Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Sohn Gottes (Moses -David - Menschheit), Imperial Psalms; Psalm 18 Hebräerbrief; Gesalbte, Messias

Kurzinhalt: ... was deformed, when the Israel that already was the Son of God acquired a second Son of God as its ruler; recall of Isaiah 63:11, that links Jesus with Moses

Textausschnitt: 33/12 In order to understand the issue, we must first realize that the evolution toward the Davidic Son of God was one of the possibilities inherent in the Mosaic conflict with Pharaonic order. The exodus of the Hebrew clans, as we have stressed, was more than a national liberation in the romantic sense. The Egyptian ruler did not have to set them free because of some principle of national self-determination, but in order to let them change their subjection to the service of Yahweh; he had to recognize Yahweh as the God who issued the command. The divine-cosmic order of Egypt was abrogated; and the release of Israel implied the recognition of Yahweh's historical order in which the new Son of God held first place. The god of Moses was the God not of Israel only but of mankind; when Moses led his people into the desert, the result was not two peoples in political co-existence under different gods but one historical dispensation with its center in the Chosen People. In spite of appearances, that new spiritual order established by Moses was not abolished by the Davidic kingship. The Yahwist order of history in the Mosaic sense, as well as the relations between Yahweh and his people remained intact, when Israel, under the pressure of necessities, had to acquire a king like the other nations. One can speak of no more than a deformation of the original theopolity through the intrusion of a royal Son of God into the system of symbols. (396f; Fs)

The royal Son of God, far from destroying the order of Moses, served the unfolding of the universalism which it contained in its compactness. (397; Fs) (notabene)

34/12 The continuity of experiences and their symbolic expression, from the Mosaic foundation to the Messianic unfolding, will become clearer when we compare the conclusion of Psalm 18 with a passage from Hebrews 13:20: (397f; Fs)

35/12 The Anointed of Yahweh, who first was the King of Judah and then the Messiah of the Prophets, has ultimately become the Christ in his glory for ever and ever. And from Christ a ray of light falls back over the past to illuminate Moses. For among the various allusions to the Old Testament in the passage just quoted there is one, the recall of Isaiah 63:11, that links Jesus with Moses: Jesus is the shepherd of the flock who is brought up out of the sea with his people. He is "the one who is drawn up" from the dead by God; and at the same time "the one who draws up" his people by working in them, as the divine instrument, what is pleasing to God. Through the tortuous ways of the Messianic symbolism the characteristics of Moses in the dynamics of divine order have now become the characteristics of Jesus; and conversely the characteristics of the Son of God are those of Moses. (398; Fs) (notabene)