Why There’s No “Hero” in the Bible

Last night I witnessed a seemingly small act by my 8 year old daughter that may have saved her 6 year old sister’s life. Then today I read two stories of unsuspecting heroes.
The first story was of a man who crashed his Hummer into an oncoming vehicle to save the lives of 4 children in a crosswalk. He denied being a hero. He was just doing what anyone would have done.
The second story was of a bus driver who caught a 7 year autistic old girl falling from a 3rd story window. He denied being a hero. He was just doing what anyone would have done.
Think about the hero’s in your own life. Maybe it’s a neighbor who acted as a Good Samaritan. Maybe it’s a legislator who made it impossibly hard for your mother to abort you after she was raped. Maybe it’s a daughter who let you know her little sister was choking on plastic horse so you could help dislodge it before it was too late. Heroes.
But what is a hero?
Normally, I turn to the Bible to help me answer these kinds of questions, but a quick search turns up no occurrence of the word “hero” in the Bible. Interesting. But surely this is just a translational issue. If I were to look in a Bible Lexicon, I would certainly find a word that could be translated “hero”. Greek? Nope. Hebrew? Nope.*
But the Bible is full of stories of heroism, self-sacrifice, doing what’s right in the face of impossible odds and personal peril. Think about David facing Goliath or Esther standing up to to Artaxerxes, King of Persia. Think about the Jael driving a tent peg through Sisera’s temple as he slept hidden in her tent. Think about Jesus with nails through His hands and feet refusing for the sake of us poor sinners to cut short his suffering.
So, why aren’t they called heroes? Maybe they were just doing what anyone would have done. Maybe they were just doing what was required of them, what was expected. Maybe they were just doing what was right.**
They didn’t think they were heroes. Maybe the Hummer driver and the bus driver aren’t heroes. Maybe my daughter isn’t a hero. Maybe they just did what was right when it mattered most.
Maybe they were heeding the words of Jesus in Luke 17:10.
“So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” (ESV)
Like the biblical and modern examples, we should not desire to be heroes, but only to do what is right in every circumstance. No matter the difficulty. No matter the consequences.
*I did a search using the Logos Bible software in BDAG and BDB for English glosses and extended definitions containing the word “hero” resulting in zero hits.
**The Bible does have a word for this kind of behavior. It’s called righteousness.

The Oracles (λογια) of God vs. the Orator (Λογος) of God

In Romans 3:2, Paul is answering his own question about the advantage of being a Jew if the salvation of God extends to the Gentiles and the judgment of God comes upon the Jews under the same conditions. One of the advantages he offers is that

“the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God”

The word translated “oracles” is the plural form (it only occurs in the plural in the NT) of the Greek word λόγιον (lōgion) which is clearly related to the more common world logos (λόγος).
It is significant that Paul uses this word to point out the advantage that the Jew has over the Gentile. Even though Jesus, the Divine Logos, was a Jew, he does not belong uniquely to the Jews so as to give them an advantage when it comes to the righteousness of God (a major theme in Romans). Rather they have an advantage in possessing the “oracles” of God. This term is used three other times in the NT

Acts 7:38 (ESV) — This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
Hebrews 5:12 (ESV) — For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
1 Peter 4:11 (ESV) — whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The “oracles'” of God then are the specific revelations of God whether in the Mosaic Law or through the apostolic and prophetic ministry within the church. They are the teachings about and from God given to His people to instruct them how to live. λόγιον is this Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word (אִמְרָה imrah)translated “word” in English in Psalm 119 (Ps. 118 in the LLX; verses 11, 38, 41, 50, 58, 67, 76, 82, 103, 116, 123, 133, 140, 158, 162, 170, 172)
The ethical implications of the “oracle” can be seen sharply in Ps. 119:11:

“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you”

The Hebrew is singular, but translated with the plural neuter in the Septuagint. The LXX reads, “in my heart I hid your oracles that I might not sin against you.” The revelations, or words of God, given to His special people, the Jews, have an advantage of restraining sin through law (by law, I do not mean simply the Mosaic Law as a set of rules to followed, but law as revealed principles about what is good for mankind as a creature in the image of God). They are, according to the author of Hebrews, the milk, or basic principles, of the truth.
God’s self revelation in terms of man’s good (ethics/morality) is a far cry from His revelation of Himself in the Divine Logos, Jesus Christ. The Logos is not a revelation about man, but a self-disclosure of God to man, to save man from himself. Jesus is not just another saying from God, but the very presence of God in human form, Emmanuel, God with us.
The Logos is not particularly Jewish, though he “was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom 1:2). He is the universal, timeless, revelation of the true nature of God as God. In Him alone is salvation, and not in any logia (oracles) from God. Salvation is not found in specific formulations traced back to specific prophets. It is not found in a truth about God, no matter how orthodox. It is found only in His unique Son, Jesus Christ, the Logos who from the beginning was with God and who was God.