The Honor of God

Moses demanded to see the glory (kabod) of God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 33-34) but God revealed his intrinsic nature - features of the character of God that define his honor. Nearly half of the English Bible's uses of "glory" refer to God- yet in almost a hundred of these occurrences it could be translated as "honor of God" based on contextual analysis. The Hebrew word kabod and the Greek word doxa have been translated as "glory" in reference to God ninety-five percent of the time, regardless of the context. To nuance these terms in English, two aspects of their meaning have been identified as the greatness (glory) and goodness (honor) of God. What happens in the hearts of unbelievers to give them the light of the knowledge of the doxa of God (2 Cor. 4:4-6)? What could possibly blind us to the Gospel of the doxa of Christ? What is the doxa of God? More importantly, what is "glory"? How do metaphors of light and face inform our understanding of the glory and image of God? Seldom do we hear Christians in the West present the Gospel in terms of "the glory of Christ"-the love of Christ, for sure, but not the honor of Christ. What did Paul want the believers in Corinth to understand about the doxa of God that would be relevant to the church today? When Paul prayed that "to him be honor (doxa) in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations," what did he expect from the church in the region of Ephesus to become? The honor of God may have eluded the attention of western scholars and practitioners more than any other theme in Scripture, which has critical implications for biblical studies and ministry.