Israel and Humanity - The attributes of God

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CHAPTER TWO

THE IDEA OF GOD IN ISRAEL

THE ONLY GOD

I.

The divine attributes.

The origin of monotheism among the Jews is much discussed by critics. Not content to bring the beginnings of faith in God to a comparatively recent times, many of them will even deny that it ever reaches perfection in Israel as it could exclude any remaining polytheism. But it has existed, however, is the indisputable fact. However much closer to the date, there are limits which the rules of sound criticism can not exceed and the antiquity of this belief is still such that it can reasonably be attributed solely to intellectual progress human.

Long before the Alexandrians have synthesized the divinities of ancient Olympia in their system theurgy before the Greek philosophers have addressed the problems of high metaphysics, Israel had already spoken of the unity of God and did not the example of Christians expected to run joyfully to martyrdom rather than worship idols. How can we suppose that in times of ignorance, barbarism and hatred between peoples, men devoid of philosophical culture were able to rise above those ideas of Socrates and Plato? It [1] there, we are told, a special instinct of race, and we do not contradict. But what does this explanation, if not disguised admission that there is an event beyond the analysis and the laws of historical development, a fact that will fit in the chain of causes and effects a special intuition, all things religious language in the summary name of Revelation? And besides, if one is forced to declare that monotheism among the Jews is an instinct of the street and not the result of development and intellectual development, thus we admit it must have appeared at the beginning and not during their history. It suffices to consider various aspects of Israelite conception of the Deity to find the true character of monotheism. Furthermore, if in this respect we find throughout the ages in Israel ideas for such an increase, such a richness that most developed theology n'eu could, in future, more perfect state, the antiquity and originality of this monotheism will seem the same time abundantly demonstrated.

The God of Israel is uncreated: "Before me he did not been created by God ... I am the first and I am the last [2]. To Him alone all things derive their existence, then surely he himself should his to anyone. His oldest names, El Shaddai, indicate the strength, all power and if the latter has also another meaning, a meaning that is more sublime and even metaphysics. It is eternal heaven and earth, and all they contain age as clothes must be changed, but rather Him, He is and remains the same forever [3]. Immense, infinite, He is also "Is it not I who filled the heavens and the earth? [4]. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool "[5] Ibid., VI, 3. Or rather, all that fills the earth is his glory, , more accurate translation may be more theosophical. We could establish that the name of Makom, instead being given to God by Rabbis is borrowed from the Bible, what is certain is that we find in [6] Scripture that of Ma'on, which is equivalent [7] "Where should I go from thy spirit?" cries the Psalmist, "where can I flee" from your face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, t 'is it! If I "take the wings of dawn and go live at the end of the sea, there shall thy hand to me" leads, your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness I cover! night becomes "light around me. Even darkness is not dark for you, the night lights" as daylight and darkness as light "[8]

But there is more. The idea of being in itself, of being necessary, one is tempted to regard as too abstract to be able to exist in the Bible, it is still very clearly expressed. Is it not primarily confined within the concept of creation that is derived from the possible necessary and in that of emanation which excludes even the possibility of nothingness? But what about the Tetragrammaton? Is this not precisely the idea of being and it expresses the idea, discussed and confirmed by the above paraphrase: "I am the one who is" that the Tetragrammaton is the short form, n ' implies Does not that of necessary existence? Scientists after that we can demonstrate that the same thinking is reflected in Egyptian religion, they show us by just two things: the error of those who believe the ancient metaphysical incapable of such flights and the reality of who existed between the two religions. It is established that the Bible the God of Israel is the Absolute.

Yet such a concept removes all polytheism. Two absolutes are incompatible. The Absolute remains exclusive and jealous so striking in the words of Exodus: "I am the Lord thy God, jealous God [9]. The Lord called jealous God is jealous [10] ". We have already said that the prohibition of any image proves that the God of Moses is infinite. A finite being, even immaterial, could always strictly be represented symbolically in a tangible form, provided that it indiquât qualities determined [11] is meant to recognize. But how to give a single figure to Being whose attributes are infinite in number infinite, as Spinoza says, or whose ministers and angels are innumerable, to use the language of the Bible that expresses, we think the same thought ? Idols extravagant, monstrous, multiple images of paganism and fantastic prove this impossibility. In a passage well known, Strabo says that Moses prohibited the physical representation of divinity, because his god was that all things, Nature. This text is valuable in that it establishes that the impression made by the Mosaic on pagans was precisely that given in Judaism, the Kabbalah, but Strabo is mistaken in seeing in the mosaic design as the Divinity immanent The Shekina and not the transcendental aspect to God. If the God of the Hebrews was not the Infinite, but Nature, it would have been, we repeat, is capable of being represented, for any large and powerful it is, it's over and nothing precludes found that the finite over its image in the equivalent. Always it is the God of Israel is unique, whether we want to see him, as the Greek geographer, all of creation, whether we worship with us as the Infinite.

It is important to note that the attributes of God among the Jews did not deduct a specific theological system, they appear more like an intuition of prayer and worship. This lack of philosophical speculation is proof of the religious genius of Israel, as intuition and reflection are two faculties that seem to exclude most often and it has been observed more than once by scholars about the precise Jewish monotheism. "The Jewish race," says a modern Italian writer, although his conception of the unity of God and perhaps because of the design itself may have and certainly has many outstanding qualities, funky, artistic works, musical enthusiasm, poetic inspiration and a disposition to a vague pantheism and superficial, but it seems that the energy speculation and systematic analysis organic make him entirely lacking "[12]. And the same writer, after stating that the Kabbalah is the only Jewish philosophy, [13] hurry, not to contradict his thesis, to say with Hegel that we should see there that an amalgam of basic astronomy, magic, therapy, giving the most extravagant results. While Hegel felt from the knowledge they had of his time and he even failed to consult some books at the time who might have given him a very different idea of what seemed so contemptible. But today we no longer excusable to make such assessments, because science tends increasingly to Kabbalah to give a great importance. It is not, indeed, a system of philosophy itself, and this is where the comment about the inability of Jews to this kind of speculation is still valid, but as theology and metaphysics intuitive, it remains the most remarkable proof of this power is said feature Hebraic genius.

The writer quoted above shows us another example in the same book of Genesis: "The first book of the Bible, he says, where the creation and early life of mankind are represented by ancient traditions and myths of religious and philosophical poetry is like an outline, a premonition of cosmogony rational and empirical. Who knows getting to the bottom of things without stopping to detail, the mythical figure, there is the idea of evolution from abstract to concrete and as the embryo of a truth that the physical and metaphysics will later demonstrate. Also, compared to cosmological myths of other religions and even poetic and religious myths of the Greeks, the Genesis of the Bible surpasses them all in elevation and penetration. This explains Kant, Goethe, Hegel and Kækel even have talked about the Bible with great veneration [14]

The attributes of God revealed to us the Scriptures as well as the stories of Genesis and the teachings of Kabbalah, are not of a defined system, coordinated. He must see them, we said, an intuition of the religious soul of Israel, but each taken separately or close to each other, they proclaim the existence of any God and absolute. [15]

References

  1. Page 73
  2. Isaiah xliii 10, xliv, 6.
  3. Ps. CII 27.28
  4. Jeremiah says the Lord, XXIII, 24.
  5. Isaiah LXVI, 1. And again in Isaiah: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Sebhaoth, the earth is full of his glory
  6. Page 74
  7. Makom, root קום stare, persistere ; Ma'on, root עון quiescere, habitare . The word justly admired Malebranche: "God is the place of spirits as space is the location of the body" only repeats a familiar idea in the Bible and the Rabbis (Editors note .
  8. Psalm CXXXIX, 7-12.
  9. Exodus xx, 5.
  10. Ibid., XXXIV, 14.
  11. Page 75
  12. R. MARIANO, Cristianesimo, cattolicimo civiltà th p. 176.
  13. Page 76
  14. Ibid. p 183-184.
  15. Page 77