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ŽILINSKÁ UNIVERZITA V ŽILINE
Fakulta prírodných vied
Supplement for the Study of
the Old Testament Theology
Bohdan Hroboň
Žilina 2008
ŽILINSKÁ UNIVERZITA V ŽILINE, FAKULTA PRÍRODNÝCH VIED
_____________________________________________________________________
SUPPLEMENT FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY
Bohdan Hroboň
Vybrané kapitoly upravené a doplnené podľa originálu slovenských prednášok
Recenzenti:
Translation: Ing. Mgr. Bohdan Hroboň, PhD.
English translation reviewed by: RNDr. Adrian Kacian PhD.
Vydala Žilinská univerzita v Žiline, Žilina 2008
Issued by University of Žilina, Žilina 2008
___________________________________________________________________________
© Bohdan Hroboň, 2008
© Translation: Bohdan Hroboň, 2008
Tlač/ Printed by
ISBN
Vydané s podporou Európskeho sociálneho fondu, project SOP ĽZ-
2005/NP1-007
Issued with support of European Social Foundation, project SOP ĽZ-
2005/NP1-007
3
Contents
Preface ……………………………………………………………… 4
Cult ………………………………………………………………….. 5
Holiness ……………………………………………………………. 21
Imago Dei ………………………………………………………….. 41
Love Your Neighbour ……………………………………………. 52
The Land …………………………………………………………… 70
Sabbath ……………………………………………………………... 91
Bibliography ……………………………………………………….. 97
4
Preface
The Original Story to introduce some of the key concepts of the Old Testament theology to
e a very effective way to get students interested in
such central Old Testament themes as who is God, who is a human being, how should one
live, etc. (see pp. 37-109 there). It has not meant to be used as an textbook for the Old
Testament theology class, but it provides an excellent start and a framework that can be
expanded to meet even this goal. Such expansion is the purpose of the present material. This
supplement contains the Old Testament themes that came up most frequently in the class as
the result
5
Cult
Introduction
The best way to understand cult is t
communities or individuals give outward expression to their religious life, by which they seek
1
These acts are usually referred to as rituals. In its cultic
sense, a r
2
Anthropologists agree that where there is a religion, there is a ri
suppose that there can be religion which is all interior, with no rules, no liturgy, no external
signs of inward states. As with society, so with religion, external form is the condition of its
3
It is important to realize that this outward expression of the religious life of
Israelites before the Babylonian exile was very similar to the one of surrounding nations:
the same types of incense burners, chalices, goblets and bronze and ivory sticks adorned
4
The main responsibility for performing and maintaining rituals was assigned to priests.
Naturally, therefore, the description and prescription of cultic rituals such as purification and
sacrifices dominate the so called Priestly tradition (P and H). Ethics as commonly understood
by the 21st century western world seems to play the role of Cinderella here. On the other
hand, there are several texts in the OT that appear to be critical of, even hostile to rituals.
5
1
Roland De Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, trans. John McHugh (London: Darton
Longman and Todd, 1961), 271.
2
J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner, The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1989), 13:992.
3
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concept of Pollution and Taboo, Routledge classics
(London: Routledge, 2002 (1966)), 77.
4
Ephraim Stern, "Religion in Palestine in the Assyrian and Persian Periods," in The Crisis of Israelite
Religion: Transformation of Religious Tradition in Exilic and Post-Exilic Times, ed. Bob Becking and
Marjo C. A. Korpel, OTS (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 246.
5
See, e.g., 1 Sam 15:22; Amos 5:21-27; Mic 6:6-8; Hos 6:6, 8:13; Isa 1:11-15, 58:2-5, 66:2-4; Jer 7:21-
23; Pss 40:6-8, 50:8-13, 51:18-19; Prov 21:3. For lack of a better term, these texts will be referred to
as cult-critical throughout this study.
6
Furthermore, the depreciation of ritual in these texts is juxtaposed with a commendation
of some sort of ethical behaviour, creating an impression that the role of cult is taken over
by ethics. The fact that most of these texts occur in the prophetic literature prompted many
scholars to explain this discrepancy by comparing or contrasting the supposed ideologies of
priestly and prophetic literature, or, more personally, the priest and the prophets.
6
This
movements often credit the prophets with anti-ritualism, promoting an internal religion as
opposed to the external one of the priests. In order to make an informed decision with
regard to this polemic, a closer look at the priestly understanding of cult, especially of its
purpose, is needed.
Ritual according to Priestly Tradition
Ritual is used in OT scholarship as a general label for offering sacrifices, purificatory
procedures, and related activities such as fasting or prayer. This abstract category is foreign
to ancient Hebrew thinking, so it ought to be defined through what it represents in a
particular body of literature. For this purpose, two fundamental ritual concepts in the OT are
chosen here sacrifices and impurity/purity. Understanding these rituals helps to determine
the overall purpose of Ancient Israelite cult as presented in the Priestly tradition.
Sacrifices
The system of sacrifices is very complex. Any in-depth study on this subject is bound to
conclude that the sacrifices in Ancient Israel serve more than one single purpose.
7
Hubert
at the same time as an act of thanksgiving, a vow, and a propitiation, sacrifice can fulfil a
6
For a recent attempt to contrast priest with prophets, see, e.g., Ronald S. Hendel, "Prophets, Priests,
and the Efficacy of Ritual," in Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish and Near
Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom, ed. David P. Wright, David Noel
Freedman, and Avi Hurvitz (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1995).
7
David Janzen, The Social
Meanings of Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of Four Writings, BZAW 344 (Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 2004), 75-81.
7
8
The texts about sacrifices in the Priestly tradition
(esp. Leviticus and Numbers) are much more concerned with
how rather than why. This may be because the meaning of a particular sacrifice was
superfluous being well understood, perhaps even determined by the worshipper.
9
The study
of sacrifices in ancient Israel is further complicated by the fact that they were a dynamic
phenomenon, reflecting the theological and social development of their time. One must,
therefore, agree with anthropologist Bourdillon that
any general theory of sacrifice is bound to fail. The wide distribution of the institution of
sacrifice among peoples of the world is not due to some fundamental trait which fulfils
a fundamental human need. Sacrifice is a flexible symbol which can convey a rich
variety of possible meanings.
10
Being aware of these complexities, it is still not only legitimate, but also beneficial to
attempt to determine what sacrifices were not supposed to mean for the people of ancient
Israel, and what was the primary purpose of a certain kind of sacrifice.
As far as the first question is concerned, the abundance of textual evidence makes clear that
in Israelite religion, sacrifices were not to be a magic tool for manipulating God. This point is
emphasized over and over in the Prophets, Proverbs, and Psalms, and also illustrated by
many OT narratives. It was even incorporated into the sacrificial system, where the sacrifice
was offered after the associated event, e.g., a person was to bring a particular sacrifice only
after he or she was healed. Thus, one can only speculate whence then the view of sacrifices
being magical and/or having power on their own came. Some scholars believe that the basic
because of many similarities between the cultic tradition of the Old Testament and of
8
Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss, Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1964), 97. According to them, the unity of sacrifice
establishing a means of communication between the sacred and the profane worlds through the
9
interpreted in the light of the motive with which it is offered rather than any significance artificially
attributed to a particular kind of sacrifice, Nigel B. Courtman, "Sacrifice in the Psalms," in Sacrifice in
the Bible, ed. Roger T. Beckwith and Martin J. Selman (Carlisle, UK; Grand Rapids, MI: Paternoster
Press, Baker Book House, 1995), 52.
10
M. F. C. Bourdillon and Meyer Fortes, eds., Sacrifice (London: Academic Press for the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1980), 23.
8
Canaan
11
As for the idea of sacrifices having power on their own, Rowley suggests that
ancient concepts of unavoidable and involuntary sin, such as childbirth or cleansing from
leprosy, could lead to confusion of ritual and moral sin, resulting in the use of sacrifice ex
opere operato to expiate for both:
repentance, and the ritual cleansing could only be thought of as automatic. This could
only tend to make men think of all sacrificial acts as automatic in their effects. This was
the attitude which the great pre-exilic prophets condemned, and it was equally far from
the mind of the framers of the Priestly law.
12
Also, the natural tendency of humans to cling more to the visible, physical aspect of religion
than to its spiritual dimension could have enhanced the adoption of these ideas.
13
The answer to the question about the main purpose for offering a certain kind of sacrifice is
more complicated. Marx persuasively argues that the primary purpose of the sacrificial cult
is not to atone for sins, but YHWH
14
Different types of sacrifice, however, seem to serve this goal differently. Marx makes a
purpose-based distinction between the sacrifices that are a pleasant fragrance for YHWH
such as the whole-offering, the cereal offering, and the well-being offering, and those that
serve to atone, such as the sin offering and the reparation offering. He believes that only
the first set of sacrifices establishes communion with YHWH. This does not mean that the
sacrifices for atonement are unimportant, rather that their function is subsidiary they
11
Hans-Joachim Kraus, Worship in Israel: A Cultic History of the Old Testament, trans. Geoffrey
Buswell (Oxford: Blackwell, 1966), 22, 36, and 122-24.
12
Harold Henry Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel: Its Forms and Meaning (London: S.P.C.K., 1967),
131.
13
Cmp. John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986),
96.
14
Alfred Marx, "The Theology of the Sacrifice according to Leviticus 1-7," in The Book of Leviticus:
Composition and Reception, ed. Rolf Rendtorff, Robert A. Kugler, and Sarah Smith Bartel, VTSup 93
(Leiden: Brill, 2003), 111. He finds it significant that one of the most important sections on sacrifice,
Lev 1-7, is preceded by the story of YHWH-This
sequence suggests, as a matter of fact, a correlation between YHWH
YHWH remain among his people and
bless them, pp. 105-106.
9
ritually purify the person when he brings an offering to YHWH
atonement are the necessary prerequisite for the offerings. They are not an end in
15
Texts like Exod 29:38-46 or Num 28:3-8 speak strongly in support of this
conclusion.
Impurity and Purity
The Encyclopaedia Judaica
state which, by religious law, prevents the person or object from having any contact with the
temple or its cult.
16
This state can result from a great variety of sources of impurities, such
as scale disease, genital discharges, unclean food, idolatry, or murder. It may be objected
that bodily impurity is essentially different from the contamination caused by sin; while the
metaphorical, borrowing the terminology of the first to describe
reason why either type of
17
More importantly, even though the
sources may be different, the effects of both contaminations on the divine sancta are
essentially the same:
also by sin, the priestly legislators created an unparalleled system of thought based on the
postulate that both sin and impurity invade and contaminate the divine abode and that
unchecked they drive the divine Prese
18
Looking at the OT concept of purity from
15
Ibid. recently endorsed by Klawans who argues that just as the tabernacle or
the sanctuary with its various elements serves a
sacrificial act, being an important part of the worship in the sanctuary, embodies the same metaphor.
See Jonathan Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study
of Ancient Judaism (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
16
Enc Jud 13.1405. A closer look at texts addressing impurity reveals that this definition is only
partially correct when it comes to the OT. Adultery or murder are said to defile, yet a suspected
adulteress or a murderer is, at least for the time being, granted access to the Temple.
17
Jonathan Klawans, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000), 33-34. Also, if the land of Israel is regarded as holy in a real sense, there is no reason to take its
defilement metaphorically or figuratively.
18
Baruch J. Schwartz, "The Bearing of Sin in the Priestly Literature," in Pomegranates and Golden
Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob
Milgrom, ed. David P. Wright, David Noel Freedman, and Avi Hurvitz (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns,
1995), 4-5.
10
the perspective of the divine presence, more precisely from the perspective of divine
holiness (sub specie sanctitatis Dei),
19
maintains the focus on its very purpose.
20
Even though various impurities have the same effect when perceived sub specie sanctitatis
Deiritual
21
The sources of ritual impurity include childbirth (Lev 12:1-8), scale
disease (Lev 13:1-14:32), genital discharges (Lev 15:1-33), the carcasses of certain impure
animals (Lev 11:1-47), human corpses (Num 19:10-22), and even certain purificatory
procedures (e.g., Lev 16:28; Num 19:8).
22
The three main characteristics of this kind of
contagion are that its sources are generally natural and more or less unavoidable, it is not
sinful, and it can be reversed rather straightforwardly by performing various purificatory
procedures.
23
Being an impurity, it cannot come into contact with what is sacred. Therefore,
as Lev 15:31 implies, it is vital for Israelites to be aware of their ritual status at all times. The
second kind of defilement, viz. moral impurity, does not automatically result from every
immoral act, rather cts so heinous that they are explicitly referred
to sexual sins (e.g., Lev 18:24-30), idolatry (e.g.,
Lev 19:31; 20:1-3), or bloodshed (e.g., Num 35:33-34). These acts defile not only the sinner
(Lev 18:24), but also the land of Israel (Lev 18:25, Ezek 36:17), and the sanctuary of God (Lev
20:3; Ezek 5:11), and this defilement can eventually result in the expulsion of the people
from the land of Israel (Lev 18:28; Ezek 36:19).
24
The most important difference between
ritual and moral impurity is that the latter is sinful and cannot be eliminated by purificatory
19
This Latin expression is borrowed from Theodore C. Vriezen, "Essentials of the Theology of Isaiah,"
in Israel's Prophetic Heritage: Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg, ed. Bernhard W. Anderson and
Walter J. Harrelson (London: SCM, 1962), 146.
20
e. In
insight into the present pathos of God, see Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets, [1st ]. ed. (New
York: Harper & Row, 1962), esp. chapter 12.
21
These labels were introduced by Klawans. For a survey of studies that categorize the impurity in the
priestly tradition on the same basis but use different labels, see Klawans, Impurity and Sin, 3-20.
22
Ibid., 23. Here he refers to Wright ABD 6.732.
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid., 26. a potent force unleashed by certain sinful human
actions. The force unleashed defiles the sinner, the sanctuary, and the land, even though the sinner is
is seen as morally impure, Klawans,
Impurity and Sin, 29.
11
procedures. Since no ritual can purify grave sinners or the land upon which the grave sins
rave sins is, for all practical
25
The reversal of this status is only possible for, and solely up to,
God.
26
mpurity brings permanent separation from
God, death and exile.
27
Connection between Sacrifices and Impurity
Hubert and Mauss draw attention to the preparatory rites required before sacrificing in
various religions. According to them, the purpose of these rites is to become sacred, even
god-like
advent of the divinity is terrible for those
28
The religion of Ancient Israel
shares this fundamental concept with other religions. The best illustration is the sacrifice of
well-being; since its main purpose was communion with God, purity was compulsory for
offering it in the sanctuary: -being
The reason is not
difficult to deduce: impurity is offensive
h
29
Two concerns central to the priestly traditions of the Pentateuch, namely imitating God and
attracting and maintaining the presence of God within the community,
30
help to identify the
interaction between purity and sacrifices. The imitatio Dei principle brings out the
connection between sacrifices and ritual purity:
25
Klawans, Impurity and Sin, 31.
26
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 3 (New
York, London: Doubleday, 1991), 256.
27
Apparently, moral impurity as defined above blurs the modern distinction between the cult and
ethics, for, even if the cause can be ethical, its effect is cultic.
28
Hubert and Mauss, Sacrifice, 22.
29
Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 46.
30
See Klawans, Purity, 48.
12
By separating from sex and death by following the ritual purity regulations
ancient Israelites (and especially ancient Israelite priests and Levites) separated
themselves from what made them least God-like. In other words, the point of following
these regulations is nothing other than the theological underpinning of the entire
Holiness Code: imitatio Dei (Lev. 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7, 26).
31
The principle of attracting and maintaining the divine presence brings out the connection
between sacrifices and moral purity. Contrary to the main purpose of the whole-offering,
the cereal offering, and the well-being offering, moral impurity is repugnant to God and
repels his presence, for sins such as idolatry, sexual transgressions, or murder defile the land
in such an abhorrent way that it eventually becomes uninhabitable for the Holy One of
Israel. Ezek 8-11 is the prime example of this principle; here the glory of YHWH leaves the
sanctuary and Jerusalem as a consequence of the great abominations of the people. As
Klawans puts it,
32
It needs
to be emphasized again that, according to the Priestly tradition, not every sacrifice and not
every wrong action has this effect; it is only those sacrifices and offerings that are intended
for attracting and maintaining the divine presence and those abominable acts that cause
moral impurity. These are related in the opposite way than is
not that the daily sacrifice undoes the damage done by grave transgression. Quite the
33
31
Ibid., 58.
32
Ibid., 71.
33
Ibid.
13
Ritual and Pre-Exilic Prophets
This section is limited to the pre-exilic prophets because their relationship to rituals is the
most controversial one. Since Isa 1:10-17 is one of those texts that triggered this
controversy, it serves here as an illustration of this controversy.
34
It is fairly safe to assume
that the -17 was the
ethical misconduct of the people in Judah during the second half of the eighth century BCE.
It is, however, much less clear why Isaiah in this passage used such strong language in
relation to various rituals. Was it just a rhetorical device to enhance the importance of
ethics?
35
Or was it that the people performed the rituals to cover up for their ethical
wrongdoings? If so, was Isaiah reacting just to the cultic practice of the people, or was there
something in the cult per se, especially in its theology, that encouraged such practice and
like Isa
1:10-17 is that they reflect a certain development of the understanding of cult in Israel. The
following quote from Rowley brings an appropriate caution into this discussion:
The Old Testament covers a very long period, and neither the forms nor the spirit
remained unchanged throughout the period. Nor can we assume a steady and
unwavering progress from the lower to the higher in all the development. The mere
routine performance of a ritual act may well be a very arid form of worship, as the Old
Testament prophets realized, and it is not confined to a single age or to a single point in
the development of religion.
36
Even though, as the above quote indicates, determining the cultic background of cult-critical
passages in pre-exilic prophets seems almost impossible, it is worth the effort to look for at
least some clues. Once these clues are determined, it would be natural to turn to the cultic
material in the Priestly literature for their interpretation. OT scholars, however, radically
ividual rituals and the
stipulations connected with them can be projected into the text from as early as the second
34
Other pre-exilic prophetic texts arguably are 1 Sam 15:22; Amos 5:21-27; Mic 6:6-8; Hos 6:6, 8:13;
and Jer 7:21-23.
35
De Vaux, among othe
De Vaux, Ancient Israel, 454.
36
Rowley, Worship, 3.
14
half of the 8th
to the theories about the OT sources. The JEDP theory works with the assumption that P is
the latest of the law-codes, dated around 500-450 BCE, and even its Grundschrift (PG) is not
in the pre-
37
On the other end of the spectrum are scholars who maintain that,
more with the ancient life of Israel, which was grounded on sacral dogma and prescriptions
that continued to mould the life of the Israelites even after the establishment of the
38
To slice this Gordian knot, it is important to realize that the concern here is not
so much the date of P, rather the antiquity of the ideas formulated in the individual units of
P. As pointed out already by Driver,
the date at which an event, or institution, is first mentioned in writing, must not,
however, be confused with that at which it occurred, or originated: in the early stages
mory of the past is preserved habitually by tradition; and
the Jews, long after they were possessed of a literature, were still apt to depend much
upon tradition.
39
One consensus has already resulted from predo
Priestly material in the Pentateuch was not spun out of thin air in the exilic or post-exilic
40
Furthermore, there are no
convincing arguments to eliminate the possibility that the cultic concepts of sacrifice and
purity/impurity were understood in 8th century Israelite religion essentially as defined in P.
41
Generally speaking, one coherent cultic tradition within the OT should remain a real option.
37
Ernest W. Nicholson, The Pentateuch in the Twentieth Century: The Legacy of Julius Wellhausen
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 3.
38
Moshe Weinfeld, The Place of the Law in the Religion of Ancient Israel, VTSup 100 (Leiden: Brill,
2004), 83.
39
S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, International Theological Library
(Edinburgh: Clark, 1891), 125.
40
Nicholson, Pentateuch, 220.
41
If P, as the consensus now stands, was composed after the time of Isaiah of Jerusalem, it might
Joseph Blenkinsopp,
"An Assessment of the Alleged Pre-Exilic Date of the Priestly Material in the Pentateuch," ZAW 108
(1996): 517.
15
Wellhausen is certainly correct that the exile experience must have been instrumental in
alone contradict, the message of the pre-exilic and exilic prophets who predicted this exile,
struggled to interpret it, and were venerated by it. It seems that it was not the development
from naivety to legalism that caused the cult in P to look at odds with some other OT
unsystematic book.
42
Implications
Is seems, therefore, reasonable to suggests that even the authors of the so called cult-critical
texts understood that the primary interest of the ritual performance was to attract and
maintain .
43
The conclusion about sacrifices that Klawans based on Priestly
tradition seems to be valid for the Prophets as well:
not primarily as a solution to the problem of transgression but rather as a productive
expression of their religious ideals and hopes: the imitation of the divinity, in order to
44
Furthermore, it seems that the prophets were
very much concerned about purity of the cult. Although ritual impurity in these texts is not
nearly as prominent as
agenda. First, several texts confirm that the prophets, just like the priests, recognized the
impurity caused by grave sins like murder, adultery, or idolatry. Hos 6:9-10 is a good
example:
murder on the road to Shechem, they commit a monstrous crime. In the house of Israel I
have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there, Israel is defiled (am'j.nI)
45
As a
Also Ezekiel makes
42
Jon Douglas Levenson, The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism: Jews and
Christians in Biblical Studies (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 18.
43
-exilic prophets who are opposed to sacrifice seem to me to be
overwhelmingly conc
John Barton, "The Prophets and the Cult," in Temple and Worship
in Biblical Israel, ed. John Day, Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar (London: T & T Clark
International, 2005), 119.
44
Klawans, Purity, 73.
45
Significantly, this account immediately follows v. 6
16
an explicit connection between idolatry and defilement:
the manner of your ancestors and go astray after their detestable things? When you offer
your gifts and make your children pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your
idols to this dayb-31a, see also 22:1-4). Jer 7:9-11 is probably the best
illustration how moral impurity upsets the cult:
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go
after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this
house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!" -- only to go on doing all
these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD.
This text lists all the characteristic sources of moral impurity.
46
Even though it does not
mention impurity or defilement explicitly,
47
it is obvious that the listed sins are irreconcilable
with what the Temple represents.
48
The prophets took moral impurity very seriously, for, as it appears, they also believed that
no ritual could purify the person or the object defiled by it. Once its level reached the point
when YHWH became weary of relenting (Jer 15:6), the doom was inevitable: the people
The inevitability of the capital punishment and the exile as predicted by, e.g., Amos 7:11b
) finds its
explanation in, e.g., Num 35:33
46
It may seem that stealing and swearing falsely do not belong to this list. However, as observed by
Douglas from Lev 5:20-26, an issue between fellow men (like stealing and others listed in vv. 21-22aA)
becomes a cultic issue by swearing falsely about it (vv. 22aB- tical text uses the oath to
Mary Douglas, Leviticus as Literature (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000), 131. This mechanism is more explicit in Lev 19:11-12 stealing often leads to
parallel as the illustration of the same principle, see Jacob Milgrom, Studies in Cultic Theology and
Terminology, ed. Jacob Neusner, SJLA 36 (Leiden: Brill, 1983), 47-51.
standard technique for appealing to a higher court. So far from being concerned exclusively with the
cult it reflects a care to protect the system of justice, like our penalties for perjuDouglas, Leviticus,
131.
47
Elsewhere, Jeremiah explicitly states that idolatry defiles the people (2:23), the land (3:9, 13:27),
and the sanctuary (7:30, 32:34).
48
As in the case of Hos 6 above, this ritual impurity account in Jeremiah comes after the repudiation
of sacrifices in 6:20 and the call to social justice in 7:5-6. Klawans points in the right direction when
the temple would be destroyed (7:1-Klawans, Purity, 91.
17
pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in
it, except by the blood of the one who shed ), and Lev 18, where the people are warned
not to defile themselves with the abominations of the nations that were before them, lest
the land vomits them out for defiling it (vv. 24-30).
The priests as well as the prophets knew that the best cure for the illness called moral
impurity was prevention. The following quote from Marx aptly describes the mechanism that
was their ongoing concern: YHWH with his offering,
and to enjoy YHWHYHWH
must behave in perfect accordance with YHWH
ultimately responsible for YHWH
49
As the story
about the death o Lev 10 graphically illustrates, it was vital for the people to
follow the commandments when they drawing near to YHWH. Because it was a matter of life
and death to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and
the clean (v. 10), priests are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has
spoken to them through Moses (v. 11). Interestingly, the same words occur in Ezek 22:26,
this very task (along with disregard of the Sabbaths) is listed as
one of the reasons why YHWH consumed the people with the fire of his wrath (v. 31, notice
the similarity with Lev. 10:2), a reference to the exile. In addition, the rest of Ezek 22 is
It should be clear by now how the concept of moral impurity is operative in some of the
texts with strong cult-critical language such as Isa 1:10-17. When the person, the sanctuary,
and the land are defiled by the sin for which no ritual can atone, to perform the rituals that
are designed to attract and maintain is to bring impurity into the presence of
holiness. No matter how well intended and performed, these rituals become
49
Marx, "Leviticus," 119.
18
Conclusion
It seems likely that the priestly concept of sacrifice and purity is compatible with how these
rituals were understood by the prophets. For the priests as well as the prophets, the main
purpose of cult was the same attracting and maintaining the presence of God within the
community.
50
The reason why the priests were more occupied with ritual impurity and the
prophets with moral impurity may be found in their different standpoints the priests
guarded the presence of God from the inside of the Temple, the prophets from the outside.
The differences between the two bodies of literature are not due to different ideologies, but
to the different realms in which they operate, the different purpose they serve, and the
different focus they have. The world of the priests is defined and represented by the Temple
and all that belongs to it. The purpose of their writings is to maintain what the Temple
symbolizes the presence of YHWH in the midst of his people. Naturally, their main focus is
on cult and rituals. Prophets, on the other hand, are thought to operate outside the Temple
precincts, closer to the people and the real world. Their concern, therefore, is society
governed by YHWH and functioning according to his principles, so ethics comes to the fore as
a matter of course. It seems plausible that, far from being antiritualistic, the prophets took
very seriously the purpose of rituals and therefore also the defilement caused by grave sins
(moral impurity).
51
52
Certainly, ethical misbehaviour is
taken very seriously; however, the reason may not be because of how such misbehaviour
50
completely distinct. With different degrees of exclusiveness, the work of both theses groups was
connected with the temple, as the place of the presence of God, who approached the community for
Otto Kaiser, Isaiah 1-12: A Commentary, trans. John
Bowden, 2nd ed., OTL (London: SCM, 1983), 25. Douglas goes even further, stating that
look at Leviticus shows that there is no line-up of priest and prophet, and no conflict between internal
Mary Douglas, "Holy Joy: Rereading Leviticus: The
Anthropologist and the Believer," Conservative Judaism 46, no. 3 (1994): 10.
51
This understanding is more explicit after the exile. Referring to Isa 24:5, 27:9, Dan 11:31, 12:10a,
Zech 3, 5, and 13:1-
John G.
Gammie, Holiness in Israel, Overtures to Biblical Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), 183-84.
52
John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI;
Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1998), 505.
19
presence of God. If granted, then the value of ethics for the prophets was determined by
cult, not vice versa as is often assumed. In such case, one can think of ethical (im)purity as
the ethical dimension of cult.
20
Holiness
Introduction
Holiness is one of the essential attributes of God, intrinsically connected with his presence.
Its manifestation is akin to, if YHWH (hw"hy>-dAbK.), with
self-m53 For this reason the concept of holiness plays an important part in the
religion of Ancient Israel.54
Holiness in the OT is attributed not only to God, but also to people, things, places, or
nly in virtue of its relation to God as his
55 According to him, this derivative holiness results
being in some sense an extension of his
as well
56 Even though at this point Jones falls into an etymological trap of connecting
57 his main idea stands: the
land, the temple, etc. are not holy by themselves, but because they belong to holy God.
53 Owen C. Whitehouse, "Holiness: Semitic," in Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James
Hastings, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1913), 758. Jacob states that
Edmond Jacob,
Theology of the Old Testament (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1958), 79. This connection is best
-3), his vision of the return of God to Jerusalem (expanded by
his school in chapters 40-48), and his vision of the initial departure of the divine glory from Jerusalem
(chapters 8-Gammie, Holiness, 49.
54
Helmer Ringgren, The Prophetical Conception of Holiness, Uppsala Universitets Årsskrift 12 (Uppsala:
A.-B. Lindquist, 1948), 3.
55 O. R. Jones, The Concept of Holiness (London: Allen and Unwin, 1961), 107.
56 Ibid., 92 and 94.
57 On the fallacy of this very connection, see James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language
([London]: Oxford University Press, 1961), 111-14.
21
that for God to disown his land or his people means to become incomplete. However, as
58
This chapter focuses predominantly on God’s holiness: first on its connection with purity,
then on its essence (cultic and/or ethical), and finally on its use in the book of Isaiah as a
study-case.
Holiness and Purity
The close relationship between holiness and purity in the OT is unanimously acknowledged.
throughout the entire Hebrew Scriptures.59 The reason behind this call for purity is in the
ambivalence of holiness it could cause destruction as well as blessing, as illustrated in, e.g.,
2 Sam 6: Uzzah died because he touched what was holy, namely the ark of God (vv. 6-8), and
the household of Obed-edom was blessed because of the presence of this very ark (v. 11).
Ringgren reads Isa 10:17a as another illustration
60 He rightly concludes that the intention behind
evidently partly to remove that which is incompatible with holiness, partly, so to speak, to
61 It comes, therefore, as
no surprise that the Hebrew term for holy (vdq) is often related to purifying (rhj) and
washing (sbk
62
58 Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 730. These characteristics of derived holiness will become important
especially when studying Deutero-Isaiah.
59 Gammie, Holiness, 195.
response to holiness on the
60 Ringgren, Prophetical Conception, 30.
61 Ibid., 10.
62 vdq,
22
A closer look at the relationship between holiness and purity in the OT reveals that most
of its illustrations are concerned with ritual impurities. Holiness seems to be connected with
ethics only implicitly, confining the few instances to only certain parts of the OT. This
disproportion led Gammie to argue that the holiness of God required different kinds of
cleanness for the priests than for the prophets for the former a cleanness of ritual purity,
right sacrifices, and separation, for the latter a cleanness of social justice and equity in
clearly ta 63
theol
by asserting that, even though personal uncleanness and defilement of the sanctuary had to
nchingly affirmed
section on the prophetic understanding of holiness by s
were heirs of the priesthood and cultus
holiness, as it is preserved to us in th64 It becomes obvious
holiness and purity is cultic, ethical, or both depends on how one defines the nature of the
two concepts. The concept of purity and impurity is discussed in the chapter on cult, so the
subject of the present discussion is the nature of holiness.
Holiness as a Cultic Notion
Almost a century ago, Whitehouse stated:
63 Gammie, Holiness, 100.
64 Ibid., 25, 44, and 71 respectively, see also 191. These and similar statements do not presuppose a
particular view of dating the sources (such as P to predate the Prophets), only the antiquity of the
priestly tradition as described in, e.g., Milgrom, Cultic Theology and Terminology, ix-xiii.
23
The conception of holiness when traced to its historic origins among Semitic peoples
is stripped of all the ethical qualities with which our Christian modern consciousness
has invested it. The ethical elements which have become absorbed into its content
entered at a much later stage in the evolution of ideas which became attached to the
term.65
66 providing a
suitable ideological framework for the study of this concept in the OT, and is especially
helpful for understanding the relation of holiness to cult and ethics. Like Whitehouse, Otto
shaped and infiltrated the terms like vAdq', a[gioj, or sanctus, whose original and unique
substance was non-ethical (ethically neutral) and non-rational, a feeling-based response to
67 Correspondingly, when a human being is encountered by the numinous reality
(as, e.g., in Isa 6), the feeling-response does not result from a sense of moral unworthiness
corresponds to the two kinds of self-depreciation contained in the religious feeling that
guilty of a bad action and
68 Consequently,
the need for atonement results from the feeling of pro
shield against the ovrgh.
65 Whitehouse, "Holiness," 751.
66 Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine
and Its Relation to the Rational, trans. John W. Harvey, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press,
1950).
67 See Ibid., 5-7. The
the transmutation of the actual feeling (as often assumed by evolutionism), e.g., from a feeling of
numinous tremor or uniform custom to a feeling of moral obligation. Otto rightly objects that, since
these feelings are qualitatively different, the transmutation par la durée is very unlikely. See Otto,
Idea, 42-43 and 18.
68 Otto, Idea, 50-55.
ely moral man; and the theory of certain
dogmatists, that the demand of morality as such urged man on to an inner collapse and then obliged
24
a procedure that renders the approacher himself
69
Because of its close connection with cult, Ringgren agrees with Otto that holiness is a cultic
asily understood if we remember that cult is the normal way of getting into
70 Study of the term vdq only confirms the ideas above. After
surveying its use in various Semitic languages, Kornfeld concludes that, even though the
original meaning of the root itself can no longer be determined, every context of the vdq
derivatives suggests a religious-
issues, but rather on an act of consecration, surrender, or dedication to a 71
Based on this brief survey, it is safe to conclude that the idea of holiness as essentially a
cultic notion is well established in the OT, especially in the Priestly literature.72 Now the
question is whether this idea is consistent throughout the OT, or whether it has been
somehow modified in different bodies of OT literature. More specifically, did the prophets
work with the same (cultic) idea of holiness as the priests, or did they (through their
teaching) supplement this concept with an ethical notion?
Holiness as an Ethical Notion?
ect of holiness plays a very subordinate part in prophetic
69 Ibid., 54.
70 Ringgren, Prophetical Conception, 8.
71 vdq, TDOT 12.526.
Sigmund Mowinckel, He That Cometh (Oxford: Blackwell,
1956), 381n.
72 For specification of holiness in P and D, see Weinfeld, Law, 88-94.
25
73
prophets. Se
conception of holiness is intimately bound up with the transformation of the idea of God as
develtremendum).74
the OT. God is pictured as decidedly ethical and moral already in the earliest texts (e.g., Exod
20:22-23:33), acting as a protector of the weak ones of the society (slaves, widows, orphans,
resident aliens, victims of crime or misfortune, etc.) and as a righteous, incorruptible judge
who makes sure justice is not perverted.75 In fact, the very first OT use of the word pair
righteousness (hq'd'c.) and justice (jP'v.mi) (as well as the first mention of jP'v.mi and the
second of hq'd'c. in the OT) in Gen 18:19 characterizes YHWH76 In the same
passage, Abraham expects of God, the Judge of all the earth, to act justly as a matter of
the LORD is a God of justice
hardly contributed anything new to the already established idea of YHWH as being decidedly
73 Ringgren, Prophetical Conception, 22-23.
74 Ibid., 22 and 24. This idea was formulated already by Whitehouse. While maintaining that the
stress which Amos and Isaia
ethicizing of the conception of the divine holiness. He recognizes that the ethical elements must have
and they came to displace t
-
persisted in post-Whitehouse, "Holiness," 758-59.
75 In the case of premedita
when the killer is taken from it for execution (21:14).
76 As vv. 24-25 confirm, the dialog of Abraham with YHWH can be called ethical discourse even by
shows that there exists a rule of justice outside of the will of God and
Ze'ev W. Falk, "Law and Ethics in the Hebrew Bible," in Justice
and Righteousness: Biblical Themes and Their Influence, ed. Yair Hoffman and Henning Reventlow,
JSOTSup 137 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992), 87.
26
righteous and just, even ethical according to the standards of Ancient Israel.77
and similar theories about ethicizing of the conception of the divine holiness seem to be
anachronistic and presuppose the artificial theological abyss between the priests and the
prophets as discussed in the chapter on cult.
The incorporation of the ethical notion into the concept of holiness did not result from the
prophetic transformation of the idea of God, but more likely from the prophetic
rejuvenation of the idea of the proper human response to the holiness of God. The following
proposal of Raphael aptly captures this process:
Yet gradually, as the original numinous experience is accommodated to everyday
conditions of life and the teaching of religion, the sense of the numinous is
be ritual, others ethical, so that holiness and morality may come to overlap in the finite
world. But this does not entail that the beginning and end of morality cannot,
ultimately, be absorbed into the holy as its source and judge.78
The ethical response to holiness is not limited to the Prophetic literature. Ringgren observes
that in Deuteronomy (and DtrH), the meaning of vdq
ob 79 This range of
meaning is most famously present in Lev 19. Although it appears to be an ad hoc mixture of
e intention
80 This intention, according to Rodd, is expressed in the initial call to
holiness:
Essential to understanding the chapter is the call to be holy because God is holy and to
do nothing to impair the holiness of this land and his people. It is less a matter of
77 For an attempt to evaluate divine justice in the book of Isaiah by contemporary criteria, see
Andrew Davies, Double Standards in Isaiah: Re-Evaluating Prophetic Ethics and Divine Justice, Biblical
Interpretation Series 46 (Leiden: Brill, 2000). He comes to a very different conclusion. However, the
objection can be raised that judging the ethics of an Ancient Near East text by the 20th century
western standards is methodologically dubious.
78 Melissa Raphael, Rudolf Otto and the Concept of Holiness (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 130.
79 vdq TDOT 12.531.
80 Cyril S. Rodd, Glimpses of a Strange Land: Studies in Old Testament Ethics (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark,
2001), 5, n1.
27
break them, than that both actions which break ethical precepts and those which
iness.81
Reading Lev 19 from the perspective of securing holiness in Israel and, ultimately, the
presence of the Holy One in her midst redefines the role of ethics and cult as commonly
understood: not that ethical concepts substantiate cult, but cultic concepts substantiate
ethics. Probably the most graphic illustration of this principle are the condemnations of
sexual offences listed in Lev 18 and 20: they are substantiated not by the harm that they
whether of the land (18:25, 27-28)
or of the people (18:20, 24; 20:22-26), and for holiness (20:26).82 A more ambivalent
ethical interpretation is especially instructive. He rightly insists that since God alone is the
source of holiness, for people to be holy means the life of godliness - imitatio Dei. Then,
however, referring to texts like Lev 19, Ps 24:3-4, Isa 5:16 and Isa 6, he states:
demands following the ethics associated with his
nature. But because the demand for holiness occurs with greater frequency and
emphasis in the food prohibitions than in any other commandment, we can only
on as the best way of achieving
this higher ethical life.83
81 Ibid., 7. As argued below, this line of thinking is consonant with Proto-Isaiah.
82 Notice the frequent occurrence of the phrase hw"hy> ynIa] at the end of the prohibitions there. An
interesting attempt to explain the ritual character of these prohibitions comes from André. Based on
the fact that both chapters combine the prohibitions of sexual uncleanness with prohibitions of
idolatry (18:21; 20:2-ess might be based on a
amej'
amej' in
passages like 18:20 [mistak
land cannot be expiated by ritual, and, hence, the expulsion of its inhabitants is inevitable (18:24-29;
Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 49. For the repudiation of the metaphorical
use of amej', see above. While the second statement is by itself correct, its use as an argument for
nonritualistic doctrine of pollution is twisted. Milgrom elsewhere (p. 710) assigns Num 35:33, from
which the idea of no expiation for the land comes, to P, so it cannot be used to characterize the
doctrine of H. If Num 35:33 is assig
the impurity of the Temple through the sprinkling of blood, so too may the land be atoned for from
Israel Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The
Priestly Torah and the Holiness School (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995), 179. Knohl argues that H
attempted to do just the opposite of nonritualization nd social
justice into the religious-Knohl, Sanctuary, 178. This way of arguing is harmonious with
the search for the ethical dimension of cult or moralized rituality as described in Introduction.
83 Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 731, italics mine.
28
of holiness is questionable,84 but, as Houston pointed out, it suffers from a failure of logic
when the cultic element - the impurity of the unclean animals - is taken into consideration,
for the supposed ethics would demand reverence for something that defiles.85 Instead,
more just
Leviticus 11 is held to involve imitatio Dei, it would seem to make more sense to argue that
86 This in daily life
means refraining from every kind of impurity, regardless of its source. The only moral in a
this religious idea, as we would understand it, is also an ethical
87 However, from the viewpoint of
sub specie sanctitatis Dei), the reason for sexual, dietary or any other
prohibitions in Leviticus is cultic, namely preservation of holiness via purity. This perspective
break ethical norms is a form of impurity and impairs the holiness of Israel before the holy
88
84 The Isaianic passages are discussed below.
85 For the details, see Walter J. Houston, "Toward an Integrated Reading of the Deitary Laws of
Leviticus," in The Book of Leviticus: Composition and Reception, ed. Rolf Rendtorff, Robert A. Kugler,
and Sarah Smith Bartel, VTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 149-50.
86 Ibid., 150. on of
nonpermitted animals seems to me not to support a desire to inculcate a reverence for animal life. A
different motivating ideology lies at the base of the food prohibitions in Leviticus 11: a desire that the
David P. Wright, "Observations on the Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Dietary
Laws: A Response to Jacob Milgrom," in Religion and Law: Biblical-Judaic and Islamic Perspectives, ed.
Edwin Brown Firmage, Bernard G. Weiss, and John W. Welch (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 197.
87 Houston, "Deitary Laws of Leviticus," 157.
88 Rodd, Glimpses, 8.
29
Case-study: Holiness in the Book of Isaiah
Isaiah,89 bringing to attention the frequent occurrence of the otherwise rare divine epithet
The Holy One of Israel (laer"f.yI vAdq.) throughout the book and the significance of ch. 6
with the famous trisagion.90 Williamson puts this by and large correct assumption into a
more nuanced perspective. First, based on the numerous indications that the only two
occurrences of The Holy One of Israel in Isa 56-66 (60:9 and 14) may be attributed to
Deutero-Isaiah
text, h -
91 Second, by reducing the fourteen
occurrences of The Holy One of Israel and its variants in the text of Proto-Isaiah to those five
that can be unquestionably assigned to the 8th century prophet (5:19; 30:11, 12, 15; 31:1)
onal use of this divine title,
92 Therefore,
Deutero-Isaiah in particular, who picked
up the title The Holy One of Israel and made it characteristic of the book, thus echoing the
trisagion in what they considered to be the most influential experience of the 8th century
prophet his vision in ch. 6.
Holiness in Proto-Isaiah
With the number of Proto-Isaiah The Holy One of Israel significantly
reduced, can the concept of holiness still be considered central to his theology? In other
89
JerGammie, Holiness, 72.
90
the whole Book of Isaiah, it is the vision of Yahweh as the Holy One oJ. J. M. Roberts, "Isaiah
in Old Testament Theology," Intrepretation 36 (1982).
91 H. G. M. Williamson, "Isaiah and the Holy One of Israel," in Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Texts: Essays in
Memory of Michael P. Weitzman, ed. Ada Rapoport-Albert and Gillian Greenberg, JSOTSup 333
(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 26.
92 Ibid., 31.
30
words, has the vision in Isa 6 as profound an influence on the 8th century prophet as the
93 Similarly, Roberts
claims that the message
94 While tracing down the impact of Isa 6
throughout the whole of Proto-Isaiah95 it
can, at this point, be examined in the passages that explicitly mention YHWH
and/or its revelation YHWH 96 and likely express the 8th century
-17; 29:23; 30:12, 15;
and 31:1. If these texts are influenced by Isa 6, they should reflect some of the following
features: The major characteristic of YHWHtremendum,
profoundly illustrated by seraphs covering their faces from the fearsome glory of YHWH and
revelation of YHWH
Isaiah realized to his horror. The only solution to how to be in the presence of the Holy One
and stay alive is purification. Here the sovereign YHWH determines the time and the means
of purification the immediate cultic fire (for Isaiah), or the upcoming fire of judgment (for
the people). Overall, holiness in Isa 6 is exclusively a cultic notion.97
Interestingly, these and only these characteristics and elements can be found in the above
listed passages. The tremendum aspect of YHWH
rocks and the holes of the ground, from the terror of the
93 Vriezen, "Theology of Isaiah," 131.
94 Roberts, "Isaiah in Old Testament Theology," 131.
95 For a rudimentary attempt, see the above articles and Gammie, Holiness, 71-96.
96
Vriezen, "Theology of Isaiah," 132.
97 Since the cleansing of the uncleanness in Isa 6 consists in a removal of guilt (!A[') and an expiation
(rpk) of sin (taJ'x;),
vdq TDOT 12.536. Gammie, however, rightly
tic. For whether or not the prophet was actually
situated in the temple when he had it, temple, incense, altar, (incense) smoke, fire on the altar, and
Gammie, Holiness, 81.
31
LORD, and from the glory of his majesty (AnAaG> rd:h]me
in 8:13, where the people are told to regard YHWH as holy and let him be their fear and
dread, and in 2
Proto-IsaiahThe Holy One of Israel (5:19; 30:11, 12,
15; 31:1) are connected with judgment, and Isa 10:16-17 speaks of the fire of judgment
being kindled under YHWH
fire.
A closer look at the passages in Isa 1-39 that mention YHWH
generally assigned to the editor(s) is also instructive. Here the picture changes significantly:
not only there is no tremendum
is the Holy One of Israel (12
shall see YHWH98
fascination.99 majestas of YHWH
over to emphasize the absurdity of human behaviour:100 Israel despised the Holy One of
(3:8),101
and Sennacherib of Assyria mocked and reviled him (37:23). The only editorial use of
holiness in Proto-Isaiah that shares one of the features with ch. is 35:8, but the holiness here
is only derivative, namely the Holy Way, on which an unclean person is not allowed to travel.
Furthermore, the idea of holiness excluding uncleanness is too general to argue for Isa 6
98 For 35:2 as well as the rest of the chapter being a later addition, see mainly Odil Hannes Steck,
Bereitete Heimkehr: Jesaja 35 als redaktionelle Brücke zwischen dem Ersten und dem Zweiten Jesaja,
Stuttgarter Bibelstudien 121 (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1985). Williamson generally
endorses S
of the book as a whole, and in particular that it is later than, rather than simultaneous with, the
composition of Deutero-H. G. M. Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah: Deutero-Isaiah's Role in
Composition and Redaction (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 215.
99 See Otto, Idea, 31-40.
100 Ibid., 19-23.
101 For this translation as well as the very likely editorial origin of this verse, see H. G. M. Williamson,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 1-27, vol. 1, ICC (London, New York: T & T Clark, 2006),
235-36 and 51-53. One of the minor reasons for assigning this verse to a later redactor is, according to
Williamson, dwbk in a manner which reflects later developments within the book of Isaiah
32
influence. Even though derivative holiness is not the focus of this study, it should be noted
that none of its uses in Isa 1-39 can be safely assigned to the 8th century prophet.102 It can be
concluded that Isaiah ben Amoz reserved the attribute vdq for YHWH only.
Proto-Isaiah
sense of the need for cleanness are the most
cleanness. He is at pains to revea 103
The above study and the previous chapter on cult lead to the conclusion that Isaiah ben
Amoz perceived YHWH
from this perspective.104
of the Holy One, so he sees his people in their world sub specie sanctitatis Dei105
Holiness in Deutero-Isaiah
Deutero-IsaiahYHWHProto-Isaiah that one wonders
whether they speak of the same thing.106 Ringgren believes that they do, insisting that
Deutero-Isaiah does not introduce a new type of holiness, but his use of certain motifs (esp.
of the great annual festival) resulted in a particular ide
102 Holiness is attributed to people twice: the holy remnant in 4:3 and the holy seed in 6:13. Holy
mountain occurs in 11:9 and 27:13. While the latter text belongs to a distinct unit (Isa 24-27) that has
been generally recognized as late, the date of 11:9 is debated. For a detail survey, see Hans
Wildberger, Jesaja, BKAT 10 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins, 1965),
442-46. Wildberger himself argues for Isaianic authorship of 11:1-9. Sweeney, on the other hand,
assigns this text to the so called Josianic redaction, see Marvin A. Sweeney, Isaiah 1-39: With an
Introduction to Prophetic Literature, FOTL 16 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 203-10. If
Wildberger is followed, a case can be made for the influence of Isa 6 on 11:9
revealed holiness (his glory) extends beyond the Temple, filling the whole earth. Finally, the holy
festival in 30:29 also likely belongs to Josianic edition, as argued by Sweeney, Isaiah 1-39, 356.
103 Gammie, Holiness, 80 and 83.
104 Chapter 4 demonstrates how this conclusion applies to Isa 1:10-17.
105 Vriezen, "Theology of Isaiah," 146.
106 Thus, e.g., Hänel believes that Deutero-Isaiah works with a special concept of holiness, which he
Johannes Hänel, Die Religion der Heiligkeit (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1931),
94.
33
traditional conception of holiness.107 This traditional conception might resemble the one
of Isaiah ben Amoz,108 but is much closer to the one presented in priestly literature.
parison with Proto-Isaiah
Isaiah of Babylon there is an increased use of priestly genre, notably the priestly oracle of
salvation (Isa. 41:8-16; 43:1-7; 44:1-5; etc.) and the grounds for uncleanness are more
priestly in orientation ( Deutero-Isaiah shares with the priestly
tradition the idea of the relationship between holiness and creation (40:25-26, 41:20, 43:15,
45:11).109 If the concept of holiness in Proto-Isaiah was essentially cultic (as argued above), it
is even more so in Deutero-Isaiah.
In contrast to Proto-Isaiah, all the references to YHWHDeutero-Isaiah occur in
markedly positive contexts: YHWH as maker and creator (40:25; 41:20; 43:15; 45:11; 54:5),
YHWH as saviour and redeemer (41:14; 43:3, 14; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 52:10; 54:5), and YHWH as
the one in whom the people can rejoice and glory (41:16) and the one who has glorified
them (55:5, %r"a]pe). Not only is there no tremendum aspect and connection with judgment
on Israel, but the people are repeatedly told not to fear because of the presence of The Holy
One of Israel (41:10-14; 43:1-5; see also 44:1-8; and 54:4-5). One feature that Deutero-Isaiah
shares with Isaiah ben Amoz is that they both reserve the attribute vdq exclusively for
YHWH. The only exception is 52:1, where envisioned Jerusalem is called the holy city.110
Finally, Deutero-Isaiah YHWH dAbK') is in accord with his use of holiness:
YHWH does not give it to another (42:8 and 48:11), and when all people shall see it together,
107 Ringgren, Prophetical Conception, 27-28.
108 Gammie claims that Deutero-Isaiah ogy of holiness of Isaiah of
vAdq' for deity, holiness in Deutero-Isaiah Proto-
Isaiahs purgative (cf. Isa. 48:10; 1:25), the city Jerusalem is holy (cf. Isa. 48:2; 52:1;
11:9), cleanness is enjoined (cf. Isa. 52:11-12; 1:16-17), and a restoration of cleanness is envisioned
for the city (Isa. 52:1) just as Isaiah of Jerusalem had envisioned a restoration of faithfulness and
Gammie, Holiness, 97. However, as argued throughout the present thesis,
Proto-Isaiah references are either editorial (1:26 and 11:9) or misinterpreted (1:25 and
1:16-17).
109 Ibid., 97-98. See also Joachim Begrich, "Das priestliche Heilsorakel," ZAW 52 (1934).
110 The remaining uses of vdq in 43:28 and 48:2 do not reflect Deutero-Isaiah
but function as a rhetorical feature to emphasize the irony in the text.
34
it will be a jubilant moment for the people of God (40:1-5), for those whom he created for
his glory (43:7).
These observations raise a legitimate question about the reason behind such contrasting
uses of YHWHProto-Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah. One way to look for the answer is
to state the obvious unlike Isaiah ben Amoz, Deutero-Isaiah did not have the same kind of
encounter with YHWHDeutero-Isaiah
YHWH
(unrecorded ones), they took place under very different circumstances, namely that by his
time the main cause for tremendum impurity of the people and of the land has already
been dealt with via judgment. Williamson is therefore very likely correct that Deutero-
IsaiahThe Holy One of Israel is contrasting to Proto-Isaiah
older
111
Holiness in Trito-Isaiah
The picture of YHWH in Trito-Isaiah. The first striking
difference in comparison with Proto-Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah is that there are only two
texts where vdq is directly attributed to YHWH 60:9 and 14, and, as has already been
mentioned, even these uses are very likely due to the direct influence of Deutero-Isaiah. The
closest to the notion of divine holiness that Trito-Isaiah comes is 57:15, describing YHWH as
the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity and whose name is holy, but this passage seems
to depend heavily on Isa 6:1, the only other place in the OT that uses the identical phrase the
high and lofty one.112 Avd>q' x:Wr, used otherwise only in Ps
51:11) represents a category on its own. Otherwise, vdq in Trito-Isaiah is used only for
111 Williamson, "Isaiah and Holy One of Israel," 38.
112 There are other OT passages that come very close to expressing this idea. For the references and
the detailed discussion of the possible influence of Isa 6:1 on the other Isaianic passages, see
Williamson, Book Called Isaiah, 38-41. Trito-IsaiahProto-Isaiah
Yhwh not only dwells in the high and holy place but also with those who are contrite and humble in
spirit, coincides with Proto-Isaiah humans being humble.
John Barton,
Understanding Old Testament Ethics: Approaches and Explorations (Louisville, KY; London:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 152.
35
ling (57:15), the holy courts of the
sanctuary (62:9), the holy temple (64:10), and holy cities (64:9), or to the Sabbath day
(58:13), or to the people (62:12; 63:18).113
Just like vdq, YHWHdAbK' in Trito-Isaiah y
ready to be their rear guard (58:8). The tremendum is now reserved for the nations, who will
fear YHWH they will eventually
see it (66:18).
Again, one can only speculate about the reason why Trito-Isaiah
markedly different from the previous parts of the book. The tentative suggestion is the same
as in the case of Deutero-Isaiah because of the transformed milieu. Purified people are
back in a purified land, so YHWH
enjoyed, and even transferred to what has been purified. The primary conditions for
eschatology have been met, and the possibility of its full realization presents a great
excitement as well as a great concern for Trito-Isaiah purity must be preserved. This
concern is reflected in the frequent use of derivative holiness in Isa 56-66.
Conclusion
This discussion can be conveniently summarized by endorsing the statement from Ringgren
law, as to the conception of holiness. The prophets obviously accepted the cultic notion of
holines114 As the above case-
study has shown, this statement holds true also for the book of Isaiah: even though each
113 As the context makes apparent, the uses of vdq for individuals in 65:5 and 66:17 do not
represent Trito-Isaiah
114 Ringgren, Prophetical Conception, 18. He additionally supports this conclusion by referring to Isa
30:29, 56:6 and 64:10, et al.
Ringgren, Prophetical Conception, 30.
36
part of the book is concerned with a different aspect of holiness, this concept constantly
emerges as a cultic notion, never contradicting, not even going beyond its priestly definition
throughout the entire book. The emphasis on the different aspects of holiness in each part
are intelligible against their different milieux.
37
Imago Dei
Introduction
The effect of the claim in Gen 1:26-28 that humans are in some way like God can hardly be
overrated. It has been fundamental to Christian anthropology, forming a conception of the
human person and his/her relation not only to the Creator but also to the rest of the
offer a great variety of answers to what this imago Dei in Gen 1 represents and what it
therefore, lived by faith communitie
115 Moreover,
as argued below, the Old Testament (OT) seems to regard imago Dei as characteristic of
every human being, making this concept relevant even to those who deny any authority to
this ancient text.
Interpretation of Gen 1:26-28
The reader of Gen 1:26-28 usually asks the question: What it is in humans that is God-like?
The most frequent answers are spiritual or mental qualities or capacities, such as the
memory, intellect, will, freedom, self-consciousness, love, spirituality, the immortality of the
soul, etc. Some argue for seeing the image of God in the external form of human body, yet
for others it is the God-given privilege of people to rule over the creation or to have a
relationship with the Creator.116 As interesting as these suggestions are, they find little
115 Janell Johnson, "Genesis 1:26-28," Interpretation 59, no. 2 (2005).
116 For these and more proposals, see Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11: A Continental Commentary,
trans. John Scullion (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1984), 147-58. For a brief but more up-to-date overview
of the history of Gen 1:26-28 interpretations, see n 1,27) - biblický koncept
Studia Biblica Slovaca (2005): 45-49.
38
support in the text itself. This is due mostly to the fact that Gen 1:26-28 is a rather
enigmatic passage with very few references or echoes in the OT.117
interpretation of the image of God has often reflected the Zeitgeist and has followed
whatever emphasis happened to be current in psychology, or philosophy, or sociology, or
118
In case like this, it may help to go back to the drawing board and attempt to sketch imago
Dei
had to the author of Genesis 1, and not at all by working from general philosophical,
religious, or even biblical indications of the likeness of man and God, can we discover in
what exact sense we may use the term if we wish to expound the content of the biblical
119 Even though he is essentially correct, some assumptions can justifiably be
made from the start. First, the available Ancient Near East (ANE) evidence suggests that the
imago Dei idea did not originate with the author of Gen 1 but was already a familiar concept
in the religious milieu of his time. Second, and closer to home, it is reasonable to presume
that the ideas in Gen 1:26-28 would coincide with other Ancient Israelite (AI) fundamental
views of God and humanity. Finally, since Gen 1 is well recognized part of P, it is plausible to
control the interpretation of this concept by at least this body of the OT literature. These
presuppositions bring about several delineations fundamental to the matrix within which
imago Dei is to be understood:
● lied to a pharaoh
(Egypt) or a king (Mesopotamia).120 More importantly, rather than referring to
121 This function of imitatio dei was sort of a guarantee of the ru
117 Gen 5:1-2 and 9:6 seem to be the only explicit references to this text, and Psa 8:6 (8:5 in English
translations) seems to echo it.
118 Edward M. Curtis, "Image of God, Old Testament," in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York:
Doubleday, 1992), 389-90.
119 D. J. A. Clines, "The Image of God in Man," Tyndale Bulletin 19 (1968): 54.
120 As demonstrated already by, e.g., W. H. Schmith, Die Schöpfungsgeschichte der Priesterschrift, vol.
17, Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament (1964), 127-48.
121 Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 146.
39
dominion over the people. While Westermann rightly objects that this is not
exactly the case in Gen 1 and calls for caution when drawing cross-cultural
parallels,122 the ANE evidence (along with some textual and contextual hints)123
demands considering the representative function of imago Dei at least to the extent
that Gen 1 may be a reflection of or even reaction to it.
●
piritual and corporeal
124 The quest to identify imago Dei with a
certain spiritual or physical aspect of a human being is, therefore, misguided. In
other words, the doctrine of the image has to concern the whole person.
●
125
explicitly stated in Deut 4:15-18, giving the rationale for the prohibition to make an
Be very careful, then, because you saw no form (hn"WmT.) at the time
the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. I say this so you will not
corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any kind of figure.126 P, in
particular, is careful not to assign any corporeality to YHWH, avoiding even the
anthropomorphisms common elsewhere in the OT. Therefore, it would be rather
odd of the author of Gen 1 to perceive human form as the image of God.127
122 See Ibid., 153.
123 The most important ones are the immediate connection of the imago Dei concept with the
dominion over the animate world in Gen 1:26-28 and Psa 8:6, and the possibility to read the
preposition B in WnmeÞl.c;B. as beth essentiaeas in the capacity
of Clines, "Image," esp. 75-80.
124 Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 150.
125 Harold Henry Rowley, The Faith of Israel: Aspects of Old Testament Thought (London: SCM, 1956),
75.
126
formlessness in the OT, see Num 12:8 and Psa 17:15.
127 This, of course, does not apply vice versa: in the OT, YHWH often appears in a human form. In fact,
as Barr points out, this form is the natural and characteristic one for him to assume, see James Barr,
"Theophany and Anthropomorphism," Vetus Testamentum 7 (1960). However, one must not confuse
imago hominis of God with imago Dei
of God appearing in human shape are by no means naturally reversible into thoughts of man sharing
40
● Pentateuch (and, again, P in particular) teaches that YHWH is one and there is no
other god besides him. One can therefore safely exclude the possibility that the
god to another before the very act of creation of humans (as in some other ANE
creation stories).128 Addressing the heavenly court or angels is certainly a
possibility, but seriously weakened by the fact that these heavenly beings are
mentioned neither in Gen 1 nor in P.129
● The reference to Gen 1:27 in the blessing to Noah after the flood (9:6) overthrows
imago Dei as the state of original righteousness that has been
lost to humanity with the first sin.130
may have been known to the various sources that underlie the present biblical text,
the image of God passages, in their present canonical context, make it clear that
131
● Because the P account of the creation of humans is known only as an integral part of
the creation story, it is compulsory for the interpretation of Gen 1:26-28 to consider
the whole unit Gen 1:1-2:4a. As Westermann correctly observes, this usually (and
sition is always that
something is being said about human beings which can be taken out of its context
and assumed into the very different context of a systematic teaching on human
132
assumption about vv. 26-
128 The attempt of some scholars to explain this plural as an unassimilated fragment of myth is
desperate. This significant and potentially controversial detail in such an important passage would
hardly go unnoticed by the author(s) and editor(s) of Gen 1, and even a Hebrew beginner would be
able to change this text to a singular form.
129 For P, see Schmith, Schöpfungsgeschichte, 129. Even though Psa 8:6 may speak in favour of the
heavenly court or angelic interpretation, it is balanced by Isa 40:13-14 and 44:24 stating that YHWH
did not consult anyone and created everything alone. For more arguments along this line, see Clines,
"Image," 66-67.
130 See, e.g., Martin Luther, The Creation: A Commentary on the First Five Chapters of the Book of
Genesis, trans. H. Cole (Edinburgh: Clark, 1858), 91.
131 Curtis, "Image of God," 390. Westermann considers this to be already an established consensus:
-to-Westermann, Genesis
1-11, 148.
132 Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 156.
41
133
create humans in 134
● For those who (including the author) believe that the OT presents one coherent
story, the methodological point above should be extended to the so called Covenant
context. Horton frowns upon contemporary Christian anthropologies that, under the
influence of modernity, tend to understand imago Dei in essentialist terms, reducing
personhood to mental, spiritual, emotional or other attributes. He rightly insists
ultimately a narrative-ethical rather than a metaphysical-ontological question. It
cannot be named apart from the drama of creation, fall, redemption, and
135
Even though the above delineations help to eliminate some of the suggested identifications
of imago dei, they (especially the last two methodological ones) also generate some new
possibilities how to understand this concept. One, for which this paper wants to argue, is
that imago Dei in humans constitutes the process of sanctification with twofold purpose to
have fellowship with God and to reflect his glory.
The simple rationale behind linking imago Dei with sanctification is based on two
consequent premises. First, because of its nature and setting, imago Dei has to derive from
of YHWH. Second, as far as one can tell, the most defining attribute of YHWH
in P is holiness.136 When it comes to holiness of human beings in the OT, one can speak
p137
133 Ibid., 155.
134
135 Michael S. Horton, "Image and Office: Human Personhood and the Covenant," in Personal Identity
in Theological Perspective, ed. Richard Lints, Michael Scott Horton, and Mark R. Talbot (Grand Rapids,
MI; Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2006), 181.
136 Unfortunately, there is not sufficient place to discuss the notoriously difficult concept of holiness
here, and I can do no better than to refer the reader to the classic study of Otto, Idea.
137 Jones, Concept of Holiness, 107.
42
An argument for imago Dei as the process of sanctification in order to have fellowship
with God goes like this. Following Westermann, the purpose of imago Dei is humanity
ion is to render possible a happening between
138
iding presence is not only an eschatological event, but also an
every-day possibility. However, YHWH is holy, and any kind of impurity is offensive and
repulsive to his presence.139 Therefore, the only way for humans to enjoy the fellowship with
him is to be
140 This derivative holiness seems to
be the very essence of imago Dei that constitutes in humans the process of sanctification for
the purpose of fellowship with the holy God.141
An argument for imago Dei
hw"hy>-dAbK.). The only distinction seems to be that
138 Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 158. his for P is directed toward the holy event in
which history reaches its goal, as indicated in Gen 2:1-
139 For more details, see
2008), 25-29 and 51-53.
Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 46.
140 The biblical quotes in this paper are from New Revised Standard Version, unless indicated
otherwise.
141 In order to prevent a common misconcept
quently
shaped and infiltrated the terms like vAdq', a[gioj, or sanctus, whose original and unique substance
was non-ethical (ethically neutral) and non-rational, a feeling-based response to the presence of a
see Otto, Idea, 5-7. To be sure, ethics is not out of the picture, but it emerges only as one of the
effects of the derived holiness in humans. As aptly put by Raphael
numinous experience is accommodated to everyday conditions of life and the teaching of religion, the
Some of these duties will be ritual, others ethical, so that holiness and morality may come to overlap
in the finite world. But this does not entail that the beginning and end of morality cannot, ultimately,
bRaphael, Rudolf Otto and the Concept of Holiness,
130.
43
-
142
reflection can be found throughout the OT. For instance, the second part of the well-known
trisagion
glory.143
crowned them with glory and honor.
the most explicit connection of these three concepts is found in Isaiah 43, where YHWH
and to his people as to those whom he created for his glory (wytiar"B. ydIAbk.li, v. 7) and
formed for himself (yli yTir>c:y") so that they might declare his praise (ytiL'hiT., v. 21).144
From this purpose results the representative function of imago Dei
glory before the rest of his creation. Horton makes a valid point in this regard, stating that in
Gen 1:26-
145 Verses 26 and 28 make explicit that this
office includes dominion of humans over the earth, especially the animate world. With
running the risk of oversimplification, it can be said that imago Dei makes humans to the
rest of the world what God is to humans.146
142 Whitehouse, "Holiness," 758. Jacob stat
Jacob, Theology of the Old Testament, 79.
143 For this rendering of Isa 6:3, see, e.g., H.G.M. Williamson, "Temple and Worship in Isaiah 6," in
Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel, ed. John Day, Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar
(London: T & T Clark International, 2005), 133-36.
144 arb) in v. 7 is the key verb of the first creation story (Gen
(rcy) in v. 21 is used in the second creation story (Gen 2) for forming the
hL'hiT.) in v. 21 is used as a synonym of
dAbK') in Isa 42:8 and 12.
145 Horton, "Image and Office," 184.
146 Here the tremendum aspect of holiness as defined by Otto comes to the fore.
44
Application of Suggested Interpretation
Obviously, the above arguments do not amount to a proof, and much more research is
required to establish the proposed understanding of imago dei. Nevertheless, it squares well
with the matrix delineated above, the goal of which was not so much to produce an exact
definition of imago dei
all Old Testament theology one is groping around for suitable terms, and not much hangs on
exactly what terms one finally decides to employ: one is trying to point the reader in a
certain direction rather than offering tight definitions.'147 The hope here is that the above
proposal would move the search for the meaning of imago Dei in the right direction. Instead
of conclusion, the following two applications are added to encourage the further
investigation of the propsed interpretation.
First application appeals especially to Christians, because it shows how the proposed
understanding of imago Dei is fully compatible with its use in the New Testament (NT) and
promulgates it as essential for Christian lifestyle. The NT seems to relate imago Dei to
another theologically loaded concept imitatio dei.148 The good news for humans here is
that imitatio dei is possible because of Jesus Christ the true Imago Dei. This is why Paul can
write to his fellow Christians in Colossae you have stripped off the old self [old man] with its
practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self [new man], which is being renewed
in knowledge according to the image of its creator, (3:9b-10, italics mine), and the author of
Ephesians can urge his readers to been created in God's image
in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth (4:24, NET, italics mine). As the
immediate context of both texts reveals, imago Dei here and now is a process,149 an ongoing
transformation visualized and expressed via ethical conduct of the new self. The Ephesians
passage explicitly sets imitatio dei as the fundamental principle of this conduct, beseeching
147 John Barton, "Imitation of God in the Old Testament," in The God of Israel, ed. Robert P. Gordon,
University of Cambridge Oriental Publications (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 39.
148 To discuss imitatio dei would require a study on its own. For the use of this concept in OT ethics,
see Ibid. On p. 38, he even cautiously suggests the connection between Imitatio Dei and Imago Dei:
good God, in some sense that is cognate with what people in Israel thought of as good in
human beings, and it therefore made sense to try to imitate him. This might thus be one of the
ethical perception, so that God is not only the commander but also the paradigm of all moral conduct.
This implies an affinity between the divine and the human, and it makes the human capax dei
149 Notice the present participle of avnakainou,menon in Col 3:10.
45
and live in love, as Christ loved
us,-2, see also surrounding verses). Ethics, however, is just a byproduct of this process,
for, as 2 Cor 3:18 recalls, the transformation into imago Dei is cultically and eschatologically
oriented And all of us, with
unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another Commenting on this
of God
150 The
dilemma, therefore, is not whether imago Dei makes imitatio dei possible or imitatio dei
brings imago Dei into being; they both function together as symbiotic processes of
sanctification. It seems appropriate to finish this short excurse to the NT with the quote
from Horton:
As covenant theology argues, then, the satisfactory answer to that question of
human identity is to point to Jesus Christ not because anthropology is subsumed
works and did so not merely for himself but representatively (that is, federally) for
151
Second application concerns every human being, and it should be asserted especially in a
multicultural and multi-religious society like European Union. If the proposed understanding
of imago Dei
something which is added to human existence; humans are created in such a way that their
very existence is in
claim is worth to quote in full:
happen between creator and creature. This holds despite all differences among
people; it goes beyond all differences of religion, beyond belief and unbelief. Every
150 G. C. Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1962), 112.
151 Horton, "Image and Office," 181.
46
human being of every religion and in every place, even where religions are no
longer recognized, has been created in the image of God.152
152 Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 158.
47
Love Your Neighbour
Introduction
Leviticus 19:18b, Love your neighbour as yourself
153 Rabbi Hillel,154 Jesus Christ155 and
Paul156 all refer to this text in their summary of Torah. It continues to generate provocative
questions for a first century Jew and a contemporary Christian alike: Who is my neighbour?
In spite of its great importance, there are differing understandings of this command (see
Appendix 1). This chapter argues that two main reasons for this variety are: inadequate
linking of Lev 19:18b with its immediate context, and the conventional (mis)translation of
the verse itself. First part determines the structure of the immediate context of Lev 19:18b.
Second part exegetically supports this structure with translation that reflects its internal
linkage. Both tasks are necessary to aid the thesis argued in the third part, namely that in
Lev 19:18b the express^AmK'
neighbour^[]rEl.), and that Lev 19:18b thus functions as a logical summary and climax of
ch. 19.
153
Hebräische Bibel und ihre zweifache Nachgeschichte: Festschrift für Rolf Rendtorff zum 65.
Geburtstag, ed. Erhard Blum, et al. (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1990), 105.
154 Babylonian Talmud, Sabbath 31a.
155 Mat 22:34-40, Mk 12:28-34, Lk 10:25-28.
156 Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14.
48
Structure of Leviticus 19:11-18
In her recent work Douglas argues that the literary composition of Leviticus resembles the
desert tabernacle.157
19, and 20 reflects a pedimental structure in which chapter 19 forms the apex the
158 While she accurately sees the climatic nature of Lev 19, she does not recognize its
structure.159 Along these lines, Wenham usefully exposes three decisive features: the
introductory form of the prohibitions, the occurrence of the various terms for neighbour,
YHWH,160 and thus provides a starting point for determining the
structure of the immediate context of Lev 19:18b vv. 11-18a.
‘You shall not’
Every prohibition in the passage follows the form al{ + imperfect. This form is mostly used
in apodictic laws, especially the Decalogue. Lev 19 and Exo 20 are similar in content as well
commandments are quoted or alluded to, and sometimes expounded or developed in a new
161 Similarly, every verse in Lev 19:11-18 finds its counterpart in Exo 20.162 W. Janzen
163
157 Douglas, Leviticus, passim.
158 Mary Douglas, "Justice as the Cornerstone," Interpretation 53 (1999): 343.
159 With regard to the phrase I am Yhwh,
dividers of significant units, it is beyond my skills to work out their significance. I suggest that they are
scattered rather freely throughout the text, as precious stones or ornaments might be scattered
Ibid.: 348.
160 Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, New International Commentary on the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), 263-68.
161 Ibid., 264.
162 Verse 15 is not a direct reference to any of the Ten Commandments, but it certainly can be
considered as an extension of the idea of Exo 20:16
neighbor.
163 Waldemar Janzen, Old Testament Ethics: A Paradigmatic Approach (Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994), 93.
49
Neighbor
Besides ~[', Hebrew uses the following three words for neighbour in Leviticus: [;re, xa',164
and tymi['. While the first two expressions are frequently used in a variety of contexts
throughout the OT, the term tymi[' is, with one exception,165 found only in the legal context
of Leviticus. In spite of this, tymi[' seems to designate the same group of people as the other
two terms; it is used interchangeably and often in parallel with [;re or xa' in our passage.
Furthermore, there are several instances of parallelism of [;re and xa' in the Old
Testament.166 Thus [;re, xa', and tymi[' appear to be synonyms (at least in the time of
Leviticus), designating a fellow Israelite. Each word carries a different nuance, but they all
represent a fellow-countryman. The use of all these terms in the passage suggests
inclusiveness the instructions apply to any kind of neighbour.
I am YHWH
Translation of hw"hy> ynIa] follows The Luther Unrevidierte (1545)167 and German Schlachter
(1951) versions where the conjunction denn is added in order to remind the people of the
ultimate motive for keeping the instructions since I am YHWH
(1979), this phrase unifies as well as divides the text; it marks four subunits, each two verses
long: 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18. The following exegesis will show how the verses in each
section are connected topically.
164 The word xa' is used not only for a family relative, but also in more general sense, similar to using
the word brother in Church circles. If a blood (family) relation is in view, Hebrew uses the word raev..
165 Zech 13:7.
166 For example, Deut 15:2, 12; Isa 41:6; Jer 31:34.
167 In the Revised Luther Bible (1984) the word denn is left out.
50
Exegetical Insights on Lev. 19:11-18a
Respect (vv. 11-12)
The Hebrew term for stealing in v. 11 (bnG) is the same as in the Decalogue (Exo 20:15, Deut
5:19), except in the plural. The next verb vxK in piel means to deceive, to lie, to deny
falsely, or to act deceptively. The meaning of the last verb rqv is similar to vxK, but
judging from its much more frequent noun form (113 times in the OT)168
s deception by words. rqv can be understood as a
consequence and a verbal expression of vxK, where vxK
concealment, or denial of a given situation contrary to better knowledge; it thus also
169 In Israelite culture, plural verbs reinforce a
sense of responsibility for the neighbour
illustrated in the story of Achan (Jos 7): The anger of YHWH burned against the Israelites
consequently thirty-six fellow-Israelites died. The description of
Wbn>G"], they have acted
deceitfully [Wvx]Ki
In verse 12, The phrase rq,V'_l; ymiÞv.bi W[ïb.V'ti-al{)w> is usualAnd you shall not
swear falsely by my name. Major English and German translations170 understand the
preposition l before rq,v,
is done.171 However, the fact that the l is followed by a definite noun derived from the
168 rqv is used 6 times in verbal form in the OT.
169 K.-vxKTDOT 7:133
170 English: KJV, ASV, NASV, NRSV, NIV, NJB, JPS (Tanakh); German: LUT, ELO, SCH, EIN.
171 Cf. Ronald James Williams, Hebrew Syntax: An Outline (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967),
#274.
51
same root as the verb in the preceding verse suggests a l of specification,172 swear
concerning the lie.173 This interpretation links verses 11 and 12.
Support for another important link comes from Prov 30:8-either poverty nor
Lest, being sated, I renounce [vxKLORD
impoverished, I take to theft [bnG174 It seems very likely
that the movement here, from deception and stealing to profani
in Lev 19:11-12. Working backwards, profaning the name of God is the consequence of
the product of lying and acting deceitfully in
order to cover up for stealing. The following translation attempts to capture the above
insights:
You shall not steal, lest you act deceitfully and lie to one another, hence you will
swear by my name concerning the lie and thereupon profane the name of your God;
since I am YHWH.175
Mercy (vv. 13-14)
Wenham (1979) rightly observes that exploitation is the unifying theme of this subunit. Both
verbs in 13a carry this connotation: qv[ means to exploit or to extort; with regard to 13b
176 and lzG otes an
177 These verbs
172 Ibid., #273.
173 NLT recognizes l as specification, but misses the definiteness of the noun: Do not use my name to
swear a falsehood. Closest to our understanding is the Russian Synodal Text (Не клянитесь
именем Моим во лжи) or Ukrainian Bible (І не будете присягати Моїм Іменем на неправду).
174 Quoted from JPS Tanakh (1985).
175
theft, and may lead to a court
n idea of
consequence is just the opposite
many ways of profaning His holy name.
176 qv[
177 lzG-457.
52
occur together frequently,178 often directed against the socially weak. In at least three
instances (Jer 21:12, Ezek 18:18, and Ezek 22:29) lzG can be understood as a result of qv[
to deprive someone of something by the means of exploitation.179 Verse 13b is a good
illustration of this prohibition. Furthermore, it confirms the impression that this subunit
neighbour, for in those
times and culture, one offered to work for others only when one was poor.
Verse 14 the physically challenged. Because of their
inability to defend themselves, both groups are often exposed to abuse, ridicule, and even
cruelty. The evildoer does not fear charges from the deaf or the blind who can hardly testify
at court. However, YHWH hears and sees everything and He will stand their case.180 This
Fear your God!The following translation reflects the above
observations:
You shall not exploit your neighbour, depriving him of his possession or rights. You
shall not withhold the wages of a laborer overnight. You shall not curse a deaf man,
nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but fear your God; since I am YHWH.
Justice (vv. 15-16)
you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great (NRSV),
appear to be a commentary on the first and last parts of v. 15. The terminology in this text
brings us to the courtroom, where judges should be impartial. In a theocratic society, the
court seeks divine
nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all
This insight is lifted up by translating lw<[' as inequality, the expression -ynEp. afn to
178 Ten times (Lev 5:21, 23, 19:13; Deut 28:29; Psa 62:11; Ecc 5:7; Jer 21:12; Ezek 18:18, 22:29; Mic
2:2). Study of these verses confirms that the word lzG should be understood as a result of extortion.
179 To translate lzG as to rob as in Proverbs 22:22, [lzG] the poor because they are
anything to be taken from them. Also, to translate lzG in verse 13 as steal would be just a repetition
of the idea in verse 11 (see NRSV).
180 For instance, see Ex. 22:22-24.
53
show partiality and the parallel expression -ynEåP. rdh to show deference
the preposition in qd<c,ÞB. as B. justly181
The noun lykir' in v. 16 informer talebearer
gossiper slanderer
%lh . Thus lykir' %lt seems to be an idiomatic expression designating a person who is
spreading a false report. By clarifying how such a plot could end up in bloodshed,182
Wenham links the two prohibitions in verse 16 and connects it with the preceding verse. All
the prohibited activities in this subunit lead to unjust decisions in the court. In the case of
the death penalty, an unjust sentence is tantamount to murder. Here is the translation of
the third subunit:
You shall not practice inequality in jurisdiction; neither by showing partiality to the
poor, nor by showing deference to the rich. Judge your neighbour justly. You shall
not act against the life of your neighbour by carrying on an intrigue among your
people; since I am YHWH.
Charity (vv. 17-18)
The meaning of the words in v. 17 is fairly clear. There are, however, at least three options
as to how 17c relates to the preceding parts:
1.
your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbour, but shall not incur sin because of
183 This translation implies that rebuking the neighbour is allowed, even
recommended; it is hatred that is sinful.
181 NRSV understand this B. as of means or instrument
182
court in ancient Israel one's judges would be the elders of the village. In the intimate atmosphere of a
local trial it would be particularly easy for neighbors to let their feuds and personal animosities distort
Wenham, Leviticus, 268.
183 Cf. NAB and JPS Tanakh.
54
2.
your kin; you shall reprove yo184 This
translation implies that if you do not rebuke your neighbour (for doing wrong), you
sin.185
3. 17c is a statement on its own, not connected to the preceding parts,186
shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not
187 This very literal translation is as ambiguous as its Hebrew
counterpart.
The first option has the following arguments in its favor:
● 17c parallels 17a in form; both are prohibitions and there is a nice play on words
between the two: an"f.ti-al{ and aF'ti-al{.
● 17c parallels 17a in content; the idea of carrying sin parallels the idea of hating
in the heart.
● A similar warning against becoming abominable in interactions such as rebuke or
anger is found in Eph 4:26, Be angry but do not sin. In our case, rebuking the
neighbour is proper (17b), but hating him is excessive (17a) it is a sin (17c).
Prohibition of hatred is the main idea of this subunit, connecting all its parts and leading
towards the climax. It also resonates in all the verbs of verse 18: ~qn, in its most general
the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth
principle (Ex. 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20; Deut 19:21).188 It is important to recognize that this
184 Cf. REB, NJB, NIV, and NLT.
185 A different understanding, bu
King James version (1611) and Czech Bible Kralická version (1613):
(CBK). In these versions, 17c is connected to 17b, but the idea is not
to avoid incurring sin by rebuking your neighbor, rather it is not to tolerate the sin of your neighbor.
186 The connection of 17c with both 17a and 17b simultaneously seems to be meaningless.
187 Cf. ASV.
188 -study of ~qn in TDOT 10:1-9 tries to reconcile the obligation to take blood
vengeance (Num. 35:19, Deu. 19:12, etc.) with the prohibition of vengeance in our text. According to
55
was not meant to be applied privately. It was a judicial process under divine
sanction.189 This is likely the reason why the translators of LXX added in Lev 19:18a the
sou h` cei,r); as if to say: Do not take justice (evkdika/tai,) into your (own)
hands. And the primary reason that drives people into such behavior is hatred. The second
verb rjn (‘keep, keep guard, reserve, maintain) has a sense of continuity and permanence;
therefore
a grudge for a long time without nurturing it with hatred. Such a momentous problem as
hatred takes a momentous solution, granted in the last part of the verse the mitzvah of
love.
Exegesis of Leviticus 19:18b
The climax of Lev 19:11-18 and the core of Jewish and Christian ethics is condensed in only
three Hebrew words: ^[]rEl. ^AmK' T'b.h;a'w> The great variety of its interpretations (some of
them listed in Appendix 1) may be due to the summarizing character of this mitzvah of love.
However, if the structure and the context of Lev 19:18 as proposed above governs the
understanding of each word in this phrase, the options are considerably reduced.
Furthermore, as the subsequent exegesis shows, there is also sufficient internal evidence for
a plausibly precise translation of this significant mitzvah.
him, the key to the interpretation of Lev. 19:18a is a proper understanding of the object of vengeance
^M,ê[; ynEåB.the children of your ancestors and
thereby the prohibition of vengeance does not apply to the entire people of Israel, only to those
since the expression ^M,ê[; ynEåB. is parallel with ^ß[]rE, therefore, based on our discussion of neighbor
above, there is no reason to limit its meaning to the familial group only. Also, the expression ^M,ê[; ynEåB.
in Eze 3:11 and Dan 12:1 clearly refers to the people of Israel in general. Second, there is no indication
in the text that the word ~qn should represent the particular case of blood vengeance, carried out by
Study of the use of this root reveals that there are comparatively few cases where man
is considered a proper source of vengeance~qn TWOT 2:598.
189 ~qn
56
But you shall cherish (⁻l. T'b.h;a'w>)
The word bha (to love) appears in many contexts.190 Although the relationship between
neighbours in ancient Israelite society is clearly in view here, questions still remain: What
kind of love is this? Is it about emotions or actions? Lamm191 compares how two great
teachers of Judaism, Maimonides and Nahmanides, interpreted this text. Maimonides
writes concerning the neighbour
like for him; and whatever I do not wish for myself or for my friends, I am not to wish the like
192 He understands loving one's neighbour not only as acts alone, but also as an
emotional orientation towards the neighbour
while the means of implementation are functional or practice in nature, the essence of the
commandment, which defines its fulfillment, is emotional, a feeling of love. This feeling, and
not the act per se, constitutes the essence of the fulfillment of this mitzvah.193 In favor of
the preceding parts of the subunit and, for the sake of balance, the emotional aspect of love
neighbour.
a
he calls for a very pragmatic, action-
Lev 19:18b,
act lovingly to one's fellow; he must conduct himself as if 194 This is
to say that the presence of positive emotion, which often accompanies a love relationship, is
not necessary for fulfilling this mitzvah. Support fo-reduced-to-
interpretation may come even from the unusual grammatical construction in this text: out of
215 occurrences of the verb bha, in only four instances does its direct object take the
190
191 Norman Lamm, "Loving and hating Jews as halakhic categories," Tradition 24, no. 2 (1989).
192 Quoted by Ibid.: 103, from Sefer ha-Mitzvot (ed. Kapah, #206).
193 Ibid.
194 Ibid.
57
preposition l.195 One could argue that these are instances of a rare case when l with a
196 However, it is also possible to see a prepositional phrase, in which the
preposition alters the meaning of the verb.197 In all instances,198 a translation of l bha as to
be friend with would be more suitable than to love. Malamat prefers the meaning providing
assistance or being useful ur
199
To be sure, this is not to promote emotionless relationships. But positive feelings are not
necessary for fulfilling the mitzvah of love. Moreover, one does not need to feel the same
passion for a neighbour that one feels for a spouse or child; it is acceptable to feel nervous in
neighbour. It is the doing that counts. This
suggests translating l bha in Lev 19:18b with the less emotional, yet very powerful, word
cherish
Your neighbour (^[]rE)
After concluding that the neighbour in Leviticus is a fellow Israelite (see above) with the
implication that the mitzvah of love is an exclusively nationalistic command,200 the question,
neighboure Jewish community. More
-worshiper or a heretic, is he still my
neighbourYHWH: Psalm 139:21,
195 Besides Lev 19:18, the combination l bha occurs also in v. 34, 1King 5:15, and 2 Chr 19:2.
196 Williams, Hebrew Syntax, #273. Waltke uses Lev 19:18b as an example of this use of l in Bruce K.
Waltke and Michael P. O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, Ind:
Eisenbrauns, 1990), 211.
197
198 l bha in Lev 19:18 describes the relationship between Jewish neighbors, in Lev 19:34 between a
Jew and a resident alien, in 1King 5:15 between Hiram, the king of Tyre, and David, and in 2 Chr 19:2 a
YHWH.
199 Malamat, "You shall love," 114.
200
58
"Do I not hate those who hate Thee, O LORD There is, according to Halakhah, a mitzvah
You have heard that it has been
neighbour
mentioned in the Law ... 201 As Lamm
everyone has sinned at one time or another in his life ('For there is not a righteous man
upon earth who doeth good and sinneth not' - 202 Yet there is a sin that excludes
a Jew from the fellowship of Israel, hence the mitzvah of love does not apply to him
anymore. Maimonides in his commentary on the Mishnah classifies such an evildoer as
proper rebuke. Since proper rebuke is impossible without love, one must love the heretic in
order to reprove him.
The discussion above does not really solve the problem for a Jew, but it helps Christians to
see why Jesus, while dealing with this question in Luke 10, assigned the only positive role in
his parable to a Samaritan THE heretic of his day in the eyes of a Jew.
Who is like you (^AmK')
It is very likely that the (mis)interpretation of ^AmK' is the main reason for the many diverse
understandings of Lev 19:18b. The basic question is whether ^AmK' loving the
neighbour the sentence
203 Even though the preposition K. functions
is correspondence 204 hence the translation as yourself
evokes the concept of self-love and consequently raises a number of difficulties. As
-love is rarely mentioned in the Bible, and then only in a
201 As quoted by Lamm, "Loving," 100, from Halakhah #14.
202 Ibid.: 105.
203 -
Jewish Interpretation," Biblica 73, no. 4 (1992): 505.
204 Waltke and O'Connor, Introduction, 203.
59
figurative sense (cf. Pro. 19:8 looks after his true well-205 He sees self-love as
-love involves a
contradiction, unless we understand the author to be essentially cynical about human
206
The second alternative, getting more attention in recent scholarship, is to take ^AmK' in
apposition to ^[]rel.. The preposition K. functions here purely as comparative your
neighbour is like you. This is exactly how it functions in 29 other occurrences of ^AmK' in the
OT; with a personal pronoun, it always compares person to person, people to people, or God
You shall love your
neighbour as a man like yourself.translation of Lev
shall love him as a man like yourself, because you w207 Finally, as shown
above, the whole passage deals with interpersonal relationships to which a concept of self-
love is foreign. Like all good summaries, Lev 19:18b answers the essential questions
regarding the topic: What shall I do with regard to my neighbour? Cherish! How am I to do
that? Read what comes before the summary the whole book! Why should I cherish my
neighbour? Because my neighbour is a human being like me, created and given to me by
God so that our relationships would project his image, as the opening statement of Lev 19
exhorts You shall be holy, for I the LORD Thus the norm is not human
self-love, but YHWH
You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You may certainly rebuke him, but do
not gather up sin because of him. Also, you shall not pursue revenge, nor maintain a
grudge against any of your people, but you shall cherish your neighbour who is a
human being like you; since I am YHWH.
205 David N. Freedman, "The Hebrew Old Testament and the ministry today," Perspective 5 (1964): 13.
206 Ibid.
207 As quoted by J. Duncan M. Derrett, "Love thy neighbor as a man like thyself," Expository Times 83
(1971): 56.
60
Conclusion
The suggested translation of Lev 19:18b functions as a climax of the four-unit structure of
Lev 19:11-18 (vv. 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18).208
holiness is the ultimate reason and norm for the relationship between His people. As
Williamson says in his recent study on Isaiah:
he Holy One of
based upon the same principles.209
It is fascinating to see how of
19 as its reflection, not only in the teaching of the OT prophets (especially Isaiah), but also in
the literature of the Inter-testamental period (especially Sirach) and the New Testament
(namely Jesus and Paul). Douglas rightly suggests that the purpose of placing the chapter
210
between secular and ritual irrelevant: everything that the people do, from day to day and
Sabbath to Sabbath, involves being obedient to the command to be holy. Holiness involves
211 Perhaps that is why Gen 1:27
states that when God created man in his own image, he created him/them as male and
cted also by human relationships, and
that takes at least two people. It is hard to think of a more effective evangelistic method to
introduce YHWH to others than through proper relationships as defined in the discussed text
of Leviticus.
208 See Appendix 2.
209 H. G. M. Williamson, Variations on a Theme: King, Messiah and Servant in the Book of Isaiah
(Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1998), 27.
210 Douglas, "Justice," 346.
211 Ibid.: 348-49.
61
Appendix 1
Examples of Translating, Paraphrasing and Interpreting of Lev 19:18b
-
n Neudecker, 1992).
Neudecker, 1992).
decker, 1992).
Neudecker, 1992).
Neudecker, 1992).
Neudecker, 1992).
Rbti 4 [ed. Higger, 258] quoted in Neudecker, 1992).
Gannim: Torah Shelemah, 71, n. 277).
-
Joseph, quoted in Neudecker, 1992).
-man as you love your wife, and children - those closest to you,
62
Appendix 2
Translation of Lev 19:11-18
11 You shall not steal, lest you act
deceitfully and lie to one another,
12 hence you will swear by my name
concerning the lie and thereupon
profane the name of your God; since I
am YHWH.
13 You shall not exploit your
neighbor, depriving him of his
possession or rights. You shall not
withhold the wages of a laborer
overnight.
14 You shall not curse a deaf man, nor
place a stumbling block before the
blind, but fear your God; since I am
YHWH.
15 You shall not practice inequality in
jurisdiction; neither by showing
partiality to the poor, nor by showing
deference to the rich. Judge your
neighbor justly.
16 You shall not act against the life of
your neighbor by carrying on an
intrigue among your people; since I
am YHWH.
17 You shall not hate your brother in
your heart. You may certainly rebuke
him, but do not gather up sin because
of him.
18 Also, you shall not pursue revenge,
nor maintain a grudge against any of
your people, but you shall cherish
your neighbor who is a human being
like you; since I am YHWH.
NASB Lev 19:11-18
11 'You shall not steal, nor deal
falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 'You shall not swear falsely by My
name, so as to profane the name of
your God; I am the LORD.
13 'You shall not oppress your
neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a
hired man are not to remain with you
all night until morning.
14 'You shall not curse a deaf man, nor
place a stumbling block before the
blind, but you shall revere your God; I
am the LORD.
15 'You shall do no injustice in
judgment; you shall not be partial to
the poor nor defer to the great, but
you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
16 'You shall not go about as a
slanderer among your people, and you
are not to act against the life of your
neighbor; I am the LORD.
17 'You shall not hate your fellow
countryman in your heart; you may
surely reprove your neighbor, but
shall not incur sin because of him.
18 'You shall not take vengeance, nor
bear any grudge against the sons of
your people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
BHS Lev 19:11-18
Wvïx]k;t.-al{w> WbnO=g>Ti al{ß 11
`At*ymi[]B; vyaiî WrßQ.v;t.-al{)w>
rq,V'_l; ymiÞv.bi W[ïb.V'ti-al{)w> 12
ynIïa] ^yh,Þl{a/ ~veî-ta, T'²l.L;xiw>
`hw")hy>
al{åw> ^ß[]rE(-ta, qvoï[]t;-al{) 13
ryki²f' tL;î[uP. !yliút'-al{) lzO=g>ti
`rq,Bo)-d[; ^ßT.ai
rWEë[i ynEåp.liw> vrEêxe lLeäq;t.-al{ 14
t'arEîy"w> lvo+k.mi !TEßti al{ï
`hw")hy> ynIïa] ^yh,Þl{a/Me
jP'êv.MiB; ‘lw<['’ Wfï[]t;-al{ 15
rD:ßh.t, al{ïw> ld"ê-ynEp. aF'äti-al{
`^t<)ymi[] jPoïv.Ti qd<c,ÞB. lAd+g" ynEåP.
al{ï ^yM,ê[;B. ‘lykir" %lEÜte-al{ 16
`hw")hy> ynIßa] ^[<+rE ~D:ä-l[; dmoß[]t;
^b<+b'l.Bi ^yxiÞa'-ta, an"ïf.ti-al{) 17
^t,êymi[]-ta, ‘x:yki’AT x;keÛAh
`aj.xe( wyl'Þ[' aF'îti-al{w>
ynEåB.-ta, ‘rJoti-al{)w> ~QoÜti-al{) 18
ynIßa] ^Am+K' ^ß[]rEl. T'îb.h;a'(w> ^M,ê[;
`hw")hy>
63
The Land
Introduction
Von Rad in his influential essay on the ideology of the land in the Hexateuch distinguishes
between what he calls historical and cultic conceptions of the land.212 The historical
to Abraham to its conquest by Joshua. The cultic
conception is based on the belief that YHWH is the true owner of the land, and it is in the
light of this belief that the proscriptions of any kind of cultic defilement of the land, the
regulations of the Sabbatical year or the Jubilee year, and the laws concerning firstlings,
tenths, or gleanings are to be understood and interpreted. Since the defilement of the land
plays an important part in the present thesis, the cultic conception of the land is the focus of
this chapter. The purpose is to investigate a possibility that even the Prophets reflect this
conception. Before that, however, a brief outline of the cultic conception of the land in the
Law is needed, for it is here where its major characteristics are most clearly defined.
Cultic Conception of the Land in the Law
The clearest expression of the cultic conception of the land is found in Leviticus and
Numbers.213 Here YHWH
212 Gerhard Von Rad, "The Promised Land and Yahweh's Land in the Hexateuch," in The Problem of the
Hexateuch and Other Essays (Edinburgh; London: Oliver & Boyd, 1966).
213 Deuteronomy also warns against the human conduct that pollutes the land. ou
must not defile (aMej;t. al{) the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance (hl'x]n:
24:4 is very similar; while its last part is identical with 21:23 (a phrase exclusive to Deuteronomy,
ayjix]t; al{
both commands as ouv mianei/te
mely leaving a corpse on a tree over night and remarrying a
wife who was married to another man, it is more likely that these cases are just derivatives of already
mentioned sources, namely murder and adultery. For relating the corpse on a tree to a murder-like
source of pollution, see S. R. Driver, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy, 3rd ed.,
ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1902), 284f. For relating the remarriage to adultery-like source of
64
hZ"xua]l;), Lev 14:34, but he remains its ult
the land is considered holy.214 Moreover, the land is the place where the holy God has
chosen to dwell among his people, Lev 26:11-12 and Num 35:34.215 For these reasons, its
inhabitants must avoid those acts that have the ca216 Failing
to do so results in the kind of impurity for which no ritual can atone,217 and when the
people and his land, withdrawing his protection and care.218 As Zimmerli puts it, in the cultic
pa219 Lev 18:24 -25 mentions a precedent for this
t YHWH cast out before Israel practised the sort of things that
defiled them as well as the land, so YHWH
the land because of things like sexual perversion or human sacrifice even though they did
not possess a revealed Torah. This means that the land is rendered impure not because of its
220 In the case
pollution, see W. D. Davies, The Gospel and the Land: Early Christianity and Jewish Territorial Doctrine
(Berkeley; London: University of California Press, 1974), 32-34.
214 For a good discussion of the derivative holiness of the land, see Davies, Gospel and Land, 29-35.
See also the chapter on Holiness. This derivativeness might account for the fact that the expression
vd<Qoh; tm;d>a; in Zech 2:12.
215 Wright observes that the Leviticus passage expresses YHWH
3:8 the hithpael form of $lh #r,a,NIDOTTE 1:519.
216
t
217
live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed
in it, except by the b
218
means unique to the religious mentality of Israel. The Moabite Mesha Inscription (9th century)
furnishes an excellent extrabiblical parallel: Mesha considers th
lx;n"; hl'x]n:
TDOT 9.332.
219 Walther Zimmerli, "The 'Land' in the Pre-Exilic and early Post-Exilic Prophets," in Understanding the
Word: Essays in Honor of Bernhard W. Anderson, ed. James T. Butler, Edgar W. Conrad, and Ben C.
Ollenburger, JSOTSup 37 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985), 254.
220 E. A. Martens, God's design: A Focus on Old Testament Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI
65
of Israel, however, there is one major difference: according to Lev 26:14-45, YHWH
judgment is not ultimate and the Israelites can eventually return to the land. As far as the
effect the land denuded
of its people will get her rest and regain its holiness.221
222
Cultic Conception of the Land in the Prophets
Since the key texts for defining this conception come from H,223 it may be argued that it is
224
Certainly the idea of a god possessing a particular land and dwelling there had been known
to Canaanite religion long before Yahwism.225 It does not necessarily follow, however, that
the Israelite tribes who had invaded Palestine adopted this idea by replacing Baal with
YHWH.226 Von Rad maintains that some of the very oldest commandments in the OT already
imply YHWH
religion.227 He does not give any specific examples, but one of the OT earliest texts can be
used in support: Ex 15:17 speaks of the mountain and the place that presumably refers to
Leicester: Baker Book House, Apollos, 1994), 109.
221 On this idea, see especially Robert P. Carroll, "The Myth of the Empty Land," Semeia 59 (1992).
from the ideology of pollution-
222 Hans Eberhard Von Waldow, "Israel and Her Land: Some Theological Considerations," in A Light
unto My Path: Old Testament Studies in Honor of Jacob M. Myers, ed. Howard N. Bream, Ralph Daniel
Heim, and Carey A. Moore, Gettysburg Theological Studies 4 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press,
1974), 506.
223 For assigning Num 35:33-34 to H see footnote 82.
224 Von Von Rad, "Promised Land," 85, see also 88-89.
225 As sufficiently demonstrated by R. E. Clements, God and Temple (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965).
226 Contra von Von Waldow, "Israel and Her Land," esp. 494.
227 See von Von Rad, "Promised Land," 88.
66
Canaan as YHWHhl'x]n:.228 Also the idea of certain practices of people defiling the
land and its consequences (as described, e.g., in the above mentioned Lev 18), seems to be
very ancient.229 In any case, it is very probable that the cultic conception of the land was
hardly a novelty in, let alone an invention of, the 8th century Israelite prophets. What still
remains to be seen is whether the prophets adhered to this conception, and what role it
played in their message. Before turning to Isaiah as a study-case, brief examples from some
other prophets serve to prepare the ground.
Hosea
The cultic conception of the land in Hosea has been most advanced by Braaten, who
prophetic book.230 His claim that the Hebrew term #r,a, in Hos 1-
people but the land per se and his identification of the bride in 2:4-13 and 18-23 as the land
further amplify the presence of this conception in Hosea:
1. The land belongs to YHWH (hw"hy> #r<a, in 9:3) and it is his house(hold)
(hw"hy> tyBe in 8:1, same idea in 9:15).
228 lx;n"; hl'x]n: TDOT
persuasively argues that hl'x]n: refers to a possession acquired by inheritance, not by some other
transaction (for which the noun hZ"xua] is reserved). This notion presents no problem when the text
hl'x]n: pictured as
YHWH
when the land or the people are designated as YHWHhl'x]n:
s back to the notion of the division of the nations or their lands
-9 and Ps 82:6. This hypothesis is attractive, but,
-free. Goldingay, following Habel, prefers the
hl'x]n:
does not intrinsically refer to land as passed down within families, but to land as the rightful
John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology, vol. 1: Israel's Gospel
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 516-17. When it comes
suggestion to read the references to YHWHhl'x]n:
figurative expression does not emphasize the transfer or inheritance of property, but rather the
constant, enduring nature of lx;n"; hl'x]n: TDOT 9.331.
229 See, e.g., von Von Waldow, "Israel and Her Land," 503.
230 Laurie J. Braaten, "Earth Community in Hosea 2," in The Earth Story in the Psalms and the
Prophets, ed. Norman C. Habel, Earth Bible 4 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001).
67
2. The people commit idolatry along with whoredom (2:8, 4:12-14, 5:3-7, 9:1, 11:2, 13:1-
2) and bloodshed (1:4, 4:2, 6:8, 12:14), thus defiling not only themselves (5:3, 6:10, 9:4)
but also the land, turning Yhwh-7).231
3. Yhwh, therefore, decides to bring judgment upon the land and the people the land will
be completely stripped of all its attractiveness (2:11-15) and of her inhabitants, who will
be taken to exile (8:8-10, 9:3-6 and 15).
4. This judgment, however, has a purging effect, making the reconciliation between Yhwh,
the land and the people possible (2:17-25).
232
there can hardly be any doubt that the cultic conception of the land as presented in the Law
is operative in the book of Hosea.
Jeremiah
When it comes to the Prophets, the cultic conception of the land is at its best in the book of
Jeremiah. 2:7 describes the situation from YHWH
plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled
(WaM.j;T.w:) my land, and made my heritage (ytil'x]n:) an abomination (hb'[eAt233 As Habel
234 16:18 speaks about
231 The same idea is expressed in Ps 106:38-39.
232 against
the consensus view that the wife there represents the people of Israel. For a recent list of scholars
who hold this consensus and its sharp repudiation, see Brad E. Kelle, Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric
in Historical Perspective, Academia Biblica 20 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2005), 82-83. Kelle, however,
disagrees also with Braaten and others who interpret the wife as the land, but his arguments at this
point are dubious. In any case, his suggestion to identify the wife of Hos 2 with Samaria, the capital of
the Northern Kingdom in the time of Hosea, does not seriously affect the point above for two
reasons: first, a city or a mountain in Israelite religion can epitomize a whole land (as argued below,
0), and, second, there is enough evidence besides ch. 2 to support the cultic conception of the land in
the book of Hosea.
233 Similarly 12:10-11.
234 Norman C. Habel, The Land is Mine: Six Biblical Land Ideologies, Overtures to Biblical Theology
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 80. The focus of 4:19-
he foolish people who have provoked this disaster, but
on the precious land of Yhwh Habel, The Land is Mine, 87.
68
their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted (~l'L.x;) my land with the carcasses
of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance (ytil'x]n:) with their abominations
(~h,yteAb[]At235 3:1 seems to suggest that this defilement has reached its limit, and Israel
If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and
becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not such a land be greatly
polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? says
236
Jeremiah refers not only to the land, but also to the people of Judah as YHWHs
YHWH
ambiguity is intentional; commenting on 12:7-
designation to refer almost indistinguishably to the land and to the people that the close
237 Indeed,
people. Ch. 2 identifies some of the sources of their impurity. The question in v. 2 How can
I am not defiled,
defilement by illegitimate cultic practices was known to the people, and most of the chapter
describes the explicit or implicit idolatry.238 Furthermore, vv. 33b-
235
carcasses (hl'ben>), of which Lev 21:23 specifically says that they pollute the land. Notice also the use of
alm with tAb[]At.
236 A majority of contemporary scholars reads the expression yl;ae bAvw> at the end of this verse as a
question that renders the possibiYHWH impossible because of her defilement.
J. A. Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, NICOT (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1980), 192. In any case, this verse shows that the cultic conception of the land in Jeremiah
is in accord with the Law, namely Deut 24:1-4.
237 Zimmerli, "The Land," 253-54. hl'x]n: in
of the land-god-peoplHabel, The Land is Mine, 85.
238
2:13-19, they effectively meant forsaking Yhwh. As Habel rightly comments, 2:13-
belief that becoming involved in seeking aid from foreign powers was tantamount to idolatry,
Habel, The Land is Mine, 84.
This notion is characteristic of (and the reason for?) Proto-
69
ethical misconduct as another source of their pollution. Even though the ambiguities of
this text allow for various readings,239 its point is to add to idolatry another evil that defiles
Judah, nam
off the stain of their guilt with lye and soap.240 However, blood pollution is deadly serious,
and YHWH informs them in this verse that this washing is in vain
241 As a result, YHWH has abandoned and even hates his heritage, giving it into the hands
of the enemies (12:7-8). According to Jeremiah, YHWH appointed the Babylonians (21:4-10;
25:8-14; 29:4-7) to purge and clear his heritage to cut off the people from the land and
of exile (29:10 and 25:11) as the time
36:21). The people in exile will also be transformed; they will know YHWH, because he will
write his law on their hearts (Jer 31:33).242 They are the good figs (24:5) with which the
purified land will be replanted (v. 6, cf. 31:27-28 and 32:41) and of which YHWH
relationship with his purified heritage, establishing a new covenant with her (31:31-
new order will be possible in the redeemed land because all the people will have the
243
239 -34 requires at least three revocalizations and two emendations,
supported mostly by LXX only, see William Lee Holladay, Jeremiah 1: A Commentary on the Book of
the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapters 1-25, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 56, 109-10.
focus. Even if MT is retained, social justice can still be considered as the main theme of this text, as
recently demonstrated by Jack R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 1-20: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary, AB 21A (New York, London: Doubleday, 1999), 293-97.
240 Holladay, Jeremiah 1, 110.
241 In 4:14, the people, symbolized by Jerusalem, are asked the very thing of which they are,
according to 2:22, incapable (the only uses of sbk in Jeremiah). The reason for this contrasting use of
images may be the speakers; v. 2:22 is hwIhy> yn"doa] ~aun>
JrmIbid., 157. As Thompson comments on this
Thompson, Jeremiah, 225.
242 Yhwhdness, their remarkable
YhwhHabel,
The Land is Mine, 95.
243 Ibid., 93.
70
Ezekiel
As expected of a prophet with a priestly background, cultic pollution is of much concern to
Ezekiel: he frequently mentions the defilement of the people, whether as individuals (4:13f;
18:6ff; 22:10-11) or as a whole (14:11; 20:7, 18, 26, 30-31, 43; 23:7, 13, 17, 30; 33:26; 37:23;
44:25), of the sanctuary (5:11; 9:7; 23:38-39; 24:21; 25:3; 44:7), and of the city (22:3-5).
Pollution in Ezekiel expands to various things (7:20ff; 28:7; 22:26), to sabbaths (20:13, 16,
21, 24; 22:8; 23:38), and even to YHWH himself (13:19; 22:26), who, in response, also acts as
the agent of pollution (7:20; 20:26; 24:21). In the light of this evidence, the lack of
references to the defilement of the land is striking. To be sure, Ezekiel frequently mentions
the land;244 not only in connection with the envisioned glorious future,245 but also
ybic.YHWH has chosen for his people
(20:6). Defilement is a central theme of
seems to be replaced by the references to the defilement of the sabbaths and of YHWH
name.246 Correspondingly, YHWH does not act for the sake of his heritage (as in Jeremiah),
but for the sake of his own name (e.g., 36:22 and 32, cf. Isa 43:25). An explanation lies
readily to hand: because Ezekiel talks to the people who are in the land of Babylon, the
pressing issue is the purity of YHWHs name and his sabbaths rather than the purity of the
land.
-18 clearly shows that he also adheres to the
cultic conception of the land:
Mortal, when the house of Israel lived on their own soil, they defiled it with their
ways and their deeds; their conduct in my sight was like the uncleanness of a
woman in her menstrual period. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood
that they had shed upon the land, and for the idols with which they had defiled it.
244 Besides the usual expressions, he also uses laer"f.yI tm;d>a; a designation unique to this book.
245 E.g., Ezek 17:22-23, 36:24-
Davies, Gospel and Land, 45.
246 The expressoin yvid>q' ~ve can also be considered characteristic of Ezekiel; it occurs in this book 8
times (20:39; 36:20ff; 39:7, 25; 43:7f) and only 4 times elsewhere (Lev 20:3; 22:2, 32; Amos 2:7).
Except Ezek 39:25 where God is said to be jealous for his holy name, this expression is always
connected with the idea of profaning (llx) or defiling (amj) it. In contrast, Jeremiah explicitly
mentions profaning God's name only once 34:16.
71
And to those remaining in the land, for whom the ownership of the land is still high on the
agenda, Ezekiel addresses the rebuke that reflects the same conception:
Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: You eat flesh with the blood, and lift
up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood; shall you then possess the land? You
depend on your swords, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his
neighbor's wife; shall you then possess the land? (33:25-26)
concrete unfolding of the commandment we
247 Just as in
Hosea and Jeremiah, the cultic conception of the land as defined in the Law is operative in
Ezekiel.
Case-study: Land in the Book of Isaiah
Starting from what appears to be the latest unit, the clearest expression of the cultic
conception of the land in the book of Isaiah is found in the so-
24-27. 24:5 spells out the reason for the impending judgment:
its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting
The use of the rare verb @nx
this verb is used in the Law is in one of the key texts for the cultic conception of the land its
pollution in Num 35:33 and, except Dan 11:32, it retains this sense throughout the OT (Jer
3:1, 2, 9; 23:11;248 Mic 4:11; Ps 106:38). As the uses of this root show, @nx comprises a cultic
ingredient intolerable to the presence of the holy God.249 Also the use of the phrase ~l'A[
tyrIB. in this verse is noteworthy. It is not vital for the purpose of this discussion to
247 Zimmerli, "The Land," 257-58.
248 @nx in Jer 23:11 refers to prophets and
unjustified, probably an (anachronistic) import of this meaning by the translators from the book of
in a noun form (hP'nUx]) in connection with the land.
249 @nEx' TDOT 5.36-44.
72
determine to which of the OT covenants this phrase here refers.250 As argued already by
Sweeney, the author of Isa 24-27 tends to use traditional concepts in a new way, namely
251 This means that, even though the overall context
favours the identification of ~l'A[ tyrIB. in v. 5 with the Noachic covenant,252 the author
very likely used also some of the characteristics of the Mosaic covenant253 (or the Davidic
covenant) and universalized them.254 Even Hibbard, who most recently argued that this
255 To look for these concepts requires reading that goes
beneath the surface (in this case universalistic) reading of the text. This reading uncovers
the cultic conception of the land as defined in P governing Isa 24:5-6:256 #r<a'h')
lies polluted (hp'n>x') under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the
statutes, broken (Wrpehe) the ancient covenant (~l'A[ tyrIB.).257 Therefore a curse (hl'a')
devours the land (#r<a, should be observed that it is the Mosaic
250 While the expression ~l'A[ tyrIB. describes the Noachic covenant in Gen 9:16, elsewhere it refers
to the covenants with Abraham (Ps 105, 9-10 // 1 Chr 16:16-17) or David (2 Sam 23:5), or to the new
covenant that God promises to make with his people (Isa 55:3, Jer 32:40 and 50:5, Ezek 16:60 and
37:26), so to which covenant Isa 24:5 alludes has to be decided on other grounds.
251 Marvin A. Sweeney, "Textual Citations in Isaiah 24-27: Toward an Understanding of the
Redactional Function of Chapters 24-27 in the Book of Isaiah," JBL 107 (1988): 51.
252 See, e.g., Joseph Blenkinsopp, "Cityscape to Landscape: The 'Back to Nature' Theme in Isaiah 1-35,"
in 'Every City Shall be Forsaken': Urbanism and Prophecy in Ancient Israel and the Near East, ed.
Robert D. Haak and Lester L. Grabbe, JSOTSup 330 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 43.
253 For the identification of ~l'A[ tyrIB. in Isa 24:5 with the Mosaic covenant, see, e.g., Dan G.
Johnson, From Chaos to Restoration: An Integrative Reading of Isaiah 24-27, JSOTSup 61 (Sheffield:
JSOT Press, 1988), 27-29.
254 The most elaborate argument of this sort comes from Donald C. Polaski, Authorizing an End: The
Isaiah Apocalypse and Intertextuality, vol. 50, Biblical Interpretation Series (Leiden: Brill, 2001).
255 James Todd Hibbard, Intertextuality in Isaiah 24-27: The Reuse and Evocation of Earlier Texts and
Traditions, FAT 16 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006), 68.
256 For P pre-dating and being in some form available to the author of Isa 24-27, see Ibid., 56-64.
257 For translating ~l'A[ tyrIB. Jon Douglas Levenson, Creation
and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (San Francisco, London: Harper
& Row, 1988), 27. Cmp. ~l'A[ tAbr>x'
73
covenant of which breaking is explicitely warded off by curses (tyrIB.h; tAla', Deut
29:20). Accordingly, the term #r<a,
orbis Israeliticus, for it is only from this
sphere that the above-mentioned concepts derive their validity. Johnson seems to be on the
similar to that of Jer. 3.2, 9 and Ps. 106.38 where idolatry and religious harlotry are the
258 Apparently, this tradition is governed by the cultic
conception of the land.259
Further reading of Isa 24-s sin
will disclose the blood shed
implicit here is explicit in 27:8-9:
By expulsion, by exile you struggled against them; Therefore by this the guilt of
Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when
he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no sacred
poles or incense altars will remain standing.
There are several obscurities in this passage, as its different renderings in various OT
translations make clear. Nevertheless, it is safe to conclude that these verses convey the
idea that YHWH land in a cultic sense.260 Finally, the
258 Johnson, Chaos, 29.
259 Hayes lists 24:4-5 as one of the examples that the author (according to him Isaiah of the 8th
John Haralson Hayes and Stuart A. Irvine, Isaiah, the Eighth Century Prophet: His Times & His
Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987), 57.
260 A few observations in support of this conclusion should suffice: Sweeney believes that the
introductory !kel'
Sweeney, Isaiah 1-39, 348. The note on this verse in NET
suggests that rp;K' in the first line should be understood in a sarcastic sense Jacob
consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-
that yrIP.-lK' may be a corruption of rPek;l., which in turn might be a gloss on the following rsih', could
be used as another support for this reading, but, in spite of its attractiveness (mainly due to its
suitability for the present thesis), this reading must be resisted, because it breaks up a strong
parallelism between 9a and 9b (indicated by the two deictics tazOB. and hz<w> and a semantic link
between bqo[]y:-!wO[] and AtaJ'x;). A recent suggestion of Leene seems to do more justice to the syntax
of the text, it does not require any emendations, and it still retains the idea of the expiatory effect of
the judgment, carried out solely by YHWH: he simply assigns the actant of v. 9b to YHWH, so it is he who
74
grand finale of the Isaiah Apocalypse fully endorses the cultic conception of the land in
the
LORD on the holy mountain at Jeru
The reference to the holy mountain brings up another point important for the quest for the
cultic conception of the land in the rest of the book of Isaiah. Even though the land plays a
very important role throughout the book, the cultic concepts relate predominantly to mount
Zion, the city of Jerusalem. This fact, however, does not frustrate the quest, because, as
Clements sufficiently demonstrated, the idea that a mountain as a dwelling-place of a god
epitomized a whole land or even the whole world or cosmos was a common idea not only in
Israelite religion, but also in the religions of the Ancient Near East.261 Clements also points
out that this idea must have been very ancient in Israel, for it is found in texts like the Song
of Miriam (Exod 15:13-18) or Ps 78:51-55. Moreover, mount Zion was not only symbolic of
YHWHYHWH262 Of
course, this blessing resulted from YHWH
temple. If the concept of YHWH
the land, it applied even more so to mount Zion and Jerusalem.
If Zion/Jerusalem passages are not included, the examples of the cultic conception of the
land in Proto-Isaiah are present only implicitly in passages like 1:5-9 where the condition of
the land is understood as the consequence of sin,263 or where the vision of the future of the
Hendrik Leene, "Isaiah 27:7-9 as
a Bridge between Vineyard and City," in Studies in Isaiah 24-27, ed. Hendrik Jan Bosman and Harm
van Grol, OTS 43 (Leiden: Brill, 2000).
261 See Clements, God and Temple, passim. In addition, see a more recent survey of this idea with the
same conclusion by Martti Nissinen, "City as Lofty as Heaven: Arbela and other Cities in Neo-Assyrian
Prophecy," in 'Every City Shall be Forsaken': Urbanism and Prophecy in Ancient Israel and the Near
East, ed. Robert D. Haak and Lester L. Grabbe, JSOTSup 330 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
2001). Holiness ABD 3.243.
262 Clements, God and Temple, 51-55 and 85.
263 It may be of significance that the phrase hm'm'v. ~k,c.r>a; in v. 7 can elsewhere be found only in the
key passage on the cultic conception of the land Lev 26:14-45 (v. 33). The expression hm'm'v. along
with the whole concept appears most frequently in Jeremiah (4:27, 6:8, 9:10, 10:22, 12:10-11, 34:22,
reversed in 32:43) and Ezekiel (6:14, 12:20, 14:15-16, 15:8, 33:28-29, reversed in 36:34), but also in
Isa 1:7, 6:11-12, 64:9, and reversed in 49:8,19 and 62:4.
75
new kingdom in 9:6 implies the restored land.264 The cultic conception of the land can also
265
However, once mount Zion/Jerusalem is substituted for the land, its cultic conception in
Proto-Isaiah is much more obvious. Isaiah ben Amoz clearly believes that that is where YHWH
lives (e.g., 8:18, 18:7, or 31:9). To his horror, this city, once full of justice and righteousness,
has become a whore (1:21), and -8a). This impurity
(1:22) is irreconcilable with YHWH
YHWHs city takes on different significance his fire is in Zion, his furnace in
Jerusalem (31:9), and the judgment becomes inevitable (8:5-8, 10:11, 31:4). As a result,
Jerusalem will be purified (1:25), suitable to become hw"hy>-tyBe rh;, hw"hy>-rh;, or bqo[]y:
yhel{a/ tyBe (2:2-
266
It was very likely the redactor(s) of Proto-Isaiah
cityscape. At this level, the cultic conception of the land is very clear: YHWH
the land is expressed by hw"hy> tm;d>a; in 14:2,267 and he refers to the land of Judah as ycir>a;
(parallel to yr:h') in 14:25. The question ist (rWgy") with destructive
cleansing in the form of judgment is necessary.268 Once the Lord has washed away the filth
264 Davies,
Gospel and Land, 42-43.
265 D. N. Premnath, "Latifundialization and Isaiah 5.8-10," JSOT 40 (1988): 56.
266 Zimmerli, "The Land," 249. In additio
Clements, God and Temple, 80.
267 For attributing this verse to a redactor (probably Deutero-Isaiah), see Williamson, Book Called
Isaiah, 162-67.
268 Interestingly, this question is asked by so called ~ypinEx] the adjectival form of the verb
characteristically used for land pollution (as discussed above). The book of Job offers a perspective
from which a @nEx' @nEx' TDOT 5.43. In Isa 33, the
solution to the dilemma is ethical (v. 15), just like 1:16-17, but, as the subsequent events show, this
solution is only theoretical. For attributing these verses to a redactor (probably Deutero-Isaiah), see
Ibid., 221-39.
76
of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a
complete restoration can take place (4:2-
6).269 YHWH
will be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city will be full of the
(11:9). Clearly the redactor(s) make the cultic conception of the
land in Proto-Isaiah more explicit.270 To evaluate the theological adequacy of these
additions, howeve
we determine the rightness or wrongness of such subsequent actualizations of old Isaianic
271
In Deutero-Isaiah, YHWH (54:5), but, since his
universal ownership and lordship will be demonstrated mainly in bringing his people from
Babylon back to their homeland, the main focus is again on Zion/Jerusalem. YHWH has
YHWH
(49:14). YHWH, however, affirms his affection toward her, promising her a glorious future
(49:15-26). He will return to her (40:9, 52:8), take her back as his wife (54:5-8), rebuild and
YHWH
52:1, YHWH promises to protect her purity
Deutero-Isaiah describes the situation of the people analogously: because of
their sins and transgressions, YHWH yTil.L;xi)
my heritage (ytil'x]n:-28). In the exile, he refined them
(@rc, 48:10, as in 1:25), blotting out their transgressions and not remembering their sins
269
purity/impurity, see Hayes and Irvine, Isaiah, 57. For attributing this passage to a post-exilic redactor,
see Williamson, Isaiah 1-27, 305-06.
270 As Williamson suggests in his comment on 4:4-5a, this may reflect the emphasis of the
Ezra/Nehemiah reforms on purity, adding that this observation does not exclude an even later dating,
Williamson, Isaiah 1-27, 306. While this is certainly a good possibility, the instances above show that
the purity of the people, the land, or the city was on the prophetic agenda even before the exile, so
the reference to it should not be included among the arguments for the late dating of a particular
text.
271 Gerhard Von Rad, Old Testament Theology, trans. David Muir Gibson Stalker, 2 vols. (New York:
Harper & Row, 1965), 2.168.
77
(43:25).272
apportion the desolate heritages (tAlx'n> lyxin>h;l. tAmmevoruins,
Jerusalem has been redeemed (52:9). People are to depart from unclean Babylon and return
there, and, since they are to be closely accompanied by YHWH, their purity is required (52:11-
12). Ch. 54 describes the glorious symbiosis of Jerusalem, Israelites, and YHWH. The Holy One
of Israel can again dwell in Jerusalem in the midst of his people because all the impurity has
been removed.
One more interesting expression of the cultic conception in Deutero-Isaiah should be
mentioned. In 40:2, it is said of Jerusalem that Hn"wO[] hc'r>nI. OT exegetes struggle with the
meaning of this phrase.273 They often note that the combination of hcr with !A[' occurs
only here and in Lev 26:41 and 43,274 which, as pointed out above, is a key passage for
understanding the exile as the purification of the land and the people: the land hc,r>Ti for its
Sabbaths while it is made desolate (hM'v;h.B')275 and without the people who Wcr>yI ~n"wO[]-
ta,. While the rendering of hcr in this text is also far from unanimous,276 it certainly
272 In both texts, YHWH ynI[]m;l., 48:11 and 43:25).
273
274 On the basis of this unique combination of vocabulary, some scholars even argue for a direct
influence between Isa 40:2 and Lev 26:41. Thus, e.g., Levine believes that Leviticus has borrowed this
combination from Deutero-Isaiah, see Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society, 1989), 279. Milgrom, on the other hand, claims that Isaiah of the exile was the actual
borrower from Leviticus, see Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 23-27: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary, AB 3B (New York, London: Doubleday, 2001), 2333 and 63. This issue has no bearing on
the present argument, so it does not need to be resolved here.
275 As the comparison with v. 34 clarifies, the preposition B. in this expression is temporal (so
correctly NAS or NET), not of means or instrument as understood by NRSV.
276
presupposes a play upon the root hcr in this verse, cf. Peter R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration: A
Study of Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century B.C., OTL (London: SCM, 1968), 241-42. While the
hM'v;h.B' is paradoxical and rather forced. Hossfeld seems to be closer to the mark with suggesting
hcr
hcr TDOT 13.625. In this study, Hossfeld also sufficiently demonstrated that there is no
reason to postulate hcr I-B or HALOT to
account for the unclear meaning of this root in Lev 26:34, 41, 43 and Isa 40:2.
78
functions as a cultic term. There is, therefore, no reason to obliterate this cultic sense in
Isa 40:2 by renderings like
ferable. Geller is very
likely correct that, since the niphal of hcr
277 In connection with this, the question
what does Jerusalem in this text represent needs to be briefly addressed. While the
previously common opinion that Jerusalem here is a metaphor for the exiled people has
been sufficiently repudiated,278 a number of commentators still think that Jerusalem in 40:2
does not stand for the real city, but, by metonymy, for the people mentioned in the previous
line the Israelites in general.279 The argument, of course, is the parallelism between vv. 1
synonymous.280 For instance, Isa 52:9 and 65:19 also parallel Jerusalem with the people
without equating the two. Moreover, there is little support for this metonymy in the rest of
Deutero-Isaiah; in fact, the other passages that mention Jerusalem (40:9, 41:27, 44:26-28,
51:17, 52:1-2 and 9) suggest that it stands for the city itself. It seems, therefore, safe to
conclude that, just as the land in Lev 26 is a real geographical entity, Jerusalem in Isa 40 is a
real city.281
277 Stephen A. Geller, "A Poetic Analysis of Isaiah 40:1-2," The Harvard Theological Review 77, no. 3/4
(1984).
278 See most recently John Goldingay and David F. Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on
Isaiah 40-55, 2 vols., ICC (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 1.67-69.
279 See again Ibid., 1.67.
rather feeble: the picture of Jerusalem receiving good news in vv. 9-11 is a sign of personification
rather than metonymy (just as in v. 2), and, out of the references that he lists in support for the
the use of 10:24 is incorrect
(the people here are not identified with Zion, but specified as !AYci bveyO) and 52:9 and 65:19 actually
point the opposite direction, that is to the real city. Furthermore, Goldingay on the next page
assumption that the real city is spoken of here.
280 As recognized also by Ibid. Furthermore, Snaith points out that the parallelism that this pair of 3:2
couplets creates is incomplete and thereby weaker than often assumed, for, unlike in the longer
lines, there is no semantic parallelism in the shorter lines, see Harry Meyer Orlinsky and Norman
Henry Snaith, Studies on the Second Part of the Book of Isaiah, VTSup 14 (Leiden: Brill, 1967), 177.
281 Thus, e.g., Klaus Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah: A Commentary on Isaiah 40-55, Hermeneia (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress Press, 2001), 51. The most radical defence of this conclusion comes from Snaith in
Orlinsky and Snaith, Studies, 177-79. He follows a possible lead from Vulgate in making the people the
ruined city upon their return from the exile, and, further on, it is Jerusalem who had sinned and
79
Finally, Trito-Isaiah upholds the ultimate vision of Deutero-Isaiah when it comes to
You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more
be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for
the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married
Jerusalem will be rebuilt, revived, and glorified before all the nations. It will rightly be called
ry[i hw"hy> and !AYci laer"f.yI vAdq. (v. 14), for the most glorious thing about it will be
YHWH he will be its everlasting light and its glory (vv. 19-20).
True to form, Mount Zion will be holy, and Trito-Isaiah
right of citizenship to denote the sort of people entitled to live in this holy place with the
O
excluded: those who profane (llx) the sabbath (56:2-8 and 58:13-14, both by implication),
those who practice idolatry (57:3-13, 65:11b, 66:3 and 17), those who are violent (65:25 by
implication and 66:3), those who rebel against YHWH (66:24), and, by definition, those who
forsake YHWH and who forget his holy mountain (65:11).282 On the other hand, the ones who
will possess the land and inherit YHWHs chosen ones, his servants
(65:9), those who take refuge in him (57:13), those who are contrite and humble in spirit
(57:15),283 those who keep sabbath from profaning it (56:2-8 and 58:13-14), in one word
received the punishment. Sn-2 did not receive much acceptance, but, as
nd he still lists
Karl Elliger,
Deuterojesaja, BKAT 11 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener-Verlag, 1978), 1 and 13.
282
Jan Leunis Koole, Isaiah III/3, trans. Anthony P. Runia, vol. 3,
HCOT (Leuven: Peeters, 2001), 523.
283 The understanding of 57:15 here follows Ibid., 96-100. I dwell
oachability of this God;
holiness and the humility of spirit wakd,
he interprets aK'D; and x:Wr-lp;v. in terms of penance and humility. Finally, referring to Lev 16:16, he
maintains that !kv in v. aB can be construed with -ta, as preposition in v. bA, so the meaning of these
dwelling-place is among people and this vicinity of God puts a great strain on his approachability, but
it may also lead to full fellowship. As long as the stumbling-block of sin and unbelief has not been
cleared away, the proximity of the Exalted and Holy One destroys, but when it is removed, the high
God accepts humble man and lives in all his holiness with the broken-
80
~yqiyDIc; People, The Redeemed of the
YHWH on his holy mountain, bringing acceptable sacrifices
rAhj' ylik.Bi as rendered by NET) into the house
of YHWH (56:7 and 66:20).
Trito-Isaiaherest in keeping sabbaths from being profaned deserves a comment here. As
already mentioned, the regulations of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year are a
.284 Even though it seems that tB'v; or tAtB'v; in Trito-Isaiah refers principally to the
Sabbath day, the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year should not be excluded. When the
people are cautioned to keep YHWHtAtB'v; in Lev 26:2, the context makes clear that the
Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year are a part, if not the essential part of what could be
understood as a sabbath concept.285 Furthermore, just as in Lev 26, the blessings that result
from observing the sabbath regulations are explicitly connected with the land in Trito-Isaiah:
YHWH ride upon the heights
hl'x]n: (58:14).
Case-study Conclusion
Based on the above observations, it can be concluded that cultic conception of the land as
defined in the Law is present in the book of Isaiah. The degree of this presence varies from
part to part, and it seems to intensify in the later layers of the book, but its characteristics
can be found throughout the whole book. The application is that Isaianic texts concerning
the land, Jerusalem, and Zion are best understood sub specie sanctitatis Dei. From the
human perspective, the practical implications are as follows: If the land belongs to YHWH and
Israelites are only sojourners and tenants (~ybiv'Atw> ~yrIGE) who reside there with him (Lev
25:23), the question of coexistence, as posed by ~yaiJ'x; and ~ypinEx] in Isa 33:14, becomes
of the prime importance: rWgy") with the devouring fire
284 The expression comes from Habel, The Land is Mine, passim. For more details, see his discussion
there, especially pp. 101-114.
285 For the detailed discussion of this concept, see 0. NRSV is slightly misleading at this point, when it
translates tAtB'v;
otherwise (Lev 26:2, 35 and elsewhere).
81
answer is to avoid every kind of behaviour that defies YHWH
with whom no evil can coexist ([r" ^r>gUy> al{, Ps 5:5).
Sabbath
Introduction
In the last century, studies of the religion of ancient Israel exhibited some fascination with
the origins of the Sabbath. Arguments were based mostly on the etymology of the Hebrew
term tB'v; and on comparative philology.286 De Vaux in his book on ancient Israel reacted to
these attempts with suspicion; he not only questions the tracing o
the Babylonians, the Canaanites, or the Qenites, but also the validity of the quest as such. He
it did not 287 It seems pragmatic, therefore, to move away from the question
Nature of Sabbath Observance
ys is generally undisputed.
history.288 -exilic festival of
joy and pleasure to a post-exilic day of ascetic abstinence.289 Thus de Vaux believed that the
286 tB'v;TDOT 13.387-397, esp. 388-389.
287 De Vaux, Ancient Israel, 479.
288 A major ongoing controversy in the discussion about pre-exilic versus post-exilic Sabbath
observance concerns the proposal that it was monthly before the exile and weekly only after the
exile. Since it does not affect the present argument, there is no need to enter this debate here. For a
solid starting point and bibliography on this controversy, see Williamson, Isaiah 1-27, 94.
289 See Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, 5 ed. (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1899), 110.
82
observance only after the return of the Jews from Babylon. In contrast, he pictured the
pre-exilic Sabbath as a day of rest, a joyful feast on which people visited sanctuaries or went
transactions were interrupted, short journeys were allowed.290 The flaw in this theory is
apparent from the passages that de Vaux quotes in support: the Sabbath is neither the
subject nor the focus of 2 Kgs 4:23, Hos 2:13, Amos 8:5, and Isa 1:13, and therefore these
texts cannot be contrasted with those that specifically deal with Sabbath observance, e.g.,
Jer 17:21-22 or Isa 58:13. In addition, the Exodus and Deuteronomy passages on work
prohibition are too general to be used in an argument about the intensity of Sabbath
regulations. There is simply no pre-exilic evidence that would favor the notion that the later
-291 over the view
in their particular Sitze im Leben. In fact, Ezek 20, in which
desecration of the Sabbath in the past, suggests that the following quote from Weinfeld is
not to innovation but to the resurgence and strengthening of an ancient but sadly neglected
292
Character of Sabbath Observance
Scholars often elaborate on the differences between the two Decalogue passages and their
treatment of Sabbath observance. It seems that while the focus of Deut 5:13-15 is social and
philanthropic, it is cultic and religious in Exod 20:8-11.293 In spite of the different emphases,
290 De Vaux, Ancient Israel, 482.
291 Contra Ibid.
292 Weinfeld, Law, 30.
293 -chronological way. Thus, for instance,
reinterpretation of the Sabbath commandment within the horizon of P in the version in Exodus (Ex.
tB'v;TDOT 13.393. On the other hand, Weinfeld believes that both D and P portray
sacral reason and developed it in his own way, while Deuteronomy chose the social motivation and
Ibid., 85.
83
the character of the reasons for keeping the Sabbath and of its practical outcome is the
same: the reason in Exodus is to recall
character. The practical outcome of Sabbath observance in both versions is the right to rest
for all the people (and animals) in the land, regardless of their status and origin, so its
character is ethical. According to Andreasen, contemporary scholars generally recognize that
maintains th
based on the fact that the seventh day occurs in the ancient Near Eastern texts in
connection with myth and cult, and it appears to have affected not only ritual but also the
294 While the character of the Sabbath observance almost certainly
in the time of Trito-Isaiah.295
The cultic character of the Sabbath is evident, and hardly requires substantiation.296 The
ethical motive for Sabbath observance, however, needs to be argued more thoroughly. It
comes explicitly not only in Deut 5:14, but also in Exod 23:12 on the seventh day you shall
rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the
resident alien may be refreshed.The rationale for this ethical dimension is found in Deut
5:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God
294 Niels-Erik Andreasen, "Recent Studies of the Old Testament Sabbath," ZAW 86 (1974): 455-56.
295 This dter may account for its position in the Decalogue. According to
ionship with
God, and the laws that follow regulate social relationships within and between households. Sabbath
R.
H. Lowery, Sabbath and Jubilee, Understanding Biblical Themes (St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, 2000),
106.
296 McKay argues thituals and
practices for non--priestly
Heather A. McKay, Sabbath and Synagogue:
The Question of Sabbath in Ancient Judaism, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, v. 122 (Leiden:
Brill, 1994), 247. The major flaw in her thesis is her understanding of worship. According to her, it
consists of activities like sacrificing plants and animals, dancing, playing music, singing hymns or
from certain activities during the Sabbath. The solemn rest on the Sabbath day, however, does have
cultic character, for, as Exod 16:23 and other OT thwhyl). For
the cultic character of the Sabbatical rest, see also the exegesis of Isa 58:13 below.
84
brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the
the Exodus is often used as a reason for social justice (Deut 24:18-22; 10:19; Exod 23:9; Lev
19:34) further strengthens the case for the ethical characteristic of the Sabbath.297 Falk,
therefore, rightly insists that the Sabbath symbolizes and represents both law and ethics, the
two aspects of the faith of Israel.298
The connection between the Sabbath and ethics becomes even more apparent when one
does not think about the Hebrew term tB'v; quantitatively, as a day or a year, or a set of
rules and regulations, but sees it as a religious concept that describes the quality of a
particular time period or a certain activity. This view entails bringing into the discussion all
the religious festivals that include the terms tB'v;, !AtB'v;, or !AtB'v; tB;v; in their
and the eighth day of the Feast of Booths (Lev 23:39), the Sabbath Year (Lev 25:4,5), and the
Sabbath itself (besides already mentioned passages, see also Lev 23:3; Exod 16:23; 31:15;
and 35:2).299 The overlap of the ethical dimension of these festivals is manifest. For
example, Deuteronomy gives the same rationale for observing the Sabbath Year in 15:15 as
for keeping the Sabbath in 5:15, namely YHWH300
The Sabbath Year with its extension in the Year of Jubilee puts a special emphasis on the
social aspect of tB'v;, demanding concern for the hungry (Exod 23:11), remission of debts
(Deut 15:1), setting the slaves free (Deut 15:12), etc. Lowery persuasively argues that
297
Weinfeld, Law, 85.
De Vaux, Ancient Israel, 481. This link is further developed by Haag,
tB'v;TDOT 13.393, and will become important in the discussion of Isa 58:13-14.
298 See Falk, "Law and Ethics," passim.
299 Legitimacy of including these festivals in the discussion about the character of Sabbath is
supported also by Lev 25:2 where the Sabbath year is designated simply as hw"hyl; tB'v;, and by Exod
23:9-12 where the seventh year and the seventh day are tied together into a coherent unit.
300 Park is correct ältesten Sozialgesetzgebungen wird die
Thematik der Nächstenliebe bzw. der sozialen Solidarisiertung ... auf die Zeit der ägyptischen
Kyung-Chul Park, Die Gerechtigkeit
Israels und das Heil der Völker: Kultus, Tempel, Eschatologie und Gerechtigkeit in der Endgestalt des
Jesajabuches (Jes 56, 1-8; 58, 1-14; 65, 17-66, 24), Beiträge zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und
des Anitken Judentums, Band 52 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2003), 239.
85
-economic focus of sabbath year. The sabbath day
-
thematically connected and properly read throu301 The analysis
of Isa 58 below will demonstrate how the ethical dimension of the Sabbath observance
overlaps with the Day of Atonement.
At this point, it is helpful to realize that the development of the concept of Yom Kippur from
the predominantly social (release of debts and declaration of freedom) to the principally
soteriological (redemption and forgiveness of sins) is relatively late. Even though, as
en the earthly
of Atonement would very likely still dominate in the time of Trito-Isaiah. According to
Lev. 25.10) underwent a
process of spiritual metamorphosis during the second temple period, so that the
proclamation of freedom brought about not only the physical liberation of slaves and of
land, but also the liberation of the soul and its restoration to 302
301 Lowery, Sabbath, 146 and 63. For additional support of the connection between the Sabbath, the
Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee see Matitiahu Tsevat, "The Basic Meaning of the Biblical
Sabbath," ZAW 84 (1972).
302 Moshe Weinfeld, Normative and Sectarian Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Library of
Second Temple Studies 54 (London: T & T Clark, 2005), 227-29.
86
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