5. Пророчество

Like other peoples, the Jewish people, at a certain stage of their historical development, formed a kingdom, which under David and Solomon achieved high power and a solid internal structure. Like other nations and kingdoms, the Jewish people had a priesthood and a sacrificial cult, which in the days of Solomon, who built the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, reached extraordinary splendor and harmony 304. In addition to the kingdom and priesthood, Israel had prophets who gave its religion a completely unique character. The Jewish religion is the religion of the prophets. Prophecy expresses the very essence of the religion of Jehovah, as a theistic religion - not spontaneously pagan, but rationally human, divine-human. “For the Sovereign Jehovah does nothing without revealing His decree to His servants the prophets” 305. The prophet was Abraham 306, Isaac and Jacob prophetically blessed their children 307, the prophet primarily was Moses, with whom Jehovah spoke face to face, as if someone were speaking with his friend 308. From the time the Jews left Egypt, the Lord sent His servants to them continuously, “every day from early morning” 309, although in the days from Joshua to Samuel “the word of Jehovah was rare and visions were not frequent” 310. From the time of Samuel, who was honored to be a prophet of God equal to Moses 311, not only seers began to be called prophets 312 and the series of “all the prophets of God” 313 began, but, probably, under him, prophetic schools began, which especially flourished in the kingdom of Israel under Elijah and Elisha. This was the time when the prophets took a very active part in the civil life of the people 314 and their cult 315. On the one hand, royal seers 316 were known at that time, on the other hand, prophecy was not separated from the priesthood. And even the prophetic schools, apparently, were grouped around the sanctuaries and had a close connection with the priesthood. From the Assyrian period, from the half of the 8th century. to R. Chr., the third period begins in the prophetic history of the Jews, when the so-called canonical prophets, who left their writings, came out to serve according to a special personal calling, such as. Amos, a former shepherd and sycamore gatherer, Hosea, inspired by the circumstances of his family life. At this time, the prophets 317 are predominantly teachers of morality, directing their formidable word to the people with their priests and kings, although from the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophets from among the priests, a tilt towards nomism already begins. The Jewish kingdom fell, the Jerusalem temple was destroyed; the prophetic spirit survived both the fall of the kingdom and the destruction of Jerusalem. When the prophetic voice fell silent and the regime of the scribes and lawyers began, then the living history of the Jews ceased: the people of the scribes and lawyers were rejected by the Messiah. Prophets in Jewish history were free bearers of the divine spirit, were representatives of personal creativity in religion, and always acted as heralds of the word of God, heralds of the will of Jehovah - the “mouths” of Jehovah 318. As judges of the people with their kings and priests, 319 the prophets acted as the true “guardians” of Jewish history and monotheistic worship, 320 as “shepherds” of the Jewish people, 321 as messenger angels and messengers of Jehovah, 322 as servants of Jehovah and people of God 323. As representatives of a personal religious principle, they did not create the history of the Jewish people, did not change its external direction, but gave it a unique internal content, attached their own assessment to it, pronounced their judgment on it. In its historical basis, in its original external character, Jewish prophecy had much in common with pagan mantles. This was common in spontaneous inspiration. The attitude of man of those times to nature and his religious disposition were significantly different from that of modern cultured man. Nowadays, between the human heart and the outside world there is knowledge, which cools feelings; At the same time, the religious ideas that filled the inner world of man reached such a degree of vividness that people heard the voice of God and saw His image - religious ideas affected the feeling as strongly as it is excited by real objects. Divine revelation visited man primarily at night as a dream that reached extraordinary brightness. So it was with Abraham, Jacob, Samuel 324... Thus, a person either heard the word of God or saw visions of the Almighty 325, and Christ pointed precisely to these two forms of Old Testament revelation when he said to the Jews - His contemporaries: “The Father who sent Me has Himself testified of Me; but you have never heard His voice, nor seen His face” 326. But not only in a dream, but also in a waking state, Old Testament man experienced the action of the spirit of God - in ecstasy, in other words, an ecstatic state and an enthusiastic mood were taken for a divine influence on man. People then had a strong predisposition to religious enthusiasm. In such an enthusiastic mood, Miriam the prophetess, Moses’ sister, sang about the passage of the Jews through the Red Sea and Deborah the prophetess about the victory over Sisera. So David rode before the ark of Jehovah. The prophetic schools were obviously societies in which an enthusiastic religious mood was maintained through influence and artificially. It is already told about Moses that Jehovah took from the spirit that was on him and gave it to seventy men as elders, and they began to prophesy (but then stopped) 327 . It is also necessary to mention the society of the Nazarenes, who abstained from wine and did not cut their hair 328. Later, by the time of Christ, the Nazarenes constituted a predominantly ascetic sect; but the prophet Amos also compares the Nazarenes with the prophets 329. From the time of the judges we know the Nazirite Samson 330, a folk hero in whom the spirit of God was revealed in extraordinary physical strength, although his affiliation with the Nazirite society 331 is not indicated. Actually, in the prophetic schools, inspiration was supported by external means, for example. music. Samuel depicts “a host of prophets descending from on high, and before them a psalter and a tympanum, and a pipe and a harp, and they prophesied” 332. Their ecstatic state had an infectious effect on those with whom they came into contact and who were capable of the same delight. Thus, when Saul, newly anointed by Samuel, met with a host of prophets, the spirit of God descended on him and he prophesied among them 333. Another time, “Saul sent servants to take David (who, along with Samuel, stayed in Nabath); but when they saw a host of prophets prophesying and Samuel ruling over them, the spirit of God came upon the servants of Saul, and they began to prophesy.” The same thing happened to them a second and third time. Finally, Saul himself went, “and the spirit of God came upon him, and he went and prophesied. And he took off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel, and all that day and all that night he lay naked.”334 The prophet Elisha once called the harpist, “and when the harpist played the harp, then the hand of Jehovah touched him” 335. When the hand of Jehovah was upon Elijah, he girded his loins and fled before the chariot of Ahab 336 . The Jews were surrounded by peoples who had a widely developed mantika. So the Egyptians had wise men, sorcerers and magicians; Balaam prophesied among the Moabites; the Philistines had their own soothsayers; under Jezebel there were four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the forest. The land of the Jews was teeming with evokers of the dead, sorcerers, whisperers, astrologers, ventriloquists - partly strangers, partly their own, 337 who appeared in imitation of neighboring peoples 338 . The history of the Jewish people represents a continuous struggle with pagan mantle 339, the struggle of true prophecy with false prophecy. Initially, a false prophecy was someone else's prophecy, and the motives for fighting it were given by the idea of ​​​​monolatry. A true prophet is one who prophesies in the name of the God of Israel; a prophet of a foreign god is a false prophet who should not be listened to, even if his sign comes true 340. Therefore, for the Jew, magic was synonymous with idolatry 341. It was vile as serving foreign gods, while the Jews had their own ephod and their own teraphim 342. You need to make sacrifices only to your God and you need to ask only your God. But then the difference appears between prophecy, as a decent service to Jehovah, and magic, as the cult of pagan gods. In this regard, the following passage from Deuteronomy is noteworthy: “When you, Moses said to Israel, enter the land that Jehovah your God will give you; Then do not learn to do the abominations that these nations did. You must not have anyone who leads his son or daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a soothsayer, a sorceress, a sorcerer, a charmer, a conjurer of spirits, a magician, or a questioner of the dead: for anyone who does this is an abomination to Jehovah, and for these abominations Jehovah your God drives them out from before you. Be blameless before Jehovah your God. For these nations, whom you drive out, listen to fortunetellers and soothsayers; But Jehovah your God has given you something else. Jehovah your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from among your brothers, like me—listen to him.”343 Moreover, we have the following testimony about the nature of Moses’ prophetic ministry: “If there is a prophet of Jehovah among you, then I reveal myself to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream. But it is not so with My servant Moses: he is faithful in all My house; I speak to him mouth to mouth, and clearly, and not in fortune-telling, and he sees the image of Jehovah” 344. Thus, here Jewish prophecy is contrasted with unclean magic. From this point of view, it no longer matters in the name of which God magic or fortune telling is performed: a false prophecy can be performed in the name of the true God. “Forward, says Zechariah, if anyone prophesies, his father and his mother who gave birth to him will say to him: you should not live, because you are telling lies in the name of Jehovah” 345. True prophets (נָבִיא) rebel against false prophets and fortune-tellers (ראִה, ח ֺ זְה), even if they were Israel's own prophets. “Do not listen to your prophets and your fortune-tellers, and your dreamers, and your wizards, and your astrologers, for they prophesy lies to you.”346 What signs of true prophecy are now exhibited? This undoubted sign is the moral character of prophetic ministry. “I did not send these prophets,” says Jehovah about false prophets, but they themselves fled; I didn't tell them, but they prophesied. If they stood in My council, they would declare My words to My people and lead them away from their evil ways and from their evil deeds” 347. In particular, the moral character of prophetic ministry is revealed, firstly, in the close connection of prophecy with the historical basis of religion and, secondly, in the living relationship of prophecy to the future fate of faith and unbelief. Religion is not invented, it is not an arbitrary invention of an individual; the roots of religion in historical tradition and the source of true prophecy in historical revelation. One should not turn to evokers of the dead and sorcerers, to whisperers and ventriloquists, one should not ask the dead about the living - true prophets speak in accordance with the law and revelation 348. However, tradition is not a dead letter for a prophet. Through historical religious fact and through historical revelation, the prophet ascends to the law that is inscribed in the human heart, in his mind. Here is a highly remarkable passage from Deuteronomy that relates to this: “The commandment (of Jehovah) is not inaccessible to you, nor far off. It is not in heaven, so that one could say: who would ascend to heaven for us and get it for us, and proclaim it to us, and we would fulfill it? And it is not beyond the sea, so that we can say: who would go beyond the sea for us and get it for us, and proclaim it to us, and we would fulfill it? But this word is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart to do it” 349. That is why the prophets, on the one hand, call their listeners to the path of the ancients 350 as the good path, on the other hand, they assume that it is known to every person and especially to the leaders of the people what is good and evil. Everyone should know the truth and man should be told what is good and what Jehovah requires of him 351 . In this regard, sin for the prophets turns out to be conscious resistance to the will of God. In the same way, one’s service to them seems to be a personal calling, coming not from the surface of historical society, but from the depths of personal relationships with Jehovah. Now class, guild prophecy, acting in the name of visions, appearing in a special attire, has become a den of deception 352; true prophets, acting according to an inner calling in the name of the word of God, themselves note their distinctiveness from traditional prophecy 353. Although even now the inner calling carries away with an irresistible force and the word of God acts in the prophets like fire and like a hammer breaking rocks 354, although even now the prophets see visions; however, true prophecy is now primarily characterized by a personal moral character and in this sense is contrasted with traditional visionary prophecy 355 . Connected with the historical foundations of religion, true prophecy is at the same time a prophecy of the future. The future is in the hands of the one true God and only His servants can foretell the future 356. However, prophecy is not the same as prediction, prediction, foreknowledge: the prophetic word predicts because it creates, it has creative power in itself. “As rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and fertilize it and clothe it with plants and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater: so is My word that proceeds from My mouth—it does not return to Me void, but accomplishes what I please, and prospers that for which I sent it.” 357 History is revealed before the prophetic eye because the prophets judge it by the judgment of God, look at it from the point of view of divine truth, and the judgment of God determines history itself. A religion that has no historical past is not a true religion; A religion that has no future is not a living religion. In the teachings of the Old Testament prophets, the Jewish religion went as deep into the historical past as it extended into the future. The future for the Old Testament prophets is the result of God's moral judgment; for them, waiting for the future meant feeling the closeness of Jehovah, believing in His omnipotence, believing in the meaning of history. Ethical coverage of religion and history is characteristic primarily of canonical prophets; however, one must think that the struggle between ethical prophecy and false prophecy extends beyond the actual third period of Jewish prophecy, extending to early times, as can be judged by the prophetic character of Moses 358, by the activities of Nathan 359 and Elijah 360. But what was previously accomplished partially and accidentally was accomplished more completely and decisively by the canonical prophets. Ethical prophecy has an outstanding significance in the history of the Jewish religion: it gave a moral character to Old Testament monotheism. Ethical monotheism was revealed to the contemplation of the prophets mainly during their contemporary history. The canonical prophets lived in the era of universal kingdoms. The Jewish people were involved in the system of world popular relations. The Assyrian monarchy absorbed the northern kingdom of Israel, the fall of which increased the importance of Judah; then the Chaldean kingdom that replaced Assur captured the Jews; By the power of the Persian king, the Jews were returned from captivity, remaining dependent on the power of the Persian kingdom. At the same time, as the religious contemplation of the prophets received universal boundlessness, it became ethical. Jehovah, as omnipotent, owns the whole world, heaven and earth; as the righteous One He judges all nations equally. God's chosen people are burdened by the powerful monarchies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans and are liberated by the order of the Persian king: all this is done according to the will of Jehovah and according to His truth. Assur carries out the advice of Jehovah, he is the scourge of His wrath, the rod in the hand of Assur serves as an instrument of His indignation 361, Nebuchadnezzar is His servant 362 and Cyrus is His anointed 363. The truth of the universal purposes of the Old Testament is expressed with complete clarity in the prophets. Jehovah's plans include all nations, 364 He will reign over all the earth, 365 all nations will call on His name and serve Him with one accord, all nations will come to the mountain of His house 366. Jehovah rules the universe, nothing escapes His providence, all nations are equal before Him: the sons of the Ethiopians are the same for Him as the sons of Israel. Was it not He who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramites from Cyrus 367? If Israel is His heritage, then the Egyptians are His people and the Assyrians are the work of His hands 368 . His eye is on all people, as well as on all the tribes of Israel - on Hamath, on Tire and Sidon 369. He visits everyone, circumcised and uncircumcised, Egypt and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab 370. The unprecedentedly high and pure Jewish monotheism, which was mentioned above, is the predominant result of prophetic preaching. The idea of God - the Lord of all the earth and all peoples, the Leader not only of the Jewish troops, but also of the entire heavenly army ( הַשָמַים צבָא ), the Lord of all nature - is united by the prophets with the name Jehovah of Hosts צבָאות ( אלהי ) יְהוָה 371 . The closest revelation of the religious and ethical ideas of the prophets are the concepts of truth and mercy, with the predominant meaning of truth. We have already seen that in the ancient Jewish system of religious concepts, strict truth had no place. On the contrary, in the ethical preaching of the prophets, who had before their eyes an expanded horizon of history and long experience of people's life, Jehovah is a righteous God, loving truth and the righteous, demanding truth from people. According to the significant words of the prophet Isaiah, “Jehovah of hosts will be glorified in judgment and the holy God will reveal His holiness in righteousness” 372, i.e. God reveals His nature primarily in an ethical attitude towards people, in justice and truth, and not in physical omnipotence and unlimited arbitrariness. The revelation of Jehovah in history, His attitude towards the nations is determined by His righteous judgment: “Jehovah rises up in judgment and rises to judge the nations” 373. Jehovah works mercy, justice and righteousness on earth - only this is pleasing to Him; in judgment and righteousness He visits all, circumcised and uncircumcised, Egypt and Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab” 374. The righteous Jehovah loves righteousness and the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the violent 375 . He saves and rewards only in His righteousness 376. In particular, Jehovah’s attitude towards His chosen people is governed by the same principle of truth: “I have chosen you only from all the tribes of the earth, says Jehovah to Israel, “therefore I will exact from you all your iniquities.”377 Jehovah is not Baal - the god of power and tyranny, but a man who betrothed Israel to Himself with righteousness and justice 378. The second ethical property of Jehovah in the religious view of the Jews is His mercy and love. The books of the Old Testament are filled with confessions of God's great mercy and His love for the sons of men 379. Nothing inspired Old Testament man more than praising the mercy of God. And in this respect there is no difference between the pre-prophetic and prophetic periods. But the mercy of God in the Old Testament religious view becomes an ethical concept only in connection with the truth of God, depending on it - and this precisely sets the boundary between the pre-prophetic and prophetic stages. We have seen that the ancient Hebrews looked upon Jehovah's love as His partiality, devoid of ethical dignity. And only in the view of the prophets, who rose to the understanding of God’s love for all peoples, 380 was Jehovah’s mercy ethicized as the beginning of truth, in His relations both with other peoples and with God’s chosen people. Jehovah pronounces His definitions conditionally, canceling the evil assigned to the nations for the sake of their repentance and taking away His blessing from them for the sake of their atrocities - He sets the final goal of certain benefits and disasters to be the conversion of the sinner from his evil path 381. Therefore, chosen Israel is condemned more than other nations for its iniquities. The basic moral properties of Jehovah - truth and mercy - form the religious basis of prophetic ethics. The righteous and merciful God demands from people truth and mercy in their relationships with each other. Religious in its basis, prophetic ethics is social in its content: its ideal is the improvement of social and national life. The prophet Isaiah teaches: “learn to do good, strive for justice, save the oppressed, defend the orphan, stand up for the widow... This is a fast pleasing to Jehovah: break the chains of unrighteousness, loose the bonds of slavery, set the oppressed free and break every yoke, share your bread with the hungry and bring the abandoned poor into your home; If you see a naked person, clothe him and do not hide from your brothers and sisters.”382 The prophet Hosea also teaches: “sow for yourselves righteousness, then you will reap mercy... Observe mercy and justice and trust in your God always” 383 . “Oh man! We read from the prophet Micah: it has been told to you what is good and what Jehovah requires of you: only to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”384 “If a man is righteous,” says Jehovah through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, “and acts lawfully and justly, does not offend anyone, returns his pledge to the debtor, does not commit robbery, gives to the hungry, covers his bread and the naked with clothing, does not give at interest and does not take interest, keeps his hand from unrighteousness, render fair judgment to man with man; then he is righteous and will certainly live” 385. Jehovah also demands the same through the prophet Zechariah: “Carry out fair judgment and show mercy and compassion every one to his brother; Do not wrong the widow and the orphan, the stranger or the needy, and do not plot evil against each other in your hearts... Speak the truth to one another, judge truly and peacefully at your gates” 386 . Other prophets taught this as well. The essence of the Jews' covenant with Jehovah required of them faith, obedience and humility. In the preaching of the prophets, these demands are also expressed clearly and definitely 387. But these religious concepts also experienced significant changes in the system of prophetic ethical views. While previously purely religious obedience was required of the Jew and his humility was often blind obedience 388, in the prophetic view trust in God is confirmed by faith in His truth and humility is inextricably linked with contrition for sins 389. Therefore, the concepts of truth and love remain decisively dominant in prophetic ethics. Based on the principle of these basic ethical concepts, the prophets pronounce their strict judgment on contemporary reality, on all aspects of national life, both on its priestly-sacrificial system and on the royal-theocratic order. The prophets speak about the cultic worship of the chosen people in such a strict language that has nothing like it in world literature. Jehovah is satiated with burnt offerings of rams and the fat of oxen, He does not like the blood of bulls, lambs and goats, smoking is disgusting to Him, new moons and Saturdays are intolerable, He hates holidays, sacred meetings are difficult for Him, He does not smell the smell of sacrifices, does not listen to the sounds of festive harps, turns away from hands stretched out to Him, closes His eyes from fasting and self-torture 390. He rejects the very idea of ​​man to please Him with sacrifices and offerings; He rejects sacrifices as the God of truth and love. The idea of ​​the universal omnipotence of Jehovah, for Whom heaven is the throne and earth is the footstool, Who owns the entire universe, serves only as a negative basis for His aversion to cult: for Him no house can be built on earth to contain Him, neither Lebanon is enough for fire, nor animals for a burnt offering corresponding to His greatness, He cannot be pleased with thousands of rams and countless streams of oil 391 . But even more important is the positive basis of His disposition towards victims - ethical: He wants mercy, not sacrifice, He demands from a person deeds of truth and love, clean hands and an immaculate heart 392. Cult worship does not express the divine will 393, it does not go beyond the limits of human desires: people do not fast for God and they themselves eat sacrificial meat 394. The commandment of Jehovah, expressing His will, is a moral commandment - and not only does religious worship not serve as the fulfillment of the divine will, it violates the will of God, since it is accompanied by resistance to the demands of morality, hypocritically covers up moral lawlessness and even leads to moral lull and degeneration. Celebration is combined with lawlessness, sacrificing hands are covered with blood, they fast in order to argue and quarrel and beat others with an impious hand, they bring sacred meat and at the same time become worse 395. Prophetic preaching also captures the ministers of the sacrificial cult - the priests: they feed on the sins of the people and their soul strives for their wickedness 396. The prophets applied the same measure of moral norms to the social life of the people; in the name of Jehovah they carried out “judgment with His people,” “putting justice as the rule and truth as the plumb line.” Complete social disorganization opened before their searching gaze. Beneath the apparent orderliness of social order there was hidden the blatant untruth of social relations. Wicked kings collect treasures into their palaces through violence and robbery, the people's elders and princes imitate them, untruth and bribery reign in courts, deception in trade, the lower classes suffer oppression, the poor, widows and orphans do not find protection, the rulers became close to thieves and murderers and the cities of Israel became dens of robbers, finally, violence and looted wealth led to drunkenness and family molestation 397. In itself, this picture of social untruth does not represent anything exceptional; it is repeated in the life of every nation. But the prophets contemplated the deepest causes of social evil: they not only noticed the universality of corruption 398, but with their critical thought they discovered the close connection of later social evil with the original beginning of the social system, and traced the flow of this evil until the very establishment of royal power. Having chosen a king for themselves, the Jews wanted to be “like all nations” 399. But the prophets did not judge social disorders from a national point of view; they fundamentally discussed the very nature of the tsarist rule, applying an ethical criterion to it. It was clear to them that the tsarist rule had deceived the people's expectations: having destroyed the terrible troubles of the previous period, bringing external order to the people, it turned out to be untenable in later development - not due to the personal shortcomings of the tsars, but due to the insufficiency of the external system to achieve social good. “You have destroyed yourself, Israel. Where is your king now? May he save you in all your cities. Where are your judges, about whom you said: “Give us a king and rulers”? 400 The social system cannot save the people; it is necessary to ascend to the moral strength of man; both the priestly service and the public order must be imbued with a moral principle. As bearers of the moral principle, prophets are above the authorities, both priestly and royal: salvation from Jehovah through the prophets 401, and it is assumed that it is desirable for everyone to be prophets. In this elevation of the moral principle and personal freedom above the principles of priestly tradition and external authority, one must see the culmination of the Old Testament religion. At this peak, at the same time, the limitations of the Jewish religion are given in its purest form, in its most typical expression, in its deepest essence. From this summit there is a direct path to evangelical absoluteness, so that further Jewish history forms the embodiment of the prophetic spirit, consolidating its valuable content and bringing to light its inherent weakness. The prophetic height represents both the basic idea embedded in the structure of Jewish life and the historical pass, after which the densification (regression) of Jehovah’s religion begins, its coarsening. In the first case, we are dealing with the content of Jewish law, in the second - with the fact of the rule of law, with the form of legalism. The content of Jewish “Deuteronomy,” which develops the spirit of prophetic ethics, and the entire social structure of Jewish life, which embodies prophetic preaching, is inextricably linked with the teachings of the prophets. Prophetic preaching and social ideals, realized in Jewish legislation, in ethical and social commandments and institutions, form one whole. Just as prophetic ethics has as its subject the national social good, so the social system of the Jews is established on moral foundations. If we look at the entire volume of social legislation of the Jewish people, if we read not only the cardinal requirement of respect for parents and the prohibition of murder, adultery, theft, perjury, the desire of another man's wife and another man's property, but also the entire system of numerous commandments developing around this main core about respect for old age, about judicial truth, about commercial honesty, about the purity of marriage, about mercy for slaves, widows, orphans, beggars, strangers, about attentive attitude even to livestock and land - if we read these regulations and laws without prejudice, then involuntary amazement and respectful reverence will arise in us at the severity of truth, the depth of mercy and heartfelt tenderness for the feelings and interests of the human person, which form the basis of Jewish legislation. Here, in particular, is the attitude of a Jew to the poor, the beggar, the orphan, the widow, the stranger and the mercenary: they should not be offended, the payment must be given before sunset, do not go into the poor man’s house for a deposit, do not take (hand) mills and millstones as collateral, return the clothes taken as collateral at sunset, leave them a forgotten sheaf in the field, the remaining fruits on an olive tree and in vineyard; a Jew cannot be a slave, but only a mercenary, and a plot of land cannot be purchased from him irrevocably - a purchased Jew must be set free and the plot hired from him must be returned to him in the Sabbath and Jubilee years 402. The Old Testament laws on trials, witnesses, and punishments 403 are just as highly moral. This humane legislation puts beyond doubt that the Old Testament law, like prophetic ethics, hung on two commandments, of which the first and greatest: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and the second is similar to it: “You shall love your neighbor; as yourself” (Matthew XXII, 37 – 39 par.) 404. But delving more closely into this system of life and discussing its moral basis, we find that it is constrained by boundaries that are inevitable for all aspects of the Jewish religion. The Old Testament law is entirely determined by the goal of social good and here it meets its limit; and prophetic ethics, which has as its subject the social system and is realized in the law, could not transcend social and popular conventions. Prophetic preaching, forming the lofty basis of popular law, was suppressed by the limitations of its historical tasks. This border affects both the external and internal sides. From the external side, the ethical and social law of Israel is limited in the sense that it places the same tribe as the exclusive object of love for an Israeli and does not extend it to a foreigner: the neighbor of the “second” commandment for a Jew is a brother by blood. “Do not be hostile to your brother in your heart, do not take revenge and do not have malice against the sons of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself” 405. Humane for the internal relations of people's life, the Old Testament law for enemy neighbors assigned the evil fate of wholesale extermination or slavery 406. A Jew was forbidden to burden or enslave a fellow tribesman and was allowed to do this in relation to a foreigner: “Give to a foreigner at usury, but do not give to your brother at usury” 407 . Jubilee forgiveness did not extend to the foreigner 408 . And although the stranger, along with widows, orphans and the poor, hid behind the defense of mercy and charity 409, was equal with the natives before Jehovah 410, and the Jew was even commanded to love the stranger as himself 411; although the attitudes of Jews towards foreign enemies are softened from different sides in prophetic preaching and in the law; nevertheless, particularism is an essential feature of Old Testament ethics, because it follows from the very foundations of the Jewish religion, from the very idea of ​​​​the people's chosenness of God. At the deepest roots of this idea was a feeling of hatred, since the enemies of Jehovah were the enemies of Israel. “Should I not hate those who hate You, O Jehovah, and be disgusted by those who rebel against You? I hate them with complete hatred; they are my enemies" 412. Even if hatred of Jehovah’s enemies did not equal the religious sanctification of any international hostility, then in any case in such a religion there were no motives that softened that wild frenzy that dreamed of beating other people’s babies against a stone 413 and washing their feet in the blood of enemies 414 . Therefore, it is right that the Old Testament commandment to love one’s neighbor is formulated in the Gospel as follows: “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” 415 . The external limitations of Jewish ethics and law lead one to expect internal limitations. Particularism presupposes externalism. If the law, taken from the external relations of Israel, had as its object the Jews, in contrast to other nationalities, and not man in relation to man, then, naturally, from the internal side, the law was exhausted by the social system of God's chosen people and did not capture the inner life of individuals, strived for a conditional public good and did not know the spiritual absolute good. This is exactly what happened. Eg. Marriage ethics and family law had as their only goal the prosperity of married life, and not the internal perfection of a person, and were applied to the social side of marriage, and not to the state of the individual in a marital relationship. Positive commandments were sent here, ensuring the newlyweds lived together 416, regulating the social side of marriage - marriage in relation to kinship, inheritance rights in polygamy, levirate, divorce. Likewise, the negative commandments pursued the same goal. Adultery was viewed and prohibited as a disorder that violated public order, and not as a crime that humiliated the individual. Therefore, the general commandment about non-adultery breaks down into specific commandments that prohibit a Jew from having marital relations with someone else’s wife, with a daughter-in-law, with an engaged girl, whereby the woman is treated as property and, of course, in these prohibitions the slave is treated exclusively as the betrothed 417 . Accordingly, David’s sin 418 was not that he “looked at the washing woman with lust”, that he did not control his awakened lust, but that he took her away from her husband, for whom she was the only one. Likewise, the fornication of the daughters of Israel was prohibited, not because the fornicator defiles the church of God, i.e. her human dignity, and those who participate in her sin become “one body” with her, but because the filthiness of fornication, which has captured the daughters of the people, leads this people to destruction: “so that the earth does not commit fornication” - this is the last motive of the commandment 419. According to this motive, just as in general the highest reward for ethical work, for the fulfillment of the law, was the longevity of the people, most importantly promised for respect for parents 420, so in particular, the reward of marriage and family commandments was childbearing and the punishment was infertility. Let's look at an example from another area. If a Jew was commanded to exterminate his enemies in war, then it is indisputable that the murder of a fellow tribesman was forbidden to him not for reasons of human dignity, which the killer mocks, but as a social disorder that desecrated the society of Israel, for “blood defiles the land” 421. Here it is appropriate to recall the characteristic feature of the Old Testament law noted above, which, in its essential content, is addressed to the entire Israeli society, and not to individuals: “do not steal, do not lie, do not deceive one another, do not do injustice - in court, in measurement, in weight and in measure” 422; Therefore, the punishment for breaking the law among the Jews had full social significance, as the cleansing of society from defilement, the removal of defilement from the earth. It is also significant in this regard that the main point of Old Testament law, jus talionis, equal retribution, not only limited the vindictiveness of the victim, but also positively commanded society to restore the violated social truth: “let not your eye spare (the criminal) (that is, do not be merciful to him) - a soul for a soul, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot” 423 . In all this, Old Testament ethics and law affected man as a member of society, from the outside, demanding from him actual performance, and not a certain mental mood. Numerous commandments describing the external side of the matter, for example. the amount of sacrifice, its value, does not presuppose certain thoughts and feelings - and the few, lost among the whole multitude, instructions of an internal nature, such as: “circumcise the foreskin of your heart”, “do not be hostile to your brother in your heart” 424 - require sincerity in serving God and caring for your neighbor, i.e. in fulfilling the law, but do not indicate a certain state of the heart, do not give the law its content. Love for God and neighbor lies in external affairs; in particular, ethics is limited to social affairs. Just as the social nature of prophetic ethics made it similar in content to the law, so the popular social convention of the law was a revelation of the ethical convention of prophetic preaching. The ethical preaching of the prophets, introducing the highest content into people's life and moralizing the law, could not cross the conventional historical boundaries of God's chosen people. And since the height of prophetic preaching surpassed all other limitations, it revealed the most typical weakness of the Jewish religion, the conventionality of the pure idea of ​​​​the people's chosenness of God. It is extremely remarkable that at the very pinnacle of prophetic ethical monotheism one can hear this historical temporality, this popular inertia. The ethical universalism of the religious contemplations of the prophetic genius could not overcome the particularism that flowed from the essence of Israel's covenant with Jehovah. The universal providence of Jehovah and the universal purposes of His covenant with Israel were not absolute, but this universality has an indelible tinge of particularistic tendencies. And for the prophets, Israel is Jehovah’s beloved, His chosen servant: for Him all nations are equal, but Israel alone is chosen and through him the universal sovereignty of Jehovah must be fulfilled. Global goals only elevate the idea of ​​God's chosenness, but do not abolish it. The prophet Amos, having expressed a lofty thought about the equality before Jehovah of the sons of the Ethiopians and the sons of Israel, then speaks of the power of the tabernacle of David over all nations among whom the name of Jehovah will be proclaimed 425. In Isaiah, Jehovah calls Cyrus His anointed and at the same time says: “for the sake of Jacob My servant, and for the sake of Israel My chosen one, I call you by name” 426. An enthusiastic song of universal truth, calling on all the ends of the earth, every tribe and every tongue, to worship the one Savior Jehovah and confess Him as the one Lord of truth and power - this song ends with the national anthem: “in Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be justified and glorified” 427. The Creator of the world, sung for the first time with such clarity of religious thought in the last chapters of Isaiah, is bound by the bonds of marital love with his beloved Israel 428. For his sake, Jehovah gives up Egypt, Ethiopia, Sheba and Babylon 429; for Jehovah “His work”, close to His heart, in Zion 430, the walls of Jerusalem are always in His thoughts 431. The salvation of the pagans will be accomplished through the glory of Israel 432, through his medium Jehovah will reign over all the earth 433 and all kings will bow to him face to the ground and lick the dust of his feet 434. The religious universalism of the prophets, with all the brightness of their concepts, drowns in nationalistic feelings, and they remain bone of the bones of their people and flesh of their flesh. They perceive and nurture the most cherished hopes of their people, cleanse them of everything that fragmented and weakened them: the prophets of Israel turn their last hope to the united house of David, to the powerful kingdom of the branch of David 435. The prophets of Israel had only one step left to take to religious absoluteness, to unconditional universalism - to reject the very idea of ​​​​Jewish chosenness of God. But they could not do this, because then they would have no point of support due to the inaccessibility of internal, native good. This could only be done subsequently by Christ the Son of God, who directed religion along a new direction. And this refers us to the nature of the religious experience of the Israeli prophets. The objective limitations of the religious contemplation of the prophets correspond to the subjective limitations of religious experience. Here our attention is drawn to the prophetic image of the suffering righteous man, the servant of God, the servant of God, the son of man. This image is a wonderful property of Old Testament writing, the most touching work of Jewish creativity. As the concept of righteousness grew stronger in the religious consciousness of Israel, the fatal question arose for it about the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of sinners. “When I go to court with You, Jehovah, You will be right; and yet I will talk to You about justice: why is the path of the wicked prosperous, and all deceivers live calmly?... But You know me, Jehovah” 436. “The wicked and the fortunate of the world achieve wealth. So, was it not in vain that I cleansed my heart and washed my hands with innocence; I endure wounds every day and suffering every morning” 437? This problem, which formed the subject of the book of Job, was posed with all its clarity in the history of the prophets, who suffered persecution from a rebellious and stubborn people 438 , and in the history of Israel itself, given into captivity to be mocked by the pagans, when Jehovah hid His face from him and turned out to be a hidden God for him 439 . Israel was prepared for a theoretical understanding of the mystery of the suffering of the righteous by the concept of divine condescension, since the High and Exalted One lives precisely with those who are contrite in heart and humble in spirit 440 . A living understanding of this image was given by the prophet’s own experience of suffering. He suffered as a servant of God, he suffered for the sake of Jehovah: “for You I endure reproach” 441 - he suffered, then, for others, for his people, he took upon himself their suffering and took upon himself their iniquity 442, he suffered from those to whom he revealed the word of God, he was for them “like a meek lamb led to the slaughter” 443. Finally, the prophets were already in reality the remnant for the sake of which the people were preserved, the blessed “branch”, grape juice: when there is wine in the grape cluster, then they protect it, because there is a blessing in it, Jehovah also does the same for the sake of his servants, so as not to destroy everyone 444. But what the prophet was for Israel, Israel itself was for the pagan nations, for the whole world: if he suffered for his sins before Jehovah, then in any case he was no worse than the pagan nations to whom he was given over to reproach - he was better than them and suffered from them, like the righteous from the wicked 445, for the sake of spreading the glory of God throughout the world, he served the cause of Jehovah, was His servant 446, for Him he was killed every day and were considered sheep doomed to the slaughter 447. This is how the religious creativity of Israel created the image of the son of man, the servant of God, the suffering righteous man. The main features of this image are innocent suffering and its redemptive meaning. A majestic song about the servant of God is given in Isaiah in chapters LII – LIII: “... He was despised and rejected by people, a sufferer, but He took upon ourselves our illnesses.”... The main question that arises when reading this Old Testament song of innocent suffering is whether the image of the servant of God in the mouth of the prophets expresses the full reality. This question must be answered in the negative. It is undeniable that the experience of the prophets and of all Israel was a truly religious experience. For the righteous Israelite, God was the greatest good, exceeding all non-religious benefits. “Who is in heaven for me? And I don’t want anything on earth with You. My flesh and my heart yearn; God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who withdraw from You perish; You destroy everyone who departs from You. And closeness to God is good for me” 448. In Psalms I, XV, XVI, XXV, XXVI, LXXXII1 the blessedness of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the path of sinners, does not sit in the congregation of blasphemers, but is drawn to the law of Jehovah and meditates on His law day and night, is sung - the fullness of joy in the face of Jehovah, bliss in His right hand, the joy of looking at His face is sung, satiation with His image, contemplation of His beauty, visiting His holy church. “How pleasant are Your dwellings, O Jehovah of Hosts! My soul longs and clings to the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my body delight in the living God... A day in Your courts is better than a thousand in others. I would rather be at the threshold of the house of God than to live in the tents of wickedness.” In Psalm CXVIII, those who are blameless in their ways, who walk in the law of Jehovah, who keep His statutes, who seek Him with all their hearts, are blessed. “I take comfort in Your statutes, I do not forget Your words... How I love Your law! I think about him all day long... How sweet are Your words to my tongue, better than honey to my lips! The relationship of the Old Testament righteous man to Jehovah was filled with cordiality, intimacy, and gave him inner satisfaction. “As a deer strives for streams of water, so my soul strives for You, O God! My soul thirsts for God, the living God." 449 “Even though the fig tree did not blossom, and there was no fruit on the vines, and the olive tree failed, and the field yielded no food, even though there were no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls; but even then I will rejoice in Jehovah and be glad in the God of my salvation” 450. To the extent of this religious and spiritual experience, the idea of ​​a suffering righteous man, the idea of ​​suffering in the name of God, became reality for the Israeli. In the midst of the most difficult calamities, he had consolation from God. “This comforts me in my distress, that Your word gives me life” 451. Within himself he found strength that he could resist the most difficult temptations. “Even though I walk through the valley of darkness, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” 452. "God! You are my God, I seek You, my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You in a dry, exhausted, waterless land... Your goodness is better than life” 453. With such a spiritual reserve, with such a religious treasure, Israel came face to face with the problem of innocent suffering, and it is not surprising that he saw God’s work in the suffering of the righteous. He comprehended the joy of the Lord, available to those who suffer, and the triumph of the Holy One of Israel, promised to poor people. And despite all this, these waves of spiritual joy touched only the surface of the soul of the Old Testament righteous man and did not reach its depths. The folk-contractual religion did not give room for personal-spiritual absoluteness and eliminated the possibility of limitless self-denial. At the very heights of prophetic inspiration, Israel did not reach boundless devotion to God, never forgot earthly interests, and was dependent on historical conditions, on the external justification of its faith. Spiritual good did not give him complete satisfaction, did not absorb his soul. Not being realized in historical reality, it melted into a feeling of being abandoned by God 454, his eyes were tired of waiting for God 455, Who seemed to him a deceptive source, unfaithful water 456. It was precisely the exceptional position of God's chosenness that required the external justification of the righteous both in the eyes of all those who hope in Jehovah 457 and in the eyes of all enemies. Complete external abandonment of the righteous by God did not seem possible, and the story of Job without the final result 458 would have been an outrageous mystery from the Old Testament point of view. With all the reality of Israel's prophetic experience, the complete joy of those who suffer in God was for him not a reality, but a promise, the fulfillment of which depended on Jehovah's intervention in history 459 . And the idea of ​​the servant of God required external justification 460, therefore the image of the servant of God is rightly considered primarily a prophetic image, not a synthesis of reality, but a symbol of hopes. This subjective insufficiency of religious good, which forced us to cling to popular promises and historical soil, was not, however, the last weakness of Old Testament prophecy. It was obscured by the heavier boundary of Jehovah’s revelation: just as Israel was not counted among the nations, so the prophets among Israel itself “were not counted,” they lived “separately,” they were a few. And if the salvation of the people was hidden in the prophets, then their quantitative insignificance could not help but be revealed. The wish of one of the great prophets that everyone in Israel should be prophets 461 sounds like deep sorrow, and to another prophet the filling of all flesh by the Spirit of God is presented as a thing of the future 462 . And this weakness of the Old Testament, which obscured its other aspects, created immediate tasks for the prophets - to educate the entire people of Israel in the spirit of righteousness. Here the roots of a different connection between prophetic ethics and the law were strengthened - not only in its content, but also in the form of its domination; along this line, the transition from the prophetic spirit to the legalistic system took place. And the predominance of royal power over the priesthood is not a feature of the Jewish religion alone, and we have just called it very characteristic of the Jewish religion, not from the point of view of pre-Christian kingdoms, but from the point of view of the later - Christian. Ref. XXXIII, 11 Wed. Number XII, 6 – 8; Deut. XVIII, 15; Oc. XII, 13. 1 Kings I, 32 ff. XIX, 15 pp. 2 Kings IX, 1 ff. 1 Sam. IX, 12. 13; XVI, 5; 1 Kings XVIII, 30 ff. 2 Sam. XXIV, 11; 1 Par. XXV, 5. Prophets of the Assyrian period: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, - of the Chaldean period: Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, - of the Persian period: Isaiah XIII - XIV; XXI, 1 ff. XXIV – XXVII; XXXIV – XXXV;XL – LXVI; Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. However, for us chronology does not matter much. Wed. Ref. IV, 16; VII, 1. Os. IV, 8. 9; V, 1; Soph. III, 3. 4. Is. XXI, 11. 12; Ezek. III, 17 – 21. Is. XLII, 19; XLIV, 26; Agg. I, 13; Mal III, 1. 1 Sam. IX, 6; 1 Kings XII, 22; XVII, 18; Is. XX, 3; Jer. VII, 25; XXXV, 4, etc. Life XV, 12. 13; XXVIII, 12.15; XLVI, 2; 1 Sam. III, 2 lines. 1 Sam. III, 1; Number XXIV, 4. The Nazarenes resembled somewhat later Rechabites. 2 Kings X, 15. sl. Jer. XXXV. Lion. XIX, 31; XX, 6.27; Deut. XIII; XVIII; 1 Samuel XXVIII, 3; 2 Kings XXIII, 24. 1 Sam. Χ V, 23; Zach. XIII, 2. Os. III, 4; Court. XVII, 5. Number XII, 6 – 8; Deut. XXXIV, 10; Ref. XXXIII, 11. However, we must remember the role of the rod of God ( חָאל ֺ הִיםמַטִח ) in the story of Moses. Ref. IV, 2. 17. 20; VII, 17; XIV, 16; XVII 9; Number XX, 8 words. Wed 2 Kings IV, 29. 31; Oc. IV, 21. Jer. XXVII, 9. 10. Wed. Is. XXIX, 19; Mich. III, 7. Is. VIII, 19 20. Wed. Onion. XVI, 29. Mich. III, 1; VI, 8 Wed. Jer IV, 4. 5. Wed. Zach. XIII, 4; Mich. III, 5 7. 11. Jer XX, 7; XXIII, 29, Am, III, 8 Eze XIII; Os. IX, 7. 8. It is difficult to agree with those scientists who see only a later idealization in the characterization of Moses (Num. XII, 6 - 8; Deut. XXXIV, 10). Undoubtedly, in the person of Moses one must recognize a major religious figure and a great prophet. And although in the original message Ex. XXXIII, 11 it is not yet possible to see a decisive opposition between the prophecy of visions and the prophecy of ethics, however, such a opposition, when applied to Moses, is justified by everything that we know about him. However, see note. 5 on page 86. 1 Kings XXI. However, these prophets differed so much from the later purely ethical prophecy, as shown, for example. demolition of 2 Kings X, 30 c. I, 4. Is. X. 5 Wed. V, 26 ff. VII, 18. Soph. III, 9; Is. II, 2. Often in Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, rarely in. Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Sophia and Habakkuk and is not found in Ezekiel, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah. Ps. X, 5 – 7 Wed Avv. I, 13. Ps. СXLII, 11 Wed. LXX, 2; CXVIII, 40 149; CXLII, 1; Is. XLVI, 12, 13. Ps. CIII; CV; CVI; СХVII; CXXXXV; CXLIV. Jerem. XVIII, 7 ff. XXXVI, 3. Zach. VII, 9–10; VIII, 16–17. Is. VII, 9; XL, 27 – 31; LXVI, 2; Jer. XVII, 5 – 7 and many more. etc. 1 Sam. III, 18; 2 Sam. XVI, 10–12. Is. I; LVIII; LXVI; Am. V ; Small I ; Ps XXXIX; L. Is. XL; LXVI; Jer. VII; Mich. VI; Ps. xlix. Oc. VI, b; Micah VI, 8; Jer. VII, 23; Is. XXIII, 4. Jer. VII, 22; Am. V, 25. Zach. VII, 5. 6; Oc. VIII, 13. Is. I, 13.15; LVIII, 4; Jer VII, 15. Is. I, 21 – 23; III, 14–19; V, 11 – 12; Am. III, 10; IV. 1; VI, 12; Mich. II, 1 – 2; VII, 1 – 4 and many more. etc. Mich. VII, 1 – 4; Jer. V, 1; XIII, 23. Deut. VI, 5; Leo XIX 18. Deut. XXIII, 20. Wed. higher. Deut. X, 18; XIV, 29; Lion. XXIII, 22. Number IX, 14; XV, 15; Lion. XXIV, 22. Lion. XIX, 34. However cf. Deut. XIV, 21. Lion. XX; Deuteronomy XXII; Ilex. XX, 17; XXII, 16; Lion. XIX 20. Ref. XX, 12; Deut. V, 16. Lion. XIX, 11. 15 29. 35. 36. Deut. X, 16; Lion. XIX, 17. 18. Isa VLII, 18; XXVIII, 21. Oc. III, 5; Am XI, 11; Jer. XXIII, 5; Ezek. XXXIV, 23. 24; XXXVII, 24. Jerem XII, 1 – 3; Avv. I, 2–4. Ezek. XXXIX, 23 24. 29; Is. XLV, 15. Jer. VIII, 21; IX, 1; XIV, 17; Ezek. IV, 4. You might be interested in: