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Israel as son of God in Torah

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2004 by John J. Schmitt

Abstract

In Exodus 4:22, God declares, "Israel is my first-born son." This image of the individual, Israel, continues through this and the remaining books of Torah. The masculine singular for Israel, the son, occurs repeatedly. No imperative is addressed to Israel other than in the form of the masculine singular. There is no hint in any passage that the reader should think of Israel as feminine. The book of Deuteronomy brings to fullness the theme of Israel as the son of God. The focus on sonship suggests responsibility and growth for the individual, Israel.

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The imagery that the Bible uses for the main actors in its drama is a topic that should be of interest to all interpreters of the Bible. If one attempts to understand the intention of the text, one should indeed have respect for the way that the specific text presents its characters. There have been some studies of the gendered imagery for Israel in various passages of the prophets, and those studies concluded that the prophets consistently present Israel as masculine. (Schmitt 1983, 1991, 1996) The present article investigates Torah in order to find out whether the gendered depiction of Israel in Torah agrees with that in the prophets. The analysis here confirms the prophets' masculine, filial depiction of Israel. In fact, Torah surpasses the prophets in the frequency of presenting Israel as son of God.

The portrait of the people that the Bible calls bene yisra'el, "the sons/children of Israel," or more simply in English "the Israelites" or more simply still "Israel," seems rather clear for many Bible-readers, both scholars and non-specialists. Some readers tend to assume that Israel is, very often, personified as a woman. Such readers often point to passages in the books of the prophets where a feminine figure is depicted, one that is often accused of being unfaithful. Moreover, sometimes these readers assert that God's covenant with Israel, as it is presented in the Pentateuch, is in essence marital. The basic gendered relationship between God and Israel is, to those readers, clear: the interrelation of husband and wife. Some readers never test that interpretation. But a close investigation of the text of Torah gives a different conclusion about the portrait of Israel and Israel's relation to God.

Exodus

Exodus certainly is crucial in this discussion of imagery, for Exodus is the book in which the people decisively choose an existence and an identity that will, on the literary level, endure throughout the Hebrew Bible. "Israel" in the opening chapter of the book of Exodus occurs only in the phrase bene yisra'el, the "sons [children] of Israel" (e.g., 1:9). Yet the people are referred to, in the next verses, in the singular in Hebrew. The new king is forced to say, "Let us deal shrewdly toward him (lo) ... Lest he multiply (pen-yirbeh).... If war come to us, he might join, even he (gam hu'), our enemies ..." (my translation). And there are some seven additional singular forms in the next three verses (1:10-12). The phrase bene yisra'el ("children of Israel") occurs twelve times, and ziqne yisra'el ("elders of Israel") occurs twice in these three opening chapters of Exodus. In Exodus 4, when used without a preposition (in English, that is; in Hebrew, without being the second word in a construct chain), "Israel" becomes the name of the people, not just the name of their ancestor. Israel takes on a life of his own.

The gendered depiction of Israel is emphatically expressed in Exodus 4, when the name "Israel" is applied to the people in a very dramatic way. Moses, the future leader of the people, had been given his mission by God to confront Pharaoh. In a special conversation, God tells Moses that Pharaoh will be hard to deal with. Ultimately, Moses will have to tell Pharaoh in a solemn way, "Thus says the LORD, Israel is my son, my first-born (beni bekori yisra'el). Hence I tell you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I warn you, I will kill your son, your first-born" (Exod 4:22b-23; NAB). This scene identifies for the first time the protagonist of Torah, at least the character who undergoes the most change. Israel is declared to be the first-born son of God.

That identification is made in a literarily emphatic way. The term "first-born son" (bekor) is first used of Israel in 4:22 and then is the last word in 4:23 for Pharaoh's son (Blenkinsopp: 151-52). The exact meaning of the word "my first-born son" or of the idea "the son of God" is not explained in this verse. Surely the text does not suggest that the phrase should be taken in any physical or literal way. One can note that the passage moves from the metaphor for Israel to the physical son of Pharaoh (Childs: 102). But it has also been claimed that such would make "this unhelpful contrast between 'metaphorical' and 'literal,' which dissolves the power of the rhetorical point" (Brueggemann: 718). Moreover, it is not clear whether the idea of sonship is secondary to the tradition of plagues that culminate in the death of the first-born sons of the Egyptians (Gowan: 169). And one cannot claim that this sonship is presented only as a contrast and comparison with Egypt. Israel, a people personified as an individual, is described as having an intimacy with God, a filial intimacy with, as one might say, the source of fatherhood.

Israel as son of God in Torah

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2004 by John J. Schmitt

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