It feels like someone walked into my office and unfurled a treasure map on my desk. “There’s gold there,” he said, waving his hand across the aged parchment.
It was more a puzzle than a map. There were no hills, rivers, or oceans but words, images, and symbols. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t see the gold.
“You’ll need the code to understand it,” he added.
“There’s a code?”
He smiled. “The word ‘righteousness’ does not appear in the Bible.”
Now I was really confused. What kind of nonsense is this? Of course, it does, and what did that have to do with the map I was now holding? Off the top of my head, I thought of a dozen verses with ‘righteousness’ in them. He watched me getting ready to raise an objection.
“What if it’s a mistranslation?”
“How could that be? It’s such a critical word to the whole Bible story?”
“Then why is it that the Greek word we use for ‘righteousness’ not translated that way in any secular books from that time?”
“How is it translated?” I couldn’t believe it.
“Justice.” And with that, he took the map out of my hand, turned it ninety degrees, and my eyes lit up. There it was!
* * * *
It didn’t quite happen that way, but that’s an excellent metaphor for what happened to me a few weeks ago. I received an email from someone I didn’t know named Tobie van der Westhuizen from Bloemfontein, South Africa. He calls himself a “reclusive philosopher” but has been on a path that unveils an interpretation of the Scripture that may be more complete than traditional Protestant theology has yet seen. Here is my introduction to Tobie:
My theological world came to a standstill eight years ago because of a single sentence that captivated me and would not let me go: The word righteousness does not appear in the Bible
Whilst that may sound as crazy as saying “The word ‘God’ does not appear in the Bible,” I believe it to be true and also confirmed it over and over again during eight years of near-obsessive study and reflection on the topic. In fact, I have been so overwhelmed by this simple sentence and its implications for my life and theology that I have found it difficult to teach it to others in the way I have been teaching the Bible for four decades.
During this time I have been reminded, quite regularly, of Neil Postman’s analogy of Native Americans communicating via smoke signals but finding it impossible to discuss deep philosophy this way. “The form excludes the content,” Postman says.
His words perfectly captured my feeling that the form of theology, as we know it, is inadequate for conveying a revelation of this magnitude—in essence, a revelation of life that is as different to the theory as the romantic exploration of newlyweds is to a monk reading a dreary textbook on the physiology of the human body.
I was pretty sure I’d just gotten an email from a loose cannon on the deck of the body of Christ. But I kept reading what he had sent me, and he got into my head and heart. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and tried his premise as I read Scripture:
- Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things will be added to you.”
- Matthew 5:20: For I tell you that unless your justice surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Romans 1:17: For in the gospel, the justice of God is revealed—a justice that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The just will live by faith.”
Any Greek scholar will tell you that the word justice is inherent in the Greek d-k words that we translate as righteous and righteousness. And yet, in our day, righteousness has come synonymously with personal piety, sinlessness, and morality. It turns our hearts inward when an invitation to live in his justice would impact every human interaction we have. Scripture became fuller and richer. Treating others as we want to be treated makes us part of how his kingdom reveals itself in the darkness of our world. It is still living loved, but on steroids. This is an entire flow of love, from the heart of the Father into ours and from ours to how we engage the world.
This may very well complete what Martin Luther began in the Reformation. Yes, it is salvation by grace, but it is not primarily to resolve our eternal destiny or for us to work toward personal piety. Engaging his love transforms us so that we become outposts of justice alongside other followers in a world of selfishness. This is the kingdom come!
You’re likely to hear a lot more about this in days to come. I’m letting you know because tomorrow, Kyle and I, along with Tobie, will begin to unpack his thoughts on the next episode of The God Journey. If you no longer listen to the podcast, you might want to return for the next few episodes. This may be the most important content we’ll share on the podcast this year. And for those who listen, we will host a God Journey After-Show on September 21, 2024, with Tobie. It will stream live on The God Journey Facebook page at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time and be available afterward for those who want to hear it. If you’d like to participate in the Zoom room conversation, please email Wayne in advance to get the link.
I’m so excited to share this treasure with you and give you a way to explore it yourself because this is one of those realities that is far better explored than explained.
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So does this mean that I can walk into my Church on Sunday and confidently tell them that Ritiousness has always been mistranslated in 0
Our Bible.
I suspect you’re kidding, but this probably wouldn’t be your best choice. You invite people into God’s truth, not push them into it. There will be great resistance to this message. Most people are comfortable in their misinterpretations of Scripture and reject anyone who says it means something differently than they are already used to. Be very careful!
I agree, sadly we misinterpret scriptures often without the guidance of the holy Spirit.. because man has changed the wording in most of the Bibles I know of.. we have definitely used our modern translation of righteous.. in a manor that distracts us from what was actually being said and taught all those years ago.. and it has drastic implications and adverse ” side effects” .. much food for thought in just this short word.. thanks for sharing!
So, if I understand correctly, in my reading, I should replace JUSTICE by “Living Loved on Steroids”
Sorry, I am not perfectly fluent in english, so I let you clarify this interpretation.
Great thanks Wayne
No, that wouldn’t be my recommendation. Try reading it again. 😉
Hi Wayne, I hope to read/hear about how the word “righteousness” snuck in there in the first place.
-Mitch
Hey Mitch
Both words imply justice/ justification or justified. It probably didn’t creep in but was just the word the writer used at the time. It sat with me immediately.
There is an old saying about being justified. “ Just as if ide never sinned”
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I would guess in re-reading while replacing “righteousness” with “justice” would only apply to the verses that have “righteousness” in them with out “justice” there as well. It probably wouldn’t work with verses that already contain both words, right?
Psalm 89:14: “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you”.
Psalm 99:4: “The strength of the king loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob”.
Isaiah 5:16: “He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord”.
Amos 5:24: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”.
Psalm 106:3: “Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!”
That’s a great question, Jonathan, and I want to let Tobie weight on in that since he has done the research here in the Old Testament as well. These are some of my favorite Scriptures and I can’t wait to see what he says. I’ll post his answer here when I get it.
Here’s what Toby wrote:
Yes, the word that is translated “justice” in modern English translations is the Hebrew word mishpat, which means “judgment”, i.e., the act of deciding a case, a verdict, a procedure of litigation before judges, a rule or statute or ordinance, etc.
As such, it refers to the discernment of justice that precedes the doing of justice. It is an immensely positive action in both Testaments, and presented as the preliminary prerequisite for living the just life. Thus, when someone does not live justly, her/she reveals themselves as suffering from an inability to discern justice and inevitably puts themselves under the judgment of another. This means justice must be discerned on their behalf and prescribed to them so as to rectify their injustice, by someone aptly referred to as a “judge”. Hence the necessity of someone like Moses judging the people in Exodus 18 to settle their disputes.
The point is, as Paul told the Corinthians, if you judge yourself (the prerequisite to preventative justice) you will not come under judgment (the prerequisite for rectifying justice).
Interestingly, three chapters on in Ex 21, mishpat is used to refer to the statutes of law that follows the ten commmandments, many of them dealing with restorative justice. One gets the impression that the law codifies and objectifies the judgments required by the people so that they don’t all need to line up every day to consult with Moses or the men chosen to assist him in judging according to Jethro’s advice. (It is interesting to note that the prerequisite to serve as judges alongside Moses was an aversion to dishonest gain, the essence of all injustice – 18:21)
It is for the above reasons that tzedek and mishpat go hand-in-hand in the Old Testament, such as the verses you quoted. Unfortunately, their alliance and the reason behind it is lost in translation. Note the difference between the ESV and the Douay-Rheims:
Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.
Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.
This also throws some much-needed light on one of the most important verses in the New Testament, John 16:8:
And when he is come, he will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. (Douay-Rheims)
The Spirit will do what the law has done 🙂 How cool is that.
There’s much more to say. Solomon’s wisdom, for instance, was mishpat. The title of the book Judges suddenly makes sense. As we discussed the other night, the spiritual man judges all things but he himself is judged by no one. Thus, he will judge the world and the angels.
This also throws light on the last judgment and the idea of a just verdict to rectify injustice. But I will refrain.