Bad Theology

Text for today: Hebrews 3 iii-vi

Addressing a Jewish faction of the Jesus cult, the author of the epistle accounts Jesus greater than Moses on the grounds that a builder is greater than the house he builds.

A house is less worthy of honour than its builder, since the house merely provides shelter, whereas the builder might create anything from a temple to a torture chamber. God is the builder of all things, and has indicated on any number of occasions that He regards human beings as mere objects to be demolished and recreated at His whim. Given the number of times His creatures rebel against Him, He is also remarkably incompetent at building according to His own standards of quality, however thoroughly He may have approved His own handiwork during the first chapter of Genesis.

By comparison with the Saviour, Moses was somewhat lacking in zeal: he persuaded the great architect against wiping out His own chosen master race (Exodus 32 vii-xiv), but Jesus extended the virtuous genocide to destroy the whole world. Moses was faithful after the fashion of a houseboy, which is all very well; but Jesus is the owner's son and heir, whose favour can be bought with blind obedience. As a mere servant constrained by bureaucratic legalism, Moses was in no position to offer his people such generous terms of servitude.