You raise the points that are often mentioned in discussing the Old Testament. Yes, the writings reflect a primitive society much removed from that of our modern world but, at the same time, we should not immediately rule these documents out. We must read them with an open mind and judge them on their own merit. People who lived many years ago may not have had the technical and scientific knowledge that we have, but this is no reason to rule their thoughts out.

The question of the “Chosen People” is often raised to indicate that the Old Testament is in fact a biased book favoring the Jewish people. The position is held that somehow Jews are God’s favorites to the detriment of other peoples. The religion proposed in the Old Testament is therefore a provincial matter that concerns only Jews. Actually, if you were to read the Old Testament you would come across statements which indicate that the Israelites were chosen not for their merit nor for their achievements – their failures are loudly and frequently spoken of – but they were simply chosen by God to fulfill a specific function. Someone had to be chosen, and if it weren’t the Israelites, then another people would have been chosen and we would be back to the “problem” of selection. God had to pick a nation and whom He chose is not that significant in terms of their value or merit.

You also comment on the violence that is perpetrated by Israel against the peoples of the region. You are right. Segments of the Old Testament are violent but the decrease of violence necessarily occurs over time. It was a time of violence in history where human life was not cherished. Therefore, the violence that seems to be encouraged in the Old Testament must be seen in the context of the time because the societies of that time were quite harsh and human worth was not valued. Child immolation, for example, was practised by the tribes inhabiting the territory that was being claimed by Israel, and this was something that had to be rooted out and voices are frequently raised in the Old Testament against this practice of burning of children.

The other thing we have to keep constantly before us as we traverse the Scriptures is that there is an unfolding in them as humanity learns more about God and His dealings with creation. We should not expect the same level of depth of information at the very beginning – this opened gradually and slowly as humanity itself becomes more capable of receiving greater and deeper teachings about God and even today, as we will see later on, we have to correct a lot of our ingrained misconceptions about God and how He acts. We must therefore resist the temptation that what we read in every sentence in the Old Testament is the final, absolute and total truth. We must use judgement in evaluating what we are being told and the best way to do that is by having a global view of Scripture –what does the rest of Scripture say – and this will invariably guide us into the truth, and clarify many of our mistaken concepts.

There are several points I would like to underline. First, notice that there is really very little said about the post death state. Do we survive? Do we completely perish? This has not been revealed yet and therefore, what is emphasized is loyalty to, and trust in, God in spite of all the anguish of a mortal existence. The Resurrection, for example is not central to most of the Old Testament (and that is why it is often stated that the Resurrection is just a Christian invention to cope with the terrible failure of Jesus). We see that within Israelite society, the Saduccees claimed that there was no Resurrection as opposed to the much maligned Pharisees, who believed in the Resurrection. This flies in the face of what is often used as a criticism against belief in God. It is claimed that people believe because they are frightened and as a result invent various gods to cope with the unbearable knowledge of mortality. This is an oversimplistic and erroneous assumption without historical support.

The other thing is what has sometimes been called chronological snobbery. We think we are at the apex of human development and therefore, what has gone on before us is of limited worth since we now know much more. Yes, we may know much more in terms of how the world functions, for example, but in other spheres, we are at the same level as the Israelites. Shakespeare is read and studied now, in spite of the fact that he wrote hundreds of years ago, because he deals with deep human questions which have not changed one iota with time.

So, we see this belligerent people wandering, struggling, failing, being forgiven by God and so the sorry matter goes on. The predominant belief is still in a tribal god who guides the fortunes of Israel in contest with other gods of other peoples. But, with the seventh century comes a new realization through teachers referred to as the prophets. They start to infuse a revolutionary understanding of the concept of God and a startling new way of seeing into God’s plan.

God is now seen as caring for all peoples, for all of creation. “I give you as a covenant to the Gentiles” says Isaiah (49:8) He is using Israel as a means for redeeming all of creation from the fall it has suffered. It isn’t simply that Israel is favored over other peoples – it is that Israel is God’s instrument for successfully completing God’s plan for all of creation. And the terrible thing is – and this is repeated by prophet after prophet – that Israel has failed in its role. “Because of you, My name is blasphemed continually among the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 52:5) Israel is like Adam – given a task which remains unfulfilled. And of course, it is the messenger who is often made to suffer for the message he brings, and many prophets were killed and persecuted for delivering God’s message. The word prophet has a wider meaning than the one we usually associate with prophecy as foretelling future events. It includes this, but it also includes making known God’s plan. And God’s plan includes all the peoples of the world: “My house shall be called House of Prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:8)

The prophets start to tell a story that includes all of humanity in God’s plan of redemption of all of creation. Creation is made by God and it is all good, albeit, it is incomplete and needs to be perfected, and more than that, it needs to be redeemed because something has gone terribly wrong. For the prophets, the concept of gentile stops being a racial designation and comes to represent all that opposes God’s plan. Our true enemies are not people who are different from us, not different countries or empires. Our lasting and bitter enemies are spiritual entities who hinder and impede the redemption and completion of God’s creation. But why is there a creation after all? Slowly, the answer will be unveiled but it will take some time to see more clearly the answer to the question that we have just posed.

Israel was once a nomadic society and is now becoming settled in one geographic location. Previously, it was fine to have a mobile sanctuary – the Tabernacle – but now, with David, comes the idea of building a more permanent abode for God. Now, let us be very clear. Nobody thought that God could be contained within creation and Solomon, who overlooked the building of the Temple makes this explicitly clear. It would be the height of folly to claim that God, the creator of the universe, could be contained within the walls of a building. So what is being claimed here? There is something else going on here and we will come to this in due time.

Solomon builds the Temple and this becomes the location where heaven and earth meet, where man and God come into closest contact. But what happens? Israel sins, turns away from God, turns to idols and as a result, Israel is overrun by Babylon and the Temple is destroyed. Israel goes into exile and God, through the destruction of the Temple “abandons” Israel. Israel, for her sins is exiled and she is advised by Jeremiah to accept this deserved fate and not to resist Nebuchadnezzar but to repent. And for this, Jeremiah is hounded and jailed. It wasn’t easy being a prophet at all.

With time, Israel is freed from her exile and another Temple is built in an attempt to restore the presence of Yahweh in the midst of Israel. But Israel continues to sin, continues to fail completing the role assigned her by God. Although the Israelites have returned to Israel, they still feel as if they are still exiled. They are still awaiting a more complete liberation and freedom and this is starting to coalesce around the idea of a Messiah. At this stage, however, there is still something very wrong with the state of affairs and the prophets continue to point this out. Another Temple is built but it still lacks a lasting and final answer to the needs of humanity. There is a missing piece in the whole puzzle and this leads to the emergence of an additional understanding of what it is that God has planned, something that will be completed through the mysterious figure of the Messiah. There are prophecies made and Israel awaited for them to be realized.

Sincerely,
Bar-Abbas