A Logical Fallacy from ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch

“The Hellenists used a tightly contained step logic whereby one would argue from premise to conclusion; each step in the process is linked tightly to the next in a coherent, rational, linear fashion. “The conclusion, however, was usually limited to one point of view – the human being’s perception of reality’” In contrast, Hebraic thinking tended to express concepts in self-contained units, or blocks, of thought. The blocks did not necessarily fit together in an obviously linear or harmonious pattern, particularly when one block represented a human perspective on truth and another the divine. “This way of thinking created a propensity for paradox, antinomy, or apparent contradiction, as one block stood in tension-and often illogical relation-to the other. Hence, polarity of thought or dialectic often characterized block thinking”. This creates problems for us, trained as we are in Hellenistic approach to thinking, when we try to grasp Scripture. In reading the Bible, in recalibrating, we need to “undergo a kind or intellectual conversion” from the Hellenistic to the Hebraic mind” (Frost and Hirsch, ReJesus, 142).

Ok, so how does one know exactly how individual Hebrews in the OT era processed their thoughts? And, how does one know that all Hebrews were limited to a particular way of thinking? Here, Frost and Hirsch seem to be grasping at straws to prove that a more modern, logical way of thinking (what they call Hellenistic) is somehow less biblical than a postmodern, paradox, mystical way of thinking (what they call Hebraic).

D. A. Carson (Exegetical Fallacies, 44-45) calls the fallacy, committed here by Frost and Hirsch, the Linkage of Language and Mentality: “The heart of this fallacy is the assumption that any language so constrains the thinking processes of the people who use it that they are forced into certain patterns of thought and shielded from others.”

Apart from the inherent logical fallacy of their argument, another point must be considered. The Bible is divine revelation authored by God who stands outside and above and transcendent within the universe; therefore, the Scriptures, though written by human authors in a particular cultural context, are ultimately authored by the Divine Mind (i.e. Jevohah God).

All people come to the Scriptures with their own preconceived notions and biases much of which arise from their own particular cultural variables. Even so, these notions and biases do not control meaning. Meaning is inherent within the Scripture and ultimately arises from the intent of the Holy Spirit. It can be better understood by a better understanding of all of Scripture and the culture from which each Scripture arose.