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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] origin of evil
  • Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:21:57 -0500

Dear Liz,

The Jewish view is expressed in Isaiah. Christians call it "radical
monotheism," but Jews just call it monotheism. According to Isaiah, God does
create both darkness and evil. Christians worry about how a good god can
create evil. This issue I think arrives with Plato, Aristotle, and
Hellenism. I don't think it pertains to Oriental thought. The Hebrew Bible
does not whitewash this by claiming that evil must really be good if it
caused by God.
Isaiah 45:5-7 (speaking to Cyrus).
I am YHWH, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you,
though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the
sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am YHWH, and there
is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make
peace/health/well-being (shalom) and create evil (ra'); I YHWH do all these


HH: The Hebrew word translated "evil" in this verse can simply mean something like "calamity," which is what the context suggests. Modern translations render it that way:

New International Version: Is. 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

New Revised Standard Version: Is. 45:7 I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the LORD do all these things.

New Living Translation: Is. 45:7 I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness. I am the one who sends good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things.

New American Standard Bible: Is. 45:7 The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

Holman Christian Standard Bible: Is. 45:7 I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.

HH: The Hebrew Bible says that God can't even look with approval at moral evil:

Hab. 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

HH: Here the same Hebrew word for "evil" clearly refers to moral evil, to what is wrong.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard








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