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The Prophets (Modern Classics) by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Unknown Binding
Published October 16, 2001
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May 28, 2024
A PROFOUND STUDY OF THE BIBLICAL PROPHETS AND PROPHECY
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading theologians and philosophers of the 20th century; he also participated in the civil rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (such as the march on Selma).
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1962 book, “This book is about some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived: the men whose inspiration brought the Bible in to being---the men whose image is our refuge in distress, and whose voice and vision sustain our faith. The significance of Israel’s prophets lies not only in what they said but also in what they were. We cannot fully understand what they meant to say to us unless we have some degree of awareness of what happened to them. The moments that passed in their lives are not now available and cannot become the object of scientific analysis. All we have is the consciousness of those moments as preserved in words. My aim therefore is to attain an understanding of the prophet through an analysis and description of his CONSCIOUSNESS, to relate what came to pass in his life---facing man, being faced by God---as reflected and affirmed in his mind. By consciousness, in other words, I mean here not only the perception of particular moments of inspiration, but also the totality of impressions, thoughts, and feelings which make up the prophet’s being.” (Pg. xxi)
Later, he adds, “Prophecy is not simply the application of timeless standards to particular human situations, but rather an interpretation of a particular moment in history, a divine understanding of a human situation. Prophecy, then, may be described as ‘exegesis of existence from a divine perspective.’ Understanding prophecy is an understanding of an understanding rather than an understanding of knowledge; it is exegesis of exegesis. It involves sharing the perspective from which the original understanding is done. To interpret prophecy from any other perspective---such as sociology or psychology---is like interpreting poetry from the perspective of the economic interests of the poet.” (Pg. xxvii)
He explains, “The prophets never taught that God and history are one, or that whatever happens below reflects the will of God above. Their vision is of man defying God, and God seeking man to reconcile with Him… To the prophets, man’s home is in history, and their central concern is what is happening in history. Both nature and history are subject to God’s dominion. Just as the word is the vessel for His revelation, history is the vessel for His action and the material for man’s achievement.” (Pg 214-215)
He points out, “This is what the prophets discovered. History is a nightmare. There are more scandals, more acts of corruption, than are dreamed of in philosophy. It would be blasphemous to believe that what we witness is the end of God’s creation. It is an act of evil to accept the state of evil as either incredible or final. Others may be satisfied with improvement, the prophets insist upon redemption. The way man acts is a disgrace, and it must not go on forever. Together with condemnation, the prophets offer a promise. The heart of stone will be taken away, a heart of flesh will be given instead… The end of days will be the end of fear, the end of war; idolatry will disappear, knowledge of God will prevail.” (Pg. 231)
He observes, “The central achievement of biblical religion was to remove the veil of anonymity from the workings of history. There are no ultimate laws, no eternal ideas. The Lord alone is ultimate and eternal. The laws are His creation, and the moral ideas are not entities apart from Him; they are His concern. Indeed, the personalization of the moral ideas are not entities apart from Him, they are his concern, Indeed, the personalization of the moral idea is the indispensable assumption of prophetic theology. Mercy, grave, repentance, forgiveness, all would be impossible if the moral principle were held to be superior to God. God’s call to man, which resounds so frequently in the utterances of the prophets, presupposes an ethos based, not upon immutable principles, but rather upon His eternal concern. God’s repenting a decision which was based on moral grounds clearly shows the supremacy of pathos.” (Pg. 277)
He suggests, “God is a presupposition as well as a conclusion. He cannot be derived from premises, since the concept of God is not implied in any other concept. A presupposition is either arbitrary or valid. But this very distinction between true and false concerning a Being beyond our grasp assumes the validity of such a distinction regardless of our own predilection. But such an assumption would be absurd without a regard for truth outside man. God is the climax if He is also the basis. You cannot find Him in the answer if you ignore Him in the question.” (Pg. 341-342)
He notes, “This is the mysterious paradox of Hebrew faith: The All-wise and almighty may change a word that He proclaims. Man has the power to modify His design. Jeremiah had to be taught that God is greater than His decisions. The anger of the Lord is instrumental, hypothetical, conditional, and subject to His will. Let the people modify their line of conduct, and anger will disappear… the message of anger includes a call to return and to be saved. The call of anger is a call to cancel anger. It is not an expression of irrational, sudden, and instinctive excitement, but a free and deliberate reaction of God’s justice to what is wrong or evil. For all its intensity, it may be averted by prayer. There is no divine anger for anger’s sake. Its meaning is… to bring about repentance; its purpose and consummation is its own disappearance.” (Pg. 367)
He acknowledges, “One should be surprised not to come upon ‘eccentricities’ in the behavior of a prophet. Would one expect a human being of flesh and blood to remain robust, smug, and calm when overwhelmed by the presence of God? Is it possible to carry God’s indignation without being crushed by the burden, to live through cruel frustrations, and to sustain sublime expectations?” (Pg. 516)
He states, “What is the factor that makes a person a prophet?... Prophecy, like art, is not an outburst of neurosis, but involves the ability to transcend it when present. It is not simply self-expression, but rather the expression of an ability to rise far above the self or personal needs. Transcendence is its essence. The significance, therefore, is not in the presence of neurosis, but in what a person does with it; one person may end in an asylum, another become an artist. Neurosis should be regarded as that which challenges an artist rather that as that which makes him an artist. It was not Isaiah who produced prophecy; it was prophecy which produced Isaiah.” (Pg. 521)
He summarizes, “All of human history as seen by the Bible is the history of ‘God in search of man.’ In spite of man’s failure, over and over, God does not abandon His hope to find righteous men… God did not abandon man, hoping against hope to see a righteous world. Noah was saved in the expectation that out of his household generations would not corrupt their ways, and a covenant was established with him and his descendants after him. But it was Noah himself who planted a vineyard and then became drunk… Israel’s faith is not the fruit of a quest for God. Israel did not discover God. Israel was discovered by God. The Bible is a record of God’s approach to man.” (Pg. 561)
He concludes, “In view of the gulf which yawns between divine infinitude and the limitations of the human situation, a divine-human understanding is ultimately contingent upon an awareness of a divine anticipation and expectation… divine love or concern focused upon man---a central feature of prophetic consciousness---is the basis of such religious communion. Man’s turning to God is thus no longer a point a departure without a background of presuppositions. Prophetic experience is the experiencing of a divine experience, or a realization of having been experienced by God… We approach Him, not by making Him the object of our thinking, but by discovering ourselves as the objects of His thinking.” (Pg. 623-624)
This is another “classic” work by Heschel, that will be “must reading” for those studying the Prophets, Judaism, or contemporary theology and biblical studies.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading theologians and philosophers of the 20th century; he also participated in the civil rights movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (such as the march on Selma).
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1962 book, “This book is about some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived: the men whose inspiration brought the Bible in to being---the men whose image is our refuge in distress, and whose voice and vision sustain our faith. The significance of Israel’s prophets lies not only in what they said but also in what they were. We cannot fully understand what they meant to say to us unless we have some degree of awareness of what happened to them. The moments that passed in their lives are not now available and cannot become the object of scientific analysis. All we have is the consciousness of those moments as preserved in words. My aim therefore is to attain an understanding of the prophet through an analysis and description of his CONSCIOUSNESS, to relate what came to pass in his life---facing man, being faced by God---as reflected and affirmed in his mind. By consciousness, in other words, I mean here not only the perception of particular moments of inspiration, but also the totality of impressions, thoughts, and feelings which make up the prophet’s being.” (Pg. xxi)
Later, he adds, “Prophecy is not simply the application of timeless standards to particular human situations, but rather an interpretation of a particular moment in history, a divine understanding of a human situation. Prophecy, then, may be described as ‘exegesis of existence from a divine perspective.’ Understanding prophecy is an understanding of an understanding rather than an understanding of knowledge; it is exegesis of exegesis. It involves sharing the perspective from which the original understanding is done. To interpret prophecy from any other perspective---such as sociology or psychology---is like interpreting poetry from the perspective of the economic interests of the poet.” (Pg. xxvii)
He explains, “The prophets never taught that God and history are one, or that whatever happens below reflects the will of God above. Their vision is of man defying God, and God seeking man to reconcile with Him… To the prophets, man’s home is in history, and their central concern is what is happening in history. Both nature and history are subject to God’s dominion. Just as the word is the vessel for His revelation, history is the vessel for His action and the material for man’s achievement.” (Pg 214-215)
He points out, “This is what the prophets discovered. History is a nightmare. There are more scandals, more acts of corruption, than are dreamed of in philosophy. It would be blasphemous to believe that what we witness is the end of God’s creation. It is an act of evil to accept the state of evil as either incredible or final. Others may be satisfied with improvement, the prophets insist upon redemption. The way man acts is a disgrace, and it must not go on forever. Together with condemnation, the prophets offer a promise. The heart of stone will be taken away, a heart of flesh will be given instead… The end of days will be the end of fear, the end of war; idolatry will disappear, knowledge of God will prevail.” (Pg. 231)
He observes, “The central achievement of biblical religion was to remove the veil of anonymity from the workings of history. There are no ultimate laws, no eternal ideas. The Lord alone is ultimate and eternal. The laws are His creation, and the moral ideas are not entities apart from Him; they are His concern. Indeed, the personalization of the moral ideas are not entities apart from Him, they are his concern, Indeed, the personalization of the moral idea is the indispensable assumption of prophetic theology. Mercy, grave, repentance, forgiveness, all would be impossible if the moral principle were held to be superior to God. God’s call to man, which resounds so frequently in the utterances of the prophets, presupposes an ethos based, not upon immutable principles, but rather upon His eternal concern. God’s repenting a decision which was based on moral grounds clearly shows the supremacy of pathos.” (Pg. 277)
He suggests, “God is a presupposition as well as a conclusion. He cannot be derived from premises, since the concept of God is not implied in any other concept. A presupposition is either arbitrary or valid. But this very distinction between true and false concerning a Being beyond our grasp assumes the validity of such a distinction regardless of our own predilection. But such an assumption would be absurd without a regard for truth outside man. God is the climax if He is also the basis. You cannot find Him in the answer if you ignore Him in the question.” (Pg. 341-342)
He notes, “This is the mysterious paradox of Hebrew faith: The All-wise and almighty may change a word that He proclaims. Man has the power to modify His design. Jeremiah had to be taught that God is greater than His decisions. The anger of the Lord is instrumental, hypothetical, conditional, and subject to His will. Let the people modify their line of conduct, and anger will disappear… the message of anger includes a call to return and to be saved. The call of anger is a call to cancel anger. It is not an expression of irrational, sudden, and instinctive excitement, but a free and deliberate reaction of God’s justice to what is wrong or evil. For all its intensity, it may be averted by prayer. There is no divine anger for anger’s sake. Its meaning is… to bring about repentance; its purpose and consummation is its own disappearance.” (Pg. 367)
He acknowledges, “One should be surprised not to come upon ‘eccentricities’ in the behavior of a prophet. Would one expect a human being of flesh and blood to remain robust, smug, and calm when overwhelmed by the presence of God? Is it possible to carry God’s indignation without being crushed by the burden, to live through cruel frustrations, and to sustain sublime expectations?” (Pg. 516)
He states, “What is the factor that makes a person a prophet?... Prophecy, like art, is not an outburst of neurosis, but involves the ability to transcend it when present. It is not simply self-expression, but rather the expression of an ability to rise far above the self or personal needs. Transcendence is its essence. The significance, therefore, is not in the presence of neurosis, but in what a person does with it; one person may end in an asylum, another become an artist. Neurosis should be regarded as that which challenges an artist rather that as that which makes him an artist. It was not Isaiah who produced prophecy; it was prophecy which produced Isaiah.” (Pg. 521)
He summarizes, “All of human history as seen by the Bible is the history of ‘God in search of man.’ In spite of man’s failure, over and over, God does not abandon His hope to find righteous men… God did not abandon man, hoping against hope to see a righteous world. Noah was saved in the expectation that out of his household generations would not corrupt their ways, and a covenant was established with him and his descendants after him. But it was Noah himself who planted a vineyard and then became drunk… Israel’s faith is not the fruit of a quest for God. Israel did not discover God. Israel was discovered by God. The Bible is a record of God’s approach to man.” (Pg. 561)
He concludes, “In view of the gulf which yawns between divine infinitude and the limitations of the human situation, a divine-human understanding is ultimately contingent upon an awareness of a divine anticipation and expectation… divine love or concern focused upon man---a central feature of prophetic consciousness---is the basis of such religious communion. Man’s turning to God is thus no longer a point a departure without a background of presuppositions. Prophetic experience is the experiencing of a divine experience, or a realization of having been experienced by God… We approach Him, not by making Him the object of our thinking, but by discovering ourselves as the objects of His thinking.” (Pg. 623-624)
This is another “classic” work by Heschel, that will be “must reading” for those studying the Prophets, Judaism, or contemporary theology and biblical studies.
February 2, 2024
A timeless classic. This was a reread inspired by what I sensed were comparable voices (not content!) between the prophets and Walt Whitman.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews