ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – THE WEDDING DANCE – CHADOTHA חדותא  Cheth Daleth Vav Taw Aleph

Psalms 14:1: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

In English the word fool means a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person.  I’m sorry, but despite the fact that practically all our modern English translations of the Bible render the Hebrew word nabal as fool or foolish and despite the fact that our lexicons and Strong’s all use the word fool as a definition for nabal, I have a very hard time accepting the fact that all who say in their heart there is no God are fools. At least if we consider the idea that God represents the God Jehovah. 

I’ve studied the wordly philosophers in college, grad school and outsider the walls of academia and many of these philosophers were atheist who did not believe in the existence of God that we call Jehovah or YHVH if your a purist when it comes to terminologies. You have John Dewey 1859-1952, Eric Hoffer 1902-1983, Freidrich Engle 1820-1895, Freidrich Nietzsche 1844-1900, Bertrand Russell 1872- 1970, John Paul Sartre 1905-1980 and of course Albert Camus 1913-1960 just to name a few. I do not consider these men fools by our definition of a fool. They were all highly intelligent and struggled with their concept of God. Albert Camus even admitted in an interview that he envied Christians and their ability to have faith and believe in a God.  He wished he could believe in God but he could not intellectually accept the existence of God.  Those are not the words of a fool as we would define a fool, in our modern understanding of the English word. 

The English word fool comes from the Latin follis which means a bag of wind or a blacksmith’s bellows.  By the 13th Century it took on the idea of a silly, stupid, or ignorant person. The modern sense of the word comes from a Latin colloquial expression for someone who was a bag of wind, foolish or a buffon. The French used to the fol which referred to a court jester who did silly performances to entertain a king.  None of this describes the philosophers I listed. A fool in our modern English would describe many atheists that I have met, but the honest ones like Camus, I cannot call him them fools. But I can call them nabal(s).    

If we trace this word nabal to its Semitic roots we find it is used for withering or fading.  In the Akkadian it is the word for a corpse. A corpse is lifeless and has no value. I have found the words of these philosophers have no life. In fact, men like Sartre and Camus were called existentialist who saw no meaning in life.  They are by their very admission, a lifeless person.

But I am stretching that word nabal to defend some of my favorite writers.  Not that I agree with them, heaven forbid.  But I do admire their questions, their search for truth and understanding and I thank God daily that I don’t have to struggle with the doubts and questions that tormented their lives.  Still, fool is a good modern English word for nabal. Someone who is ignorant, senseless, one who gives no thought to consequences. That is a fool and such a person will say in his heart, there is no god.  

Note, the verse does not say a fool is one who says there is not god, but who says in his heart there is not god.  Note, also, I am using a lower case “g” when I use the word god.  I do not believe David is saying these fools are saying there is no God Jehovah, but no elohim.  Again, I am using the lower case “e”.   Elohim has many possible usages. It is applied to idols, to angels, to human judges and to any authority. Only the context in which the word is used can you determine if you are speaking of God Jehovah, an idol, angel, earthly judge or an authority.  I say the fool is not the one who says God Jehovah does not exist but the one who says, there is no moral authority.  The fool will say: “I can do whatever I want to do as long as it is legal in our civil system.”  The law will not arrest you if you commit adultery or view pornography.  So, what is to stop you.  The law does not forbid abortion so who determines if that is wrong or not?  If you feel in your heart that it is ok to have an abortion, then it is ok.  Your heart is you only authority.  

David is saying only a fool will say in his heart there is no moral laws or moral authority. There is a penalty to be paid for sin even if the government has no law against such sins.  David’s son Solomon pretty much said the same thing Proverbs 21:2: “People may be right in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their heart.” Living Bible Translation

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