Think Wink.

Since I started reading the epistle to the Hebrews last month, I have been extremely blessed by God. I am convinced that the main thrust of that epistle is to declare the glory of Christ through showing how much more greater Christ is over against the Jewish temple cult. I had stumbled across Hebrews 1:9 which reads, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” What struck me was this line in Hebrews 1:9, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.” The Greek of this text reads, ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀνομίαν. I reads almost identical to Romans 9:13, τὸν Ἰακὼβ ἠγάπησα τὸν δὲ Ἠσαῦ ἐμίσησα, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The verbs are nearly identical except Hebrews 1:9 is second person aorist where as Romans 9:13 is first person aorist.

What stuck out to me was this an amazing text to back up the idea that Paul meant hate in Romans 9:13 where as many Arminians will say that hate means “love less.” The term in Romans 9:13 and Hebrews 1:9 is most commonly translated as hate in Greek. Hebrews 1:9 is a direct quote of the LXX of Psalm 45:7 (44:8 in the LXX), ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐμίσησας ἀνομίαν. The Greek term μισέω is also used in Psalm 5:5 and Psalm 11:5 to echo the same thing as Psalm 45:7. It is even the same verb used in Malachi 1:3, “and Esau I hated.”

So as I was checking out how all of this came together, Romans 9:13, Hebrews 1:9, Psalm 45:7, Malachi 1:2-3, I decided to explore how Malachi used sane’ or μισέω in his prophecy. The Hebrew verb is in Malachi 2:16 and the Greek verb is in Malachi 2:13, 16. There it is very difficult to tell how to read the Hebrew, especially 2:15. But the context is one of covenant fidelity in a marriage. sane’ could be used to indicate rejection of the covenant or rejection of the one whom the covenant was made with.

I noticed two things in all of these instances: sane’ means hate, as in an intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury or an extreme dislike or antipathy; or sane’ means rejection in the language of covenant relationship. The questions then become what did Malachi mean, and does this convey itself in Paul’s usage?

As I stated above, Psalm 45:7 is quoted in Hebrews 1:9. In that Psalm, the psalmist declares that God loves righteousness and hates (watisane’) wickedness. Sane’ is contrasted against God’s love (‘ahavta). Here the most natural reading of (watisena’) is that God hates or has the intense hostility and aversion deriving from anger or sense of injury. The idea of watisena’ meaning “loved less” here wouldn’t work. Otherwise one would have to say that God loves wickedness less than righteousness, but he still loves wickedness. That would contradict God’s character. Psalm 97:10 says, “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” Is the Psalmist saying here, love evil less than Yahweh? That doesn’t fit the text! The Psalmist says to hate it, to show intense hostility and anger at it.

Look at Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate (sana’ta) all evildoers,” and Psalm 11:5, “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates (san’ah) the wicked and the one who loves violence.” One could argue for the “loved less” but this would go against Psalm 45:7. God hates wickedness. The people spoken of as being objects of God’s hate are wicked. Hence David says God’s soul hates them. In Psalm 26:1-2 David pleads for God to vindicate him. Beginning in Psalm 26:3, David gives the ground for why God should vindicate him. Psalm 26:5 says that David “hates” the wicked and will not sit with evildoers.

What is amazing about Psalm 5:5, 11:5, 26:5 is that they are grounded by Psalm 45:7 and 97:10. God hates wickedness (Psalm 45:7) and therefore we who love God must hate it as well (Psalm 97:10). Because God hates wickedness, he hates those who practice wickedness and are evildoers (Psalm 5:5; Psalm 11:5) and therefore we must hate those who are evil and practice wickedness (Psalm 26:5). But what we do see in the Psalms, before we turn to Malachi 1:1-5, is that God hates wickedness and those who practice wickedness.

Now let us turn to Malachi 1:1-5 and this hotly debated passage. Malachi has a unique writing style in that there is a statement made, then a question asked by the people, then God’s answer and rebuke to the people comes. So in Malachi 1:2, God declares that he loves the Post-exilic Israelites. They ask in return the question of how? How has God loved them? His answer to compare Israel to Edom. “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated” (Malachi 1:2-3). Then God explains how he hates Esau. First, God says, “I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” Second, “They may build, but I will tear down.” Then they will be known as two things, “the wicked country” and “the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.” This fits the definition of hatred given by the dictionary above. God is showing intense hostility towards the Edomites in that he destroyed their country and is leaving them in a state of moral decay and he is resting his anger upon them forever. Hate is the perfect definition of God’s disposition to the Edomites. To say that God loves Edom less is not keeping in with God’s actions and attitudes towards Edom. He really does hate them in Malachi 1:3-4.

In the next post, we will look more closely with how Malachi uses שָׂנֵ֣א/μισέω in his own prophecy.

“Loved More/Loved Less” Vs. “Loved/Hated”

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 2

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 3