Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

That is certainly a harsh text. Still, it was not a very enlightened move when, not long ago, the lectors in a city parish in Germany refused, after reading the Old Testament text at Mass, to utter the concluding formula, “The word of the living God.” They gave as their reason the “horrible, violent texts” in the Old Testament, which could not have anything to do with God. Apparently it was not clear to these lectors that the Bible is always and without exception “the word of God in human words.” In this, Jewish and Christian theology differ fundamentally from the untenable construction of Islam, which understands the Qu’ran to be a text directly dictated by God. Apparently it had never occurred to the lectors how liberating it can be if we are permitted, for once, to express all our wrath and misery in words. The Old Testament dares to do it in many places, and very often, in the context of the passage, the lament and wrath are corrected and overcome.¹⁹

We should also note that, in the text just quoted, the petitioners themselves by no means resort to violence. They appeal to God and leave their cause to God. What God then does is another matter. It seems that the Old Testament knows more about human beings than a watered-down humanism can decree. Many texts of the Bible, by calling violence what it is, function precisely to reveal the violence in society that is normally covered up, and to disclose its reality as merciless injustice.

Finally: one of the magnificent features of the Old Testament is that its readers continually encounter texts in which violence is shattered. The prophets have the vision of an Israel that, by its example, teaches the nations how people can live together in peace and without violence. The most important and meaty text of this vision is in Isaiah 2 and Micah 4. I am quoting here from the wording in Micah:

In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction [Torah], and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. (Mic 4:1-5)

It is absolutely necessary to notice that this prophetic poem projects a vision of the end time, but at the same time it emphasizes that the realization of the vision is already beginning now, today. The challenge at the end is crucial: “all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.”

The corresponding passage in Isaiah reads, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!” (Isa 2:5). So Israel is to walk already, today, the way of the Torah, the way of peace, the way that corresponds to the name of the Lord. Then, one day, the miracle will happen: the river will run backward, the nations will learn peace from Israel and will beat their swords into plowshares. That too is in the Old Testament!

But even with that we have not said everything by far: in Deutero-Isaiah the Old Testament goes a step further. Can one live in peace and show others what peace is like “if it doesn’t please one’s wicked neighbors”? That is the fundamental problem of world peace. And precisely here Israel gave an answer (comparable to Socrates’ principle that “suffering injustice is better than doing injustice”) that overthrows everything: it is better to be a victim than a violent victor.²⁰