Eschatology is not a Repeat of Protology

After deepening violence leads God to plan the near-annihilation of humankind, inclusive however of a plan of salvation embracing all of creation, such that God post-destruction “remembers” Noah and all the other creatures whose survival he ensured via the Ark (Gen 8:1), humankind’s original grant of dominion over fish, fowl and beast is confirmed. The blessing reported in Gen 1:28-30 is renewed:

וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־נֹחַ וְאֶת־בָּנָיו

וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם

פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ׃

וּמוֹרַאֲכֶם וְחִתְּכֶם יִהְיֶה

עַל כָּל־חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ

וְעַל כָּל־עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם

בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תִּרְמֹשׂ הָאֲדָמָה

וּבְכָל־דְּגֵי הַיָּם

בְּיֶדְכֶם נִתָּנוּ׃

כָּל־רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא־חַי

לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה

כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב

נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת־כֹּל׃

God blessed Noah and his children
and said to them:
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Fear of you and terror of you will be
on all land creatures
and on all the fowl of heaven,
on all that moves on land,
and all the fish of the sea.
Into your hand they are given.

Every moving, living thing
will serve as food for you,
like green plants.¹

I have given all to you.” (Gen 9:1-3)

¹ In Gen 1, plants alone are provided as food for man and beast. 

From God’s point of view according Gen 6:5-6 (pre-Flood) and 8:21 (post-Flood), man’s proven capacity for great evil (רעת האדם הרבה) and the evil inclination of his heart (יצר לבו הרע) cast a pall over humankind’s relationship with everyone and everything. But, as noted in Gen 9:1-3, man’s domain of hierarchy is not therefore taken from him. The domain remains a locus of conflict. Wherever the human propensity for ugly behavior is actualized, violence (חמס) is the norm, but for the time being violence is held in check by whatever redress is sought by God (Gen 6:5; 8:21; 9:5-6).

One day the curse will be lifted:

וְגָר זְאֵב עִם־כֶּבֶשׂ    וְנָמֵר עִם־גְּדִי יִרְבָּץ

וְעֵגֶל וּכְפִיר            וּמְרִיא יַחְדָּו

וְנַעַר קָטֹן            נֹהֵג בָּם׃

וּפָרָה וָדֹב תִּרְעֶינָה     יַחְדָּו יִרְבְּצוּ יַלְדֵיהֶן

וְאַרְיֵה כַּבָּקָר      יֹאכַל תֶּבֶן׃

וְשִׁעֲשַׁע יוֹנֵק      עַל־חֻר פָּתֶן

וְעַל מְאוּרַת צִפְעוֹנִי       גָּמוּל יָדֹו הָדָה׃

לֹא־יָרֵעוּ וְלֹא־יַשְׁחִיתוּ   בְּ[כָל־]הַר קָדְשִׁי

כִּי־מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ    דֵּעָה אֶת־יהוה     כַּמַּיִם לַיָּם מְכַסִּים׃

בְּ[כָל־]הַר MT כָל all is probably an addition via assimilation to Isa 65:25. 1QIsa^a simply has בהר.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
      the leopard lie down with the kid,
calf and lion
      and fatling together,
and a little boy
      will lead them.
The cow with the bear will graze,
       together their young lie down;
the lion, like the ox,
       eat straw.
The nursling plays
       over the hole of the asp;
the weaned child put his hand
       over the adder’s den:
none will hurt and none destroy
       on my holy mount
because the land will have become full
       of devotion to יהוה
             as the waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:6-9)

The prophecy can be understood figuratively, as a picture of ideal relations among humans on God’s holy mount (that is, in God’s special land, given to Israel; cf. Ex 15:17; Ps 78:54), with King Josiah prefigured in the expression “a little child” (note the context, Isa 11:1-14). But such a restrictive and purely figurative understanding of the prophecy would never have been thought to be exhaustive of its sense in antiquity.

The lifting of the curse is also predicted in Isa 65:25:

זְאֵב וְטָלֶה        יִרְעוּ כְאֶחָד

וְאַרְיֵה כַּבָּקָר    יֹאכַל תֶּבֶן    וְנָחָשׁ עָפָר לַחְמוֹ

לֹא־יָרֵעוּ וְלֹא־יַשְׁחִיתוּ   בְּכָל־הַר קָדְשִׁי   אָמַר יְהוָה

The wolf and the lamb –
      they will graze together,
the lion like the ox –
      he will eat straw,
            the serpent, whose food is dust:
none will hurt  and none destroy
      in all my holy mount,
            said יהוה. (Isa 65:25)

A simple return to a pristine state is not contemplated in these passages. In Isa 11 and 65, it is not dominion over fish, fowl, and beast that is predicted, but harmony with beasts and harmony among the beasts. The eschatology here, per the usual, is not a mere repeat of protology.

Once the curse is lifted, man and beast become vegetarians – posited as the pristine state in Gen 1:29-30 – but that is not all. Man and beast in harmony, not man as hierarch of beast, is the distinguishing characteristic of “the new heavens and the new earth” referred to in Isa 65:17, features of which 65:25 describes.

The error of much of what passes for systematic biblical theology is insufficient attention to biblical eschatology. On account of this error, time-sensitive scriptural mandates are eternalized. Within a truly biblical framework, even protological mandates require relativization in light of eschatology, now, because eschatology impacts the “already,” not only the “not yet.” It is not true, despite Gunkel, that Endzeit wird Urzeit.

Bibliography

Hermann Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit: Eine religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung über Gen 1 und Ap Joh 12 (contributor, Heinrich Zimmern; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1895); ET: Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton: A Religio-historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 (introd. Peter Machinist; tr. William Whitney Jr.; Biblical Resource Series; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006

To be continued.

Comments

[Charles Halton]

More agreement, keep it coming.