Biblical and Theological Foundation of the Family

6. Hebraic Anthropological Principles

161 chapter 6 HEBRAIC ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES Corporate Personality h To understand the organic structure of marriage and family and why they are capable of their function within the divine covenant, it is necessary to grasp the basic principles informing Hebraic anthropology. Earlier, the Semitic concept of corporate personality which lies at the heart of Old Testament anthropology was briefly examined. Having investigated the structure of the Hebrew family and its purposes, we will now more fully examine the structure of corporate personality and see how it provides the fundamental informing principle of both the individual person and the family.1 This concept 1. While in some ways this material could have been presented earlier, it seemed best to study the structure of the family first with only minimum reference to corporate personality and then examine this concept as the family’s informing principle . Within the academic community there is a debate whether or not corporate personality is fundamental to the Semitic viewpoint. Our procedure has been to establish the raw evidence of what constituted the family in terms of its nature and purpose, and then examine this data in terms of an organizing principle. Our thesis is that the Semitic category of corporate personality is this informing principle, that it is clearly in evidence in ancient Israelite thought, and that it explains the value and functioning of the individual and family within the covenant. 162 Old Testament alone allows the family to have an organic nature so that the family can extend throughout the generations and yet preserve its fundamental unity. The role that the family does in fact play in the salvific will of God is predicated on this constitutive corporate dimension of both the individual and the family and ultimately is what allows the family to function as the carrier of the covenant. In this section, we shall critically examine this concept, investigate the fundamental contributions of Pedersen, Robinson, de Fraine and others who have helped in the recovery of this Biblical concept and show, by way of contrast, the limitations of modern anthropological principles. The Family: An Organic Identity On examination, there appears to be active in Hebrew thought a construct which is foundational to and permeates the Israelite understanding of family. Like many underlying factors, it is not obvious and, perhaps because it is not obvious, it is all the more powerful. In any consideration of the OT understanding of family, the sense of an “organic” dimension begins to emerge. There is a vital organic link between the generations; the common ancestor-father provides the very identity for the later generations of the tribe. Abraham and his family, who together form the basis for all of Israel, provide the prime example. This comprehensive corporateness is seen in the Passover exhortation, where all generations are to consider themselves present during this formative event. Secondly, on a personal level, the individual is always situated within the larger social context, the family or tribe. The family is conceived of as an organic entity; both blessings and curses are visited on the whole family because of the father’s actions. Noah, Abraham, and Achan are but a few examples of this. As A. Causse stated: “A certain organic solidarity uniting the group and a very great dependence of the individual on the community characterizes the primitive organization of the Chosen People.”2 2. A. Causse, Du groupe ethnique à la communauté religieuse. Le problème sociologique de la religion d’Israel (Paris, 1937), 20, quoted by Jean de Fraine in Adam and the Family of Man (New York: Alba House, 1965), 16. Corporate Personality 163 The Modern Mind: An Obstacle In the modern view, which is atomistic, the individual is the primary point of reference and is autonomous and self-determining. Consequently , the organic dimension of the family is very alien to the modern mind. De Fraine, in Adam and the Family of Man, is very blunt about what must take place if we are to grasp Biblical reality. “In order to understand the content of the concept under study, it will be necessary to divest oneself of the ordinary philosophical categories and create a new Semitic or biblical mentality.”3 The task before us is to see the world through Semitic eyes. In relation to the present theme, therefore, we need to carry out a preliminary study which will take us into the workings of the Semitic mind...