Archive for the ‘Abraham J. Heschel’ Tag
Above: Map of the Persian Empire
Image in the Public Domain
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READING HAGGAI-FIRST ZECHARIAH, PART I
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Haggai 1-2
Zechariah 1-8
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The Book of Haggai consists of two chapters, four oracles, and thirty-eight verses.
The Book of Zechariah consists of two sections–First Zechariah (chapters 1-8) and Second Zechariah (chapters 9-14). Haggai and First Zechariah share a background and setting. Also, the chronology of Haggai-First Zechariah starts in Haggai, continues in First Zechariah, returns to Haggai, then resumes in First Zechariah.
Jerusalem, 520-518 B.C.E. Darius I (r. 522-486 B.C.E.) was the King of the Persian Empire. The Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire had fallen in 539 B.C.E. The Babylonian Exile had ended in 538 B.C.E. The rebuilding of Jerusalem was underway, slowly. The standard of living there was bad yet improving, slowly. The construction of the Second Temple had started then paused indefinitely.
Names interest me. “Haggai,” derived from the Hebrew stem for “to make a pilgrimage feast,” means “festal.” Not surprisingly, the Temple is central to the prophetic book bearing this name. “Zechariah” means “YHWH remembers.” One may want to keep that in mind while reading First Zechariah.
The Temple is central to Haggai-First Zechariah. The prophecies of certain Hebrew prophets do not reflect this bias; see Amos (5:18-25) and First Isaiah (1:12-16), set before the Babylonian Exile, O reader. Also consult Third Isaiah (66:1), from after the Babylonian Exile. Diversity of opinions exists in the corpus of canonized Hebrew prophecy. So be it.
I will unpack another theme as write posts to succeed this one. As I have established in this long-term project of reading and blogging about the Hebrew prophetic books, roughly in chronological order, some Hebrew prophecies contradict historical, documented, objective reality. This is not a matter of legitimate dispute; “alternative facts” are not valid. The Haggai-First Zechariah provides some examples of this pattern. When predictions do not come true, some people become discouraged, understandably. I, as a student of history, take note of the prophecy and the reality. The facts are what they are, and speak for themselves. In the face of the contradiction between reality and prophecy, some people should become discouraged.
John J. Collins, writing in The Catholic Study Bible, Third Edition (2016), offers some food for thought:
Hope should not be focused on specific predictions. The faith of Habakkuk was secure because it was a faith in ultimate justice and did not depend on specific events coming to pass within a short space of time. Haggai’s more specific prediction gives rise to problems.
–RG404
I know this problem from elsewhere in Hebrew prophetic literature. The prediction of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian conquest of Egypt (Jeremiah 43:1-8; Jeremiah 46:2-28; Ezekiel 29-32) contradicts the the historical record, which indicates that, in 525 B.C.E., Egypt fell to the Persian Empire, which had previously conquered the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire. If the prophecies were, in contrast, of the fall of Egypt to a great, unnamed empire from the east, there would be no problem, though.
Yet, as Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel wrote, prophets were people, not microphones.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 11, 2021 COMMON ERA
PROPER 10: THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF NATHAN SODERBLOM, SWEDISH ECUMENIST AND ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSULA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DAVID GONSON, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1541
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN GUALBERT, FOUNDER OF THE VALLOMBROSAN BENEDICTINES
THE FEAST OF SAINTS THOMAS SPROTT AND THOMAS HUNT, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS, 1600
THE FEAST OF SAINT VALERIU TRAIAN FRENTIU, ROMANIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND MARTYR, 1952
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Above: Map Showing the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire
Image in the Public Domain
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READING SECOND ISAIAH, PART II
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Isaiah 34-35
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The Hebrew prophetic books are repetitive. I recall, recently, reading Ezekiel 25-32, in which YHWH denounced various Gentile nations for opposing the Jewish people. I read that same theme in Isaiah 34. The chapter opens by addressing the nations and peoples of the (known) world.
For the LORD is angry at all the nations,
Furious at all their host;….
–Isaiah 34:2a, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
In the fifth verse, however, the focus narrows to Edom, that frequently hostile cousin people of the Hebrews.
I have already read the oracles of divine judgment against Edom in Amos 1:11-12; Isaiah 21:11-12; Jeremiah 49:7-22; Ezekiel 25:12-14; and Ezekiel 35:1-15.
The oracles against Edom in the Book of Obadiah awaits me, after I complete my blogging through Second Isaiah.
For it is the LORD’s day of retribution,
The year of vindication for Zion’s cause.
–Isaiah 34:8, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
Isaiah 34 and 35 contrast the fates of Edom and the Hebrew exiles in the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire. We read of the destruction of Edom (which happened). We also read of the renewal and return of Hebrew exiles. We read of the impending end of the Babylonian Exile. We read of a reverse exodus, an exodus from Babylon:
And a highway shall appear there,
which shall be called the Sacred Way.
No one unclean shall pass along it,
But it shall be for them.
No traveler, not ever fools, shall go astray.
No lion shall be there,
No ferocious beast shall set foot on it–
These shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk it.
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
And come with shouting to Zion,
Crowned with joy everlasting.
They shall attain joy and gladness,
While sorrow and sighing flee.
–Isaiah 35:8-10, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
Second Isaiah introduces the themes of the end the Babylonian Exile, the return to the homeland, and the restoration of the covenant relationship with YHWH. These themes, not unique to Second Isaiah, permeate other portions of Hebrew prophetic literature, too. And they are on the forefront of Second Isaiah.
I also notice the presence of the themes of exile and exodus. Walter Brueggemann writes that exile and exodus are the two major themes in the Hebrew Bible.
Just as the Hebrew prophetic literature is repetitive, so must I be. I come to this point by a reading project that has taken me through, in order:
- Hosea,
- Amos,
- Micah,
- First Isaiah (1-23, 28-33),
- Zephaniah,
- Nahum,
- Habakkuk,
- Jeremiah,
- Lamentations, and
- Ezekiel.
I am not parachuting into Isaiah 34 and 35. I do not pretend to know what that balance is or where it should be. I will not get too big for my theological britches, at least not in that matter.
Neither am I a fundamentalist. I acknowledge that Second Isaiah and other prophets projected their attitudes onto God some of the time. As Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel wrote, prophets were people, not microphones. I admit that I project my attitudes onto God. I confess that I need to know that I do this, and to stop doing that, as much as possible.
I also acknowledge that divine mercy upon and deliverance of the oppressed may be catastrophic for the oppressors and their allies. One may describe this in several ways, including divine judgment and karma. As the Bible teaches, people will reap what they have sown.
Nevertheless, I take no pleasure in the fate of Edom.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 7, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS RALPH MILNER, ROGER DICKINSON, AND LAWRENCE HUMPHREY, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS, 1591
THE FEAST OF FRANCES FLORENTINE HAGEN, U.S. MORAVIAN MINISTER AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF SAINT HEDDA OF WESSEX, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF LEO SOWERBY, EPISCOPAL COMPOSER AND “DEAN OF CHURCH MUSIC”
THE FEAST OF THOMAS HELMORE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND ARRANGER AND COMPOSER OF HYMN TUNES
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Above: Icon of Jeremiah
Image in the Public Domain
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READING JEREMIAH, PART II
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Jeremiah 1:4-19
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The prophet was an individual who said No to his society, condemning its habits and assumptions, its complacency, waywardness, and syncretism. He was often compelled to proclaim the very opposite of what his heart expected. His fundamental objective was to reconcile man and God. Why do the two need reconciliation? Perhaps it is due to man’s false sense of sovereignty, to his abuse of freedom, to his aggressive, sprawling pride, resenting God’s involvement in history.
–Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets, Vol. 1 (1962), xiii
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The assurance of having a divine call and commission was a primary element in the prophetic consciousness….Jeremiah, the shy and sheltered youth, found himself thrust into the forefront of great events and clothed with an authority that terrified even himself.
Coupled with his sense of this overwhelming compulsion by the divine will and the divine choice was the prophet’s recognition that he had been set apart from other men and consecrated to a task from which there was no release. To be sanctified was to be set apart for Yahweh’s use, like an offering in the temple. “Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee”, Yahweh declares to Jeremiah, “I had appointed thee a prophet to the nations.”….
The call appears to have come to each prophet in a time of intellectual and emotional tension….Jeremiah and Zephaniah began to prophesy when the world empire of the Assyrians was tottering under the onslaught of barbarian hordes, which were soon to appear on the northern horizon of Palestine.
–R. B. Y. Scott, The Relevance of the Prophets, 2nd. ed. (1968), 93-94
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One motif in the Hebrew Bible has someone just called by God pleading inadequacy for the task. God replies that these supposed disqualifying inadequacies are not problems He cannot address. In the case of Jeremiah, the cited reasons for being inadequate are being too young and lacking public speaking skills. But God qualifies the called; God does not call the qualified. Compared to God, all mere mortals are inadequate and unqualified.
Jeremiah’s commission was to pronounce an unpopular message. Judah had committed idolatry and would, therefore, face destruction and exile. People would reject this message, but God was with Jeremiah. In his lifetime, Jeremiah had few followers and allies; the main one was his scribe, Baruch ben Neriah. Jeremiah received a commission for a perilous and daunting task. He was to confront his society and its leaders, and to tell them that they had fallen short of divine standards.
A text says what it says. A variety of contexts reveals a range of shades of meanings, though. One may reasonably assert, for example, that the call of Jeremiah resonated with Jews before the Babylonian Exile differently than it did after that exile. Hindsight provides crucial temporal perspective. Also, we human beings interpret the post in the context of the present day. The past remains constant, but the present keeps shifting as time passes. And history, by definition, includes interpretation.
Telling the uncomfortable truth can be perilous. The Book of Jeremiah tells us that Jeremiah and Baruch suffered greatly and died in involuntary exile for doing so. Powerful people and angry, powerless people may find the uncomfortable truth unbearable. They may use violence, and prophets may die. One may recall that Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., died by assassination, for example.
Jeremiah, of all the Hebrew prophets, may have most exemplified the grave danger of answering this call of God on one’s life. The prophet argued with God yet remained faithful to his vocation. God was faithful to Jeremiah, who survived all attempts to kill him. Yet Jeremiah died in exile in Egypt.
To say, “I will follow God,” is easy. To follow through is not easy, though. Even if one has a less challenging set of circumstances than Jeremiah did, one still has to make sacrifices. One’s life is not one’s own.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 7, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT MATTHEW TALBOT, RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC IN DUBLIN, IRELAND
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY GIANELLI, FOUNDER OF THE MISSIONARIES OF SAINT ALPHONSUS
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK LUCIAN HOSMER, U.S. UNITARIAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF HUBERT LAFAYETTE SONE AND HIS WIFE, KATIE HELEN JACKSON SONE, U.S. METHODIST MISSIONARIES AND HUMANITARIANS IN CHNA, SINGAPORE, AND MALAYSIA
THE FEAST OF SEATTLE, FIRST NATIONS CHIEF, WAR LEADER, AND DIPLOMAT
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Above: Jeremiah
Image in the Public Domain
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READING JEREMIAH, PART I
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Jeremiah 1:1-3
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The first three verses of the Book of Jeremiah identify the prophet, his father, the prophet’s hometown, and the timeframe of his prophetic ministry.
Jeremiah (“YHWH will exalt”) ben Hilkiah hailed from Anathoth, about three and a half miles northeast of Jerusalem. The father, Hilkiah, was a priest. Hilkiah and Jeremiah were outside of the priestly establishment in Jerusalem. Therefore, this Hilkiah was not the high priest Hilkiah (2 Kings 22:3-23:37) who found the scroll of Deuteronomy in the Temple, brought that scroll to King Josiah (r. 640-609 B.C.E.), and participated in Josiah’s religious reformation.
Hailing from Anathoth was significant. Anathoth was one of the cities assigned to Levitical priests in Joshua 21:18. After the death of King David, King Solomon had exiled the priest Abiathar (1 Samuel 22:20-22; 1 Samuel 23:6, 9; 1 Samuel 30:7; 2 Samuel 8:17; 2 Samuel 15:24, 27, 29, 35; 2 Samuel 17:15; 2 Samuel 19:11; 2 Samuel 20:25; 1 Kings 1:7, 19, 25, 42; 1 Kings 2:35; 1 Kings 4:4; 1 Chronicles 15:11; 1 Chronicles 18:16; 1 Chronicles 24:6; 1 Chronicles 27:34; Mark 2:26) to Anathoth for supporting Adonijah in the struggle for succession (1 Kings 2:26-27). Jeremiah, therefore, was also a member of a priestly family. He understood the ancient traditions of Israel, as well as the foundational character of the covenant in the life of Israel.
The superscription also defines the period during which Jeremiah prophesied: from the thirteenth year (627 B.C.E.) of the reign (640-609 B.C.E.) of King Josiah of Judah through “the eleventh year of King Zedekiah,” “when Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month” (586 B.C.E.). We read in Chapters 39-44 that Jeremiah prophesied after the Fall of Jerusalem, too. The list of kings names Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. That list omits Jehoahaz/Jeconiah/Shallum and Jehoiachin/Jeconiah/Coniah. Yet, as the germane note in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014), points out, few of the prophecies in the Book of Jeremiah date to the reign of King Josiah.
Jeremiah prophesied during a turbulent and difficult period of decline–mostly after the fall of the Assyrian Empire (612 B.C.E. and before the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.). In the wake of King Josiah’s death, Judah had become a vassal state of Egypt. Pharaoh Neco II had chosen the next two Kings of Judah. Jehoahaz/Jeconiah/Shallum (2 Kings 23:31-35; 2 Chronicles 36:1-4; 1 Esdras 1:34-38) had reigned for about three months before becoming a prisoner in Egypt. Then Neco II had appointed Eliakim and renamed him Jehoiakim (r. 608-598 B.C.E.; 2 Kings 23:36-24:7; 2 Chronicles 36:5-8; 1 Esdras 1:39-42). Jehoiakim was always a vassal while King of Judah. After being the vassal of Neco II of Egypt for about three years, he became a vassal of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire in 605 B.C.E. He died a prisoner in that empire.
Two more Kings of Judah reigned; both were vassals of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire. Jehoiachin/Jeconiah/Coniah (2 Kings 24:8-17; 2 Kings 25:27-30; 2 Chronicles 36:9-10; 1 Esdras 1:43-46) reigned for about three months before going into exile in that empire. The last King of Judah was Zedekiah, born Mattaniah (2 Kings 24:18-25:26; 2 Chronicles 36:11-21; 1 Esdras 1:47-58). He reigned from 597 to 586 B.C.E. The last events he saw before Chaldean soldiers blinded him were the executions of his sons.
The Book of Jeremiah is one of the longest books in the Hebrew Bible; it contains 52 chapters. The final draft is the product of augmentation and editing subsequent to the time of Jeremiah himself. In fact, Jeremiah 52 is mostly verbatim from 2 Kings 24:18-25:30. Also Jeremiah 52:4-16 occur also in Jeremiah 39:1-2, 4-10. Chronology is not the organizing principle of material in the Book of Jeremiah; jumping around the timeline is commonplace. For example, the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.) occurs between Chapters 32 and 33, as well as in Chapters 39 and 52. Some ancient copies are longer than other ancient copies. None of the subsequent augmentation and editing, complete with some material being absent from certain ancient copies of the book surprises me, based on my reading about the development of certain Biblical texts. I do not pretend that divinely-inspired authors were mere secretaries for God.
Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel made a germane and wonderful point in The Prophets, Volume I (1962), viii:
The prophet is a person, not a microphone. He is endowed with a mission, with the power of a word not his own that accounts for his greatness–but also with temperament, concern, character, and individuality. As there was no resisting the impact of divine inspiration, so at times there was no resisting the vortex of his own temperament. The word of God reverberated in the voice of man.
The prophet’s task is to convey a divine view, yet as a person he is a point of view. He speaks from the perspective of God as perceived from the perspective of his own situation. We must seek to understand not only the views he expounded but also the attitudes he embodied: his own position, feeling response–not only what he said but also what he lived; the private, the intimate dimension of the word, the subjective side of the message.
Those paragraphs applied to all the Hebrew prophets. They applied to Jeremiah with greater poignancy than to the others, though.
I invite you, O reader, to remain with me as I blog my way through the book of the “weeping prophet.”
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 6, 2021 COMMON ERA
PROPER 5: THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF FRANKLIN CLARK FRY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA AND THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA
THE FEAST OF SAINT CLAUDE OF BESANÇON, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, MONK, ABBOT, AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF HENRY JAMES BUCKOLL, AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS
THE FEAST OF JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERTZOG, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM KETHE, PRESBYTERIAN HYMN WRITER
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Above: Map of the Assyrian Empire and Its Neighbors
Image Scanned from an Old Bible
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READING MICAH, PART I
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Micah 1:1
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The prophet was an individual who said No to his society, condemning its habits and assumptions, its complacency, waywardness, and syncretism. He was often compelled to proclaim the very opposite of what his heart expected. His fundamental objective was to reconcile man and God. Why do the two need reconciliation? Perhaps it is due to man’s false sense of sovereignty, to his abuse of freedom, to his aggressive, sprawling pride, resenting God’s involvement in history.
–Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets, Vol. 1 (1962), xiii
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The superscription of the Book of Micah identifies the prophet as Micah, from Moresheth, a village southwest of Jerusalem. “Micah” is abbreviated from “Micaiah,” literally, “Who is like Yah[weh]?” The superscription also specifies the prophet’s mission (to prophecy regarding the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah) and timeframe (during the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah).
With a few exceptions (such as in the First Book of the Maccabees, which dated events according to the Hellenistic calendar), when authors of the Old Testament dated events, the usually used relative dating, such as “in the third year of king _____.” Converting these ancient dates to fit onto the Gregorian calendar and the B.C./B.C.E.-A.D./C.E. scale has long proven challenging and with inconsistent results. Perhaps you, O reader, have noticed that when you have consulted two different study Bibles for when a certain King of Israel or King of Judah reigned, you found two different answers.
For the record, as much as possible, I take dates from The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014). It tells me that the four listed kings reigned accordingly:
- Azariah, a.k.a. Uzziah (785-733 B.C.E.); see 2 Kings 15:1-7 and 2 Chronicles 26:1-23;
- Jotham (759-743 B.C.E.); see 2 Kings 15:32-38 and 2 Chronicles 27:1-9;
- Ahaz (743/735-727/715 B.C.E.); see 2 Kings 16:1-20; 2 Chronicles 28:1-27; and Isaiah 7:1-8:15; and
- Hezekiah (727/715-698/687 B.C.E.); see 2 Kings 18:1-20:21; 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33; Isaiah 36:1-39:8; and Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 48:17-22 and 49:4.
Jotham and Azariah/Uzziah had a co-regency. Did Ahaz and Azariah/Uzziah also have a co-regency? Trying to answer that question accurately is difficult, given that relative dating for the same monarchs is not always consistent, due to factual contradictions in sources.
Scripture does mention “Micah the Morashite” outside of the Book of Micah. Jeremiah 26:17-19, in the context of Jeremiah’s trial and death sentence, quotes some Jewish elders recalling Micah as having prophesied during the reign of King Hezekiah and not having received the death penalty. Jeremiah 26:18 quotes Micah 3:12.
The Book of Micah, like the Books of Hosea and Amos before it, has layers of authorship and editing between the original version and the final version, from after the Babylonian Exile. This reality does not trouble me in the Books of Hosea and Amos. Neither does it disturb me in the Book of Micah.
The timeframe of the prophetic career of Micah, as established in 1:1, was very difficult.
- The Assyrian Empire menaced the (northern) Kingdom of Israel and the (southern) Kingdom of Judah.
- The Kingdoms of Israel and Aram had formed an anti-Assyrian alliance. King Ahaz of Judah refused to join that alliance. Therefore, during the Syro-Ephraimite War (734-732 B.C.E.), Israel and Aram waged war on Judah and sought to replace Ahaz with a monarch who would join that alliance. Ahaz allied himself with the Assyrian Empire, not God. In 732 B.C.E., the Assyrian Empire seized territory from Aram and Israel and reduced those kingdoms to vassalage.
- The Assyrian Empire conquered the (northern) Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.E.
- The Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Aram in 720 B.C.E.
- In 701, during the reign of King Hezekiah, Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 B.C.E.) invaded Judah.
- On the domestic front, wealthy landowners were forcing peasant farmers into debt and seizing their land, in violation of the common good and the Law of Moses. Corruption, injustice, and oppression of Judeans by Judeans was endemic.
The superscription (1:1) refers to “Samaria and Jerusalem,” the capitals of the (northern) Kingdom of Israel and the (southern) Kingdom of Judah, respectively. I mention this because the use of language matters. If, for example, I write, “x” and have one meaning in mind yet you, O reader, read “x” and have another definition in mind, I have not communicated with you, and you have missed the point.
- The Book of Micah, in its final form, generally uses “Israel” in the generic sense–the people of the covenant, not the subjects of any Jewish kingdom. This explains why, in Micah, Israel continues to exist after the Fall of Samaria (722 B.C.E.).
- “Jacob” refers to Judah. The use of “Jacob” recalls the infamous trickster (Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-35:37; 37:1-36; 42:29-43:14; 46:1-47:12; 47:28-48:22). “Jacob,” of course, is also the original name of Israel, after whom the people of Israel took their name. The use of “Jacob” to refer to Judah indicates the importance of divine promises to the Patriarchs and foreshadows restoration to a state of grace after punishment for sins.
The Book of Micah holds divine judgment and mercy in balance. Much of the prophecy, in its final, edited form, is doom and gloom.
Yet faith in God does not conclude on a note of despair. Hope is the last word, then as now. But the hope which prophetic religion exalts is born of faith in God and in his love of man.
–Harold A. Bosley, in The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 6 (1956), 901
Another detail interests me. Most English translations begin:
The word of the LORD that came to Micah….”
Focus on “came to,” O reader. The Hebrew text literally reads:
The word of the LORD that was Micah….
This leads me back to Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel:
The prophet is a person, not a microphone. He is endowed with a mission, with the power of a word not his own that accounts for his greatness–but also with temperament, concern, character, and individuality. As there was no resisting the impact of divine inspiration, so at times there was no resisting the vortex of his own temperament. The word of God reverberated in the voice of man.
The prophet’s task is to convey a divine view, yet as a person he is a point of view. He speaks from the perspective of God as perceived from the perspective of his own situation. We must seek to understand not only the views he expounded but also the attitudes he embodied: his own position, feeling response–not only what he said but also what he lived; the private, the intimate dimension of the word, the subjective side of the message.
–The Prophets, Vol. 1 (1962), viii
The inspiration of scripture included a human element. The authors and prophets were not secretaries of the Holy Spirit, taking dictation, as in “Put a comma there.” No, the people thanks to whom we have the Bible put themselves into the book. They were the message. They were people, not microphones.
What does the Book of Micah have to proclaim to the world of 2021? Let us find out.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 24, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS SELNECKER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JACKSON KEMPER, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDITH MARY MELLISH (A.K.A. MOTHER EDITH), FOUNDRESS OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE SACRED NAME
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA GARGANI, FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS APOSTLES OF THE SACRED HEART
THE FEAST OF MARY MADELEVA WOLFF, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN, POET, SCHOLAR, AND PRESIDENT OF SAINT MARY’S COLLEGE, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
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Above: Small Waterfall, Poss Creek, Ben Burton Park, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, October 29, 2017
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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…Like foam upon water.
–Hosea 10:7, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
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READING HOSEA, PART VIII
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Hosea 10:1-15
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St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) defined sin as disordered love. The great theologian and Bishop of Hippo Regius explained that God deserves the most love. Furthermore, people, as well as certain items, ideas, institutions, and activities deserve less love than God. Furthermore, some some ideas, items, institutions, and activities deserve no love. The Bishop of Hippo Regius taught that to give God less love than proper and anything or anyone else more love than proper is to have disordered love–sin. This sin is also idolatry, for it draws love away from God.
Hosea 10:1-15 employs metaphors for the (northern) Kingdom of Israel. 10:1-10 describes Israel as a vine. The vine’s days of economic prosperity and military security during the reign (788-747 B.C.E.) of Jeroboam II are over in the vision. Also, we read, the golden calf at Bethel (“House of God”), or as Hosea called the place, Beth-aven (“House of Evil;” see 4:15 also), will become an object of tribute hauled off to the Assyrian Empire. And
Samaria’s monarchy is vanishing
Like foam upon the water….”
–10:7, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011) offers an alternative translation:
Samaria and her king will disappear,
like a twig upon the waters.
Israel is like a heifer in 10:11-15. Israel, trained to sow righteousness and, therefore, to reap the fruits of goodness, instead plows wickedness. Therefore, Israel reaps iniquity and eats the fruits of treachery. Israel’s reliance on its way has led to its preventable fate.
I detect what may be evidence of subsequent Judean editing of 10:11:
I will make Ephraim do advance plowing;
Judah shall do [main] plowing!
Jacob shall do final plowing!
—TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
Hosea 10:13-14 refers to military threats. The immediate threat was from either Tiglath-pileser III (r. 745-727 B.C.E.), Shalmaneser V (r. 727-722 B.C.E.), or Sargon II (r. 722-705 B.C.E.) of the Assyrian Empire. Shalmaneser V began the siege of Samaria; Sargon II finished it. This detail seems to have been lost on the author of 2 Kings 17:1-6. Perhaps Hosea 10:13-14, in referring to Shalman having destroyed Betharbel, means Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 B.C.E.), from the time of King Jehu of Israel (r. 842-814 B.C.E.). (See 2 Kings 9:1-10:30; 2 Chronicles 22:5-9.) The reference to the battle at Betharbel is obscure, but the warning is plain. The collective consequences of collectively forsaking the divine covenant are terrible, we read.
Perhaps James Luther Mays summarized the situation best:
Yahweh will be the one who acts in gruesome devastation against those whose faith makes them secure against his judgment and independent of his power. Autonomy as a state of violation of their existence as the covenant people is the “evil of their evil.” The king to whom the army belongs and who therefore incarnates their independence of Yahweh will be the first to fall. In the dawn’s first light, when the battle has hardly begun, he shall be cut off.
—Hosea: A Commentary (1969), 150
After all, as R. B. Y. Scott wrote:
If the righteousness of Yahweh could not find realization in a social order, it must destroy the order of life men built in its defiance.
—The Relevance of the Prophets, 2nd. ed. (1968), 188
The prophets Hosea and Amos were contemporaries with different foci. As Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel wrote, Amos saw episodes yet Hosea saw a drama. Also, Amos focused on social injustice (especially economic injustice), but Hosea focused on idolatry. Injustice and idolatry were related to each other. The people and their kings, by straying from God, strayed also from the divine covenant, of which social justice was an essential part.
That is a timeless message that should cause many people to tremble.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 18, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT FELIX OF CANTALICE, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIAR
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN I, BISHOP OF ROME
THE FEAST OF MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE, AFRICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAW KUBSKI, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1945
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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