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JournalforInterdisciplinaryResearchonReligionandScience,No.5,July2009

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TheBiblicalProphets-HumanDignityDefenders

Rev.GheorghePOPA

Rev. Gheorghe POPA**"Al.I.Cuza"University,DumitruStniloaeFacultyofOrthodoxTheology,

CloscaStreet,No.9,700066,Iasi,RomaniaE-mailAddress:[email protected]

Abstract

The theme we offer for debate as part of the worksof the symposium today is a topic, but at the sametime difficult. Its present interest is given both byeach persons and each human communitysprofound aspiration for a meaning of their passingthrough the world, and by the vocation of the Biblicaltext to reveal such a meaning. However, the difficultyof the theme is more related to the historical and

cultural distance that separates modern mentalityfrom that of the Biblical authors and from the waythey used to define man and his vocation in theworld.

As the time allocated to a symposiumpresentation is limited, we will try to overcome thedifficulty of the theme by resorting not to thehistoricalcritical method of interpretation, but to ourown availability to let ourselves be captured andinterpreted by these texts and their authors.Obviously, this availability means not only anintellectual exercise, but also a deep emphaticcapacity, that is a translation into the spiritual andexistential context where the prophets fulfilled theirvocation. In order to facilitate such a frame of mind,we suggest considering the following aspects of thetheme:

I. Who are the Biblical prophets?II. How do the prophets defend human dignity?

III. The prophets voice: a critical instance for themodern consciousness.

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1.WhoaretheBiblicalprophets?In the books of the Old/First Testament (the wording

belongs to Origen) there are several phrases to define the

prophets personality. Three of them seem significant to us, sowe mention them here: prophets are Gods men (Deuteronomy33, 1), they are Gods servants (Joshua 1, 12) and, finally theyare Gods Word bearers and messengers (dabar). The trueprophets assume this vocation with humbleness andresponsibility. Jeremiah writes, The word of the Lord came tome, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a

prophet to the nations (Jeremiah, 1: 45). This text is verysuggestive. For the prophet, God Word (dabar in Hebrew,Logosin Greek) is the One who knows him, sanctifies him, andappoints him as a prophet not only for a community or for apeople, but for all the peoples. In other words, though he livesin a limited historical and cultural context, the prophet has theconsciousness of a universal vocation. If we used the languageof an inclusive language, we could say that the prophet is thepart that bears the whole. In a manner similar to a drop of dewthat mirrors the sky, the prophets soul mirrors the entirehuman beauty and dignity.

The first prophet mentioned in the Holy Bible is Abraham(Genesis 20, 7). His call is paradigmatic and coincides with thefirst forming of the Hebrew ethnic nucleus. The exegetesconsider that the moment of Abrahams call represents acrucial moment in ancient history, as it produced a radicalmutation in mans selfconsciousness and in the way he would

perceive time and his historical becoming. On the way ofinspired faith, Abraham becomes Gods word bearer and thefather of a community that God promises His blessing to.Abraham and the people that will be born out of him will nolonger look nostalgically towards the past, towards a time ofeternal return, but prophetically and eschatologically towardsa Promised Land and towards a messianic future. The difficultexperiences of history, as well as the experience of humansuffering, will be interpreted from the same messianicperspective by all the prophets, but especially by Moses, theLaw, the receiver of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The time whenthe Torah was released was, according to a great Hebrew

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theologian, Alexander afran, a time of Ghelui efina, that is amoment of the manifestation of Gods presence. Within the

horizon of this conquering presence, Moses sketched out themost human code of the ancient world that will uniquelystructure Israels religious consciousness and will offer theprophets the paradigm of a formal justice as the basis for theirdefending human dignity. We consider it necessary to brieflypresent this paradigm that can be enunciated as follows: manisGodsiconorimageonearth.

This is the fundamental paradigm that human dignityrelies on and it represents the nucleus of the anthropologypresented in the Genesis, the first Torah book. Genesis doesnot mention precisely what this Gods image encoded in manrepresents exactly, but suggests a way of interpreting thisconcept starting from the statement: So God created man inhis own image (Adam in Hebrew, Anthropos in Greek), in theimage of God he created him; male and female he createdthem. (i i ia). The word Adam is a symbolic name thatdefines the universal human nature that has the personal

alterity of masculine and feminine as a concrete hypostasis.This is why, the word Adam is difficult to translate into otherlanguages. It however suggests that there is an ontologicalunity of the entire humanity, yet this unity is not uniformity. Itdoes not exclude the persons creative plurality just as thepersons creative plurality must not destroy their ontologicalunity. From this perspective, each human person is unique, i.e.they cannot be transformed into a mere statistic element

which can be eliminated, manipulated or marginalized. Inother words, each person is an icon able to bear Gods glory inhistory and this confers them an eternal dignity and valuebefore God and other persons.

The symbolic language of Torah underlines the fact thatman can only know and preserve his dignity by means of hisfree, conscious and responsible relation with God and, in God,with the entire creation. Abandoning the communion with Godis synonymous with the loss of dignity and implies mans

entering a horizon of slavery, existential exile and, finally, ofdeath. Genesis mentions the fact that man freely broke thecommunion with God and when the latter searched the former

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in the cool of the day (Genesis 3, 9), man hid. This meansthat the beginning of the perversion of human dignity lies inthe perverting of his moral responsibility to God. Man hides

and once he is discovered, he does not acknowledge his guilt,but provides justifications, accusing God and his fellowhumans: The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, shegave me of the tree, and I did eat (Genesis 3, 12). We herenotice that man in a state of sin does no longer feel God and hisfellow human as friends, but as strangers that threaten his selfcentered individuality through their simple presence. Losinghis own dignity through sin, man no longer acknowledges the

dignity of others. Thus this leads to a crisis in human existencewith manifold historical manifestations: the spiritual crisis (the perversion of the relationship

with God); the moral crisis (the mistake of good for evil); the social crisis (Cain kills Abel); the ecological crisis (the Earth is doomed); the economic crisis (the Earth does no longer bear fruit

for a selfish and selfcentered being).In this situation, humanity may find itself in misery.

However, God interferes again and promises man a way torestore his lost dignity: And I will put enmity between theeand the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shallbruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3, 15).Most scholars interpreted this text from a Messianicperspective of mans restoration to his original dignity. Thesame perspective can also be found in the prophetical books.

2.Howdotheprophetsdefendhumandignity?On analyzing the period of the prophets, the same

paradigm present in Genesis can be discovered in their works,now extended to the entire community of Israel. Thecommunity itself is considered by the prophets as a unifiedwhole, having a distinct vocation and personality in the middleof the other peoples. According to the prophets, thecommunity of Israel is the priest of humanity called to impartto the world the experience of his relation with God. It isobvious that the priests acknowledge both the dignity of eachIsraeli person in part and defend the dignity of the community

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as a whole because God has made an oath with the entirecommunity, not only with a single person. Even the promise

made to Abraham had community significance as it engagedAbrahams followers. This profound relationship betweenperson and community is possible since, according to theprophets vision, community cannot be mistaken for a formlessmass or the sum of its components. Just like the person,community is a part that bears the whole in it; it is a qahal(ecclesia in Greek) that raises its voice (qol) to praise God.Similar to the person, the community is not spared thetemptation of a triumphalist, autonomous and selfsufficientconscience in its relationship with God: Hear, O heavens, andgive ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourishedand brought up children, and they have rebelled against me[]. Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.(Isaiah 1 2, 3). This selfsufficient conscience is summoned bythe prophets to conversion (teshuba) to prepare, in theirhistorical present, the Messianic future of Restoration andreconciliation with God. The conversion of conscience or, in

the language of the prophets, the conversion of the heart isnecessary to transcend any formalism in religious life and torespect each persons dignity, especially that of themarginalized ones: the foreigner, the widow and the orphan.The conversion of conscience is a demand which can be foundin all prophets but especially in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Thestress on this demand as an absolutely necessary condition forthe preservation and affirmation of human dignity, at first in

their own person allows for the prophets attitude not to bemistaken for a social or religious activism; it is only a nonaggressive attitude that shows that Biblical prophets were notonly convinced by the importance of their message, but alsoimpregnated with Gods presence. There is a difference inquality between being convinced by and being impregnatedwith a spiritual reality. Being impregnated with Godspresence means accepting ones vocation as a praise to God, bypraising and defending human dignity. It is obvious that the

defense of human dignity may harm those that do not respectit, therefore the prophets voice does harm, but this woundalso heals and delivers. In other words, the Biblical prophets

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are a disturbing presence which raises side effects in anyperson or community that asserts itself haughtily, despising oroffending the dignity of other persons or human communities.

Therefore, we could say that in history Biblical prophetsrepresent the model of a critical conscience which ensures thedefending of human dignity before God.

4. The Voice of Prophets A Critical Instance for

ModernConscience

Taking into account that even today freedom and humandignity is questioned, as individuals and entire communities

are sometimes simply items considered from a statistical pointof view, or instruments to be manipulated , the voice of biblicalprophets could become a critical instance and the conscienceof prophets would be able to establish itself as our betterconscience, or perhaps remorse, when we allow the humandignity conferred by God himself, to be perverted in our beingor in the being of others. In order to argue that the voice ofBiblical prophets is needed today as a critical instance, we willgive some examples, starting from a German theologiansreflection suggestively titled: Paternity of God in anemancipatedworld.

Prophets have emphasized the paternity of God in order toestablish brotherhood among humans. Modern mentalitydenied this paternity, often establishing a tyrannical andrestrictive ideological paternalism instead. For instance,Marxist ideology on which the totalitarian and atheistcommunism were founded has centered on the total

emancipation of the human being. Starting from this idea,communist dictatorships have replaced the fraternal unity inGod with a more abstract fraternity of many brothers andcomrades, sons of the single party. The phrase uttered byStalin has remained famous for posterity: ThestateisafamilyandIamyourfather.In other words, communist ideology hasusurped Gods paternity and replaced it with the paternity, orbetter, with the paranoiac paternalism of the political leader.Now it can be noticed quite clearly that in the modern era, thestruggle for emancipation was won, but it was not necessarilyfollowed by the plenary affirmation of human dignity.Discrediting Gods paternity and moral values often ends in

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unconditional obedience to other pseudoparents: gurus,leaders of sects or representatives of ideologies that are

questionable in terms of respect for human dignity. This fact isunderlined with competence by the theologian mentionedabove, who in an international conference said: The selfaware and selfcentered generation of the past few years,which used to oppose any specifical engagement, or everypolitical and social decision, was replaced by the generationthat sacrifices with joy its own judgment to identify with apowerful chief. Youth today is therefore tired of freedom. Itwants a strong chief, an object to which it may devote itself,opportunities to sacrifice itself. It does not take into accountthat many of these causes will lead to a catastrophe.

We should point out that these words were uttered by theGerman author before World War II. After the experience ofwar, after all that happened in the dictatorships that followed,it is natural to ask ourselves whether that Israel Sema utteredby the Biblical prophets could become the existential paradigmof all the spiritual guides, who fight for freedom and dignity

bestowed on every person and on the human community.

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Bibliography

1. BIELER Andr, Ledveloppementfou.Lecridalarmedessavantset lappel desglises [IrrationalDevelopment.TheWarningof ScholarsandtheCalloftheChurches], Genve, Labor et Fides, 1973.

2. BLANC Jacques, Construire un monde solidaire. Une logiquenouvelle[BuildingaWorldofSolidarity.ANewLogic], Paris, Les Bergerset les Mages, 1992.

3. Commission sociale conomique et internationale de laFdration protestante de France (d.), Ledveloppement enquestion.Elments de rflexion pour une approche chrtienne [AssessingDevelopment.TopicsofReflectionforaChristianApproach], StrasbourgParis, Oberlin Les Bergers et les Mages, 1992.

4. Confrence des glises europennes et Conseil des confrencespiscopales europennes (d.), Paix etjusticepour la cration entire[PeaceandJusticeforAllCreation], Paris, Cerf, 1989.

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