![]() He also has revealed himself with "many proofs" (πολλοῖς τεκμηρίοις) that demonstrate the victory of His salvation ( Acts 1:3). God has wired us to be rational beings with a moral conscience and an intuitive perception of His reality. (As an aside, this implies that there is an " ethic of belief," or a moral imperative to believe the truth and reject error in the realm of the spiritual. Our change of mind - if genuine - will lead to a change of heart. ![]() In other words, the word implies that how we think will affect how we make decisions (judgments), and therefore repentance means acknowledging that we are cognitively mistaken about the nature of reality (i.e., there is a divinely sanctioned moral order, and we are guilty of violating that order and in a state of profound alienation until we are divinely reconciled). Metanoia is a compound word that comes from 'μετα' (after, with) and 'νοεω' (to think), which means "changing your thinking," (though it also can mean "going beyond (meta) your thinking" to access the realm of your heart). ![]() In the ancient Greek translation of the Scriptures, the word nacham was usually translated using the word metanoia (μετάνοια) or sometimes μεταμέλομαι. Therefore the prophet Job uttered, "I abhor myself and repent ( נחם) in dust and ashes" ( Job 42:6). Regret over sin is a state of sorrow that belongs exclusively to morally free human beings. Since it is absurd to say that God needs to repent from sin or that He morally regrets His actions, the meaning of nacham must be qualified when it is applied to man. God's "regret" was His "answer" or response to the sinful choices of human beings. Speaking anthropomorphically, God "consoled himself" (nacham also means to comfort) by changing his thinking and plan. Some linguists suggest that the root idea of the verb pictures God "taking a deep breath" (or even sighing) as way of expressing regret or feeling compassion in response to an offense by others. In the ancient Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures (i.e., the Septuagint, or LXX), shuv is translated using the word strepho (στρέφω), which means to turn around, or to turn back to God.Ī related word in Hebrew is nacham ( נָחַם), which is often associated with the emotion of regret (in the old King James Version of the Bible, nacham is sometimes confusingly translated using the word "repent"). A change in man's conduct brings about a change in God's judgment" (Heschel: The Prophets, 194). Judgment, far from being absolute, is conditional. As Abraham Heschel wrote, "No word is God's final word. This act of turning has the power to redirect a person's destiny. In spiritual terms, shuv may be regarded as a practical turning away from evil and a turning toward the good, though Jewish thinking regards turning to God as the means by which we turn away from evil. The root of this verb occurs nearly 1,000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and first occurs when God told Adam he would "return to the earth" ( Gen. THE THEME OF THE JEWISH HIGH HOLIDAYS is teshuvah ( תְּשׁוּבָה), a word often translated as "repentance," though it's more accurately understood as turning back (shuv) to God. ![]() It's my hope that this will encourage you to "return to the LORD and listen to His Voice" ( Deut. The following entry discusses the nature of repentance. Thoughts about Repentance: Teshuvah, Metanoia, and Strepho ![]()
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