The Development of the Doctrine on Man in the Old Testament
The subject with which we are concerned and the phrase which introduces it invite us to reflect upon the biblical concept of man – a concept which developed in the Old Testament and was received and canonized in the New Testament in the light of the advent of Jesus Christ. This reflection should seek to identify the original contribution which the Bible grafted onto the spontaneous facts of the common consciousness that we have of ourselves and to obtain a more perfect knowledge of our own real identity.
Two essential characteristics of the biblical religion help us in recognizing and evaluating this contribution: the fact that it possesses both a very solid sense of God and an equally strong sense of man, and its indissoluble link with the history of men, especially with regard to Israel. These are the two points which most strongly characterize the biblical religious universe in comparison with the other universes in which the peoples of the ecumene lived and live.
With regard to man – with regard to each single, individual human – the Bible not only forcefully asserts his personal dignity and value before the rest of the cosmos, of which it declares him to be the purpose and the highest expression, but it also asserts with equal clarity his personal value and dignity even before God – who is declared to be his creator and lord.
It is my intention to advance along two convergent lines: to outline, in brief fashion, the path which the religious reflection of Israel took towards an increasingly more exact perception of the identity of man – a path followed under the stimulus of constant intervention on the part of divine revelation – and to expound a careful reading of the special syntheses of that which is offered to us by the initial chapters of the Bible, where the presentation of man as the " image and likeness of God " (Gn 1: 26) illuminates everything that follows with regard to the subject of man.
The order of this exposition is based upon the obvious hypothesis that the synthesis in question points to the final outcome of centuries of human and religious experience which, within the people, contributed above all else its best and greatest representatives.
The Development of the Concept of Man
A study of the historical development of biblical thought has been a major concern of scholars in the last few centuries. The working hypothesis has a notable part in the conclusions reached, but, in general, such conclusions can be considered well founded, reinforced as they are by substantial agreement with the historical picture outlined in the biblical books.
Here it is not possible for me to enter into special areas which are too restricted. I will only observe that a consideration of the process of the formation of these texts is indispensable for a full appreciation of the direct and indirect facts which can be drawn from these texts. This is especially true with regard to the Pentateuch and for the arrangement of the traditional currents which enter it according to their chronological emergence –something which gives stereoscopic dimensions to the doctrinal panorama.
As I am obliged not to pursue this overly complicated and extensive line of investigation, I will devote myself, as I have already said, to the historical version presented by the Bible – a version which is demonstrating itself to be more and more reliable the more our historical knowledge of the Near East of antiquity advances and becomes more detailed.
Coming, therefore, to man, I would like to observe that he has a special place in the overall frame work of the great biblical themes, and this is because the texts tend to give prominence to the concrete form of individuals as opposed to a general and abstract consideration of the theme of man. Certainly, there is no absence of expressed doctrinal steps, but they are relatively rare. Furthermore, doctrine, which is a possession which is taken for granted, is presupposed in the fundamental comprehension of the human events which are directly presented. The texts, that is to say, concern individual personages or specific situations in which the people of Israel finds itself. As such they do not perform the role of doctrinal documents but rely, instead, upon well-known bases so as to throw light upon the meaning of the history of that people and the individuals who live and act within it.
Considerations of a universal character are mostly to be found in texts of recent creation; but even here the tendency towards the concrete and practical is clear. Indeed, even when speaking of man in the absolute the type of conceptualization and of terminology used shows that the attention which is most favored is directed to the single human being, and that even though the community is being considered it is the individuals constituting it who are primarily emphasized. This is revealed, among other things, by the use which is current in Hebrew of singular collective concrete names, beginning with " man, " Adam, which indicates not man in the abstract and in general, but the concrete human group, with the explicit connotation of those who, one by one, are parts of it.
We encounter here a primary and fundamental aspect of the biblical conception of man, who is seen not as a universal idea but in his terrain and, what is more, in unstriking concrete form. At the outset, indeed, a statement is applied to men, each of whom is profoundly appreciated, found at the end of the Old Testament and deriving directly from creationist monotheism: God wants each of the beings that he has created; he admires them and cares for them, because he loves them: " For thou lovest all things that exist, and hast loathing for none of the things thou hast made, 0 Lord, who lovest the living " (Wis 11: 24-26).
This positive appreciation of beings, and in particular of human beings, is a kind of nuclear generator which is to be found throughout the Bible: something which demonstrates and enlarges the bipolarity described at the beginning of my paper – the sense of God and the sense of man, the two cardinal axes around which biblical religious doctrine grows in an ordered and vital organism.
This religion, according to what is suggested by the text and context, had its first origins in the vocation of Abraham (Gn 12: 1-9) – an absolute initiative of God after the distancing of humanity which is recorded in prehistory and which became total and definitive, something which is narrated with figurative and highly symbolic language in the episode of the city and tower of Babel (Gn 11: 1-9). God himself, therefore, to re-establish contact with man, begins with this concrete man – Abraham – and presents himself in the first place with a command, as the only God and lord. But at the same time He makes Abraham understand his identity as a man who is capable of cooperation with God; and he proposes blessing and a promise to him, showing to him, in a unique founding experience, the seed of the plan of salvation which will lead men back to full communication with one another through revealed contact with God. It amounts to the reconstruction of a peace which had been destroyed at Babel.
At this initial stage there is present, in nuce, the centre of the biblical doctrine on man – a personal being from whom God asks for a conscious reply so as to involve him in dialogue that is at the same time both a revelation of truth and a participation in real forms of good which is communion.
The vocation of Abraham does not only signal the beginning of the history of salvation. It also marks the beginning of that doctrinal path to which earlier reference has been made, and which, with regard to man, will continue that encounter between God and the man who will be called " the father of believers. " It will always be God who takes the initiative, as happens with exact regularity with the great vocations, in which may be included the call of the people from Egypt.
This happens at two inseparable and different levels: that of the human group with its individual components – Israel – which, together with God, is the protagonist of biblical history, of religion, and of the doctrine that it expresses; and that of the great personages which accompany it with the mission of giving practical form to the encounter with God in that people, thus becoming for this very reason centres of propulsion and of illumination. Let the paradigmatic case of Moses be valid for all!
Their vicissitudes, which are described in the biblical books because of their exemplary value, are the special object of recollection and reflection. They are also an occasion for an increasing understanding of the value of the people and of every single member of that people in the light of God. This is because the great personages of Israel are not only human people voyaging along a path but more particularly " types " – in the technical sense of the term – who are the incarnation and model of a specific way of existing as human creatures engaged in a journey within the people and with regard to the people, and who are also the servants, friends and intimates of God. This is expressly stated of Abraham and by Moses, but it is even clearer in the case of Samuel and the prophets, that of David, and for at least some of his descendants who were kings.
An important element which links them all is that they are chosen and " taken " (as at times the texts put it). They are called by God to a more profound intimacy whence there is born a certain restructuring of their original life project –something which is brought about by this encounter with God. This, in turn, determines new directions and commitments which were hitherto unpredictable; and from here, however, there come into their lives " discussions " with God which are neither few in number nor light in character, as is to be found clearly marked in Moses and Jeremiah.
It is a painful experience which re-shapes people and consciousness and effectively illuminates what man – individual man – really is, and what value he has in the eyes of God – that is to say, in the most real reality. It does this not only for those who are most directly involved, but also for common comprehension.
It should be stressed that what materializes in these particular people is materialized in an analogous fashion in Israel as a whole, which God calls " my people " and which in turn addresses itself to God with the phrase " my God " and " our God. " And it is an ascertained fact, as has already been pointed out, that the greatest personages of history – and in particular of remote ancient history – are felt not only to be initiators, the " fathers " of their descendants, but as true prototypes.
They personify, that is to say, the identity and the history of the groups from which they originate in those things that they do. This characteristic is very evident, in particular, in Jacob-Israel. He al‑
ready lives out, in shortened form, the substance of the future life of the people which will be called Israel after him, or better still " Sons of Israel. "
It is therefore legitimate and instructive to read the history of the people in the light of its initiators.
The process of development of the doctrine on man which takes place within the people is more difficult to unravel. This is because it is more complicated, differentiated, and varied, and accompanied by contradictions and withdrawals. But difficult as it is to isolate and to read, it is no less real. Indeed, it becomes quite evident if one directs one's gaze more towards the whole picture – the great events of history – than towards the particular details.
In this way one starts with a period of preparation, the period of the Sons of Israel being present in Egypt, on which the texts maintain an almost total silence. It is a kind of long winter, which could be compared to death, but in which life is latent as in a secret gestation: on the chaos of captivity, in the same way as with the previous primordial chaos, there will, however, stir the Spirit of God.
During the exodus and in the desert the people will live its birth and will begin to become conscious of itself and to become aware of its value before God. This growth will soon encounter the difficulties of the settlement in Palestine and the laborious and troublesome period of the judges, with their uncertainties and their epics.
Samuel will then come, and the monarchy will undergo an eventful instauration with Saul. The monarchy will flower with David when the two branches of the people, from the North and from the South, will form a single kingdom for a time, a time recorded as being full of glory. And even after the schism, as prophetism, above all else, foretells, the consciousness that the people is one and one only will not diminish. And for centuries, in the wake of the prophets, the writers will continue to repeat this idea.
When, later, the human framework of ancient Israel collapses with the deportations and with exile; the state disappears from geography and history; and the temple is destroyed and its worship is interrupted, it would seem that, as always happens in similar situations, this people, also, is about to disappear. But, instead, Israel overcomes this storm and emerges from it purified of many superstructures which were previously considered indispensable. Its community and personal consciousness has started off on other, unthought-of, paths, and every Israelite knows (or is placed in such a condition as know) how much value he holds in the eyes of the God of the fathers and of the promises.
For us, to this first paradox there is added another, when we discover that the value of the human person, an absolute which today we deem to be the common inheritance of our ideal culture, does not come to us from Hellenic individualism – which is strongly class conscious (Greeks against barbarians, freemen against slaves) – but from biblical thought and from its universal openness. This is always present in the Old Testament, even if it is not always prominent.
It is, however, true that not all the Israelites, over the long span of history, show themselves to be docile and disposed to allow themselves to be shaped, as we can observe from many prophetic interventions, starting with Moses, in constant struggle with the people whom he himself defines as " hard-necked. " But it is equally true that within the people a significant " residue " – according to a phrase introduced by Amos and especially emphasized by the first Isaiah –offers itself to God as propitious terrain, from whence there come authentic masterpieces of human persons. On this residue or these remains, according to the New Testament, there will grafted " the man Jesus Christ " (17M 2: 5). But this is another subject.
The Synthesis: Who Man Is
Hitherto I have proceeded along genetic lines so as to give an idea of the long process by which the concept of the human being, through the experience and reflection of Israel and in the light of an assiduous contact with God, came to be defined. From this there can arise an impression of a kind of magma, a cumulus of materials which are full of potentiality and not easy to extract and define. The isolation of precise doctrinal themes to be found within this cumulus – that is to say, the concept of man – could thereby appear an arduous task and undertaking.
But the relationship between the whole of the history of the people and the experience of the major personages which mark it is already a great factor of clarification. There is, however, something else. The same inexhaustible source which is constituted by the religious reflection of Israel – something which is illuminated by the interventions of God, guided by his chosen and first and foremost by members of the prophetic movement, and sustained by the charisms of inspiration – has furnished us with the key for a doctrinal reading of the history of the people.
It is to be found in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. In formal terms they contain the Israelite interpretation of the prehistory which was known to the shared culture of the Near East. It is a reading which filters and decants that culture through the light of the doctrine of creationist monotheism, and it uses it as a vehicle for an authentic summa theologica.
The basic and universal positions of the faith of Israel are there to be found, thoughtfully expounded. As I observed at the beginning of my paper, it is today thought that such an advanced and pure synthesis cannot have been carried through unless it was the outcome of long labor – of a process made up of listening to what God revealed, of contemplation of both the mystery of God and of man, prayer and reflection, and calling upon the collaboration of innumerable generations which had been religiously faithful and enlightened.
A singular and important aspect of this extraordinary synthesis comes from its position at the head of the entire Old Testament, which will directly deal with the origins and the history of Israel alone. However, in having the function of a general introduction, it gives a frame of absolutely universal reference to what follows – a frame which embraces the whole of humanity and its destiny. The value of this fact is enormous, as much from the doctrinal point of view as from the pedagogic point of view. It shows, in fact, that the Bible, even though it is primarily directed at the chosen people of God, has humanity in its entirety in view and, according to its connatural mode of proceeding, every individual member of humanity.
In this climate, which in terms of world literature is truly unique, we find an enunciation in almost technical terms of the foundations of the biblical message: that which concerns God, creator and lord, the creation as a whole, and, within the creation, man.
The human condition is described there first as it should be because of the creative fact, and then as it really is according to our daily experience. We also find indicated there the cause of the immense difference between the de jure and the de facto state of human kind, because it is precisely the experience of humanity as a whole which is taken into consideration. Only within this experience will the history of Israel then be described. For this reason this history will be outlined, in principle, within the universal frame work of the need for salvation, within which historical man struggles, and the corresponding divine plan, which comes to the aid of such a need.
All of us human beings, one by one, are thereby involved. With regard to the reality of man the Bible first of all poses a fundamental question. This question is not formulated in expressed fashion but it is clearly presupposed by the texts: " Who is man? " And the Bible itself, because of its unyielding tendency towards the concrete, obviously intends it in a concrete sense, indeed a personal sense. Thus each human being is authorized to apply it to himself, asking himself: " Who am I? " And he comes to realize, with surprise, that the reply given by the text is valid for him personally, and prepares the reply to all the other questions which have always been connected to that first question.
The first and principal answer is contained in the first three chapters of Genesis, in two texts of narrative form or stories, which are very dissimilar in vocabulary or style, but solidly in accord with regard to content: the story told of the creation (Gn 1: 1-2, 4a) and that told of the origins of man (Gn 2: 4b3, 24). The substance of the reply can be captured in three well-defined lines which summarize the essence of the identity of what we call " the nature of the human person, " and can be summarized in the following way: man is 1) the creature of God, 2) the image of God, 3) the interlocutor of God.
To these fundamental characteristics many others can be added, given that the initial Genesis stories are addressed to the entire human group and, within that group, to each individual human. The personal identity of man and its special dignity, which is unique in the cosmos, is not alone emphasized. Links between individuals, above all, the interpersonal relationships which give life to the nuclear family, are also clarified. Furthermore, the links of humanity with the subhuman world, and the inclusion of single individuals and humanity all enter into the development of history – whose prodromes are considered by the twelve chapters. The frame work is therefore particularly rich, and one can rightfully conclude that in these first and exceptional biblical texts there is contained, in addition to and alongside the summa theologica, also an authentic summa anthropologica.
At the centre of this last, as a support for the edifice, there are three structural lines of the identity of the individual human person indicated above. To this one should dedicate special attention and analysis.
Man, therefore, first of all is a creature of God, indeed " the " creature of God. A sign of this is to be found in the very special emphasis that the two tales give in their turn to the creation of man, both with regard to the divine determination which precedes it and also with regard to its execution; and also in the description, which is charged with symbolic implications, of the formation of man and woman. It is further confirmed by the continual attention paid to human beings and to their lives on the part of the creator.
In the story of the creation man is the last work of God. Man closes and crowns his creative activity and for this reason is the end and the purpose of his previous creative work. Above man there is only the transcendence of God depicted in the divine Sabbath.
In the story of the origins God is represented as personally engaged in both the molding of man and the formation of woman; and as attentive to their survival, but in particular to the development of their personal conscience. To this is directed the precept of the forbidden fruit (Gn 2: 16-17) and even more the formation of woman, who is the only creature amongst the living things who is worthy of being " a helper fit for man. " (Gn 2: 18, 23-4). The second story thus confirms the equality of man and woman affirmed in the first tale: " So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them " (Gn 1: 27).
The creaturely state, which is the root for the human beings of their bond with God, their dependence on God, is expressed in a very special fashion in the second of the lines that we are considering: man is a creature who carries within himself the personal mark of God, he is an " image " made in " the likeness " of God (Gn 1: 26).
The texts as a whole suggest that being the image of God comes to man precisely because of his being a human creature, a free and intelligent person. What, therefore, makes man similar to God is God himself, as we read at the beginning of Genesis 5, who orders things so that amongst men a father begets sons who are in his own image. This is man as a being.
A true affinity between God and man is implied by this; and it is the reason why from prehistory onwards God appears as being profoundly and personally involved in human affairs. In such affairs he constantly intervenes so as to guide them, having at the same time total respect for the independent decisions of man. Here is inserted the totality of the relationship between God and men, something which is displayed even in the pedagogic dialectic which links crime to punishment in the context of salvation –as appears very clearly from the first sin and its condemnation, which contains that intonation which has led it to be described as the " protogospel. "
Creature of God, image in the very likeness of God, " thou hast made him little less than God " (Ps 8, 6) one Psalm will affirm – man, finally, is the only creature in the cosmos who, in being a person, is able to be an interlocutor of God: to listen to him and to respond to him, to call upon him and to wait for his reply.
And it is this which is the golden key to the most hidden of secrets regarding the true identity of man according to the Bible. All the history which is contained in it was thus summarized at the beginning of the letter to the Hebrews: " In old days, God spoke to our fathers in many ways and by many means, through the prophets; now at last in these times he has spoken to us, with a Son to speak for him " (Heb 1: 1-2). The whole Bible and its history is nothing else but God speaking to men, and waiting for their reply.
The summit of the summit for man, therefore, the diamond point of being in the image of God, is his dialogical structure of being a born creature made to enter into communication with God. And God not only does not distance himself from man, but actively searches for him. In the entire cosmos man is the only creature that, being conscious of himself, is able to put himself before the infinite I of God as another finite but authentic I and to say " You " to Him and then to hear Him reply " you. " Dialogue between persons, between God and man and between man and God: this is really the whole of man.
Creature of God, image of God, interlocutor of God: upon the string of this identity is developed in its entirety the melody of the Bible's message regarding man: this is the litmus paper by which to test the spiritual health of the human creature, and which also guarantees him a correct intercreatural relationship. The fact that biblical terminology which deals with madness is almost exclusively confined to pointing out a conscious refusal to engage in dialogue with God is not without profound significance. And this madness is, at the most, a refusal of the person of God: madness as impiety, self-negation and, let us put it thus – self-destruction of the human identity itself.
But even more relevant, with regard to what we are concerned with, is the positive line of the theme of dialogue with God. At the end of divine revelation the person of Jesus Christ, Word of God made man – made " flesh, " as the fourth evangelist expresses himself (Jn 1, 4) – presents himself, and is presented by the apostolic writings, as the final point of communication between the divine and the human, as the sum fulfillment of the dialogical structure of man, but also as the complete realization of the image of God in man. It is again the letter to the Hebrews which, in reusing a repeated Pauline statement regarding Christ as image of God (Rom 8, 29; 2 Cor 3, 18; 4,4; Col 1, 15) and conjoining it with a statement of the Old Testament concerning divine wisdom ( Wis 7, 2526), will assert that Christ is " the radiance of his Father's splendor, and the full expression of his being " (Heb. 1, 3). He is not only true man but, precisely because of this, also true image or " icon, " to which every man is exhorted to conform so as to reply to the divine proposal regarding his own perfect self-fulfillment.
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