2. Israel
a. Abraham, the Father
In “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gn 11:31), probably the same land of Babel, there is Abram, a man that waits for the word of God, a man that is able to hear, a man chosen by God, the first in the Bible to be called “prophet” (Gn 20:7).
Abram is presented as the anti-Babel character par excellence. A kind of dichotomy can be seen in the two accounts. The promise of God to Abram “I will make of you a great nation” (Gn 12:2) finds its counterpart in the story of Babel when the people said: “Come, let us build ourselves a city” (Gn 11:4). The promise “I will make your name great” (Gn 12:2) in Babel was “let us […] make a name for ourselves” (Gn 11:4). What the people of Babel wanted to give to themselves, trying to …show more content…
Moses, the Midwife
The events of the Exodus, which will mark forever the physiognomy of the chosen people, are the real birth of the people of Israel. In them, the people understands that there is a God who want to communicate, want to enter in dialogue with them. The dialogue between God and Israel begins with a liberating intervention in favor of the people enslaved in Egypt, in order to free them “from the burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex 6:6). Moses helps the people to come out, as a midwife helps a baby to come to light.
Although Moses is raised up by Pharaoh's daughter, he went out “to his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor” (Ex 2:11). Moses is the prophet par excellence, placed between the people and his Lord, introduces one to the other, when in fact God will speak with him at the burning bush, he will say “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters” (Ex 3:7), it seems almost that God has seen the oppression of His people through the eyes of …show more content…
The Role of the Prophets
The dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum says: “when God Himself spoke to them through the mouth of the prophets, Israel daily gained a deeper and clearer understanding of His ways and made them more widely known among the nations” (DV 14). The role of the prophets is essential. To be a prophet means “to identify one’s concern with the concern of God” and with the concerns of the people, to build a vertical and a horizontal relationship (tsedaqah and mishpat).
Heschel defines the prophet as homo sympathetikos he is capable of syn-pathos (from the Greek syn, meaning together and pathos, meaning feeling) with God. Divine pathos refers to Heschel’s proposal that God Himself is capable of emotion, is in fact more emotionally sensitive than human beings, he is moved and affected by what happens in the world, and reacts accordingly. Pathos means that “God is never neutral, never beyond good and evil. He is always partial to justice.” God’s pathos and the prophet’s sympathy are united, “the prophet transcend himself by turning to God, who transcend Himself by turning to Israel. And thus, of course, the prophet is turned back to Israel
a. Abraham, the Father
In “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gn 11:31), probably the same land of Babel, there is Abram, a man that waits for the word of God, a man that is able to hear, a man chosen by God, the first in the Bible to be called “prophet” (Gn 20:7).
Abram is presented as the anti-Babel character par excellence. A kind of dichotomy can be seen in the two accounts. The promise of God to Abram “I will make of you a great nation” (Gn 12:2) finds its counterpart in the story of Babel when the people said: “Come, let us build ourselves a city” (Gn 11:4). The promise “I will make your name great” (Gn 12:2) in Babel was “let us […] make a name for ourselves” (Gn 11:4). What the people of Babel wanted to give to themselves, trying to …show more content…
Moses, the Midwife
The events of the Exodus, which will mark forever the physiognomy of the chosen people, are the real birth of the people of Israel. In them, the people understands that there is a God who want to communicate, want to enter in dialogue with them. The dialogue between God and Israel begins with a liberating intervention in favor of the people enslaved in Egypt, in order to free them “from the burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex 6:6). Moses helps the people to come out, as a midwife helps a baby to come to light.
Although Moses is raised up by Pharaoh's daughter, he went out “to his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor” (Ex 2:11). Moses is the prophet par excellence, placed between the people and his Lord, introduces one to the other, when in fact God will speak with him at the burning bush, he will say “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters” (Ex 3:7), it seems almost that God has seen the oppression of His people through the eyes of …show more content…
The Role of the Prophets
The dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum says: “when God Himself spoke to them through the mouth of the prophets, Israel daily gained a deeper and clearer understanding of His ways and made them more widely known among the nations” (DV 14). The role of the prophets is essential. To be a prophet means “to identify one’s concern with the concern of God” and with the concerns of the people, to build a vertical and a horizontal relationship (tsedaqah and mishpat).
Heschel defines the prophet as homo sympathetikos he is capable of syn-pathos (from the Greek syn, meaning together and pathos, meaning feeling) with God. Divine pathos refers to Heschel’s proposal that God Himself is capable of emotion, is in fact more emotionally sensitive than human beings, he is moved and affected by what happens in the world, and reacts accordingly. Pathos means that “God is never neutral, never beyond good and evil. He is always partial to justice.” God’s pathos and the prophet’s sympathy are united, “the prophet transcend himself by turning to God, who transcend Himself by turning to Israel. And thus, of course, the prophet is turned back to Israel