CONCLUSIONS: GOD CENTERED VS.HUMAN CENTERED
GENESIS
The Book of Genesis is a book about a family, a four generational
family. The Fathers are called Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the Mothers are Matriarchs --Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah. Jews are
considered biological descendants of these Patriarchs and Matriarchs.
Non--Jews who convert are renamed with a Hebrew name and are reckoned
as sons or daughters of Abraham and Sarah. Families and the
extended families is thus a key concept in Judaism. Some family members
rightfully or wrongly get cut--off as in the case of Ishmael and Esau.
The conflict between Abraham's sons -- Ishmael and Isaac and between
Isaac's sons -- Esau and Jacob -- is a conflict about spiritual
succession. Jewish commentators note the reconciliation between Ishmael
and lsaac and the text itself tells of the reconciliation of Esau and
Jacob. The conflict continued with Jacob’s sons, but after the
aattempted sibling murder of Joseph they finally reconciled when Jacob
recognized the problem and shared the blessing between his children.
Jacob does not exile any member of his family, not Reuben, despite his
sleeping with his father’s concubine and not Simon nor Levi for the
slaughter of the people of Shechem. He may not be happy with these
three sons but they all remain part of the family. He loses his
favorite son -- Joseph -- for twenty years, but Judah reconciles the
family. Later on the family was extended to tribes and later still to
nationhood. Just as there were cut--offs in the extended family similar
cut--offs occurred with the tribes (fighting each other in the Book of
Judges) and later the nation split into two: Judah and Israel.
God chose Abraham as the Man of Faith to begin the road to redemption.
God also chose Isaac as the son to receive the spiritual blessing
because of his father, because Abraham was willing to sacrifice him not
knowing how God's promise would work out. The process wounded Isaac and
he could no longer choose. Rebekah chose the son, Jacob, to continue
the blessing. She understood that the destiny had to continue and
believed that God had given her the choice. Jacob is more a son to
Rebekah than a son to his father. Jacob after a painful life divided
the blessing between the Man of Faith among his children -- Judah --
and his Majestic Man son Joseph.
Jacob accomplished what even his grandfather was unable to accomplish,
bring all his children into the family and thus began the process of
nationhood. Abraham suffered first the loss of his adopted son Lot,
then his first born son Ishmael. lsaac is almost murdered and is
wounded by the experience. But Abraham fulfilled his destiny. The
connection between Abraham and Jacob is not the wounded Isaac, but
Abraham's daughter--in--law and Jacob's mother Rebekah. Rebekah is more
like Abraham, having to choose between her children -- it was her
destiny. She sends Jacob to her brother Laban -- he must learn to
survive if his destiny is to be fulfilled. Jacob's life was painful as
he told the Pharaoh (Gen. 47:9) but he fulfilled his destiny. Abraham
began the covenant with the circumcision. Jacob began his mission by
making a conditional covenant with God, then by being wounded by a
God-like figure and finally by reconciling with his brother. He
ended his life by having his Majestic son Joseph swear on his wounded
thigh to return him to the land.
Are we intended to learn from Genesis and especially its two heroes --
Abraham and Jacob that only by giving up something of value (your
homeland) can you get something of greater value (the Land of Israel),
only by giving up your family can you get a family (be a father of a
great nation) and only by giving up a beloved son can you become a
father of multiple nations. Abraham gave up Ishmael and agreed to
sacrifice Isaac. Jacob lost Joseph for twenty years as his mother lost
him for twenty years. Abraham is exiled in Egypt. Jacob who appears to
receive the blessing of power serves Laban and Esau (Gen. 32:17,19;
33:14) is exiled in the younger part of his life with his uncle and
father--in--law Laban and in the later years of his life in Egypt under
his son Joseph.
Abraham has two sons and loses one. Isaac has two twin sons and loses
one. Jacob has twelve sons loses one, but his son of faith reconciles
with Joseph and makes the family whole. Sibling rivalry and multiple
wife rivalry are prevalent in the Bible. The closest relations can be
the most tense and problematic.
SIBLING RIVALRY:
Youngest children and barren women are normally thought of as the most
vulnerable. But are in fact favored by the Bible. There is an
assumption in the Bible and other cultures towards primogeniture. In
modern times as Frederick Greenspahn points out that 'all seven of the
original Mercury astronauts were the oldest children in their families,
as are a disproportionatly large number of college students and
professors, poets and presidents'. But he also points their
predominance as 'strippers and criminals the mentally disadvantaged and
susceptible to prenatal disorders'. 1
The reason we posit that youngest are favored in the Bible is in order
to emphasize God's responsibility to the vulnerable. The favoring of
the youngest is in fact extraordinary in the Bible: Abel, Seth (Adam's
youngest son), Abraham (although listed as Terah's oldest son is
considered by Talmud as the youngest 2), Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Joseph,
and Judah, Ephraim, Moses, Samuel, David and Solomon. Oldest sons are
either sinful or considered less valuable than their younger siblings:
Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Leah, Er, Onan, Manasseh and Amnon, Absalom,
Adonijah (the successive eldest sons of David).
And yet the first time 'Israel' is called by its national name we are
told they are God's 'bekhor', His eldest son, His favorite (Ex. 4:22).
Every choice in the Bible is God's. The prominence of the youngest, the
barren women, the slaves and the powerless are what Max Weber called 'a
rational theology of misfortune’ 3 Israel must have understood that
God's choice was neither deserved nor acquired by their own strength.
Their hands like David's, were stained by emotional and physical blood.
Ishmael, Esau and Leah's sympathetic portrait in the Bible were not an
accident. Many paid a price for the 'hero's' success.
There is also many 'love--hate relations depicted in the Bible:
Cain--Abel, Sarah--Hagar, Esau--Jacob, Leah-Rachel, Joseph and his
brothers, Onan-Tamar, Hannah-Penina, Saul--David, Michal--David, and
Amnon--Tamar--Absalom. And a very few loving relationships; Jacob and
Rachel, Hannah and Elkanah, David and Jonathan and Naomi and Ruth
We are told in the Ethic of the Father’s 'do not judge your fellow man
until you have been in his place' (2:4). Thus we are requested to
attempt to see each of the persons in the original Abrahamic family --
Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac -- through their own
perspective.
Ishmael is the big brother whose mother is a secondary wife (as is
Rueben). Hagar is the birth mother for Sarah, her servant and Abraham's
wife. Abraham allows Sarah to abuse Hagar and her/their son. She lost
her value when Isaac was born. Sarah, the senior wife, was abused by
Abraham in the incident in Egypt and Gerar and God withheld from her
womb children -- the lifeline for women in that society. Her servant
gives birth from her husband, with God's approval. How is she to react
to this clear unfairness? Is it conceivable that she would not abuse
her fertile servant and her son? Isaac comes very late in her life,
after her menopause has withered her body and she is surprised that
Abraham is potent enough to have children. When Isaac is born (like
Joseph) he is clearly her favorite. She also needs him to usurp the role
Ishmael has played as the only first born and heir to Abraham. Fearing
for the older and stronger brother she exiles him. After all she has
waited ninety years for Isaac’s birth she will protect his position at
all costs. Abraham, the father of Ishmael has bonded to him from his
birth and together with him was circumcised when he is a young adult in
a binding covenant with God. Abraham is the one who Sarah implied is
'drunk with love for God'. 4
BARREN WOMEN
For a woman to be childless in the Bible was to be ‘barren’ of life -
to lack identity. In the case of Sarah we are told 'God has kept me
from having children (Gen. 16:2). God 'saw that Leah was unloved and He
opened her womb while Rachel remained barren' (29:31), presumably
because she was loved. Thus Sarah and Rachel anguished over their lack
of children. Their meaning in life was to have children. God remembered
(?) Sarah and gave her a child because of Abraham. God remembered (?)
Rachel and she conceived (30:22). And after Leah stopped having
children 'God heard her' (30:17) and she conceived again. Rebekah, the
most powerful Matriarch was barren. It is clear that for the Bible God
controls fertility.
In Jewish tradition Sarah and Rachel are ‘Our Mothers’ and Jerusalem is
the ‘the mother of us all’. Is there a connection between the barren
mothers and Jerusalem? Referring to Jerusalem we read ‘Sing, O barren
one’ (Is. 54:1).What does it mean to say Jerusalem is barren?
Sarah barrenness was noted on five separate occasions (11:30; 15:2;
16:1; 18:11; 21:1). She anguished over that fact and gave her servant
Hagar to Abraham to have 'children through her' (162). She was barren
for several decades. When Rachel was barren for thirteen years she said
to Jacob 'Give me children or I shall die'. She gave Jacob her servant
Bilah 'through her, then I too shall have children' (30:3). Leah after
having four children also became barren (30:9), so she gave Jacob her
servant Zilpah. Thus three of the matriarchs anguished over their
barrenness. He hear of no anguish by Rebekah, simply that she was
barren -- we do not know for how long -- and when Isaac prayed she
conceived. Her pregnancy was difficult, she inquired of God and He
spoke to her. She is the only matriarch that God spoke to directly and
gave her a prophecy that turned out to be a mission. The mission to
make certain that the blessing goes to the correct twin, the most
important message to the second generation. God only as an aside spoke
to Sarah to tell her that she lied (18:15). God spoke twice to Hagar to
bless her (16:10--12; 21:17--20). God never spoke to Rachel or Leah.
Are Hagar and Rebekah Majestic Women?
A Midrash tells us that Abraham prayed for the barren wife of Abimelech
(Gen. 20:17-18), and God therefore remembered Sarah. 5 Another Midrash
that Abraham prayed for barren women. 6 This allowed the writer to use
the Talmudic proverb of ‘measure for measure’ and the people to
understand that Zion’s time was coming. Numerous Midrashim contend that
God fulfills those who pray to him or those who fear him. This idea of
a righteous person negotiating with God makes sense for an immanent
God, but not for a transcendent God. Most of us most of the time need
to deal with a merciful immanent God, much as we may equally recognize
the transcendence of God. We also find this idea in the Christian Bible
with Luke comparing asking a friend for food as a parable to asking God
(Luke 11:1-3). These Midrashim as well as Luke are making an
homiletical point; that the poor, the burdened, the humble and righteous
will be rewarded.
Other women known as barren in the Bible include Hannah, mother of
Samuel. (Two unnamed women are also barren, one is Samson's mother
(Judges 13) and the other is known as the Shunemite woman who Elisha
blesses (2 Kings 4:8)). Hannah, the wife of Elkanah has a competing
wife, Penina who has children. It would appear that there is an attempt
to compare them to Rachel and Leah, but the story was never completed.
Rachel said to Jacob 'give me sons or else I die', he responds 'am I in
place of God' (30: 1). Elkanah says to Hannah 'am I not better to
you than ten sons (1 Sam. 1:8). Both men are insensitive to their wives
needs. Hannah then asks God directly. When she is given Samuel and
returns him to God she receives more children (1 Sam. 2:21). Can this
be compared to Abraham who after being willing to sacrifice Isaac is
given more children with a new wife named Keturah?
Another barren woman is Michal, the first wife of David. Her barrenness
is permanent and appears to be the result of David her husband refusing
to sleep with her after she exhibits an outburst of hatred with sexual
innuendoes. Michal is the only woman the biblical text tells us loved
her husband (1 Sam. 18:20,28). She is however, never a loved wife.
Jacob we are told loved his wife Rachel (Gen. 29:18,20,30). Both were
barren. Rachel and Michal are the only women to use 'teraphim'
(household gods) in the Bible and both use them to promote their
husbands interest against their fathers. Both are younger sisters who
are the father's (Laban in one case and Saul in the other) second
choice towards a prospective son--in--law. Merab is Michel's elder
daughter as is Leah to Rachel. Both son--in--laws are the younger
brothers.
A Midrash tells us seven barren women; Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah,
Hannah, Hazzelponi, (the textually unnamed mother of Samson) and Zion.
7 Just as God created the world he will create children for these
barren women, including Zion. The Midrash enumerates the children,
rather than the women. They are counted as ‘pre-figured’. They are
gifts of God; the most important being Zion, then barren, but intended
by God to be blessed. God will raise the poor to be Princes (Ps.
113:8). The barren ones are before redemption, but redemption will
come.8 Is Mary, mother of Jesus, the Virgin, related to the barren
women?
Rabbi Soloveitchik tells us that human beings are a combination of
material, pragmatic and biological needs on the one hand and on the
other existential inner needs. 9 Is it possible that for Abraham, Jacob
and Elkanah one wife was a biological need (Hagar, Leah and Peninah)
and the other for their existential needs (Sarah, Rachel and Hannah)?
Rabbi Soloveitchik describes two aspects of marriage, one
outer-directed – the need to leave children and the other
inner-directed – the need to overcome ‘loneliness’. Hagar, Leah
and Peninah helped Abraham, Jacob and Elkanah to survive beyond their
death – to leave something after their death. Sarah, Rachel and
Hannah allowed them to survive in this world. 10
It is likely that Rabbi Soloveitchik would deny this connection as he
sees marriage as requiring a sharing of personalities, but I wonder
whether with the strength of personalities of Abraham and Jacob (we do
not know enough about Elkanah – despite their are hints) and Sarah,
Rachel and Hannah that would have been possible? Those strong female
personalities yearned for children but would have preferred to
achieve that without paying the ‘masochistic’ high price defined by
Rabbi Soloveitchik as of giving up ‘freedom, safety and leisure’.
11
PERSONALITIES
Can Jacob/Israel (who continually fought his Majestic Brother for the
Blessing) be seen as the Man who attempted to synthesize both the
Majestic Man and the Man of Faith? Perhaps he succeeded, although with
his children, the problem was resurrected. Can King David who fought
the ‘secular’ King Saul to become God’s vassal king be seen as another
who attempted to be both the Majestic Man and the Man of Faith? Did he
succeed or fail? Most of his children are abominable. Both Jacob Our
Father and David Our King had enormous difficulties with their
children. Can their heroic attempts be related to their failures as
fathers and the result their children having problems?
Jacob is the first of the Abrahamic family to recognize the importance
of the duality of man. He begins his life clutching onto Esau's heel
attempting to be the firstborn. He takes his brother's birthright when
Esau is famished and steals his blessing in an attempt to overcome his
Adam Two personality and become Adam one. His mother Rebekah,
instigates him. She also prefers the Adam One personality -- she is one
herself. But eventually Jacob combines his natural Adam Two personality
with his brother’s Adam One when he fights and receives the name Israel
-- his Adam One name. He never rejects the name Jacob, as requested by
the angel and by God. He then reconciles himself with his brother Esau.
His children are either one or the other personality. He is the most
complex of the Jewish patriarchs. His children will be one or the other
of these two models of human behaviour. Jews are rightfully called the
people of Israel from his name of Power and Jews from the word for
Judah, the 'Man of Faith’.
Because Jacob/lsrael recognized the importance of both personalities he
blesses both Judah and Joseph. Jewish tradition recognizes this by
creating a Messiah ben Ephraim -- the son of Joseph, the warrior
Messiah -- the Adam One and a Messiah ben David, the spiritual Messiah
-- an Adam Two. And Ezekiel tells us that, at God's request, he takes a
stick and writes on it Judah and another and writes on it Joseph and
joins them together (Ez. 37:16). That will be the messianic age when
both aspects of human behavior are not only tolerated but inherent in
each human being.
We discussed in detail the narcissism of Joseph and the apparent
reconciliation with his brothers and his father. There are some
intruiging comparisons between the life of Jacob and his son Joseph.
Both stories involve the deception of a father and treachery towards a
brother. Both younger brothers are exiled to a foreign land for twenty
years. Both stories eventually end in reuinion and reconciliation. One,
begins with a mother’s (Rebekah) vision from God and the other a dream
that may have been divinely inspired. Both fathers (Isaac and Jacob) at
a critical point do not ask some pointed questions. After Esau returns
and Isaac realizes that Jacob stole the blessing why does he not bring
in Jacob and pursue the issue? After Jacob’s sons bring him Joseph
bloodied cloak why does he not pursue what happened? Do both realize
that in this case self knowledge would be destructive to family unity?
Joseph and Samuel can and are seen in Jewish conventional tradition as
Men of Faith (even Tzaddikim - saintly men). Can they not equally be
seen as Business Managers and as aggressive Majestic Men? They
can be described as Majestic men being ‘nurtured by the selfish desire
on part of Adam [One] to better his own position in relation to his
environment’. 12 Can they be described as persons who ‘aspire to
complete and absolute control of everything? 13 They wish to
dominate and be a ‘man-master’ 14
Can Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel be seen as aggressive Majestic Women and
the passive, but fertile Leah as a Woman of Faith? Given that God
closed their wombs they had reason for existential concern. Can Abraham
have failed the akeda test? Perhaps he was supposed to say no to God.
Is that why God never speaks to him again? Isaac was traumatized by the
akeda. Is that why Jewish Midrashim tell us Abraham chose to live the
last thirty five years of his life with a new wife and with Ishmael?
Why does Jacob/Israel choose his Majestic Son Joseph as his heir and
only at the end of his life realize his choice is a failure. He then
chooses Judah, the Man of Faith is his generation. Can choosing one son
over his siblings be simply wrong?
Another example of a shadow person who does not succeed in integrating
himself is Samson. Samson is one of the most unlikely heroes in the
Bible; a totally un-God-like hero. He is born to be a nazir, a form of
holy man. He noticed an unnamed woman from the uncircumsized
Philistines (Jud. 14:3), the enemy of the Israelites and ‘went down and
talked to her and he became fond of her’ (Jud. 14:7). Went down
is a way of saying away from God. Judah ‘went down’ went he left
his father because of his guilt about what they done to Joseph (Gen.
38:1). The ‘became fond of her’ means he had sexual relations with her.
We are beginning to see Samson’s flaw, his lust of forbidden woman. 15
The statement that YHVH approved of this marriage (14:4) is
inconsistent with the statement that he ‘went down’ and why would God
approve his sleeping with a Philistine woman?.
Samson tells a riddle for a wager of the clothing of thirty
Philistines. After accepting the riddle they tell his wife that they
will burn her and her family unless she gets the answer from Samson.
The woman cried for seven days and Samson told her and she promptly
told the Philistines. He lost the wager and went and killed thirty
Philistines, bringing their clothing to the thirty winners of the
riddle. He killed thirty people because he foolishly creates a riddle
and then even more foolishly looses it?
We are told Samson was a Judge for twenty years. In the next verse we
are told Samson visited a whore in Gaza. Samson then fell in love with
Delilah, another forbidden woman. After awhile he finally told her that
his strength lie in is hair. She received a large sum of money to tell
the Philistines. She had his hair cut off and the Philistines caught
him and blinded him. At a sacrifice for the god Dagon they bring Samson
to make fun of him. He prays to God, puts his arms around the pillar of
their Temple says to God ‘Let me be revenged on the Philistines
at one blow for my two eyes . . Let me die with the Philistines’
(16:28-29). In his death he killed more than he had killed during his
lifetime (16:30).
Does Samson ever understand that it his own flaws that he brought his
troubles upon himself? What kind of story is this for the sacred
scriptures? This is more like the Greek tale about Hercules whose
virtue is strength, not wisdom, than about a Hebrew Judge.
‘Shimshon’ the Hebrew for Samson comes from the root ‘shmsh’ meaning
sun as do two villages mentioned in the story Beit Shemesh and Ain
Shemesh. The words suggest that a sun God was worshipped in the area.
We discussed at length King David as a character that acts out the role
of saint and sinner. In both roles he is more successful than Jacob or
Joseph. He becomes the first successful Israelite King and the role
model of the Messianic King. His sins are overwhelming for a servant of
God. Perhaps King David had the charisma and power to live his Shadow
life.
THE MOSAIC FAMILY
There is little conflict in the Mosiac family consisting of three
siblings; Moses, Aaron and Miriam. In this way the last four Books of
the Torah differ greatly from Genesis. All three are blessed by God.
Moses, is the epitome of the Prophet, Miriam, a woman as prophetess and
Aaron, the High Priest. Yocheved, his mother and Miriam save Moses’
life several times when he was a child. Aaron becomes his spokesman.
This family made up of a father mother and three children works
together as a highly functioning family. This is in great contradiction
to Genesis.
Moses refuses God's request to begin the nation over with him.
Ironically his family disappears. None of the three reached the
promised land. Is that the tragic element to their lives? 'And the
dying man sighs 'O my God, I have lived in vain! All my days have I
acted and ached for my people -- And have achieved nothing. Would that
he had not taken them out of bondage if freedom is not his to give'. 16
That is the tragedy of Moses, the man who converses with God 'face to
face', the man who sees the glory of God, the Servant and the Man of
God. From the time of his death in approximately 1300 BCE, we have no
text of a Jew named Moses for over 2,000 years. His name was too
awesome to name a child after him. The first mention of a Jew called
Moses was in the eighth century. Not until the eight century CE, after
Muslims started naming their children 'Musa' after Moses. 17
He spends his life trying to determine his own identity. His original
name given by his mother and father is unknown to us. The name we have
for him is Egyptian, given him by an Egyptian princess. He grew up as
an Egyptian prince. He rejected that identity when he joined his Hebrew
people by killing an Egyptian oppressor and was found out by a Hebrew
overlord named Dothan. He is exiled to Midian where he marries and
lives with Zipporah's family for sixty years and finds a father
surrogate, a priestly man. Until then his life is surrounded by women
who protected him. When he meets with God at the burning bush and is
given his mission, he finds it beyond his ability and asks God to
appoint his brother Aaron. God confirms him as God's prophet and as a
god to his brother and as a god to Pharaoh who is considered a god by
his people. So Moses’ people then consider him a god and when he
disappears to commune with God, they are fearful and ask Aaron to give
them another god like Moses. He is an impossible act to follow.
Moses brought the covenant with the Ten Commandments and the Thirteen
attributes of God from Mt. Sinai to the people. Moses, the Egyptian
Prince, rejects his Egyptian identity and takes the Hebrews out of
Egypt. Joseph, the Hebrew, brings the Hebrews into Egypt after becoming
the epitome of an assimilated Egyptian. Moses sits with God for months
while Joseph never speaks to God and takes an oath to Pharaoh. Moses is
God’s servant while Joseph tries to be his father’s master and is the
servant of the Pharaoh.
Moses is the outstanding personality of the Hebrew Bible. Comparisons
or allusions between he and numerous other personalities in the Bible
including Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Elijah, Josiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah and Ezra as well as post-biblical personalities have been
made. 18
SAMUEL AND MOSES
Samuel was Judge, Prophet, and High Priest - the only personality in
the Bible to have all three responsibilities do so. The prophet speaks
in the name of the Lord. “I will put my words in his mouth, and he will
speak to them all that I command him’ (Deut. 18:18). The Judge is
primarily a military leader and savior. The Priest runs the
Temple and the sacrifices.
Samuel compared himself to Moses and Aaron (I Sam. 12:6) and is called
a ‘Man of God’ by Saul’s servant (I Sam. 9:6). When God first called
him he responded “Here I am’ I Sam. 3:4) as did Moses (Ex. 3:4). He
anointed others, led a holy war (I Sam. Chapter 7), renewed the
covenant (I Sam. 7:3-6), wrote legislation for the King (I Sam. 10:25)
and in his farewell speech spoke of obedience and disobedience.
19 Jeremiah has God saying ‘though Moses and Samuel stood before
me’ (Jer. 15:1) suggesting the two as God’s great intercessors. The
author of Psalm 99 states ‘Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also among those who called His name’. (Ps. 99:6), again
comparing Samuel to Moses. The narrator of the book of Samuel has the
Philistines stating ‘Woe is us! Who can deliver us from the power of
the angry gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with every
sort of plague (I Sam. 4:8) and then ‘why do you harden your hearts as
the Egyptians and the Pharaoh hardened his heart’. (I Sam. 6:6).
Perhaps the authors of the Books of Samuel, Psalms and Jeremiah
recognized that as Moses closed an era and sent the people of Israel
into the Land of Israel, so Samuel closed an era of Judges and brought
the people into the era of Kingship and Prophets.
JEREMIAH AND MOSES
Louis Ginzberg in his seven volume ‘The Legends of the Jews’ makes a
list of the striking comparisons between Moses and Jeremiah and
suggests that Jeremiah is the Prophet like unto Moses (Deut. 18:18). 20
He includes their both serving forty years, both being attacked by
members of their own tribe, Moses thrown into the water and Jeremiah
into a pit, both saved (Jer. 38:9) and both being humble and refusing
God’s call by claiming their inability as a spokesman.
We have already noted how William Holladay points to a number of
striking parallels between Moses in Deuteronomy (the newly found
scroll) and words used uniquely by Jeremiah. Holladay concludes that
'No pre--Jeremianic prophet offers parallels to the Song of Moses
[Deuteronomy chapter 32] 21 The beginning of the Song of Moses is
'Ha'azinu' Listen 0’ Heavens (32:1) and in Jeremiah it is ‘Shommu', Be
astonished 0’ Heaven' (2:12). Jeremiah tells us 'Your words were
found and I ate them and Your words became to me a joy and to the
delight of my heart; for I am called by Your name, 0 lord, God of
hosts' (15: 16). These words Jeremiah refers to are the scroll of
Deuteronomy that were a joy to him and the delight of his heart. This
suggests the enormous impact on Jeremiah of the scroll of Deuteronomy.
He then refers to God's name, a critical issue in Moses' bringing down
the second set of Tablets as noted in an earlier chapter and in the
Davidic covenant. When Jeremiah read that God promised Moses to raise
'up a prophet from among your brothers like you and I will put my words
into his mouth' (Deut. 18:18) he may have believed that it referred to
himself. Jeremiah tells us that God responded by putting words in your
mouth' (11:8). Holladay also compares the influence of Deuteronomy
12--26 of the poetry of Jeremiah. -- Circumcise your heart is a
key to Jerermiah new covenant, this idea was also stated in Deuteronomy
(10:16).22
Dale Allison compares Jeremiah and Moses in the following ways: their
call as youths, (Jer. 1:6, Ex. 2:6), the prophet like Moses will ‘speak
in my name’ (Ex. 18:19) and Jeremiah ‘speaks in his name (Jer. 20:9),
the Babylonians refusal to let the people go (Jer. 50:33) and Pharaoh
refusal to let the people go, the king burning Jeremiah’s scroll and
the Tablets which Moses broke, Jeremiah receives God’s word directly
(Jer. 23:32) and Moses ‘mouth to mouth’ (Num. 12:8), both generation
offended God (Jer. 8:19; Deut. 32:31) and both proclaimed a new
covenant.
To create a new covenant may have required Jeremiah to think of himself
as a new Moses. Early in his life the scroll of Deuteronomy was
rediscovered in the Temple and was the basis of Josiah's reforms. When
Jeremiah first hears from God of his mission he responds to God ‘I do
not know how to speak, I am too young' (11:6). This is comparable to
Moses saying 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh I am not a good
speaker`. God responds to Jeremiah ‘I have put words in your mouth'
(1:9), almost exactly the words God said to Moses. It is no more
true that he does not how to speak than it is for Moses. Or perhaps
even more true that like Moses he learns to speak God's words through
his existential suffering.
JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL
The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel lived and were active as prophets
during a time of great catastrophe for the people of Israel, during
that time the First Temple was destroyed.
Their messages created different theologies in response to the
Temple’s destruction. Jeremiah blamed the peoples misconduct of ethical
behavior. Ezekiel blamed the people for ritual misbehavior.
The people of Israel thought that doing the sacrifices was sufficient
as their part of the covenant; God would protect them. Jeremiah
disagreed. Jeremiah condemns those following the Temple rituals as if
that was all God needed. Jeremiah cried out at the gate of the
Temple that God would destroy the Temple and cared not for those
who stated `the lying words ... the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of
the Lord, the Temple of the Lord’ (Jer. 7:4). He continued that
if you oppress the stranger, the orphan and the widow ... [and]
if this house which is called by my name, . . . [is] a den of robbers’
(7:8,11) I will destroy it. The people, priests and some prophets
disbelieved Jeremiah. For this Jeremiah was condemned, arrested, jailed
and sentenced to death twice. The first death sentence was voided
by the King of Judah and the second by Nebuchadnezzar, himself
who captured Jerusalem, exiled many of the Israelis and then destroyed
the Temple.
Jeremiah developed a theology of repentance, restoration and exile. If
the Jews repented God would restore them to Jerusalem. Since
those who remained in Jerusalem (including the newly appointed King
Zedekiah) rejected his advice (as they had before the Temple was
destroyed) he told those exiled in Babylon that they were the holy
remnants (Jer. 23:3;31:7), to repent and wait until God restored them.
In a letter he wrote to the exiles:
`build houses, settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce,
marry and have sons and daughters, choose wives for your sons, find
husbands for your daughters so that these can bear sons and daughters
in their turn ... Work for the good of the city to which I have
exiled you, pray to YHVH on its
behalf since on its welfare yours depends’ (Jer. 29:5-8). This is a new
theology of exile; stay, work, be fertile and God will protect you
there. God did not need the Temple.
Jeremiah is an Eschatological Prophet, preaching a new heart (4:4;
9:25-26), a new covenant (31:29-34) including the restoration of a
righteous and just Davidic king (23:5). Ezekiel is not only an
Eschatological Prophet, like Jeremiah, but the first Apocalyptic
Prophet. Ezekiel begins his book with the vision of Merkavah - the
Chariot. He is the first Prophet to emphasize the visions of the secret
world. When Isaiah tells of his vision (chapter 6) it is still a secret
and acts as the background to his words - (chapter 7,9 and 11) his
words are clearly more important than the vision. Similarly Jeremiah’s
visions serve to illustrate his words. The Talmud in discussing the
canonization of Ezekiel resents his telling the secrets of God’s world
and then the Mishna (the basic text explained in the two Talmud's)
forbids the explaining of this known as ‘Ma’aseh Bereshit’ - the
stories of creation. They understood that Ezekiel’s vision was the
secret of the creation. His vision was an attempt to penetrate the
mystery of God, the world of the divine. His was a world of four headed
beasts, each with four wings, who were like lightening (Ez. 1:13-14),
had wheels within wheels (1:19,21), and they were attached to a
sapphire stone throne (1:26). And then Ezekiel is told to eat the
scroll of his vision, to internalize the vision and perhaps to hide
it. In his vision of the New Temple (described after the
apocalyptic battle of evil represented by Gog of Magog) the prince is
both a High priest (44:3; 45:7,17) and a political leader and one or
both are criticized, in the past, as being corrupt (45:8-9).
Ezekiel book talks about priestly rules (he actually changes them from
Leviticus) and a key word for him is ‘tamay’; ritual uncleanliness. His
criticism of the Israelites is on their ritual misbehavior. He is more
concerned with his priestly role that his prophetic role. Ezekiel’s
theology is based on priestly rituals. Walter Zimmerli points out that
the word God appears more often than in any other canonized book; 434
times. In half of these time the name of God is doubled - Adonai YHVH.
The doubling only appears sixty six times aside from Ezekiel. 23
(Jeremiah uses the term YHVH ‘Tzvaot’ eighty two times.) This confirms
Joyce noting the theocentricity of the theology of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is
also Temple centric. Instead of talking about ethics Ezekiel uses women
as a symbol of priestly and ritual uncleanliness.
The similarity of Jeremiah and Ezekiel is in the discussion of new
hearts. `Circumcise yourselves for YHVH, apply circumcision to your
hearts’ (Jer. 4:4, 9:25-26) and Ezekiel says in the name of God
that `I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you;
I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give a heart of
flesh instead (Ez. 36:26). What does the phrase a new heart mean?
The heart which they currently had allowed them free choice to
choose God or not. Ezekiel and Jeremiah knew the people had not
chosen God. Your ears do not hear His words. Look, their ears are
uncircumcised’ (Jer. 6:10). A new heart is defined by Jeremiah as a new
covenant. Ezekiel defines a new heart as having a new spirit; a
spirit to listen to God. It is important to note that the same Ezekiel
has been told by God that He `shall raise up one shepherd, My servant
David, and put him in charge of them to pasture them ... My servant
David a prince’ (Ez. 34:23-24). Again ‘my servant David shall be their
king.... their prince’ (37:24-25). The term Ezekiel uses `nasi’
translated as Prince or Leader is a new use of that term. It has never
previously been used for David as a messianic figure. Is the
Prince Messiah different than the King Messiah? Is his point that my
servant David and my prince are subservient to God as is the King
Messiah.
The theology of Jeremiah, as a Prophet and Priest, is preaching in
favor ethics and Ezekiel, a Priest and Prophet, preaches in favor
of ritual behaviour. This is not to deny Jeremiah’s belief in the
ritual laws nor Ezekiel’s belief in ethics, but rather that one chose
the prophetic role and the other the priestly role. They each chose to
see a different problem facing the people of Israel.
Thus Jeremiah is a prophet of exile, repentance and restoration while
Ezekiel cannot disagree with that he is more importantly the first
Apocalyptic Prophet. His pessimism suggests a new world in heaven - a
kingdom of God in Heaven. After the destruction of the Temple and of
prophecy (as defined by Jewish tradition), a theology of the apocalypt
developed amongst Jewish writers. This period ended with the
destruction of the Second Temple’s destruction.
JEREMIAH AND JOB
Jeremiah is the only prophet to have dialogues and monologues with God
in the form of prayers about his tortured life. They are introspective,
self revelatory and biographical, more private cries of distress than
prophetic. He is appealing and praying to God (in each prayer God is
the addressee - thus it is a prayer) as a suffering human being not in
his function as a prophet to the people of Israel, but perhaps as a
complaint to the one who gave him the mission, which he considers to
have failed. No one in biblical literature has felt this personal acute
pain and its affect on his personal religious experience like Jeremiah.
It is more burdensome than he could stand. God even tells him not ‘pray
for these people, neither lift up or cry or pray on their behalf, do
not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you’ (7:16). This puts him
in an opposite position than Moses who always interceded for the
people. Did Jeremiah despair of God or decide that he and only he
‘knew’ God. How does one survive in a human society believing that? He
has no life outside his relationship with God. In this sense his
mission (or at least as he perceived it - that is why he the messenger
is so important) was more difficult that Moses’. Moses had a life, a
wife, a brother and sister and children. Jeremiah has no family or
social relations (at God’s request) nothing but God, an impossible
companion! He seemed to carry the world upon his shoulders. He sees and
feels the world differently than his fellow Judeans. He knows that
destruction must come because they have broken the covenant. This
divine consciousness gives Jeremiah a sensitivity to what Heschel
called the pathos of God. He saw the apathetic indifference of H/his
people as the voice of God and such he differs from us. 24 He may
have been inspired by Moses, Amos and Hosea, but he has absorbed God
into his unconscious and becomes God-intoxicated. Did he have any words
of his own? Jeremiah is not just a prophet but has a suffering
relationship to God, a much more dangerous task. He is every man’s
suffering and pain. Can he have become the ‘righteousness’ of
God? In this he can not succeed. God’s anger may be righteous
indignation towards injustice. Jeremiah’s may be as well. But his
anger is also human. When he says ‘avenge me’ he is a suffering human
being - not God-intoxicated.
Job has the same distress toward God as does Jeremiah and his more
specific question (although unstated) is ‘Why do righteous men
suffer’? Job is a heretic according to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar
and their traditional orthodoxy. God however justifies Job and rejects
the traditional orthodoxy. Job can be seen as a scapegoat to God. But
the Poet-author justifies him and thus his role as a scapegoat fails.
This differs from Oedipus whom Sophocles does not justify and thereby
his fate is to be a successful scapegoat.
Some Talmudic sages considered Job more righteous that Abraham. This
raises some comparisons that can be made to Abraham, tested over his
son Isaac, the least comprehensible of God’s demands. Job is tested, we
are told by the text, due to God allowing His subordinate Satan to test
a righteous man. In Job the test is about Justice. According to a
Midrash Abraham is tested as a result of Satan instigating God. For
Abraham the test is about obedience. Abraham bows to God’s obedience
and becomes the ‘Prince of Faith’. Job at the end of his ordeal only
bows when God says to him that ‘mishpat’ as justice is only one aspect
of God. The other is ‘mishpat’ as power - ‘mishpat ha’melech’.
Another great work of literature that deals with God, Satan and
humanity is Goethe’s Faust. Faust wants knowledge of God that Abraham
and Job attained at a terrible cost. Goethe is kinder to Faust than God
was to Abraham or Job.
MESSENGERS AND MESSAGES
This book describes Messengers and messages. The messengers were
clearly different. God had to work with what he had; what He created.
But once He decided to create human beings free to choose, His choice
was limited. God impacted these messengers by his choosing and calling
them. But they were already formed by their genetic makeup and the
nurturing they had received. These formed human beings reacted to God
differently: Moses whose makeup seemed healthy reacted by becoming The
Servant of God. Jeremiah’s makeup made the reactions to his calling and
his failure as he saw it, anguish him. That can be said of Jonah as
well – although despite his feeling of failure he may be the only
prophet who accomplished his objective – the people to whom he preached
did repent. Ezekiel and Hosea’s unhealthy makeup (to this author)
reacted with a level of imagination that is bizarre and thus they
distorted their messages. Obviously they were canonized, so others may
have thought differently.
Despite this can one find some consistency in these human centered
messages? I believe so. Many Jewish commentators believe the message of
the Torah is ‘love your neighbor and the stranger as yourself’. This is
the social ethic. The other theme one finds in the totality of the
Bible is against idolatry.
Idolatry is self-deification, the god I make is of my own hands. I have
control of my world. Having control allows ethics to be relative. I can
kill whom I choose to kill, I can rob whom I chose to rob, I am better
than my neighbor because I am rich, people are poor because they choose
to be poor.
The Hebrew Bible written 3,500 – 2,500 years ago created a
revolutionary thought – God created the world – created all humanity
equal. His ethics exemplified in the Bible are not relative. His rules
are absolute.
Notes