who had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues – came and spoke to me, saying, “Come!  I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

He brought me in the spirit to a mountain, great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the doxa glory of God.


Her light was like most-precious stone,
Like a jasper stone clear as crystal. 
She had a wall, great and high,
With twelve gates,
And twelve angels upon the gates;
And names were engraved upon them,
Which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

On the east:  three gates;
And on the north:  three gates;
And on the south:  three gates;
And on the west:  three gates.
And the wall of the City had twelve foundations,
And upon them the twelve names
Of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The one who spoke to me had a golden yardstick, so that he could measure the City and her gates and her wall.  And the City stretched out foursquare:  her length and width the same.  He measured the City with the yardstick – 12,000 stadia* – her length and width and height are equal.  He measured her wall:  144 cubits* of measure of a human being, that is, of an angel.  The structure of her wall was of jasper, and the City was pure gold, like pure glass.  The foundations of the City wall were adorned with all manner of precious stones:


the first foundation, jasper;	the second, sapphire;
the third, chalcedony;	the fourth, emerald;
the fifth, sardonyx;	the sixth, sardius;
the seventh, chrysolite;	the eighth, beryl;
the ninth, topaz;	the tenth, chrysoprase;
the eleventh, jacinth;	the twelfth, amethyst.

The twelve gates were twelve pearls:  each gate was made of a single pearl!  And the plaza of the City was pure gold, like transparent glass.

I saw no temple in her, for her temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.  The City needs neither the sun nor the moon to shine on her, for the doxa of God illuminates her – and her light is the Lamb.  The nations will walk through her light, and the kings of the earth bring their doxa into her.  Her gates will never be shut in the day – and there will be no night there.  They will bring the doxa and honor of the nations into her.  Not one who is unclean or idolatrous or false will ever enter, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

*12,000 stadia is about 1500 miles.  144 cubits is about 216 feet.

Note for inquiring minds:  the translators translate “measure of a human being, that is, of an angel” several ways, but most of them more or less as “measure of a human being, which is what the angel was using.”  What I have above is what the Greek has; for what the Greek means, you can decide for yourself or go with the translators.  I couldn’t find that “of an angel” is an idiom for “which is what the angel was using.”

Other Aspects of God's Character
Glory, Old Testament, New Testament
Holiness, Old Testament, New Testament
Longsuffering, Old Testament, New Testament
Steadfast Love, Old Testament, which is Mercy in the New Testament
Graciousness, Old Testament, which is Grace in the New Testament
Jealousy, Old Testament
Intolerance of Sin, Old Testament, New Testament

Copyright 2011 by Regina L. Hunter. All rights reserved.

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