A Jealous God?

This semester I have the privilege of facilitating a small group working through the Truth Project. In the most recent lesson the teacher, Del Tackett was commenting on one of God's names el qanna literally, "jealous God" (Ex. 20:5; Deut. 4:24). Some of our discussion revolved this name for God and what it means. I found this old paper of mine on that very topic. This was written in the fall of 2004 when I was a sophomore at Gordon College for the class Introduction to Biblical Studies.

“Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’” (NRSV). When one reads James 4:5 two questions arise: first, what is the scripture that James is quoting, and second, what is the “spirit” living inside of us. The different translations do not offer much assistance because it is either ambiguous in its dealing with the “spirit,” or it concludes that God or the spirit is jealous. A few examples: “the spirit…lusteth to envy” (KJV) “the spirit…envies intensely” (NIV) What spirit? “He’s a fiercely jealous lover” (MSG). There is a split between most translations on the interpretation of this verse. In regard the quotation of the scripture, there is no direct quote from the Old Testament that contains James’ words exactly. Therefore, unless he is citing a text that we do not have, James is most likely paraphrasing various texts of the Old Testament (which was not uncommon among New Testament writers) that communicate a general idea of the “jealous” nature of God to yearn after His people. This is most likely with Ex 20:5 and Deut 4:24 in mind, “giving the gist of such passages” (Burdick, 194). “…for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” (NRSV).

What is the “spirit made to dwell in us” referring to; is it mans’ spirit, the livingness that was breathed into us by God (Gen 2:7) or is it the Holy Spirit also sent from God to live in us? Both arguments are quite compelling and deserve careful consideration but here it will be argued that it is God jealously longing after the human spirit. Next, what is to be done with the jealousy issue when the Greek phthonos which is used here usually means malice, or envy, how can this be attributed to God? Language can do little justice to the attributes of God. James may be using a word here with negative connotations not to show that God is evil, but to show that his longing for us is so intense by the word “jealously” and yet that his longing is truly pure (Ross, 78). Linguistically, this case makes sense, however how the argument truly comes together is when the verse is looked at within James’ thought process in context of chapter 4. James refers to the recipients as “adulterous” (vs 4) which shows that they have been unfaithful, then after urging them to be a friend of God and not of the world, it only makes sense that he would include a statement about the intensity of God’s longing for their faithfulness. Finally, after all of their unfaithfulness he says “but he gives us all the more grace” (vs 6). Also, if James is in fact quoting from a text that we do not have, it very well could say that God has a negative jealousy, and we will never know. However, if James is paraphrasing, then his term usage is not a direct quotation, but is up to his discretion making it an “utterance of the writer” (Ropes, 262).

The hermeneutical points are as such: wherever either argument ends, how amazing is it that God has such an intense longing after each and every one for our individual worship? What is more amazing is that even when we choose to befriend the world and not him, if we return to him with humble hearts, we have all the more grace.

Bibliography:

Burdick, Donald W. James. The Expositors Bible Commentary, vol 12. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981.

Martin, Ralf P., Ed. James. Word Biblical Commentary, vol 48. Waco: Word Book, 1988.

Robertson Nicoll, W., Ed. The Expositors Greek Testament. Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974.

Ropes, James Hardy. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James. International Critical Commentary. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916.

Ross, Alexander. The Epistles of James and John. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974.