Saturday June 26, 2004

Jon D. Levenson: The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity

Yep, I am reading a book on child sacrifice. For the second time, in fact. And it has nothing (really!) to do with the fact that I'm the father of two teenage children.

Levenson's book is astounding in its thesis, and even moreso in its readability. Having spent three years in seminary earning a Master of Divinity degree, I can say with authority that there are not many robust theological works you could fairly name "page turners" -- that Dan Brown dreck is not theology -- but this is one of them. (Levenson's Creation and the Persistence of Evil is another.)

Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School, argues convincingly, compellingly, that while, for example, Abraham was spared (at the last minute) from sacrificing his son Issac in the biblical episode known as "the aqedah" or "binding" in Genesis 22, in fact, it never says that God wasn't pleased with his intention. To the contrary, he gets credit for his great willingness to slay his son, both in the Old and New Testaments. And as fervent as the later prophets are in their condemnation of child sacrifice, the subsitution of animals (for example, the paschal lamb of Exodus 12-13) is in fact a substitution for what might have been, in earlier times, the normative offering up of that which was most dear, and therefore, most meaningful and most powerful as a sacrifice. In a patriarchal society, nothing was dearer than the firstborn son, the heir of the father.

In subsequent sections of the book, Levenson traces this recurrent theme in the lives of many of the principal characters of the Hebrew Scriptures: Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, and Joseph, pointing as well to the eventual triumphant return of these beloved sons from (presumed) death or exile. He shows that literal, biological primogeniture is of secondary importance to "belovedness", and that the ultimate bestower of this preferred status is God, not the biological father. For example, Ishmael is Abraham's firstborn son, and Esau is Isaac's; in both cases, the favored spouse, in collusion with God, arranges for the adoption of their offspring as the beloved, displacing the true firstborn, and assuming a birthright that was not properly theirs.

At the end of the book, he demonstrates how this same theme plays out in Christianity, seen most clearly in the well-known verse from St. John's Gospel: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) "Gave" here has indisputably sacrificial overtones, and when you think about it, the affinity between Abraham's aborted sacrifice of his beloved son, in the name of his love for God, and God's completed sacrifice of His beloved Son, in the name of His love for us, is equally indisputable.

What might be a cause for Jewish-Christian sympathy, however, doesn't necessarily result in such sympathy. For the Christian understanding, as St. Paul expounds it in his Epistle to the Galatians, is that the Church supplants Israel as the beloved son, with the privileges of the firstborn:

For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar; for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children; but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all... Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Galatians 4:22-31

Same theme, very different twist.

One thing I can assure you, and this is the highest compliment I can pay Jon Levenson: once you've read this original, remarkable and fascinating book, you will never read the bible -- or look at God -- in the same way.

[GET IT]

(2004-06-26 19:12:48.0) Permalink Comments [2]