Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Das "messianische Problem" von Hosea, Amos -> Jesaia -> Jeremia (existentielle Phase); neue Form des Prophetismus

Kurzinhalt: This is the third, the existential, phase in the prophetic occupation with the "Messianic problem; in Jeremiah the human personality had broken the compactness of collective existence

Textausschnitt: 105/13 Isaiah had received the "Messianic problem" from Amos and Hosea in its institutional form of an Israel under a king after the model of David. In his own experience of order the institutional form was preserved, even though it was now burdened with the metastatic act of trust he demanded of King Ahaz. When the King had the good sense not to make experiments in transfiguration, Isaiah neither abandoned the institutional form nor the metastatic will, but the metastasis had to be drawn out into the formation of a remnant by the prophet himself and its completion through the future appearance of a ruler. Moreover, in so far as being the carrier of the secret concerning the future ruler was the essence of the remnant, its formation had the characteristics of a first step toward the complete metastasis - in this respect the procedure of Isaiah foreshadows the later types of metastasis by "installment." If the problem of order was to be restored to its concreteness, Jeremiah had to reverse the futuristic projection of Isaiah and to bring the King back into the present. This he did, as we have seen, when in the oracles of his call he transferred the royal symbolism to himself. The order of Israel was complete in the present again, though contracted into the existence of the Jeremiah who enacted the fate of the people while carrying the burden of the Anointed. This is the third, the existential, phase in the prophetic occupation with the "Messianic problem." (483f; Fs) (notabene)

106/13 The effort that went into this achievement must have been enormous. In order to see it in its true proportions, it should be recalled that this tour de force of recapturing the present was conducted within the limits which the compactness of the prophetic experience set to Jeremiah as much as to Amos, Hosea, or Isaiah. The prophetic symbolism, we remember, derived from the rites of defeat and victory in the New Year's festivals; () but to become aware that the problems of order did not revolve around the empirical Israel and its institutions but around the man who suffered concretely under the disorder. Hence, the greatness of Jeremiah's achievement does not become manifest in the general body of his oracles which run true to a standardized form, but in the oracles of his call, in the enactment of Israel's fate, in the Temple Address and the trial. Above all, however, it must be sought in his creation of a new form of prophetic expression: What is new in his extant work are the pieces of spiritual autobiography, in which the problems of prophetic existence, the concentration of order in the man who speaks the word of God, become articulate. The great motive that had animated the prophetic criticism of conduct and commendation of the virtues had at last been traced to its source in the concern with the order of personal existence under God. In Jeremiah the human personality had broken the compactness of collective existence and recognized itself as the authoritative source of order in society. (484f; Fs) (notabene)