Adam Kotsko - Part 1

Humanities on the Edge Author

04/20/2015 Added

143 Plays

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"The Prince of This World: The Devil and Political Theology." Dr. Adam Kotsko is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Shimer College.

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[00:00:00.000][Thank you for the] invitation.
[00:00:01.800]It has been fun to visit Nebraska.
[00:00:05.498]I will begin by giving some preliminary notes
[00:00:08.507]on the general shape of this project
[00:00:11.941]into which tonight's talk fits.
[00:00:15.696]It's an investigation of
[00:00:18.021]the history of the devil
[00:00:19.834]as a theological political symbol,
[00:00:22.714]primarily in the Christian tradition -
[00:00:25.227]although today I am going to be
[00:00:26.703]discussing its background
[00:00:28.378]in the Jewish tradition, primarily.
[00:00:32.004]I envision this having two broad parts:
[00:00:35.929]First, a study of the historical origin of
[00:00:39.343]the devil and the way that he became
[00:00:41.241]a fixture in Christianity - although
[00:00:44.494]there's a devil-like figure in Islam
[00:00:47.235]and in Judaism, somehow Christianity got
[00:00:50.318]really fixated on it in a unique way.
[00:00:53.490]Secondly, once I've given an account of
[00:00:56.583]how the devil arrived at a recognizable state,
[00:01:01.720]I want to give a kind of biography of the
[00:01:04.461]devil from within the theological system,
[00:01:07.224]ranging from his fall
[00:01:09.080]before the beginning of history to his
[00:01:12.141]contemporary nefarious activites, and
[00:01:14.839]ending in his future as both guard
[00:01:18.487]and inmate in hell.
[00:01:22.060]So the first part will focus on the way
[00:01:25.772]theological symbols grew out of,
[00:01:28.193]and responded to, political problems.
[00:01:31.041]I will argue that the devil is actually
[00:01:33.185]originally a political symbol, and he
[00:01:36.801]remains so even when that association
[00:01:38.987]becomes less apparent. This is
[00:01:41.138]the political-theological connection.
[00:01:43.387]The second part will focus on the way
[00:01:45.462]that the devil becomes a tool for
[00:01:47.040]thinking about how freedom works
[00:01:49.365]within the Christian theological tradition.
[00:01:53.034]First of all, the fall of the devil
[00:01:54.826]becomes a kind of laboratory for
[00:01:56.565]how a creature can defy the will of
[00:02:00.138]the creator, without it being God's fault.
[00:02:04.575]Second, the devil's contemporary allies:
[00:02:07.914]how and why do human beings
[00:02:09.748]come to associate themselves with
[00:02:11.654]the devil rather than with God -
[00:02:13.491]especially in a setting in which
[00:02:15.113]everybody is ostensibly
[00:02:16.393]a Christian and knows that it's a
[00:02:18.430]bad deal to go with the devil over God.
[00:02:21.428]And finally, the devil's role in hell.
[00:02:23.457]How does God respond to human rebellion,
[00:02:25.587]and how can the devil be both the punisher
[00:02:28.190]and the punished at the same time?
[00:02:31.619]My ultimate goal is to use these
[00:02:33.635]theological reflections to think about
[00:02:35.672]enduring problems in the modern world.
[00:02:39.320]It's a philosophical and not primarily
[00:02:41.293]a historical project.
[00:02:44.152]We all know in a general way
[00:02:45.869]that the modern era inherits concepts
[00:02:48.376]and patterns of thought from Christianity
[00:02:51.101]and in specific, I think that the devil is
[00:02:54.233]a particularly potent inheritance
[00:02:56.462]from Christianity that modern people
[00:03:00.313]attempt not to take very seriously. It's a
[00:03:03.193]brilliant example of what's going on with it.
[00:03:07.118]Politics and freedom come together
[00:03:09.539]in the symbol of the devil.
[00:03:11.385]And they also come together in
[00:03:12.822]modern theories of politics, where
[00:03:14.851]human freedom - whether in the form
[00:03:16.643]of a market, or in terms of popular sovereignty,
[00:03:20.141]human freedom is the source of legitimacy
[00:03:23.062]and hence, it becomes understandable
[00:03:24.990]why the devil exerts such fascination
[00:03:27.597]in early modernity, such as the tendency
[00:03:30.519]to read Milton's Satan as a hero,
[00:03:34.007]the importance of Goethe's Faust in the
[00:03:37.047]development of modern philosophy, etc.
[00:03:39.900]Though there's a lot of influence,
[00:03:42.279]the devil seems to be the most
[00:03:43.894]potent symbol that outlives the decline
[00:03:46.401]of Christianity in secular modernity.
[00:03:49.451]So this is still a work in progress.
[00:03:52.300]I plan to finish it by the end of this year.
[00:03:54.624]I'm saying this so that you all will hold me to it.
[00:03:57.430]The current talk comes from the first part
[00:04:00.714]and I am going to trace the origin
[00:04:02.353]of the idea of the devil in the
[00:04:04.091]Hebrew bible, or Old Testament literature.
[00:04:07.678]My basic thesis is that the devil does not
[00:04:11.248]originate because a certain story happens
[00:04:15.355]to have a character that has the devil in it
[00:04:18.117]and then people like to run with that idea -
[00:04:20.272]but that the devil arises as a potent and
[00:04:23.130]convincing and urgent symbol because of
[00:04:28.058]profoundly catastrophic historical events.
[00:04:34.276]According to Tertullian,
[00:04:36.132]a second century Christian thinker,
[00:04:37.807]"Any fool can see that there is a God."
[00:04:40.644]As he writes in his text, De Spectaculis,
[00:04:43.012]"Nobody denies what nobody is ignorant of:
[00:04:47.470]that God is the maker of the universe,
[00:04:49.625]and that it is good, and that it is humanity's
[00:04:52.110]by free gift of its maker." But that is
[00:04:55.502]not the whole story. For Tertullian,
[00:04:58.190]we have more to learn about God
[00:04:59.790]from His explicit self-revelation.
[00:05:02.861]First, He makes explicit demands of
[00:05:05.176]human beings, "but having no acquaintance
[00:05:08.152]with the Highest, knowing Him only by
[00:05:10.477]natural revelation and not as friends,
[00:05:13.079]people cannot but be in ignorance alike of
[00:05:16.578]He enjoins and what He forbids with regard
[00:05:19.159]to the administration of the world."
[00:05:21.382]And I think this point is fair enough:
[00:05:23.852]that there are many forms of monotheism
[00:05:25.847]in the ancient world in which God does not
[00:05:29.068]place any demands on human beings.
[00:05:31.350]For instance, Aristotle's 'unmoved mover' -
[00:05:33.302]probably the most vivid example -
[00:05:35.340]doesn't even know or care that we exist.
[00:05:39.009]He just sits there being attractive and cool
[00:05:41.142]and we all want to be like him.
[00:05:44.000]So secondly, and seemingly more importantly,
[00:05:47.488]the kind of value-added of historical
[00:05:49.656]revelation, is that we learn that God
[00:05:51.342]has an enemy. "They must be ignorant, too,
[00:05:55.236]of the hostile power which works
[00:05:57.201]against Him, and perverts to wrong
[00:05:59.026]uses the things His hand has formed.
[00:06:01.749]For you cannot know the will or
[00:06:03.676]the adversary of a god you do not know."
[00:06:08.271]So, just to review, the first two points
[00:06:12.079]that we learn from historical revelation -
[00:06:14.415]according to Tertullian, a Christian thinker -
[00:06:17.134]are not about Jesus, not about the Bible -
[00:06:21.102]but God's enemy.
[00:06:24.470]Before he has even mentioned Jesus,
[00:06:26.403]he mentions God's enemy.
[00:06:28.520]And this goes on for some time.
[00:06:30.088]He's apparently very worked up about it.
[00:06:33.447]He says, "We, therefore, who in our
[00:06:35.391]knowledge of the Lord have obtained
[00:06:37.317]some knowledge also of His foe,
[00:06:38.797]who in our discovery of the Creator
[00:06:40.333]have at the same time laid hands upon the
[00:06:42.146]Great Corrupter, ought neither to wonder
[00:06:44.792]nor to doubt that, as the prowess of the
[00:06:46.925]corrupting and God-opposing angel
[00:06:48.802]overthrew in the beginning the virtue of man -
[00:06:51.319]the work and image of God, the possessor
[00:06:54.402]of the world - so he has entirely changed
[00:06:56.844]man's nature into his own state of wicked
[00:07:00.695]enmity against his maker."
[00:07:04.225]"Anyone can see that there is a Creator;"
[00:07:06.966]but Christians, according to Tertullian,
[00:07:09.313]realize that this world has been
[00:07:10.657]effectively re-created by Satan.
[00:07:14.049]And this is his starting point for
[00:07:16.896]investigating whether Christians
[00:07:18.336]are allowed to participate in various
[00:07:20.758]forms of entertainment in Roman society.
[00:07:24.171]His answer is basically no, absolutely not,
[00:07:27.072]because all of human culture is absolutely
[00:07:29.834]saturated with the work of the devil.
[00:07:33.851]We may think that Tertullian is miles away
[00:07:36.543]from Jesus' message of peace and love,
[00:07:39.423]but Jesus also lived in a demon-haunted world.
[00:07:43.231]Constant confrontations with demonic
[00:07:45.322]forces take place in the gospels.
[00:07:49.780]The demonic forces know him and fear him,
[00:07:51.988]demon possession is apparently at
[00:07:55.913]epidemic levels in Galilee and Judea
[00:07:59.465]at this time, and John, the gospel of John,
[00:08:03.329]even has Judas Iscariot become possessed
[00:08:06.056]personally by the devil himself.
[00:08:08.680]A weird kind of honor.
[00:08:11.137]The most notable story, however,
[00:08:13.277]is the temptation in the wilderness.
[00:08:15.528]This happens in three out of the four
[00:08:17.449]gospels, and Satan seeks submission
[00:08:21.149]and loyalty from Jesus at all costs
[00:08:24.679]and offers him all the kingdoms of the
[00:08:27.047]world if he will only bow down.
[00:08:28.743]And this temptation only makes sense
[00:08:31.058]as a temptation, if the devil really has
[00:08:34.076]those kingdoms to offer.
[00:08:36.913]Jesus doesn't call him out and say
[00:08:38.396]"No, you can't even give me that."
[00:08:39.751]He rejects the offer.
[00:08:43.230]I think that we should take this all
[00:08:45.457]as literally as Tertullian does.
[00:08:47.748]If the world is ruled by demonic forces,
[00:08:50.081]that means that those who factually
[00:08:51.633]rule the world are demonic or at least
[00:08:53.648]working on their behalf.
[00:08:57.371]Centuries of deep politicized readings
[00:08:59.643]have obscured this, but if you're looking
[00:09:01.776]for it, the political is hiding in plain sight
[00:09:04.656]all over the place - not just the fact
[00:09:07.098]that the devil is offering kingdoms -
[00:09:10.160]not just the fact that he enlists the
[00:09:12.069]Roman empire to kill Jesus in a way that's
[00:09:15.205]explicitly meant for political dissidents -
[00:09:19.034]but also things like the man who was
[00:09:22.351]possessed by multiple demons, and
[00:09:24.815]they say "Our name is legion," which
[00:09:27.929]is the name for a Roman military division.
[00:09:29.966]Or, the fact that in the feeding of the 5,000
[00:09:32.633]the way Jesus divides up the crowds is
[00:09:34.980]reminiscent to how military divisions
[00:09:37.657]would be organized. It's all right there
[00:09:40.970]at the surface
[00:09:42.940]but we have been trained
[00:09:46.090]not to see it. So I would further suggest
[00:09:49.240]that Tertullian is right,
[00:09:51.117]that simple reflection is not enough
[00:09:53.507]to give us this vision of the world.
[00:09:55.597]We need some form of revelation,
[00:09:58.200]and I'm going to use a secularized concept
[00:09:59.778]of revelation as some type of decisively
[00:10:02.125]unprecedented historical event
[00:10:05.239]that changes everything - that makes us
[00:10:06.978]think about everything differently.
[00:10:09.047]We need that type of historical event
[00:10:11.138]to get us to the point of the devil.
[00:10:13.271]Philosophers may be able to come up with
[00:10:15.425]the idea of monotheism by reflecting on
[00:10:17.612]the eternal nature of things, but the idea
[00:10:20.001]of the devil grows out of a deep investment
[00:10:23.116]in concrete events of history, and
[00:10:25.269]specifically of historical catastrophe.
[00:10:30.551]So as I've noted, the idea of the devil
[00:10:32.646]and the demonic is already well-established
[00:10:34.710]by the time Christianity comes around.
[00:10:37.056]It had been an important part of
[00:10:38.613]Jewish thought for two centuries or more
[00:10:41.984]by that point, and in some ways this is
[00:10:44.490]retrospectively surprising, because Satan
[00:10:46.805]is just not a big deal in contemporary
[00:10:48.896]Judaism, and Satan-like figures barely
[00:10:52.799]appear in the Hebrew Bible.
[00:10:55.050]We have the mysterious talking serpent
[00:10:57.354]in the garden of Eden, and Job's accuser,
[00:11:00.836]but these two literary figures, I think,
[00:11:03.081]are not enough to explain why it becomes
[00:11:05.385]like the center of an entire worldview.
[00:11:09.097]And these two characters, I would argue,
[00:11:11.722]actually only appear to be the devil in
[00:11:13.833]retrospect, due to developments after much
[00:11:16.574]of the Hebrew Bible had already been written.
[00:11:20.278]But these developments nevertheless have
[00:11:22.380]their roots in the Hebrew Bible, specifically
[00:11:24.499]in the Hebrew Bible's approach
[00:11:26.728]to the problem of evil.
[00:11:29.576]Stated schematically, the problem of evil
[00:11:32.114]is the attempt to reconcile three propositions:
[00:11:35.197]first, God is good;
[00:11:37.010]second, God is all-powerful;
[00:11:39.335]third, evil happens.
[00:11:42.855]That third one feels like a non-sequitur.
[00:11:46.855]If God has good intentions, and is able to
[00:11:49.266]carry out all of his intentions,
[00:11:51.121]only good should result.
[00:11:52.935]What went wrong?
[00:11:57.393]Interestingly, in all three major
[00:12:00.550]monotheistic traditions, the main stream
[00:12:02.129]of theological reflection does not try to
[00:12:06.075]dispense with points number one and two,
[00:12:08.496]but attacks precisely the only one that
[00:12:10.355]we have direct experience of, which is
[00:12:12.200]point number three - trying to mitigate
[00:12:13.894]the idea that it's really evil.
[00:12:16.418]In the Hebrew Bible, this is not posed in terms
[00:12:18.853]of a philosophical thought experiment, however.
[00:12:21.562]It is rooted in the concrete narrative of God's
[00:12:23.653]special relationship to the nation of Israel.
[00:12:26.949]That relationship is founded on God's
[00:12:29.317]loyalty to Abraham and his descendents
[00:12:32.708]as portrayed in the book of Genesis
[00:12:34.842]but it only reaches its definitive form
[00:12:37.892]beginning with the Exodus from Egypt.
[00:12:40.996]The events of the Exodus clearly endorse
[00:12:44.111]the first two propositions: first, God
[00:12:47.150]is powerful enough to defeat an empire
[00:12:50.329]with massive miracles. He is also good,
[00:12:54.425]because He is doing all this to vindicate
[00:12:57.048]the Israelites' demand for justice and
[00:13:00.504]out of sheer loyalty and benevolence.
[00:13:03.333]He didn't have to do any of this;
[00:13:05.453]it's just, He's doing them a favor.
[00:13:08.694]The third point, however, is more
[00:13:10.468]complicated, because God takes credit
[00:13:14.136]for hugely destructive acts. Between
[00:13:16.801]the ten plagues and the departure of the
[00:13:18.615]Israelites, Egypt arguably suffers from every
[00:13:21.634]every major evil that afflicts humanity:
[00:13:25.407]military defeat, looting, disease, natural disaster,
[00:13:29.367]even the premature loss of children.
[00:13:32.268]But the clear implication of the narrative
[00:13:34.593]is that we should not view these events
[00:13:36.396]as evil, because the Egyptians are evil
[00:13:39.254]oppressors, and they deserve to be punished.
[00:13:42.646]So they've attacked point number three,
[00:13:44.641]evil happens. 'No, that wasn't evil;
[00:13:46.219]that's a superficial view. It's not really evil.'
[00:13:50.602]This theology of retribution holds for all
[00:13:53.205]peoples, Egypt as well as the people of
[00:13:55.552]Canaan, whom Israel will eventually dispossess.
[00:13:58.965]But it is most intense in the case of Israel
[00:14:01.496]because God has made an explicit covenant
[00:14:03.893]with them. In the book of Deuteronomy,
[00:14:06.897]this is posed in very stark terms:
[00:14:10.250]"See, I am setting before you today
[00:14:12.180]a blessing and a curse: the blessing if
[00:14:15.295]you obey the commandments of the Lord
[00:14:17.406]your God that I am commanding you today,
[00:14:19.480]and the curse if you do not obey the
[00:14:21.297]commandments of the Lord your God,
[00:14:22.976]but turn from the way I am commanding you
[00:14:25.087]today, to follow other gods that you have
[00:14:26.999]not known."
[00:14:30.099]This basic scheme becomes more elaborate
[00:14:32.361]in the account of our historical experience.
[00:14:35.603]Most notably, we need to come up with
[00:14:37.832]some way to account for the apparent
[00:14:39.411]indefinite time lag between acts of
[00:14:42.685]injustice and God's punishment.
[00:14:45.706]Nevertheless, it's fair to say that this
[00:14:47.848]basic scheme of divine retribution
[00:14:50.423]provides the framework for what's known
[00:14:52.747]as the 'Deutoronomistic history' in the
[00:14:55.219]Hebrew Bible. This is the segment of the
[00:14:57.315]Hebrew Bible made up of Deuteronomy,
[00:14:59.182]Judges, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, and
[00:15:01.383]1 and 2 Kings. All of these books contain
[00:15:04.327]a uniform theological view for the most part.
[00:15:08.529]It's a very robust scheme,
[00:15:11.740]because God is openly claiming responsibility
[00:15:15.100]for just the kind of thing that might
[00:15:17.437]otherwise challenge His credibility.
[00:15:20.166]Meanwhile,
[00:15:21.531]there's plenty of unfaithfulness going on
[00:15:23.483]to justify the punishment, because
[00:15:25.392]historically speaking, the people who were
[00:15:28.059]strictly 'God-only' worshipers were always
[00:15:31.237]a minority in the kingdom of Israel.
[00:15:35.376]But there is one sticking point for this scheme,
[00:15:38.714]and it turns out to be the earthly ruler.
[00:15:41.573]Because on the one hand, God seems to be
[00:15:43.781]the direct ruler of the people of Israel;
[00:15:46.213]He secures a territory for them, He gives
[00:15:48.559]them their laws, and according to the
[00:15:50.788]scheme He's also enforcing the laws.
[00:15:53.199]He does everything a ruler does.
[00:15:55.641]But at the same time, even during the
[00:15:58.521]Exodus itself, when God is most palpably
[00:16:00.964]present with the people, He relies
[00:16:03.630]on an intermediary, most notably Moses.
[00:16:08.890]Deuteronomy gives us a vision of a
[00:16:10.659]perfectly subordinate ruler who would
[00:16:12.451]serve as kind of a pure functionary,
[00:16:14.915]carrying out the necessary day-to-day work
[00:16:18.136]that is beneath God's dignity.
[00:16:20.653]But that same book ends with the death of
[00:16:23.810]Moses, who is being excluded from the
[00:16:25.965]promised land, for a sin that the tradition
[00:16:28.120]cannot really agree on. It's not clear why
[00:16:30.722]he's being excluded. So even the most
[00:16:33.698]powerful and perfect representative of God
[00:16:36.343]somehow doesn't make the cut.
[00:16:40.789]By the time we get to 1 Samuel, the people
[00:16:43.031]are clamoring for a king like the other nations;
[00:16:46.977]things have become much darker.
[00:16:50.412]The final judge, who is a kind of ad-hoc ruler
[00:16:53.569]that God appoints for emergencies, Samuel,
[00:16:58.483]has been confronted and told to appoint a
[00:17:00.760]king, and God says to Samuel, "Listen
[00:17:03.649]to the voice of the people and all that
[00:17:05.504]they say to you. For they have not
[00:17:07.413]rejected you, but they have rejected me
[00:17:09.429]from being king over them. Just as they
[00:17:11.732]have done to me from the day I brought
[00:17:13.604]them up out of Egypt to this day,
[00:17:16.074]forsaking me and serving other gods,
[00:17:18.111]so also they are doing to you. Now then,
[00:17:20.970]listen to their voice, only, you shall
[00:17:22.901]solemnly warn them, and show them
[00:17:24.660]the ways of the king who shall reign
[00:17:26.772]over them."
[00:17:28.851]And then the regime that Samuel goes on
[00:17:30.707]to describe to the people is basically
[00:17:32.562]the polar opposite of the optimistic image
[00:17:34.665]of the submissive divine functionary
[00:17:36.969]from Deuteronomy.
[00:17:39.198]Kind of a long quote -
[00:17:40.395]"These will be the ways of the king who
[00:17:42.401]will rule over you. He will take your sons
[00:17:44.631]and appoint them to his chariots and to be
[00:17:46.673]his horsemen and to run before his chariots.
[00:17:49.018]And he will appoint for himself commanders
[00:17:50.782]of thousands and commanders of fifties ...
[00:17:52.872]He will take your daughters
[00:17:54.888]to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
[00:17:56.403]He will take the best of your fields and
[00:17:57.864]vineyards and olive orchards and give them
[00:17:59.539]to his friends. He will take one tenth of
[00:18:01.512]your grain and of your vineyards and give
[00:18:03.976]it to his officers ... He will take your
[00:18:06.685]male and female slaves and the best
[00:18:08.573]of your cattle and donkeys and put them
[00:18:09.981]to his work. He will take one tenth of
[00:18:12.562]your flax, and you will be his slaves.
[00:18:16.114]And in that day you will cry out because
[00:18:17.692]of your king, whom you have chosen for
[00:18:19.505]yourselves, but the Lord will not answer
[00:18:22.012]you in that day."
[00:18:24.167]This terminology of 'crying out' is
[00:18:26.172]especially poignant because that's how
[00:18:27.473]the people of Israel are described when
[00:18:29.809]they are in Egypt, in bondage, and
[00:18:31.718]the Lord hears them that time.
[00:18:33.531]With this, the implication is
[00:18:34.918]'You've chosen to go back to Pharoah.
[00:18:36.593]I'm not going to rescue you again.'
[00:18:41.382]So after this point, the relationship
[00:18:44.069]between Israel's king and its God
[00:18:45.925]becomes the decisive point at which the
[00:18:48.347]Deuteronomistic solution to the problem
[00:18:50.522]of evil is played out. In other words,
[00:18:52.848]the problem of evil becomes a problem
[00:18:54.842]of political theology.
[00:18:57.031]There are ups and downs; there are
[00:18:58.810]apparent counter-examples to the scheme.
[00:19:01.295]But in the end, the misdeeds of the kings
[00:19:03.524]lead to the downfall of the Israelite kingdoms.
[00:19:07.531]The land was conquered by the Babylonians,
[00:19:09.892]who exiled its political and intellectual
[00:19:11.673]elites to the imperial center, and
[00:19:14.568]basically it seemed as though the covenant
[00:19:16.761]had been completely fulfilled to the letter -
[00:19:19.715]that it was over.
[00:19:24.195]In the face of this unthinkable loss, the
[00:19:27.352]Hebrew elites could have been forgiven for
[00:19:29.464]turning their backs on their defeated God,
[00:19:31.693]and bowing down in worship to the foreign
[00:19:33.133]gods who had so thoroughly demonstrated
[00:19:34.808]their superior power. And doubtless,
[00:19:37.475]a good number of them did.
[00:19:39.512]Yet there was a critical mass who
[00:19:41.656]responded to the catastrophe with a bold
[00:19:43.693]theological risk.
[00:19:46.556]In the face of their god's
[00:19:48.059]apparent defeat, they claimed that
[00:19:50.242]their local god was actually the god of
[00:19:52.098]all the earth. Far from being defeated by
[00:19:55.191]the pagan empires, the God of Israel had
[00:19:57.260]orchestrated their rise. What appeared to
[00:20:00.460]be a geopolitical shift with Israel as
[00:20:02.785]collateral damage was actually God's plan
[00:20:05.750]the whole time, to chastise Israel and
[00:20:09.281]preserve a faithful remnant who would one
[00:20:11.627]day be restored to the promised land.
[00:20:14.624]As for God's unwitting pawns,
[00:20:16.160]the rulers of this world, they would be
[00:20:18.102]suitably punished for their oppression and
[00:20:20.587]injustice once they had served their purpose.
[00:20:26.005]These kind of ideas had been circulating
[00:20:27.786]among the prophets, who were basically
[00:20:30.901]a group of theologically-charged political
[00:20:32.799]commentators, for some time.
[00:20:36.543]The concept of the remnant was a crucial
[00:20:38.975]development in this, because it did not
[00:20:41.674]require divine inspiration to see that
[00:20:44.969]Israel would be defeated by the Babylonians.
[00:20:48.521]They realized that they would need
[00:20:50.143]theological tools to deal with this.
[00:20:52.494]And this prophetic scheme basically
[00:20:57.381]doubles down on the Deuteronomistic solution,
[00:21:01.229]because, again, the very kinds of events
[00:21:04.248]that might endanger God's credibility
[00:21:06.754]become the greatest possible evidence of
[00:21:08.706]His control over the situation.
[00:21:12.973]But there's a crucial shift in emphasis:
[00:21:16.407]where the Deuteronomistic paradigm
[00:21:18.690]tacitly relies on the existence of a
[00:21:20.802]substantial segment of Israelites who were
[00:21:23.393]disobedient, and as I've noted before this
[00:21:26.252]was probably most of the Israelites
[00:21:27.713]most of the time, the prophetic paradigm
[00:21:30.390]focuses on the existence of a faithful
[00:21:32.204]minority; and this remnant is actually the
[00:21:35.030]true bearer of God's promise, who
[00:21:38.166]guarantees the continuity of God's special
[00:21:40.555]relationship with Israel even in the
[00:21:42.654]very worst of circumstances.
[00:21:45.248]Most important from our perspective,
[00:21:47.435]however, is the shift in God's
[00:21:49.408]relationship with the early rulers.
[00:21:51.861]At least for the foreseeable future,
[00:21:54.112]there was no possibility that there would
[00:21:56.234]be a kind of native Israelite king.
[00:21:59.807]And hence there's no room for arrival
[00:22:01.759]to God's affections.
[00:22:03.679]So perhaps paradoxically, the relationship
[00:22:05.471]becomes much less tense once the ruler
[00:22:08.191]is a pagan enemy of God. 'This is somebody
[00:22:10.857]I can work with.'
[00:22:13.943]There's a quote from the prophet Jeremiah
[00:22:16.223]that I think is really illustrative of how
[00:22:18.466]the prophetic paradigm deals with
[00:22:20.980]the earthly rulers.
[00:22:24.094]"Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts:
[00:22:26.177]'Because you have not obeyed my words,
[00:22:28.158]I am going to send for all the tribes of the
[00:22:29.576]north,' says the Lord, 'Even for King
[00:22:31.614]Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant,
[00:22:34.909]and I will bring them against this land
[00:22:37.096]and its inhabitants, and against all these
[00:22:39.048]nations around. I will utterly destroy
[00:22:41.224]them, and make them an object of horror
[00:22:43.666]and hissing in an everlasting disgrace.
[00:22:47.339]This whole land shall become a ruin and
[00:22:49.682]a waste and these nations shall serve the
[00:22:51.602]king of Babylon seventy years. Then after
[00:22:53.927]seventy years are completed, I will punish
[00:22:55.900]the king of Babylon and that nation for
[00:22:58.290]their iniquity,' says the Lord,
[00:23:00.316]'Making that land an everlasting waste.
[00:23:02.940]I will bring upon that land all the words
[00:23:05.155]that I have uttered against it -
[00:23:07.192]everything written in this book - which
[00:23:08.696]Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.'"
[00:23:13.859]For me, the key portion of that quotation
[00:23:16.579]is 'The king of Babylon, my servant.'
[00:23:21.883]The king of Babylon has never heard of the
[00:23:23.973]God of Israel. He has no awareness that
[00:23:26.320]he is God's servant. He is perfectly
[00:23:28.155]serving God by doing what he wanted to do
[00:23:32.592]anyway, for his own reasons.
[00:23:36.076]Precisely because there is no relationship
[00:23:38.671]involved, no loyalty, this perfect
[00:23:41.594]functionary is also perfectly disposable.
[00:23:45.090]Once he has served his purpose, he can be
[00:23:47.961]dispatched as his just punishment for
[00:23:51.791]doing exactly what God wanted him to do.
[00:23:57.593]This is a weird approach. And I have to say,
[00:24:01.838]not all of God's unwitting servants
[00:24:04.494]are unceremoniously dispatched.
[00:24:08.856]The prophet Isaiah has high praise for
[00:24:11.459]Cyrus of Persia, for example, who financed
[00:24:14.008]the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem
[00:24:16.728]as part of a general policy of fostering
[00:24:19.138]local religions in order to gain loyalty
[00:24:22.114]from them. And if you read the passages
[00:24:25.229]about Cyrus - they begin around Isaiah
[00:24:27.501]chapter 40 - it's disturbing to realize
[00:24:30.914]that many of the passages that Christians
[00:24:33.260]are most familiar with is, as
[00:24:35.863]like, prophecies of Christ, in context,
[00:24:38.273]are about Cyrus, a pagan king.
[00:24:41.717]And they conclude and they say
[00:24:43.681]'We're going to do great things with you,
[00:24:45.238]Cyrus; we're going to bring glory to God
[00:24:47.030]through Cyrus, even though you do not
[00:24:48.982]know me.' So even the best and nicest king
[00:24:52.737]doesn't get to know God.
[00:24:55.915]And within this political theological scheme,
[00:24:58.262]the Jews are encouraged to suspend judgement
[00:25:00.981]of the pagan rulers, basically.
[00:25:03.648]God will continue to orchestrate events
[00:25:05.504]according to his plan. In the meantime,
[00:25:08.437]the Jewish community is called upon to be
[00:25:10.496]as faithful to the covenant as they can be
[00:25:12.340]under the current circumstances,
[00:25:14.269]and contribute positively to the society
[00:25:16.323]in which they are temporarily residing.
[00:25:19.853]Jeremiah has an exemplary exhortation here:
[00:25:23.863]"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of
[00:25:26.210]Israel, 'To all the exiles whom I have sent
[00:25:28.904]into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
[00:25:31.882]build houses and live in them.
[00:25:33.804]Plant gardens and eat what they produce.
[00:25:35.587]Take wives and have sons and daughters;
[00:25:37.500]take wives for your son and give your
[00:25:39.179]daughters in marriage, that they may be
[00:25:40.576]your sons and daughters. Multiply there;
[00:25:42.016]do not decrease; but seek the welfare of
[00:25:45.259]the city where I have sent you into exile,
[00:25:47.722]and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in
[00:25:50.144]its welfare you will find your welfare.'"
[00:25:53.802]Within this framework, the novel Jew is
[00:25:56.575]someone like Joseph or Daniel, Esther
[00:25:59.050]or Mordecai; somebody who rises to a high
[00:26:02.378]government position and yet remains
[00:26:04.138]faithful to his Jewish identity. The king,
[00:26:08.063]by elevating him to this position, is
[00:26:10.569]acknowledging the excellence of the Jewish
[00:26:12.660]community, which contributes to the
[00:26:14.377]prestige of the community and brings glory
[00:26:17.726]to God, just as the fact that God is able
[00:26:20.969]to use the king brings glory to God.
[00:26:23.944]I would say that like its Deuteronomistic
[00:26:26.803]predecessor, this scheme is pretty robust.
[00:26:31.806]In both models, the community itself is
[00:26:34.919]encouraged to see events that might
[00:26:36.549]otherwise seem like inexplicable disasters
[00:26:39.195]as deserved punishment that cannot be evil, therefore.
[00:26:43.178]And in both models, there is a built-in,
[00:26:45.786]if tacit, assumption of some degree of
[00:26:47.986]unfaithfulness in the community.
[00:26:50.514]The main difference, however, is that
[00:26:53.755]whereas the outright unfaithfulness of
[00:26:56.197]Israel was the issue in the Deuteronomistic
[00:26:58.544]paradigm, in the prophetic paradigm it's
[00:27:01.019]a more insidious question of the problem
[00:27:03.930]of assimilation.
[00:27:06.644]I think that the famous story of Shadrach,
[00:27:08.751]Meshach and Abednego is a clear indication
[00:27:12.559]of this. That's the name that these
[00:27:14.724]characters are known by, for the most part;
[00:27:17.444]that was the Babylonian name that they
[00:27:19.556]were given when they entered the civil
[00:27:21.593]service, not their original Hebrew names.
[00:27:24.729]The book of Daniel reports that they
[00:27:26.564]received very thorough training and
[00:27:28.494]indoctrination; they learned the language
[00:27:29.860]and literature, including pagan mythology
[00:27:31.886]presumably from the Babylonians.
[00:27:35.065]There was a kind of a near miss when
[00:27:37.571]they don't want to eat the food of the
[00:27:40.056]Babylonians, because they risked violating
[00:27:41.795]kosher laws, but then the core leaders
[00:27:46.019]agree to let them eat a vegetarian diet,
[00:27:48.131]which turns out to be healthier for them
[00:27:50.040]anyway. Last time I gave this talk,
[00:27:53.453]somebody pointed out afterwards that
[00:27:55.032]this is, in the scholarly literature, this
[00:27:58.167]is viewed as the first clinical trial.
[00:28:04.855]This near miss with the food - this was
[00:28:07.756]relatively simple to remedy; but once
[00:28:11.543]this crisis was averted, a more serious
[00:28:13.889]one arises when Nebuchadnezzar -
[00:28:15.766]remember, 'My servant' - sets himself up
[00:28:18.454]as a god, building a massive statue of
[00:28:21.057]himself and requiring all citizens to
[00:28:22.870]bow down. And in that case, only
[00:28:25.675]miraculous intervention saves them
[00:28:28.022]from the firey furnace.
[00:28:31.296]This story is a close call at the
[00:28:33.973]theological-political level, even more
[00:28:36.288]than the narrative level, I think.
[00:28:38.986]It is not only the lives of three Jewish
[00:28:41.045]officials that are in danger of the king's
[00:28:43.253]firey furnace. The entire prophetic paradigm
[00:28:45.695]is at stake, because that paradigm had
[00:28:48.597]taught Jews to tolerate mistreatment as
[00:28:51.402]punishment indirectly meted out by God.
[00:28:55.743]But how can such a schema make sense in
[00:28:57.769]this case, when the Jews are being punished
[00:29:00.553]for being uncompromisingly faithful to God?
[00:29:04.660]This is not how it was supposed to work.
[00:29:09.491]From the political direction, the story
[00:29:11.049]also seems to endanger the assumption
[00:29:12.809]that the foreign king is always God's
[00:29:14.974]unwitting servant.
[00:29:17.480]First, Nebuchadnezzar is no longer fully
[00:29:20.893]unwitting, because he has already
[00:29:23.027]acknowledged Israel's god in some sense
[00:29:24.840]in the preceding story and even pledges
[00:29:26.675]to defend God's honor if anybody insults it.
[00:29:31.208]In this story, therefore, he seems to be
[00:29:32.808]emerging as an almost conscious rival to God.
[00:29:36.818]The way the book of Daniel solves this,
[00:29:38.706]though, is that Nebuchadnezzar just seems
[00:29:40.679]to have amnesia. Every new incident it's
[00:29:43.228]like he forgets about God. Like, every
[00:29:44.764]story culminates with him acknowledging
[00:29:46.439]God and the next day he has already forgot
[00:29:48.497]about it. Okay. So the book of Daniel, in
[00:29:52.444]addition to these famous stories of
[00:29:56.444]Daniel in the lion's den, etcetera, the
[00:29:58.459]second half includes some enigmatic visions.

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Adam Kotsko - Part 1

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