Bible Thinks Workshop with Baruch Kvasnica: Walking with God

 The first Christians referred to their movement as "the Way" (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:22).  They were people who walked with God, following in the footsteps of Jesus the Messiah.  

The expression "walking with God" is a familiar one in the Bible.  In the early chapters of Genesis, Enoch "walked with God" (Ge 5:22, 24), as did Noah (Ge 6:9).  Similarly, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob "walked before God" (Ge 24:40; 48:15).  So did King Hezekiah of Judah (2 Ki 20:3).  

Jacob described God as his shepherd who guided him from behind (Ge 48:15).  God was also said to walk in front of (Ex 13:21) and among (Lv 26:12) his people.  

This kind of language pictures a close relationship between God and his people.  Moses instructed the children of Israel to walk in all the ways of God, following his commandments (Dt 11:22).  In the same sentence, he spoke of "loving the LORD your God" and "holding fast to him."  

The metaphor of walking with God, a prominent one in the Bible, isn't found in other ancient cultures.  Neither is the idea of repentance, where one who has strayed from God's way returns to it.  For most ancient people, the gods were mysterious and arbitrary.  People weren't sure what the gods required of them or how to appease the gods when the gods were offended.  So pagans didn't really think of themselves as being on a journey with the gods.  

On August 9, 2025, Sherry and I attended a workshop at Hope College in Holland, Michigan on the metaphor of walking with God.  The workshop was sponsored by the Center for Hebraic Thought and En-Gedi Resource Center.  The main speaker was Baruch Kvasnica, founder and head of Jerusalem Seminary.

Kvasnica reported on his doctoral research, where he looked at the appearance of the metaphor of walking with God in ancient Greek sources.  

He explained that in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Hebrew Bible, the language of "walking with God" is translated in a few different ways.  In the Genesis passages about Enoch, Noah, and the patriarchs walking with God (Ge 5:22, 24; 6:9; 24:40; 48:15), the LXX says that they were pleasing to God.  

A Greek word for "going," poreuomai, appears frequently (almost a thousand times) in the LXX.  This word is often used to render "walking with God" language---e.g., in Leviticus 26:3, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 40, 41 and Deuteronomy 10:12; 11:22; 13:4; 19:19; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.  

A Greek word for "walking," peripateo, appears 26 times in the LXX.  Usually this word is used in situations where someone is walking somewhere.  In a couple of cases, it is used figuratively for walking with God (2 Ki 20:3) or walking in the way of righteousness (Pr 8:20).  

So at the time when the LXX was produced, Greek-speaking Jews may have just been starting to speak of "walking with God" with the word peripateo.  By the time that the New Testament was written, though, such an expression was often used.

Kvasnica observed that this language is seldom used in the Synoptic Gospels.  The one exception is in Mark 7:5, where Jesus is asked, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?"  The Synoptics speak more often of following Jesus.  

In John, "walking with God" language appears in John 8:12; 11:9-10; 12:35.  John uses this language in his epistles in 1 John 1:6,7; 2:6,11; 2 John 4,6; and 3 John 3,4.  In Revelation, we see it in 3:4 and 21:24.

Paul uses "walking with God" language frequently; Kvasnica counted over 30 instances, including Romans 6:4; 8:1,4; 13:13; 14:15; 1 Corinthians 3:3; 7:17; 4:2; 5:7; 10:2, 3; 12:18; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:2, 10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15; Philippians 3: 17, 18; Colossians 1:10; 2:6; 3:7; 4:5; 1 Thes 2:12; 4:1, 12; 2 Thes 3:6, 11.  

In a survey of ancient Greek literature, Kvasnica found that "walking with God" language only appears in "Jewish Greek."  Outside of the New Testament, such language appears, for example, in Philo and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.  Josephus, writing from Rome to Gentiles, does not use such language.  

Why then, Kvasnica wondered, does Paul use this language so often in his epistles to churches with large Gentile populations?  The answer may be that many of the Gentiles in his audiences were "God-fearers" who had some familiarity with the Bible through contact with synagogues.  

When we hear the Greek word peripateos, we think of the English word peripatetic.  Kvasnica was asked if the language of walking in a certain way of life could have also been influenced by the "Peripatetic school" of philosophy.  He explained that this school got its name not from the fact that its teachers "walked around" or lived in a certain way, but from the place where the school met, the Peripatos.  (Similarly, he said, the Stoics got their name from the stoa where they met.) 

This was a stimulating workshop that helped us think about what it means to walk with God.  

Seder 2: Lessons from Genesis 2-3

 In Genesis 2:7 God forms a man from the ground, a human from humus.  Commentator Dru Johnson refers to him as the "dirtling."  God places the dirtling in Eden. With the geographical references in vv 10-14, the text emphasizes that this is a real place in the world.

The garden is wonderful, with lots of fruit available. But things are not yet optimal, God explains.  "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him" (Ge 2:!8).  Genesis 2:!8 stands in contrast with chapter 1, where various aspects of creation are described as "good" or "very good."Here we learn that a "just me and God" situation is not ideal.  Humans are meant to be in community.  

Through the exercise of naming other dirt-formed creatures, Adam learns that none of them is the companion that God intends for him.  But God has a solution to this problem.  He creates Adam's companion from his side.  

Genesis 2 ends with the observation that "the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (verse 25).  Johnson notes that later in the Bible, nakedness connotes  a lack of resources or protection---for example, it is the state of captives being taken into exile (Eze 23:29)---while "shame" means outward public shame rather than an inner sense of embarrassment.  There may be an implied "yet" at the end of verse 25.

The beginning of chapter 3 describes the serpent's efforts to deceive the man and the woman.  To the woman he asks a question implying that God is deliberately depriving them of things that are good.  That draws her into the conversation, as she clarifies what God had actually said.

Her reply in vv 2-3 includes a bit of new information not mentioned in Genesis 2:16-17.  God had not only instructed them not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree; he had also told them not to touch the fruit.  Biblical scholar Jeffrey Niehaus has argued convincingly that the best inference from the biblical data is that Eve here did not add to what God had originally said---otherwise, she would already have been sinning before the serpent deceived her.  

The serpent tells Eve that if she eats the forbidden fruit, 

• she will not die.
• her eyes will be opened.
• she will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Technically speaking, Johnson observes, all of these statements are true (sse verses 7, 22).  He highlights a lesson from Genesis 3:  Just because someone has authoritative knowledge, that does not mean that we should listen to that person.  

The man and woman learn this lesson the hard way.  Genesis 3:6 states that "she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."  The language "took and gave" is repeated at other points in the Bible, generally with negative connotations---see Genesis 16:3; 27:14-17; 1 Samuel 8:14-15.

After the man and woman ate the fruit, "the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked" (verse 7).  The wording in this verse is also referenced later, in a kind of reversal in Luke 24:31.  When the disciples on the road to Emmaus broke bread with Jesus, "their eyes were opened, and they recognized him."  

In addressing what had happened, God first deals with the serpent, who has no more to say in the narrative.  There would be ongoing conflict between the offspring of the woman and that of the serpent---verse 15.  This verse is traditionally seen as the Bible's first presentation of the Gospel.  The Messiah, a descendant of Eve, ultimately would crush the serpent and all forces of evil.

God tells the woman that the pain and danger of childbirth will increase---verse 16.  He adds, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you" (NIV).  Johnson points out that another possible translation of this sentence is that "it"---the woman's desire"---would rule over her, rather than her husband ruling over her.  This possibility is suggested by the parallel language in Gen 4:7, where God tells Cain that sin "desires to have you, but you must rule over it."  There are certainly examples in Genesis where a woman's desires lead her to questionable actions---think of Sarai in Genesis 16, Rebekah in Genesis 27, and Rachel in Genesis 29-30.  

One major biblical theme originating in Genesis 3 is the question, "To whom are you listening?"  Instead of listening to God, who had commanded Adam to steer clear of one tree in the garden, he listened to Eve who had listened to the serpent.  Outside the garden, Adam would experience pain in producing food.

Instead of listening to the serpent, we should listen to the trustworthy voice of God (Dt 28:1; John 10).

Recommended resource:  Logos Mobile Ed Course OT304:  Human Discovery in Genesis 2-3.  

At Church of the Messiah on October 21, 2023, Kyle Kettering spoke on the effects of sin on the world and the coming of the Second Adam to solve the problem of human sin (Rom 5:12-21).