Tips to Dehellenize: A Return to Hebraic Thought

Tips to Dehellenize: A Return to Hebraic Thought

Dehellenizing the Bible means removing or challenging the layers of Greek philosophical influence—especially Platonic, Stoic, and Neoplatonic ideas—that have shaped how Christians interpret Scripture, often contrary to its original Hebraic, covenantal context.


Here are some practical and theological tips to help you do that:



1. Return to the Hebrew Worldview


Embrace the concrete over the abstract.

Hebrew thought is action-oriented, relational, and earthy—not metaphysical or idealistic. Focus on covenant, not substance.

Relationships in Scripture are framed as covenants (agreements, loyalty), not essences or natures. Example: Rather than asking “What is the nature of God?”, ask “How does God act in history?”




2. Watch for Greek Terms in Doctrine


Be alert when doctrines are built on non-biblical Greek terms, such as:


Substance, essence (ousia), hypostasis, homoousios (used in Trinity doctrine)


Immortality of the soul, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscient (Plato, not Scripture)


Immutability and impassibility of God (Stoicism, not the prophets)


Ask: Is this word in the Bible? Or is it from Greek metaphysics?



3. Read the Bible Through a Jewish Lens


Study Second Temple Judaism to better understand the background of Jesus and Paul. Avoid filtering Jesus through Greek philosophical categories—he taught in parables, stories, and Torah-based logic. Sheol and resurrection in the Hebrew Scriptures are earthy and bodily—not about disembodied souls. For example, when Stephen got stoned in Acts, it says he fallen asleep. He did not go to Heaven.




4. Reclaim a Relational, Dynamic God


The God of the Bible speaks, relents, feels, and responds (Exod. 32:14; Jonah 3:10; Hosea 11:8). Reject the Greek idea of an impassible, static “unmoved mover.” Affirm a God of covenant, presence, and history—not of abstract perfection.




5. Reevaluate the Afterlife


Reject Platonic “soul escapes body” ideas. The Bible teaches resurrection, not soul immortality (1 Cor. 15, Dan. 12:2). Sheol, Gehenna, New Creation—all reflect Hebrew ideas of bodily life and death, not Greek dualism.



6. Favor Hebrew Literary Styles


Hebrew poetry, parallelism, and narrative are earthy and embodied. Greek-style theology often reads the Bible like a systematic textbook, not a story or covenant journey. Read Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Job, the Prophets—see how they wrestle with God in real life, not abstract logic.




7. Be Cautious with Church Fathers


Many early theologians—like Augustine, Origen, and the Cappadocians—explicitly borrowed from Plato and Aristotle. Learn to distinguish where they preserve Scripture and where they reinterpret it through Greek categories.




8. Reframe Jesus as the Hebrew Messiah, Not a Greek Demi-God


Jesus is not a “god-man” like Hercules or a metaphysical second person of a Trinity. He is the Davidic king, Son of Man, and image of the invisible God—fully human and divinely AUTHORIZED, not ontologically “God-stuff.”




9. Use Tools that Honor the Hebraic Context


Choose Bible translations and commentaries that respect Hebrew idioms and Jewish context (e.g., Robert Alter, The Jewish Study Bible, N.T. Wright, James D.G. Dunn). Avoid overly systematic theological systems built on Hellenistic categories (e.g., some scholastic or Reformed frameworks).




10. Trust the Spirit of Scripture Over the Systems of Philosophy


Jesus didn’t teach Plato or Aristotle—he fulfilled the Law, Prophets, and Psalms. The goal is not philosophical precision, but faithfulness, love, justice, and truth in action.

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