Posted on 04/08/2017 5:02:01 PM PDT by Salvation
Absolute good
Question: The Gospel records Jesus as saying the following: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?” (Mt 7:11). It seems a bit harsh for Jesus to refer to mankind as “wicked.” Can you explain? — Gerry Reeding, via email
Answer: The Greek text underlying the translation “wicked” is rather intensive and clear: poneroi hyparchontes. “Poneroi” means “bad, of a bad nature or condition.” “Hyparchontes” is translated as “from the very beginning” or “being inherently so.”
Thus, the translation “you who are evil” is accurate, but more precisely translated as “if you then, being evil from the beginning.” So, it seems the bottom-line analysis of the text in Greek is that we’re stuck with the fact that the Lord is calling us “wicked.”
One of the Fathers, St. Bede, interprets the phrase to refer to the “human mortal, weak and still burdened with sinful flesh … earthly and weak, [but] children whom he loves” (Homilies on the Gospel 2.14).
Hence we need not interpret the Lord’s words as merely harsh. Jesus, it would seem, is speaking by comparison or degree here. He does not likely mean that we are evil in an absolute sense; rather, that we are evil in comparison to God who is absolute good. The Hebrew and Aramaic languages have fewer comparative words, and ancient Jews would often use absolute categories to set forth comparison or degree. Hence Jesus is setting forth a comparison in a Jewish sort of way. In modern English, we might tend to say, “If you then, who are not nearly as holy as God and are prone to sin, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God, who is absolutely good and not prone to sin, give good things to those who ask him?”
However, the point of the hyperbole should not be missed or set aside. Created things may share in God’s goodness, but God alone is absolutely good. So good is God that everything else is nearly evil in comparison to him. The hyperbole places the emphasis of God’s absolute goodness. We have no goodness apart from God’s goodness. Thus, Bede says in the same place, “The apostles even, who by the merit of their election had exceeded the goodness of mankind in general, are said to be evil in comparison with divine goodness, since nothing is of itself good but God alone.”
Monsignor Pope Ping for the OSV column he writes.
Humans have a fallen nature. If anyone claims that we are all basically good, they need to open a newspaper or watch the news. No one seems evil in their own sight if they mistake what feels good to them as right, and what doesn’t as wrong. But they have nothing to do with one another, and are often the very opposite.
I don’t claim to not have an evil nature.
I need the forgiveness of Christ and the in-dwelling of the holy spirit to be tolerable.
To the honest man there is nothing offensive in the statement.
SIn is evil. We are all sinners. We are all evil, We deserve
nothing, but God...
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