Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Metastase, metastatische Erfahrung (Hosea); neue Welt: nur durch Gott

Kurzinhalt: the change cannot be brought about by human action, not even by a will to believe; real issue, that is, the reordering of human existence through the knowledge

Textausschnitt: () No list of grievances, however long and formidable, adds up to an ontological denial of the conditions of existence in the world. The enigmatic factor, which caused this additional effect, is now found in the metastatic experience. Precisely, however, when this experience is recognized as the missing factor in the field of variegated motivations, it becomes no more than one component in the complex effort of the prophets to clarify the existential issue under the concrete conditions of Israelite order in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. The nature of this further problem, that is, of the relation between the metastatic experience and the existential issue, will become apparent if we consider the above-mentioned text, Hosea 2:14-23 (Engl. vers.). (455; Fs)
55/13 Drawing out his beautiful symbolism of the faithless wife who returns to her husband, Hosea develops a typical apocalyptic vision of the future (2:16): (455; Fs)
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56/13 The constitution of being is transfigured into a state of perfection, the world we know has given way to a new world through an act of divine grace. And Hosea not only is conscious of a new act of creation that will surpass the Creation and Covenant of the old order, but also finds the language for it (2:18): (456; Fs)
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The metastasis, thus, affects the whole creation, but it will specifically change the relation between man and God (2:19-20): (456; Fs)
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57/13 The metastatic yearning of the prophet expresses itself starkly in the vision of a transfigured world. The yearning, however, does not obscure his knowledge that the change cannot be brought about by human action, not even by a will to believe; and the vision expands, therefore, to include a divine act of grace that will bestow ultimate order on the world. Surrounding it with the metastatic symbols, Hosea, finally, articulates the real issue, that is, the reordering of human existence through the knowledge (da'ath) of God.