SFS Chapter 3: The Voice of Job: Sacrifice Revealed and Contested
Chapter 3 asks the question how the Bible deals with violence. Because violence is found throughout Scripture, what is the effect of it being described explicitly? God sometimes even appears to be the endorser of such violence. He uses violence (eg, Noah and the flood) to stop violence. Heim says that none of these pictures describe God fully, but they do give insight into the human situation and our relation with God. Without these stories, we would not see our situation, though we must move past their description.
The nation of Israel begins participating in the mythic and sacrificial violence, sometimes, apparently, at God's command. "The [Israelite] community centers its collective violence on a representative sacrifice, which is charged with all the guilt and sins that pollute and threaten the people, and driven out and off a cliff--the very image of mob violence against a human scapegoat" (77). But in the story of Israel, notably attached to the story of Isaac, is an exchange of sacrifices. Heim suggests that although Israel did practice human sacrifices from time to time, that the sacrifice of Isaac is part of the work of God to substitute animals for humans. This lessens the effect, though not the act of sacrifice and violence.
Heim's work then focuses on the voice of scapegoats found in the Old Testament. Like O'Donovan, Heim's read of the Psalms is especially interesting and enlightening to his work. There he finds the classic story of scapegoating, but from the side of the scapegoat. So, we hear Psalms that cry out, "Everyone is against me unjustly; they destroy me! No one is on my side and the violent seek to destroy me." Sometimes the Psalmist wants revenge; sometimes the Psalmist wants vindication and restoration. (Re: the imprecatory Psalms that call for God to destroy the evildoers: how politically incorrect of the Jews to keep such honesty in their Scriptures and by the Christians not to hide the deep desires of the human soul! I love honest Scriptures.)
The focus of this chapter, though, is Job. "What we have in the book of Job is an interview with a scapegoat" (85). God is presented as the allower of violence. Job's friends listen to Job, but then take up the mythic belief that violence is the result of divine justice. While we current readers are not surprised at the devastated calling out to God for his help, there is no reason we would expect God to side with scapegoats at the time. Scapegoats suffer divine violence.
So, Job can say that God has wronged him; God has hurt him (Job 19). But Job still calls for an advocate: sometimes against God (the opposite of the satan who accuses Job of faithfulness only because of his good fortune) and sometimes he wants God himself to be his advocate. Heim calls Job a book about a failed scapegoat where the scapegoat gets a hearing--addressing the mob and God. Ultimately, God vindicates Job: Job has spoken rightly, even when he has had divine double speak--sometimes God is unjust, sometimes he is on Job's side. Heim sees in the voice of Job the two historical competing views of the divine: demander of scapegoating violence and emphatic sufferer with the scapegoats.
In one of the more revealing lines of the book, Heim says that under Job's address, "God sides with Job. Or perhaps we could says the Bible sides with Job's God" (92). Now we begin to see the victim and the false gods of sacred violence. But they could only be seen by displaying violence. That the Psalmist thinks God will hear him, that God will side with him, shows the victory Job has won. And so it makes sense that the story of the Old Testament continues with the voice of the prophets wanting justice, not sacrifice. God has moved his people in the direction that sacrifices are not needed. Ultimately, this is considered using the suffering servant of Isaiah. While we considered him stricken and afflicted by God, God vindicates the servant. God sides with him and exalts the scapegoat.
The nation of Israel begins participating in the mythic and sacrificial violence, sometimes, apparently, at God's command. "The [Israelite] community centers its collective violence on a representative sacrifice, which is charged with all the guilt and sins that pollute and threaten the people, and driven out and off a cliff--the very image of mob violence against a human scapegoat" (77). But in the story of Israel, notably attached to the story of Isaac, is an exchange of sacrifices. Heim suggests that although Israel did practice human sacrifices from time to time, that the sacrifice of Isaac is part of the work of God to substitute animals for humans. This lessens the effect, though not the act of sacrifice and violence.
Heim's work then focuses on the voice of scapegoats found in the Old Testament. Like O'Donovan, Heim's read of the Psalms is especially interesting and enlightening to his work. There he finds the classic story of scapegoating, but from the side of the scapegoat. So, we hear Psalms that cry out, "Everyone is against me unjustly; they destroy me! No one is on my side and the violent seek to destroy me." Sometimes the Psalmist wants revenge; sometimes the Psalmist wants vindication and restoration. (Re: the imprecatory Psalms that call for God to destroy the evildoers: how politically incorrect of the Jews to keep such honesty in their Scriptures and by the Christians not to hide the deep desires of the human soul! I love honest Scriptures.)
The focus of this chapter, though, is Job. "What we have in the book of Job is an interview with a scapegoat" (85). God is presented as the allower of violence. Job's friends listen to Job, but then take up the mythic belief that violence is the result of divine justice. While we current readers are not surprised at the devastated calling out to God for his help, there is no reason we would expect God to side with scapegoats at the time. Scapegoats suffer divine violence.
So, Job can say that God has wronged him; God has hurt him (Job 19). But Job still calls for an advocate: sometimes against God (the opposite of the satan who accuses Job of faithfulness only because of his good fortune) and sometimes he wants God himself to be his advocate. Heim calls Job a book about a failed scapegoat where the scapegoat gets a hearing--addressing the mob and God. Ultimately, God vindicates Job: Job has spoken rightly, even when he has had divine double speak--sometimes God is unjust, sometimes he is on Job's side. Heim sees in the voice of Job the two historical competing views of the divine: demander of scapegoating violence and emphatic sufferer with the scapegoats.
In one of the more revealing lines of the book, Heim says that under Job's address, "God sides with Job. Or perhaps we could says the Bible sides with Job's God" (92). Now we begin to see the victim and the false gods of sacred violence. But they could only be seen by displaying violence. That the Psalmist thinks God will hear him, that God will side with him, shows the victory Job has won. And so it makes sense that the story of the Old Testament continues with the voice of the prophets wanting justice, not sacrifice. God has moved his people in the direction that sacrifices are not needed. Ultimately, this is considered using the suffering servant of Isaiah. While we considered him stricken and afflicted by God, God vindicates the servant. God sides with him and exalts the scapegoat.
posted by Aaron Perry at
11:50 AM
1 Comments:
This was an extremely interesting chapter. One critique I have, though, is how one can decide what stands for revelation and what gets reworked. Could God not be involved in the story himself--the Israelites accurately reading the work of God who endorsed sacrifice--and yet change as the story progressed? This could have bad implications for divine immutability as God the character in the story, though not necessarily the philosophical God.
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