A few days ago, as I was driving along the main road to Acco and passing
a neighboring Arab village, I noticed a message painted on the exterior of a
house in clear white English letters: God is great. My initial reaction was not theological but
linguistic. In other words, I wondered
which God the houseowner meant.
To explain, if the letters had been in Arabic and read Allah Akbar,
I would have known the sign was referring to the Moslem God. Likewise, the sign
saying Dieu est grand in France would be referring to the Catholic God
although the same sign in Algeria would probably refer to Allah. However, back
to our allah akbar, in Iraq, it is not clear whether the Shiite or Sunni master is the subject of the sign.
For that matter, a German Gott ist groß is no less ambivalent
as Germany is historically a mixture of Protestant and Catholic provinces. By
contrasts, in the American south, that sign in English would most probably
refer to the Baptist or other Protestant diety. Likewise, in Spain or South
America, Dios es grande is directed at the Catholic commander-in-chief.
The Hebrew version possesses another question. While there is no dispute among Jews about
the identity of the Chief Engineer (we focus our disputes on what exactly he
wants us to do), the expression Elohim Gadol has two twists. For some,
it imbibes the omnipotence of God.
However, the term is also used in slang to express a complete lack of
control. For example, if asked whether
the contractor will finish the job on time, someone could answer Elohim
gadol, the English equivalent being God knows.
So, upon seeing that sign, I responded in a typical Israel way: Yes,
but. That is I did not formally
disagree but immediately complicated the issue.
Theology can be so confusing.
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