I've been told that the thinking of the ancient Hebrews was very concrete as opposed to the abstract thinking of the Greeks. This is reflected in the Hebrew language, which uses very concrete terms to convey abstract thoughts, e.g., "anger" is indicated by "nose." Supposedly, the Hebrews did not concern themselves much with ideas of time or with static qualities, but were much more spatially and functionally oriented. So, for example, "everlasting" is a foreign concept to Hebrew thought, and 'olam really means something like "beyond the horizon"; and a Hebrew would think "God loves" rather than "God is love."

So, my question is, how accurate is this understanding of Hebrew thought, and what implications does it have for our understanding of the Old Testament?

Kyle

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.