1 Timothy 1:11 – The happy God (1)

… in accord with the evangel of the glory of the happy God, with which I was entrusted.

Nothing determines the fact that the God of the Bible is really GOD as much as the fact that He is happy. It is the same word (Gr. makarios) as in Acts 26:2 or 1Cor.7:40 where ‘happy’ is without a doubt the only correct rendering. Apparently translators have difficulty with the expression “the happy God”. Why else would they have rendered it with the dubious and meaningless phrase “blessed God”?

Undoubtedly this difficulty is related to the theology from which one translates. In classical dogmatics it is assumed that a great drama took place ‘in the beginning’ when sin was introduced and with it suffering and death. Unforeseen and unintentionally, God’s plans would then have been thwarted. Although God did not leave it at that and made a rescue plan, but the damage appears to be irreparably great. Because a large part of God’s creatures (so the idea is) will be lost forever and ever. That doesn’t sound very happy, does it?

But know this: the GOD of the Bible is completely different from ’the god of theology’! Evil is not an ‘accident’. With GOD nothing ever goes wrong!

Delen: