The Divine Symphony: the Bible's many voices

Chapter Four - Good, Evil, and Holiness in Isaiah and the Holiness School

51 CHAPTER FOUR Good, Evil, and Holiness in Isaiah and the Holiness School G ENESIS DEPICTS A MAJOR CHANGE IN THE RELATIONSHIP of humanity to God’s other creatures. According to the Priestly source, God’s original plan was for a peaceful, vegetarian world with no violence: “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food” (Gen.1:29). Likewise for the animals, God gives “all the green plants for food” (Gen. 1:30). However, after the Flood, God allows bloodshed for the sake of eating: “Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these” (Gen. 9:3). J’s account concurs with the Priestly one; in Eden there was no animosity between the serpent and man.This enmity was only decreed as a punishment after the serpent’s transgression (Gen. 3:15). In both accounts, those changes are presented as irreversible events. There is no way back to Eden, for the way is blocked by the cherubim and the fiery sword. The other major change, the shift from universalism to nationalism, is also presented as irreversible. In the 52 pentateuchal sources there is no direct expression of a hope that at some time in the future all humanity will know and worship the God of Israel. In the last book of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy, we find a theological framework for utterly separating the other nations from the worship of the one true God. We find this framework in the “Song of Moses,” which we know as Deuteronomy 32, but which was probably written earlier than the rest of the book.1 In this song, we find a description of how the different nations are divided.2 Remember the days of old, Consider the years of ages past; Ask your father, he will inform you, Your elders, they will tell you: When the Most High gave nations their homes And set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of peoples In relation to Israel’s numbers. For the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment. (Deut. 32:7–9) In this Masoretic version of the Hebrew Bible, the phrase “He established the borders of peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel” is unclear, and the commentators usually explain it as referring to the number of the sons of Israel who descended into Egypt, the number seventy , corresponding to the number of nations thought to exist in the world.3 When we compare other versions of the Bible, however, we find illuminating differences. In the Qumran text, we read that God “established the borders of peoples in relation to the numbers of the sons of God (l’mispar bnei Elohim).”4 A similar version is reflected in the Septuagint.5 These readings shed new light on the matter . When God gave nations their homes and set divisions among human beings—probably at the time of the Tower of Babel episode—God established the boundaries of peoples by the number of the sons of God, which was seventy, according to this tradition.6 God gave each nation to a son of God in order that that particular son rule over it. Only THE DIVINE SYMPHONY 53 one nation was not entrusted to them: “For the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allottment.” God took Jacob’s descendants for Himself. The other nations, then, do not have direct contact with God, according to the authors of Deuteronomy, for they were turned over to sons of God, to be governed by them; only the people of Israel enjoy an unmediated relationship with God. It follows that it is not incumbent upon the other nations to worship God. They are in the care of the sons of God, other divine beings, which are in another passage in Deuternomy described as heavenly bodies: And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. (Deut. 4:19)7 The Lord allotted the hosts of heaven to other peoples; they are governed by these...