We had been studying the story of Moses. At the Burning Bush, God said,
‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
Exodus 3:6
And a little further in the story,
Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’
Exodus 3:13-14
We explored
אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה – I am who I am
and the way Hebrew verbs and tenses function so differently to our English verbs and tenses. God, in many ways, is named as the verb to be – you cannot add God to things that exist and end up with one more thing. God is the existence of all that exists.
Then, the question was asked: What was God’s name given to Moses from the burning bush?
Those who put the question into a Google search end up with “Trinity”.
Story number two is about John the Evangelist. Having determined that this is the name of the person who wrote the Fourth Gospel and the three letters – all carrying his name, let’s find “interesting quote from John the Evangelist”. This is the top one Google gives us:
My most treasured possessions are not things; they are only things, my friends, family and animals are what counts.
Google’s top result for “interesting quote from John the Evangelist”
I do hope you know enough scripture to recognise that is NOT a quote from the Bible, certainly not from John!
In a world where searching online, and uncritically accepting what one finds there – and especially respecting the top and first results in a Google search, it is sobering to be reminded that – certainly in faith and religious things (not mentioning health and pandemic things!) – the internet and search engines CAN BE WRONG.
.
DuckDuckGo is better than Google and doesn’t track you across the internet!
I put the question of God’s name in my search engine of choice and this is what came back;
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=What+was+God%E2%80%99s+name+given+to+Moses+from+the+burning+bush%3F&t=brave&ia=web
The question regarding John had this result;
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=interesting+quote+from+John+the+Evangelist&t=brave&ia=web
With various search engines YMMV!
You are quite right, David!
I also know that my search on Google may come up with different results to your, or another person’s, search on Google.
That may also be the case for DuckDuckGo – the Divine Tetragrammaton came up as the top result on DuckDuckGo when I used it for the first question. The second question gave an image with the (incorrect) “My most treasured possessions…” quote.
Google has come to so dominate the field that, at least here, “Google” is simply the verb for looking something up on the internet!
There are many search engines – even some that donate profits to charity. People can Google those 😉
Blessings.
Most all search engines including Google use AI (Artificial intelligence) to display what they think you are searching for, which may not be what you are actually searching for.
True, Ron – even so: both answers are incorrect, not just as incorrect to what the AI thinks I am searching for, but incorrect in the full context of the answer. The internet insists that “My most treasured possessions are not things; they are only things, my friends, family and animals are what counts” is a quote from John the Apostle. It is not. Blessings.