A

JOURNAL

OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

January

1982

Volume 10 Number 1

Hobbes

translated

The Life of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury by J. E. Parsons, Jr., & Whitney Blair

Mera J. Flaumenhaft The Undercover Hero:

Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

43 61
67

Richard Sherlock

The

Theology

of

Leviathan

Joseph J. Carpino

Pleasure, Power,
The Lion
on and

and

Immortality

Robert Sacks

the Ass: a

Commentary

the Book of

Genesis (Chapters 21-24)

Discussion
113 Chaninah Maschler Some Thoughts
about

Eva Brann's
a

Paradoxes of Education in

Republic

Book Review
133

Steven Gans

The Truth of Freedom,

by

John M. Anderson

interpretation
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io

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number i

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Copyright

1982

Interpretation

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The Life of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury

Trans. J. E. Parsons, Jr.,
and

Whitney Blair

Our
ago.

Savior,

the

Man-God,

was

born fifteen hundred

and eighty-eight years

The

renowned

enemy fleet

was

in

our waters.

It

was
a

then I was

born,

early spring. little worm, in Malmesbury. I

me

standing in Spanish ports, soon to perish The fifth day of April was beginning. It was
received

father,

minister, and he gave

his

name.

Malmesbury
a a

is

baptism from my a tiny little town,

but it had many things worth telling about, especially a fort (unless it should be called two forts) situated on
surrounded

famous monastery and hill almost completely

council of the
are

by

two rivers.

Malmesbury
glory
and

adds two

burgesses to the

realm; to this the bones

stone.

day

that

ancient

of the place persists.

over

Here, too,
lies

buried

of noble

Athelstan.

the tomb he himself

sculpted

in

Here, too, by Aldheim the Latin Muse was brought, and here the Latin tongue had its first school. He, who stained the neighboring fields with the blood of the Danes, gave the people the rewards of his valor. There is no
reason

for

me

to be ashamed of my country, but I complain of the evil times

and the countless misfortunes that accompanied everywhere through our towns

that the last

day

my birth. For the rumor went for the nation was coming by

with such fear that she bore twins, fear. From this, I believe, arises my hatred of the enemies of my country. I love peace along with the Muses and easy compan ions. By the age of four I learned to speak, to read, to cipher, and also to form at

fleet. And
me and

that point my mother was

filled

together with me

the little letters

words of

but
and

not well.

By

the age of six I pressed my contest with the

was sent

Greek

Latin,

and at

fourteen I
and placed

to

Oxford.

Coming

here I

was admitted was

to Magdalen

Hall,

in the lowest

class of

logic. And I

especially diligent

with

my tutor. Although beardless, he

the

read with seri

ousness:

Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio, Baralypton

he
said. a
variation with

first figure has

these moods,

Also Caesare, Camestres, Festino, Baroco, Darapti: this

the same number of moods.

figure is

Felapton, Disamis,
and

Datisti, Bocardo, Ferison

moods.

once again there are the same number of prescribed

These I learned slowly; nevertheless, I learned them I

was allowed

rejected way.

them;

and

to prove each and

and

every thing in my
parts;
and

own

applied

myself

to

physics,

my teacher pointed out that all

as component

things

are

conflated with substance and

form

he

also taught that

the appearances of things in

flying

through the air give visual

images to the
where
noted.

The Open Court

edition

of

the original

Latin has been followed

except

(See

Thomas Hobbes. The Metaphysical System of Hobbes, ed. M. W. Calkins [La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1963], vii xvii.) The footnotes by Hobbes are rendered with an asterisk; those of the editors

in Arabic
earlier

numberals.

Particular thanks is due to Seth Benardete for his painstaking

criticism of an

draft

of

this translation.

2
eyes

Interpretation
and sounds

to the ears.
such

He

attributed

to sympathy and antipathy many

effects and

many

things beyond my comprehension.

Therefore, I

turned to

more pleasant

things and perused

not well taught.

books, in

which

I had been previously in

the world,

structed, though

I fed my

mind on maps that copied

viewing the

appearance of earth and

the painted stars: I took delight in follow

ing
for

the

sun as companion and

discerning

in

what

earth-dwellers.

viewed

the path on

which

way he makes the days right Drake and Cavendish girdled the

Ocean,

and

the regions

they

approached.

And if I could, I took delight in gazing on the tiny habitations of men and painted monsters in unknown regions. But at the appropriate time when I was a B.A.

for this

was

the first degree of arts

I left Oxford,

and set

forth to

serve

the generous and illustrious house of Devonshire. A letter from the Master of
our

College

recommended me.

was

accepted; I

remained

there on agreeable

terms. And soon, a young man myself, I tutored a young man.

At that time he

was

subject

to the authority of

his father. I but

a

served

him This

diligently for twenty years: he was by far the most agreeable

dreams
of

was not

only

a master,

friend
often

as well.

period of

my life,

and now

have

pleasant sort

of

it. Throughout this time, he

studies.
also

offered me

leisure

as well as

every

book for my and to ours. I

I turned my

attention

to the Greek and Latin historians

and

read

the poets,

Horace, Virgil

Homer, Euripides,

Sophocles, Plautus, Aristophanes and others, and I was also familiar with many writers of history. But Thucydides delighted me more than the others. He
pointed out

how inadequate

democracy is,
they
cities: were

and

how

much wiser one

man

is

than the

multitude.1

I translated Thucydides in

order that

he

might

tell the

English to
same

shun

the orators

intending

to consult. Throughout this

and

period, I

saw

foreign

visited

German, French

Italian

ones.

Not
on

later my master fell sick and died, but, believe me, destined to return the last day. Nevertheless before he died, he saw to it that I, who always
much would not with

lived moderately, disregarded, I left

have to be in the
of

service of anyone.

Too

much

the agreement

the house and spent eighteen months

in Paris. Then I

was recalled

to be the tutor of my master s son, the Earl of

meanings of

Devonshire. It behooved him to learn the

to write Latin sentences in
what

Roman

expressions,

how

way, how the rhetoricians are accustomed to

deceive those uninstructed,

and and

and what the orator

does

and what the poet

does,
earth

I taught the its

rules of

demonstrative
I

speech and the appearance of

the

manifold circular course.

showed

him

by

what

proper2

rule

he

could put

an end

to those disputes

which more,

less

and equal make

for. And I taught

retained.

him these things

diligently
did

for

seven

years, and what he

on

learned, he
cities of

Nevertheless,

we

not spend all

this time
a

books,
saw

unless you should

say
and

that the world is a substitute

I.
2.

for

book. We

many

Italy
ch.

For Hobbes's We
read

preference

for

absolute

monarchy, see Thomas

see

Hobbes, Leviathan,

19.

justd (as in the

original edition edition.

Thomas Hobbes, Vita, London, 1681,

p.

231)

instead

of usta

in the Open Court

The Life of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury

France
ported and the sweet solitudes of or

3
whether

Savoy. But I,

was

being

trans

by

boat

coach

or

horse, continually

reflected

upon

the nature of the entire

things. And the physical universe seemed to me the only true

thing in

cosmos,

although

that which
thing.3

falsified in many ways. Indeed, it is the only true thing but is the basis of those entities which we mistakenly say to be some
are

They

like the fugitive things

means of

of

dreams;

and

the kinds of things I

will.

can

multiply

by

glass, I can do
are

by

my

own

Fancies

are

the

brain: they offspring us except motion/ From this

of our

not outside

us,

and

there is nothing within

whoever wants can

circumstance

derives the fact that

in Thus I

to learn physics ought to have learned well beforehand what motion

do.

Therefore, I

revealed the arcana of matter

wrote

motion.

whiled

away my
who

empty hours in Italy. I We left

cent

nothing

and took no

notes, for the teacher

taught me was always at my side.

Italy

and again returned made

to the

lofty

walls of

Paris

and

its

magnifi

buildings. Here I

the acquaintance of

Mersenne,

and

shared with

him my thoughts
the philosophers.
about

about the motion of things.

Mersenne

approved

my thoughts among

and recommended me

to

many.

From that time on, I, too,

was counted

Returning

to my homeland again

after eight

months, I thought

weaving together my conceptions. I went from the variety of motions to the dissimilar appearances of different things and the deceptions of matter; and
to the

internal
and at

motion of

human beings

and

the

hidden fastnesses
and

of the

human

heart,
myself

length to the benefits

studies.

of

dominion

justice. And I buried

the whole class
of

in these I

For body, man,

and citizen comprise

philosophy.5

resolved

to write three books on these subjects, and every

day

gathered materials

for

myself. upon

Meanwhile,
hard
times.6

there arose the detestable villainy of

war, and my studies fell

It

was now a.d. of which

1640,

when an of our

result

countless

amazing learned

plague swept men

through our

land,

as a
was

later

perished.

Whoever
and

infested
right.

by

this plague thought that he alone had discovered

now war was

divine

human
betook

And

in

readiness.

shrank

from this

prospect and

3.
as

"I say, therefore, there

though
yet

would remain

to that man ideas of the world, and of all such bodies

he had.

imagineth;
the
4.

they

will

they be nothing but ideas and phantasms, appear as if they were external, and not at
ed.
"phantasms"

all

happening internally to him that depending upon any power of

the above quotation.
of

mind."

(Thomas

Hobbes, Works,
fancies
as can

Sir William Molesworth [London: Bohn, 1839], I, 92.)

or else

Hobbes

renders

ideas, for
but

which see

"Sense,

therefore, in the sentient,

be nothing

motion

in

some

the internal parts of the

parts of our

sentient; and the parts so moved are parts of the

which

organs of sense.

For the

body, by
we
we

we perceive

any thing,

are those we

what

is the

subject of our sense, namely, nature of sense, namely, ed.

commonly call the organs of sense. And so that in which are the phantasms; and partly also

find have

discovered the

that

it is

some

internal

motion

in the

sentient.

(Thomas

Hobbes, Works,
5. (=

Sir William Molesworth [London: Bohn, 1839], I, 390.)

ed.

Cf. Thomas Hobbes, Works,

Sir William Molesworth (London: Bohn, 1839), 1,

12

Elements of Philosophy: Concerning Body, chap. I, sec. 9.) 6. Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (Oxford Univer
vol.

sity Press, 1849),

I,

pp.

i86ff.

4
myself
which

Interpretation
to my beloved Paris. After two years I produced the little book De
pleased

Cive,

the learned and was all new.

It

was

translated into

various

languages
nations.

and read with

praise, and I

was

widely known

by

name

among the

England,
not useful

though

in the
was

clutches of the

Furies,

praised

it

and also those

men to whose
what

judgement I

known to be hostile. Does however just, I

can

anyone think that

good?

is

to our present aims,

be

During

the next

four

years

considered night and composed.

day

the form in

which

the

book De Corpore

should

be

compared of

bodily
he

masses,

and

considered what could cause change what

in the form Proteus in

things seen. I inquired that

might confess

bonds he

of reason conceals

could restrain

order

by by

what art

his trickery.
and

My

loyal friend Mersenne

of

the Minims was

chamber was

there,
much

learned man, wise,

exceedingly virtuous,
all
swell

and

his

to

be

preferred

Professors. Whoever
new

principle,

They by chance had discovered some worthwhile corollary or a would bring it to Mersenne. Mersenne was a man of signal and
to
all

the schools.

with

the ambition of

appropriate

speech, devoid of

rhetorical

figures,

aphorisms,

ostentation

and

guile.

He

gave

to the learned who were willing the opportunity of weighing that

principle either at once or at

home. And he
each

published all

the best things from

author.
were

many discoveries, indicating

thing by

the name of
as

its

The

whole

constellation of science revolved around

Mersenne in its

if he

their pole.

The
and

civil war

had

raged

for four years; it had

remained

worn

down the English, Irish,

camp, and the virtuous

Scots.7

Perfidious fortune

criminal of

fled

by

whatever means

they
his

could.

The very heir

the realm,

Charles,

came

to Paris accompanied
men.

by

retinue with until

the arms and excellence of illustrious

He

came

to

Paris, waiting

the bad times should pass and the nation's

write the

fury

should cease.

At that time I decided to But 1

was

book De Corpore,

all the

material

for

which was ready.

forced to

postpone

to allow great and foul offenses to

be

ascribed to the commands

decided

as soon as possible

to

show

that the

divine laws

are

unwilling of God, and I innocent. And I did

it. /

am

this gradually, and was anxious for a

long

time. When I was attending the

able to mind

Prince in the study of mathematics, I studies. Then I fell sick for six months,
not expire and

death

went away.

my own prepared for approaching death, but did I finished the book in my native tongue so that

was not always

be widely read by my fellow countrymen to their own advantage. My well-known book Leviathan sped swiftly from the press at London to neighbor

it

could

ing

regions,

and

the book
title.

now

serves

all

kings

and

those who enjoy

regal

power under whatever

Meanwhile the Scots

I).8

the English killed him (Charles

regal right. without

And

now

king (Charles I) and Charles II, living in Paris, held the

sold a

The

rebel

throng

seized the royal power and now ruled the nation

law.9

They

took for themselves the name of

Parliament,

though

few in

7.

8. Clarendon,
9.

See Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, vol. IV, pp. 138ft'. History of the Rebellion, vol. IV, pp. 232, 541.
vol.

Clarendon, History of the Rebellion,

IV,

pp.

S45ff.

The Life of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury

number, and
the
Bishops'

5
of

they

sated

themselves

with the

blood

the nobles.

They

tore off

mitres and no profit

did

not strengthen

the Presbytery. Clerical

ambition

found

there.

native

From England many scholars came to Paris to the King, driven from their land, sad, in need, and a burden. Up to this point there was peace for my

studies, for them

increasingly

to prosper

during

the eight years I was in Paris.

But

as soon as

the gates
approved
was

(Leviathan) had been read by those scholars, of Janus flew open; for I was accused falsely before the King as if I the heinous deeds of Cromwell and justified his crime. The charge

that book of mine

and I appeared to be on the opposite side. I was ordered to stay from the King's palace forever. Then I recalled Dorislaus and Ascham*10 away as if terror was everywhere present for the proscribed. And no one was allowed

believed

to complain about the

whom

King, for

at

that time

he,

young man, trusted those

his father previously had

to my

trusted.
not quite was

returned

homeland,
safer.

sure of

my

safety.

But in

no

other

place could

I have been

It

cold; there was

deep

snow; I was an old

man; and the wind was bitter. trouble.

My bucking
order

horse

and the rough road gave me

Coming

to

London, in
reconciled

to avoid the appearance of

having

arrived

secretly, I had to be

to the Council of State. With this accomplished

immediately

retired

in

utter

peace, and I devoted

alone

myself

to my studies as
was no chief

before. At that time, Parliament

executive
and no

ruled

in name; there
was

leading

statesman.

The army

everything; it demanded
was

that everything be entrusted to one man.

was

Secretly

it

Cromwell

alone who

that one man. To one who

pen, who can impugn these

man of

is attempting to defend the royal rights with his rights, attacking them for their weakness? Each
he
saw

had the
place.

liberty

to

write what

fit
all

and

to

live in the

satisfied manner
nest

the

But Leviathan had

made was

the clergy my foe. Each

with

of

theologians was

hostile. While I
was

Papal Kingdom, I
separated).
were

thought to be

dealing harming

the troublesomeness of the

the others (although

against

they
and

were

the

cause of

At first they wrote angry diatribes its being read all the more.
on

the

Leviathan,

these

And from there

all

it

stood

stronger, and I hope that it will endure through

time, itself
people.

championed

by

its

own strengths.

If it is taught, it

will

be the

measure of

justice,

the jewel of ambition, the citadel of

kings,

and peace

for

the

Previously

published

two little

books,

of slight

size, and the

motions

charm of of

these little books is not insignificant. The formert teaches the

the soul and the fancies of the senses. It

does

not allow

healthy

men to

fear

spirits.

But the

latter**

explains

the most sacred rights of power and the sacred

*Infamous regicides, the former

to the

an

envoy from Parliament to the Dutch

royalists.

and

the

latter

an

envoy

Spanish,

perished

by

the swords of the

tThe book De Natura Humana {On Human Nature).

**The book De Corpore Politico (On the
IO.

Body

Politic).

See Clarendon,

History

of

the

Rebellion,

vol.

V,

pp.

27, 151.

6
bonds

Interpretation
which

bind

unschooled

peoples.

And

finally
is
of

I finished the book De

Then the Al
of alge

Corpore,
gebra of

the subject and

presentation

of which applause

geometrical.

Wallis

was

published

to the
which

the

whole

crowd

braists. That before

scourge of

now raged everywhere.

geometry There had been

had begun

more

than one hundred years

an art of

finding

the unknown

number.

Then Gheber taught

it,

and

Diophantus had it. Then Vieta taught that

of

through this art alone all

problems

Savilian Professor Wallis indeed

a

added

much

geometry could be solved. Oxford's better-known theory: that there is

limit to infinite masses,

who
were

and

that the

finite

also

has

parts without

limit.

All those

impatient to be

geometers

were

driven to distraction

by

these two opinions. This

seventy-two years

is

reason enough six

for

me

to write my

little book. (I
not

was

old.) In my

discussions in this book I touch But I

gently
to

but just

as

they deserved

on these new geometers.

men of great authority. wrote

accomplished nothing: medicine yielded

the error was sustained the sickness.

by

Thus the

Then, too, I

two little books

whose will

in English
we

against
ours

(Bishop)
God's.
Si.x
wrote

The only question is by Bramhall follows the school, but my Problems, a small book, but a little
Bramhall.
what

choose,

or

guide

is

reason.

A little later I For I

source of pure physics.

showed

in

matters.

way nature dislodges lofty stones I showed by what bailing device the in
what

from their
sun

weighty draws up the waters; how the

place

and

other

wind creates cold and

clouds are suspended and

when

flit

about

way the winds blow; by what means the sterile in the air, and by the loss of what support

and what

full they burst; and with what glue the parts of hard things cling together; force makes hard things soft again. I showed what the origin of the in the heavens is
and

thunder

by

what means snow and

ice

are made and

how

bolt

of

lightning
And

flashes from the

deep

waters.

showed what

joins

subtle atoms

scattered warm.

through the atmosphere

by

what

fixes
shore

on each pole with

unequal

and in what way Phoebus makes the day the loadstone of Hercules attracts iron and device grasping of earth its mother; and I showed why the sea rolls to the

waves; and with what year and month and

and

day

it twice

increases its waters;

the
wind.

why

ship

moves against

the

wind under

the effect of

It is these things that the little book holds

will

and shows.
remain

And I think

these

things
so

prevail

with

time,

since

now

they

irreproachable
air, against
physics

among

many

critics.

wrote another

little book

on the nature of

the concept of a machine that can create a vacuum.

Then

leaving

behind, I turned to my beloved mathematics, for the enemy had at long last left my field (mathematics). Only to a stone could I not have taught the truth, no
one would expect to teach the

noisy

schools.

Nevertheless I
could

published a

little
set

book On Principles, forth the

and

made sure that

nothing

be

clearer.

In this, I

nature of reason

in

such a

way that no one might say that it was not

to everyone;

clear and right. regards

My

victory in this

regard was well-known

in

other

the critics pretend great errors.

They

were

kept
etry.

after

them in their weakness, and I mounted

in courage, but I the highest peaks of geom

lacking

made public

the circle as equal to the square; furthermore I showed the

The Life of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury

proposition
of

1
able

the

Pythian

god

was

elucidated.

And I hoped to be

to

overcome

by

a new

method, but not with the same reasons, things previously

not

demonstrated. But I did

embarrassed
not

succeed; these demi-mathematicians

upon shield.

who

were

to yield stood in the way, shield

Therefore I decided

to waste my efforts any

wrote a

further, waiting for

which

the intractable flock to be able

the name A Rose

to

learn. Then I

book

called

by

Garden, filled
and

above all with

the flower of geometry. Wallis fought against

it;

appeared

defeated to the
time the whole

schools of the algebraists and the theologians.

And

at

the same

horde

of

Wallis,

confident of victory, was

rough

brought
where

out of

camp

triumphant. When I saw them standing in the

fields

there was a

thick, difficult,

and

tough root, I decided to fight

and

I turned. Though his

scattered

(Wallis's)
down
want

number was

infinite, in

a moment of of

time, I

him,
more

cut

him
you

and routed

him. You have heard

my

struggles.

What

did

to be told? How rich, that

or

is,

how

wise

was?

Or is it

of

interest how

many fields I had

own,
which

questioner will make out

of

how many thousands of coins? And if perchance a this inquiry, I had a small estate one left to me as my my brother. A small many thousand grains of wheat, for it was enough for the desire of kings.
gave as a present

affection

to

habitation, but it good land. It was

And if it had
a great

used to produce extensive

not

king. As

soon as

been wholly run down, I myself would I sniffed the odor of civil war and

now saw

be

considered

that the winds

had

stirred the fickle populace, I sought a more suitable place for my studies my life. Hence I brought myself and my funds to Paris. I had counted out for myself five hundred pounds when in flight I left the shores of my native and

land behind: to these funds

and at the same

were

added

later

on

two hundred pounds

more,*

time,

an

immense

and sempiternal grief soldier of

(oh! Godolphin,
and

you

lie there;
well!). of

oh!

lover

of pure

reason, beloved
pension came

justice

truth, fare
It
consisted me

And every

year a

fixed

to me

from my
was

country.

eighty hundred additional

abuse of other

pounds.**

pounds

And then my King, who from his own purse

since

restored, allowed

a sweet gift.

I disregarded the

men,

was

judged to be

of good
and

character, the

King
What

himself

being
in

witness.

I live

content with

man of sound mind would want

my is not sufficient, I make a Croesuses and Crassuses.

estate

your pennies so

achievement? I reckon up it may become greater, whenever pleasing; if this count in silver, and I appear to surpass in riches the

these, to be less than his

prefer no more.

You know my character,

oh!

honest Du Verdus

not

and along with you, all men who read my writings. For my life is incompatible with my writings. I teach justice and I cultivate it. No one who is not greedx can be base, and no greedy man has produced a noble work.

[1625-89],

I have lived
done.

out eighty-four years

already, and the

long

comedy

of

life is

almost

*From the

legacy

of

Sidney

Godolphin.

**From the

gift of

the Earl of Devonshire.

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

Mera J. Flaumenhaft
St. John's College, Annapolis

INTRODUCTION

In the Iliad Odysseus is

the
action of

a man of

dim dawns

and

dark

nights. under

But
the

most of

the poem takes place in

broad daylight. Even

blazing

sun, helmets

flash,

shields

gleam,

ships

flare,

and the greatest warriors appear

after

like fire, stars, or the sun itself. Combat begins balance at midday, and turns to the advantage of
goes

the sun rises, is held in

the sun

one side or another as

down;

as

darkness falls,

fighting

ceases, truces are called, and warriors

withdraw

from the battlefield.

in the brief
period

The

relentless passage of time

described in the Iliad is

shine

essential to our sense of the a world where

marked off

mortality

of these men.

They

only
grey

the stars and gods

or saffron

live forever. The

the

great

days

forth briefly, in of battle are

before Helios,

by

dawn,

herald

which appears

and

by

black in

night when men

and anticipate contests one sees a

build fires to light the dark, to pray, cook, eat, to come. After the sun goes down and before the dawn,
are times

different light. These

for

women and

for thoughts

of

home, for dreams that blind, and urges leaders, and doubting their causes. Then
the life and

to

might a man

flee in the dark, for questioning test his commitment to from those
to a

death

actions of the

day.
exercise of abilities of another sort

These
seen as

are also times

for the

in the daytime battles. Between Hector's advance,

sun

which comes

halt
at

the

goes

down in Book Eight,

and

the great

battle

which

begins

morning in Book Eleven, Homer describes the early in the evening an Achaean embassy tries to Hector from the ships; later Trojan
allies.

events of a
convince

long

tense night:
stave off

Achilles to
ambush of
council

spying

mission ends events:

in the

We hear
proposes
on

also of

morning

the

disastrous

sleeping in which
and

Agamemnon
another at

flight

and order must

be

restored

among the troops,

dawn

the

day

Achilles

goes

into battle. His

Men like Achilles

appearance

are

the heroes of the daytime action of the Iliad.

and

in Books Nine
extraordinary,

Nineteen,
to

the great nighttime events of the

mode of excelling.

poem,
seus,

are

in

contrast

his ordinary

Odys

very different sort of man, is the protagonist par excellence of the shadows. While he may show well from time to time in the daylight battles, it
a

is in

embassy,
are

ambush,

and

council

that

he

proves

most

valuable.

In the

Translations Roman
make

by

numerals refer

to the

A. T. Murray, Loeb Classical Library, with some changes. Small capital Iliad, lower-case to the Odyssey. Greek words are transliterated to
to readers who don't know Greek.

discussions

accessible

10

Interpretation
this order

Odyssey,
shadowy

inhabits the dark world;

memories

is altered, though not reversed. Now it is Achilles who we hear of him in Hades among the shades, and in the knew him

of those who

long

ago.

Odysseus is

now

the

protagonist of

the daytime events as well as the dawns and nights, as

a new

Homer

brings to light
about

showing Part One of this essay considers what councils, embassies, and ambushes reveal about the heroic fighting which is the daytime subject of the Iliad. What
effect upon

oneself

way of life. The Odyssey is about emerging into the light, but in a very different way from that seen in the Iliad.

does the
the

partial presence or complete absence of

Helios Hyperion have

actions and attitudes of

the mortals whose time

he

marks?

Part Two

examines polutropos

then,

as a

(literally, "of many turns") Odysseus, first as a man, and human being. How does the portrayal of this singular man among
as the single
godlike man

many heroes in the Iliad anticipate the portrayal of him Odyssey? This section considers what it means for a

hero
to

of

the

keep

in

touch,
Three
retains

and ends
considers

by examining him in the light of a god Hephaestus. Part who the nighttime hero's return to light. Why is Odysseus
all

in the

Odyssey

the qualities which make him

excel when

Helios is
the sun

absent
god?

from the

plains of

Troy

characterized

by

his

refusal

to

violate

I. DIM DAWN AND DARK NIGHT

We

must

begin

with

the differences between daytime combat and the activi

with concern

ties of the nights and dawns. War begins

for

one's

family, house
Noble

hold,

and city.

But
their

war enables a man

to

exhibit

himself

and win glory.

men overcome

fear

of

their comrades.

They

wish

death because they fear shame (aidos) in the eyes of to be excellent, and also to be recognized for their behold for
and

excellence, to have

others

identify
were

them

in

At first, light is imagines the

a prerequisite
of others

shame.

Later

shame

their gleaming armour. is internalized; the hero

views

if they

there to see. The emphasis often

shifts from group revenge to single renown. As the sun mounts, single heroes break away from their sides and call to each other through the lines (xi. 84-91). Even when antagonists do not address each other, the daytime Iliad is a book of

names; there are withdraw,

few

unknown soldiers

in the battle
personal

scenes.

Two

warriors

may

having
The

discovered that their

histories

overrule

their military

affiliations.

greatest of warriors

sometimes

seem almost

dissociated from

their sides. When Diomedes exerts himself, it is difficult to tell whether he is fighting for the Trojans or the Achaeans (v. 85-86); he is, indeed, fighting for

Diomedes.

The hero fights distant future. His beyond his brief life

with

two times in mind, the immediate present and the

performance

today

will

establish

reputation

to endure
aims to

which soon will end

in any

case

(xn.310-28). He

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark

fix time. Though he knows
ambivalent, because battle
what war

to

Daylight
for

11 least

takes, his

yearnings

peace are at speak of

winning glory by winning the war, but the greatest warriors do not always wish to hasten the end of the war. The boastings, confrontation, and parting friendship
of

gives worth to

his life. The heroes

Hector

and

Ajax in Book Seven

suggest that

they

are as much

interested in

their own reputations as in the fate of their sides. When Achilles kills Hector he

does

not

think

primarily

of

the

fall

of

Troy,

though his victory

makes

it

possible.

Action kill
or

on the

battlefield is

out

in the open,

straightforward.

The

aim

is to
error

one's opponents: one aims

directly. Spears

and arrows miss

by human
the

divine interference,

and mortals

rarely try to deceive their

of

enemies.
and

Through
clash of

the thunder of

Zeus,

the shouts of gods, the groans

men,

arms, emerge

clear exchanges of speech.

Prayers,
what

exhortations,

and pleas pierce

the air. In the din of battle

what

is

said

is true or,

boasts, taunts, at least,

there

is

no calculated

discrepancy

between

the speaker thinks or wishes

and what

he

shouts.

There Men
to

are also tacit rules

make pacts and swear oaths under guest-host

regarding participants, places, and times of battles. the light of the sun. They are expected
and promises

honor

friendships
to abide

to return the

living

for

ransom and

the dead for

burial,

by

the results of single combat, and to

truce. Those who abide

by

this code

believe it is

enforceable.

keep a They swear by

conflicts

Zeus

and

by

Helios "who

all."

oversees

They

also expect that those who prove

themselves best in battle

will

be

rewarded accordingly. which

Though the

in

the Iliad move beyond the

sort of

issues

initiated the war, justice

remains some

standard;

men are

judged

by

their adherence to rules as well as

by

their

courage and prowess.

only partially present, the activities of the army at Troy are very different from those just described. In morning council and evening embassy, Homer depicts the internal politics of the army that does
absent or

When Helios is

battle
of

day. In Books Two, Nine, and Nineteen, Odysseus engages in a kind military action which differs from (and somehow conflicts with) the glorious

by

fighting, but
maintaining
the

upon

which

the

latter depends. Here

we

see

the business of
and

morale

among the many, resolving disputes among the great,

feeding

of all.

These

are

tasks,

responses

to necessity, rather than the

exercise of

high-spirited freedom. Here the

as

preeminent man acts

less

on

his

own

behalf than

the

representative of a group.

He

recognizes

the

need

to

subdue

his

allies

in

order

to defeat the enemy.

Negotiators battlefield Odysseus

return

and

deliberators

are

less

absorbed

by

the glittering show on the

and more concerned with the end of the war.

and

The early embassy

of

Menelaus,
and

Odysseus'

visit

to

Troy,

the mission to

Chryses,

of

moments

embassy to Achilles, all mark potentially important in the progress of the war. After suppressing Thersites, Odysseus

Briseis,

urges

the men to "endure

[tleteY

"and

remain

for

time"

(11.299) in

order

12

Interpretation
here for
the first time a
at
word which

to verify the prophesies at Aulis. He uses

points

to his epithet

("much-enduring"

polutlas)

Troy

and years

later. But

his

"endurance"

view of

differs from that

an

of

the great fighters. Characteristi

at

cally,

he looks back in time to

the

incident
war.

anticipate

future

conclusion of

the

beginning of the war, to Courageous display thinks of the

the

brevity
for
all

of a

lifetime,
prudence

and of

hardship

endured at one

time, to leave
of

memory

time;

is

concerned with the

continuing time

the the present.

Unlike those
ambassadors

who would

are

mature

die young to win personal glory, the counsellors and men who have themselves lived long or who have
groups.

devoted themselves to long-lived

memories.

Their

speeches are

full

of elaborate

They

come

less to be

seen than to plan and to persuade. although

The essary
the

medium of persuasion

is primarily speech,
In
contrast

force may be
council

nec

as well

(ii. 198-99,
are
as

265-66).
as

to battlefield exchanges,
which

where and

verbal

duels

open

the

bodily
and

duels

follow,
truth

embassy Antenor
winter's effect of

delicately
compares
day"

alternate
Odysseus'

speech

silence,

open

and

obscurity. on a

words at an suggests

early embassy to "snowflakes

(m.222). Homer
covers

elsewhere

(xn.278ff.)

the obscuring
night

snow; it

over, blurs

and softens

distinctions. At

Nestor

orders the

leaders to
men

call each man

to council, "but not to shout

as

(ix.12).

He bids the dors

to

keep

"ritual

silence"

they

pray, and sends the ambassa

minute consul

off with

hushed

commands and

glances, reserving his last

tations for Odysseus alone. His

vents

foresight in sending
with

the embassy

his

having
with

to

disappoint the troops

of

its

failure.1

secretly pre Nestor's behavior

Hector in

contrasts

that

the blunt warrior

Ajax,

who

volunteers, but is passed

meet

for the spying expedition in Book Ten. As Ajax dresses to Book Seven, he tells his comrades to pray either:
over,

in

silence

by

yourselves, that the

ye

Trojans leam
case we

nought

thereof

nay,

or

openly

[amphadien], if
The
sion studied

will, since

in any

fear

no man.

(vii. 195-96)

ceremony

of the

from the
nods to

silences as well as

tent also derives its ten meeting in from the speeches: Achilles nods to Patroclus;

Achilles'

Ajax

Phoenix, but Odysseus quickly begins

silence

to speak;
again

Achilles'

greeted

in

shocked

by

the ambassadors (and

refusal).

by

the

reply is Achaean does

not

leaders reply
to

when

they Thersites,
is

are told of
on

his

Odysseus,

who

in

council

embassy

omits parts of

Agamemnon's
own

message to

Achil
the

les, changing
warrior who

the form of address, and adding his

outraged

appeal.

Achilles,

by

deception

on

the

battlefield (xxii. 15-20),

also rejects

the

indirections

of speech:

Zeus-born

son of

word outright
1.

Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles, needs must I surely speak my [apelegeos] even as I am minded, and as it shall be brought to pass,
Hero"

Committee
2

Seth Benardete, "Achilles and Hector: The Homeric on Social Thought, University of Chicago), p. is Benardete's "The Aristeia
of

(unpublished Ph.D.
useful article

dissertation,
Agon. No.

138.

(A

for

the Iliad generally

Diomedes

and

the Plot of the

Iliad,"

understanding

(1968), 10-38.)

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

that you sit not

13
For

by

me

here

on this side and on that and prate endlessly.

hateful in my eyes, even as the gates of Hades, is that man that hideth one thing in his mind and sayeth another. Nay, I will speak what seemeth to me best
(ix. 308-14)

For him, the in his heart

man

who

does

not

speak

apelegeos

without regard

to conse that

quence or to the person addressed and who

does

not reveal

in

speech all

is

belongs

at

the entrance to the dark land

where

Helios does

not

shine; there is something shady about him. (Years

words

later, Odysseus

uses similar

he verbally condemns the very thing he does, thus doubling the deception.) Achilles explains his wrath against Agamemnon in terms of deception: he was misled into expecting rewards in keeping with
his performance; he has been foreigner. He
requests cheated of these rewards as

to Eumaeus (xiv. 156-57);

if he
who

were a clanless
won't

that

his reply to Agamemnon,

face him

directly, be declared (amphadon) (ix.370), the word Ajax uses; it suggests a light shining through the dark. Achilles correctly discerns that Aga
memnon's offerings would continue

"openly"

to make him a subordinate. He maintains

his

earlier refusal well

to recognize the general's conventional superiority. In coun

Achilles'

cil, as

as

in battle,

mode

is the

showdown.

Although his first

appearance non

is

sincere and public-spirited,

his insistence

for

what

he is leads to

chaos.

complete

Odysseus

and

Nestor,

who recognize the need and

on revealing Agamem breakdown is avoided only by to cover the truth, to leave some

things unsaid, others

even

in the dark,
Achilles'

to reclothe the exposed Agamemnon. But

not share their view of speech. and even

they

cannot move a man who

does

By

the

time of the embassy

own case

concern

for the army

for justice in his

who

is less

acute.

Absorbed

by

the promise of

Zeus,

lives for

all

time, he turns away from the timely needs of his mortal companions. Like the great combats, the ambush of Book Ten involves warriors in
conflict with

bodily
as on

the

enemy.

Courage,

speed, and power are

necessary here
sense

the battlefield. But success now requires, in addition,

wit

special qualities of mind:

(noos)

and

craft

(metis) (x.226),
vision, one

and

an

extraordinary
to a

of

timing,

virtues shared

by

spies, ambassadors, and counsellors. Noos and metis suggest

practical which

an extended,

but

looks

ahead

forseeable future
with

in

which present actors will participate.

Spying, like
out

council, is concerned
plans

planning. are acts single

Lying

in

wait

(lokhao)

and

laying

(lego)

in

speech

(logos)

precisely calculated, but related, moments, feats memorable as fixed monuments.

in

a series of

rather than

Like

other ambushes

in Homer, the Doloneia takes

for wily
even schemes

place on

the third watch

says

of night when

the stars have turned their course. (In the

time

Odyssey Odysseus
will

this is the

prime

[xiv. 480].) Though it

comrades

soon

be

dawn, it is
76).

so

dark that
"night"

one's

own

are

hard to

recognize.

Athena's omen, the heron,

cannot

be

seen

by

the men who hear

The

word

occurs

in Book Ten

more than

its cry (x.275in any other book of the

14
Iliad.2

Interpretation

Here, too,
do

action

and

speech

are

indirect

and obscure.

The Achaean
and and

scouts

not wish to
unlike

helmets which,
of

be seen; they hide themselves in dark skins those of Achilles, Diomedes at other times,
will not catch

leather

Hector

the

flashing helmet,
on

the

light.3

bodies

the

ground

as

they

await

their victim.
spear

They lie down among dead Only here does a warrior

goal

"purposely"

miss conquest

his enemy

with

his

(x.372). The

is

not

the heroic

of a worthy opponent, but information. Although Odysseus and Diomedes know Dolon's name, the Trojan spy remains in the dark about who will destroy him. In the absence of Helios, Odysseus shamelessly misleads

Dolon
about

"let

not

death be in thy
Ajax
even as

thoughts"

(x.383)

the conventional treatment of surrendered

and of

violating his expectations enemies. The smiles of Odys

seus as

here

different
The

as night and

he grimly goes forth to face Hector (vn.212) are day. Dolon speaks frankly (atrekeosY to those who

deceive him (x.413).

"combat"

part of

the mission is accomplished in complete silence. The

enemies
or

here

never exchange of a guest

boasts

or

names; there is no chance of a

never

ransom

the

discovery
Rhesus'

friendship. The Thracians

know

who

kills

them;
theless, he is later
and

dream

suggests the

unconscious.

ordinary shame of dying unawares; never (Like Dolon and Antinous, Penelope's suitor in a
thoughts"

surprise

ambush, "death was not in his

not

[xxii.n-12].) Odysseus
individuals
who

Diomedes do

recognize them as superior.

wring victory from Rather, they kill

fully
silent

conscious

ground,

an anonymous collection
enemy.5

who, except
of

bodies, already prone on the for Rhesus, are known only as

formidable
warriors
of

allies of the

The
a

humanity
and

these ordinarily

is

not

even recognized men are

by

threat to deprive them of funerals. The bodies

these

simply dragged away

raids and

left to be

picked

up

by

their comrades.

While

councils and embassies are a respectable part of

military virtue,

am

bushes,
even

spying
must

are sometimes considered

dishonorable,

the tactics of

transgressors. One who wishes to make a name to save

face,

fight "like

men,"

for himself, to win glory and face-to-face. Thus Hector tells Ajax,
spying unnoticed; but
x. 285-90). rather

"Yet I do

not want

to smite thee

by

openly

[amphadon]"

(vn. 242-43). Glaucus

and

Bellerophon,
raid

noble warriors of

old, had

to ward off treacherous ambushes

Trojan- Achaean
wounds

(iv.392. vi.189,
domestic
bow

Paris began the

hostilities

with a

(in. 443-46).
(ek

Diomedes from behind

pillar,
a

a place of ambush which

Appropriately, he lokhou) (xi.379).

made

Pandarus breaks the truce, using

2.

Homer

says

he

from the

Homer's
3.

Sixteen times. Norman Austin, Archery at the Dark of the Moon: Poetic Problems in Odyssey (Berkeley, 1975), p. 72. See pp. 71-73 for epithets for night.
Compare
with

the fatal carelessness of Euryalus and Nisus in a derivative

incident in

the

Aeneid (ix).
4.

In the
not

Odyssey especially

the words atrekeos, apelegeos,

of

amphadon are a guide

to character.

There is
5.

time here to trace the ironies in Homer's use

sources

these words.
Rhesus."

Bernard Fenik discusses

1964.

in "Iliad X

and the

Collection Latomus, Vol.

LXXIII,

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

horn
of an

15

unsuspecting ibex he killed

return

while

lying

out of sight

(iv.107). (In the

Odyssey
twenty
The

ambushes are

the special tactic of

Aegisthus'

for Agamemnon to
of whom most on

from the

war

they did

not and

twenty men who waited fight in, and of the suitors,

night.)
are

lie in

wait

for Telemachus
"in the dead

day
of

frequently

mentioned

ambushes

in the Iliad

attacks of wild often

beasts

domestic
bestial

night."

animals

Although Homer

compares men with animals

in the
The

open

battles

as well

he does

not suggest

that war

is

activity.

concern with

names, weapons,

honor, justice,

the past, and the

future

preclude

point of view of the regulated of one's opponent.

any such suggestion. Nevertheless, from the daytime duels, ambush does deny the humanity

Under

cover of

darkness, the line between honorable

no shame.

and

dishonorable is obscured; ambushers, like animals, have

In Book

Ten, Diomedes, who Five, chases a lesser

(x. 360-64).

sparkles man

among

men and gods on as a

the

battlefield in Book
hare
or

in the dark,

hound

would pursue a

doe

Treating

the enemy as

human too; the

the

ambushers even

less than human, the victor becomes less look like beasts. After disposing of Dolon and
"most
doglike"

Thracians, Diomedes
contest

ponders what

deed he

might

do (x.503).

Human

here
who

risks

human beings
worse.

deteriorating into bestial predation, though, of course, do what dogs do, are very different from dogs, perhaps

It is

not

his

conscious victim's corpse

surprising that Odysseus is the first warrior to threaten to feed to scavenger birds (xi. 450-55). His threat sug
other

gests

something When

than the notion of combat as

we must ask

heroic

duel.6

When
admire. our

we read

Book Ten,

if the

nighttime

Odysseus is illusions

hero to

we think about the necessities to which

his deeds
no

are responses, about

answer

must

be

"yes."

The Doloneia leaves

man

us

the

shamelessly grim and depicts specifically human

of

inhumane deeds this

virtues

chooses

to commit.

Yet it
context

intelligence

and

foresight

in the

specifically human conflict, that is, munities. The lions who attack farms

conflict which originates

between

com

at

night,

and even

human
As

robbers who

love the dark (in. 10-14), do

glorious

not

act on

behalf

of others.

we

have seen,
wartime

heroes
are

often

lose

sight of

the communities
affairs.

they fight for. But

and

ambushes,
sentatives,

ambassadors

generally community as it were.

Odysseus
are sent

Diomedes
as

are repre

They
with

forth

Achaeans

against

Trojans,
whose

and

their glory is shared,

each other and with

their comrades
as

morale

is markedly
we

raised

by

their success.

In Book Ten,

in the

embassy to
6. In
games,

Achilles,

are reminded of the original political motives of the

that ambush never aspires to a code of

are

honor, it is

the complete antithesis of the funeral

terminated at the possibility of serious injury. strictly regulated and quickly for acknowledged spectators, but the stakes are never staged are the in place light, take Games human lives. Guile is effective in chariot races as it is in ambush, but, when asked to swear that he did not cheat, Antilochus graciously yields his prize (xxiii. 586-95). Odysseus wrestles with his
which usual

guile

against

the might of

Ajax, but the

result

is

draw

rather

than total defeat.

Tempo
of

rarily

released

from

fighting Trojans,

the heroic warriors still wish to prove who

is "best

the

Achaeans."

16
war.

Interpretation
sentinels
who

The Greek

protect

their own (x. 180-89). Dolon distinguishes watch, and their allies,
to
who
sleep:

between the Trojans,

allies'

keep

night

the

children and wives

do

not need

be

protected

(x. 41 8-22). The Trojans

come

defend themselves

out of

necessity; the allies have

to win

glory.

Am

bushes, like

councils and

embassies, promise progress in the course of a war.

While they may

may turn the In Phaeacia the bard

perhaps over whether

bring honor, they are primarily tide of battle, but they are primarily
alludes

useful; face-to-face
affairs of glory.
and

combats

to a dispute between Odysseus

Achilles,
75-

(viii. by by 82). The Iliad does not tell how the Trojans finally are defeated. But everyone knows, and the Odyssey recalls explicitly, that Troy fell in an ambush master minded, or at least directed, by Odysseus (iv. 266-89, viii. 500-20, xi. (ptolithe only warrior besides Achilles who frequently is called

Troy

would

be taken

stratagem or

assault

523-32),'

"city-sacker"

porthos).

This victory final victory. The end

raises a subordinate of

military

maneuver

to the means of
aban

the

war and resumption of peace

follow from
"total"

doning
even
end.

the rules of the game, and engaging

most

in

an obscene and

war.

But

the

stealthy,

ruthless

strategy is

more

humane than

are

duels

without

Victory, even when the vanquished side is totally destroyed as well as defeated, is a limited end, whereas the hero's desire for personal glory can
never

be

satisfied.

The

same can

be
own

said of

the

desire for

revenge when the

avenger
well.

Achilles'

merely looks back on his loss of aidos after

unheroic

dishonor

and not ahead

to normal

life

as

Patroclus'

death may be

more

horrifying

than

Odysseus'

defeat

of

the Trojans

(Achilles'

revenge

may be

compared

Odysseus'

also to

punishment of well

the suitors). In

judging

Odysseus'

tactics

in

Iliad Ten, it is
put an end

to remember that much harsher ambush which eventually

to ten years of fighting.

warriors

But heroic hostilities

do

not

utterly disdain

raids

and

ambush.
raids

Community
mentioned strat

often precede personal confrontations.

Border

are on

frequently (1.154,
agems, these

xi.670ff., xxi. 18-19). Though

they rely less

furtive Once

raids require

the attitude of ambush towards enemies.

a war

has begun,

warriors cannot

live merely the life

armies need

because,
of
and

as

Thucydides notes,
exploits against

heroic confrontation, if only supplies to sustain them. We hear

of

Achilles'

Thebe,

and of cattle raids

who

by

Nestor (xi. 670-81)

these

Achilles (xx. 89-90, 188-90),

to
win
glory.8

especially

elevates

forays into

opportunities

7.

Aeschylus, Euripides, Virgil,

war

and

Lucretius
the

assume

that the ambush and

sacking

took place

at night.

8. In the Odyssey,
Cicones"

is

often reduced to

status of raids.

The

sack of
Troy,"

the
of

(ix. 39-42) is

reminiscent of

the sack of the "sacred city of

as
Odysseus'

the "sacred city of this time deprived

were

any

glory.

There is
this

no

indication here,

in the Iliad catalogue, that the Cicones

tales

Trojan
with

allies; the motive appears to

attacks

be

mere

plunder.

in

the

Odyssey

often

begin

Later the marauding suitors are compared to warriors attacking a city (xiv. 85-88). Interestingly, the first mention of Achilles in the Od\s\ey is in Nestor's recollection of
one. a

like

foray

for

booty

(iii.

103-06).

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

17

Ambush,

form

of

raid, is further distinguished from heroic battle

by

its

stealthy stratagems, but this mode of warfare, too, is not merely to be scorned. Odysseus and Diomedes work in the dark, but their deeds do not remain in the dark. Unlike the
spies of modern warfare,
undercover agents
who

often go

unnamed and unhonored

in their

own

lands. Homer's

scouts return triumphant

to the

acclaim of

their comrades.
silent

ambush

is

cold-blooded,

They all know that the courage required by bravery not called for by the panting public
company.

confrontations.

On the battlefield there is forth

In

combat

one

stands
never

alone; in ambush one is alone (x. 37-41). Achilles taunts Agamemnon for

having

had

courage to go

on ambush with

the Achaean chiefs

enough

(1.223-28);
mission

Menelaus

worries

that no one will

says that

be brave in

for the spying

(x. 37-41);

and

Idomeneus

ambush the coward will reveal

himself

(xm. 276-94).

Achilles

and

blunt Idomeneus dwell

raid.

on the

manly
when

courage required

by

am

bush; they view it as a kind of Book Ten, emphasizes virtues

Diomedes,
head

he

chooses

Odysseus in

of the

rather

than the chest. Dolon

is

living
raised

example

of

the coward described

by

Idomeneus.

Ugly

and

arrogant,

among sisters, he has only one of the virtues necessary for successful forays. But his speed is of no avail when he encounters a fleetfooted man with
and
courage

judgment

as

well.

Despite his

name,

he is devoid
an

(dolos)
prelude

and

appropriately loses his head.

successful

By describing

of cunning inferior spy as a

makes us accept

to the

foray

which ends

Book Ten, Homer

night ambush as a part of

military virtue, even though he shows how this mode

the sun.

differs from heroic

combat under

II. ODYSSEUS

A. The Man:

One'

Keeping

Distance

Early in
for
ye are

the Iliad Agamemnon taunts

Odysseus

and the

Athenian

Menes-

theus for their

tardy

start

in battle:

the

first to hear my
elders.

bidding
Then

to the

feast,

whenso we

Achaeans

make cups of

ready honey-sweet
ten
serried

banquet for the

wine as

are ye glad

to eat roast meat and

drink

long
of

as ye will.

But

now would ye

battalions

the Achaeans

were

gladly behold it, aye if to fight in front of you with the pitiless

bronze, (iv. 341-48)

But Odysseus is
prominent

distinguished

fighter,
us that

and

usually is included among the

Achaeans. Homer tells

the Cephallenians are no weaklings,

that the two men have only been waiting for the right moment to enter battle. Unashamed, Odysseus replies with scorn; the general retracts his words,
and and the

incident is forgotten.

18

Interpretation

But Agamemnon's
mere

wind."

"empty
to

insult, exaggerated as it is, is not, as Odysseus says, There is, in Odysseus, a reluctance in the face of death,
is
suggested

and an attraction
wine."

what

here

by

"roast

meat"

and

"honey-sweet

Though he does

not

lack

hearty

spirit

(thumos) in battle,

still we sense

that his heart is not

Odysseus'

fully

in it. Homer does

not elaborate on the

legends

of

reluctance

to join the Trojan expedition, but he does mention, late in

the

Odyssey,
and so

that it took a

long
start

time to

convince

him (xxiv. 1
Diomedes'

15-19).

Just

as

Odysseus
war

Menestheus

late because "their host had

hear"

not yet

heard the

cry,"

endangered

Odysseus ambiguously "fails to cry to rescue the Nestor (vn.78-111); rapidly retreating, he leaves the task to the impetuous
man.

younger,

more

In Book Four,

and

in his

own muted aristeia

in

Book Eleven, he does

elsewhere

not

face the
on

most prominent

Trojans. Sarpedon
and

moves

as

Odysseus takes
wounds

lesser foes. When he

Diomedes

pursue

Hector, Diomedes
offer

the great Trojan (xi. 345-53). Odysseus

even

is the last to
of

to

challenge

Hector (vn.168), and,

in the Doloneia, he is the last

the

volunteers

to

join Diomedes (x.231).

in
night ambush

Posing

in the

Odyssey
xiv.

as a wanderer, and that

he

says

he is

expert

(xiii.26off., 468ft.,
a suppliant

216-21),

he

once saved

his life in Egypt

by becoming

(xiv. 274-84). At

Troy

only Trojans He
stands at outlasts

beg
the

for

their

lives;

the Achaeans
marginal about

die fighting. Though he is

Odysseus'

indispensable,9

there is something
edge of

presence at

Troy.

the heroic world which produces

him,

and

therefore,

he

it.
at various or

Called,
iphron

(enduring

times, demon (enduring), polutlas (much-enduring), talassuffering in mind), Odysseus is repeatedly singled out for

his ability to endure (tlao). He is, in every sense of the word, patient. The words derived from tlao suggest his suffering, both the afflictions of war, and
the insults of
end

his homecoming. But,

to great

as we

have seen, the capacity

to

last to the

is

related

daring (tolmao)

as well as great suffering.

Tolmao sug

gests a willingness to

overstep limits

to be shameless, as well as unshameable,

in

order

to achieve one's end (telos).

requires excess;

Glory
sive.

Odysseus is diverse, boundaries

and

many-sided,10

but he is

not exces

Though he
so

oversteps

does

by

controlled

calculation.

limits, Choosing to
calculating

he is

successful

because he
akin

transcend

limits is

to

adhering to a mean: both

measured words

depend

on

measurement."

he

silences the

"unmeasured

speech"

of

With carefully the babbler Thersites

(11. 2 1 2). Later he

measures

the distance for the duel between

and

Menelaus
it is

and

Paris (m. 314-17). When Agamemnon

9.

Achilles

are

reconciled,

Odys-

The Iliad is

"longing"

about

may be killed and "a great too, is indispensable in wartime. In the Odyssey,
10.

for Achilles (1.240, xiv. 368), but longing for him come upon the
"longing"

Menelaus'

fear that Odysseus

a major

Danaans"

(xi. 470-71), shows that he theme.

for Odysseus becomes

runner,

He

is,

or

is like, bard.

a spear

thrower, hunter, archer,

wrestler, carpenter,

sailmaker,

lyre-stringer,
11.
medomai

and

Note the

kinship

among

metron

(measure),

metis

(craft),

medomai

(provide for),

and

(contrive).

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

seus who measures

19

the gold to be given in recompense (xix. 247-48). He is a

middleman,
one moves and

specializing in means, in betweens, in the twilights through which from desires to well-defined ends; he excels at dawn, between night
in the
middle of

day,

and

the night. His

and

ships

are

center of

the Achaean

line (xi.6, 806-7),

Homer

places

located exactly in the him and his troops

exactly at the center of the catalogue of the Danaan ships (11. 63 1-37). At Troy the actions of Odysseus usually have more limited ends than those
of

the shining warriors. This is true even when there is Rhesus raid, Odysseus takes the horses and whistles to
completed. ponders

booty
than

to win. In the

signal that the

job is

Diomedes,

who

often

seems

more

moderate

Achilles, here
ships.

further

action until remembers

Athena

exhorts

him to

return to

the

Years

later, Menelaus
Odysseus to

how, in the

wooden

restrain

Diomedes (iv. 280-84).

necessary for Odysseus has internalized crafty

horse, it
must

was also

(polumetis) Athena's
The Phaeacian bard
warriors

qualities, while Diomedes

says city.

be

checked

from

without.

that when the Achaeans

left the horse, the

other

looted the
went

Menelaus

But Odysseus, only here compared to Ares, and to the house of Deiphobus and fought until they conquered
reference

(viii. 5 16-20). The

that

to

Deiphobus,

who replaced

Hector

as

the Trojan
of

leader (and who, later legends say, inherited Helen

reminds us

after the

death

Paris),

the original

Odysseus is the only warrior besides Menelaus purpose of the war. Once again we see the measured in the he
ambush:

who remembers
"political"

concerns seen

he

seeks neither

glory

nor

loot

with uncontrolled

abandon;

what

wants

is to finish the job.

Diomedes'

In Book Ten
and confidence:

of

the

Iliad, he

responds

to

praise with moderation

Son

of

Tydeus,
among

praise me not overmuch, neither

blame
all.

me

in

aught; this thou

us go

sayest

the

Argives that

themselves

know

Nay, let
credit

(x. 249-51)

After the spying mission, he

containment contrasts audible recognition of

claims

no

special

for

success.

His

self-

continual need for visible and sharply with his excellence. Odysseus is distinguished from Achilles
well as

Achilles'

by

his

reaction

to insult as

to praise. Agamemnon threatens not only

Achilles in Book One:

then
will

come myself and take

will

thy [Achilles']
away.

prize or

that of

Ajax,

or

that of Odysseus

seize and

bear

(1. 137-39)
nought"

Achilles

responds that

he

would

be

a coward, a

"man

of

(outidanos) if
insult.
No
to

he

should yield

(1.293). But the

man who

later

controls

himself in the face

to the general's

of

attacks

from giants,

servants, and suitors,

does

not react

"nothing,"

He repeatedly allows himself to be called a One (Outis) is the very outidanos that Polyphemus
overpower

"man

of nought"; expected measure

never

had

him (ix.515). Whatever

others

may say, he is the

of

himself.

20

Interpretation
warriors

Other

are

noted

for their

backs,

muscles,

swift

feet. But Homer

grandmother

most often

draws
as

attention a

to the eyes of

Odysseus,

the eyes his

kissed when,
"bright-eyed"

child,

he

visited

Autolycus (xix. 417). Years later

when

"two

eyes

Athena disguises him for his return, she says she will dim his that were before so (xiii. 401). In the Iliad, Antenor
beautiful"

describes how Odysseus

a council

cast

his

eyes

downward to the
about

earth when
(iv.497),12

he
in

addressed
contrast

(m. 216-18). In battle he

example,
who

glances
at

Ajax, for
suggest

looks steadily

warily his opponent (xvn.305)

to

and

"straitly

charges"

(xvn.355). The shifty glances and failure to look others in the eye his characteristic indirection. Some might say he is ashamed. But when
to look
other another

it is

expedient

in the face, his

signal with

eyes

are

direct. Repeatedly,
and

Odysseus, like
and one's

leaders,

silences opponents with an

angry glance,

he

Telemachus,13

like Athena,

their brows. The ability to control

eyes, to
rather

avert one's glance and to stare

back

at

will, are signs of shame

or

lessness
The

than shame, the ability to do unblinkingly

unblushingly
and

what others might avoid. eyes of

the Iliadic

Odysseus indicate his foresight, provision,

to size up a situation at a glance. Diomedes does all the

killing
see

ability in Book Ten.

and

but Homer explicitly Rhesus. Spying is the

says

that Odysseus is the

first to

both Dolon

perfect vehicle

for expressing this

practical

sight, for it

is, by definition,
begins
Iliad live to

vision with a mission.

Characteristically,
for
booty.14
Odysseus'

the expedition which

of

as reconnaissance ends as a raid see and

The daytime heroes

eyes are

the

be

seen. as

In the Iliad
we

less

intensely
He
sees

focused

on

glory, except,

shall

see, for

prudential

purposes.

beyond the battlefield,

world

keeping

always

in his

mind's eye

a wider view of

the

and

armour of

human life. Later legends appropriately award Odysseus the Achilles, who does not in battle see the pictures of peace which
of of war on

balance those
In the he-men
emerge

his

shield. peculiar vision

Odyssey
of of

Odysseus'

is

somewhere

between that

of

the

prepolitical

Greece

and

that of the

contemplative
we

men

who

in Greek

cities centuries

later.15

Repeatedly
only
as

find him standing

him."

and

12.
13.
exploit

Some translators

render amphi

he

paptenas

"glaring

about
xvii. 39). and

Telemachus inherits his father's head

the darkness. In Book

and eyes

(i. 208-9. iv. 149-50,

suitors

learns to
openly
and

One, Athena
almost

speaks of

routing the

by

guile

(dolos)

or

(amphadon) (i.296). See

ambush reckless.

Tiresias'

identical

words to

Odysseus,
on

who

immediately
he is
word

chooses

(x.120). As Telemachus first finds

courage

to challenge the suitors,

and

open

Repeatedly, he
soon

"frankly"

speaks

(atrekeos)
sail

insists

declaring
hosts,

his

"outright"

(apelegeos). But he

learns to

by

night, to avoid overzealous

and

to

keep

counsel.

By

the end, the wise youth shares the virtues of

his

ambassador

Telemacheia is the longest, most fully developed embassy scene too, has nighttime vision and craft; she weaves by day, unravelling
veiled, seeing,

father. As Austin says, "The in (p. 79). His mother,

Homer"

at night.

She usually

appears

but

not seen

by

others.

14. This is not true of all his spying missions. Helen says killed many Trojans and returned, bearing much news but no 15. Themistocles seems to combine similar traits.

that on an earlier visit to

Troy

he

booty

(iv. 252-56).

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

gazing.

21

Still his desire to

see

is

not always

divorced from for example,

called

prudential considera

tions.

His interest in the

one-eyed

Cyclops,

accompanies

his

char with

acteristic

desire for gain,

what one critic

has

inquisitiveness linked

acquisitiveness.16

But his gazing

most men.

also suggests

the compelling

and even shame upon and

less

will

to see that philosophical men exhibit. Odysseus looks

hears
gaze.

what

is denied to

For

all

his propriety, he does He

not avert

his

He does
unseen,

not expose

his

own

body
at

to embarrass Nausicaa and

her maidens, but

alive

like Gyges, he
seen

gazes

length

upon

them.

returns

from is

Hades, having
"voice,"

beyond the horizon. And

even

if

what

the Sirens

"know"

all

Odysseus is free to see, hear,

and
warrior-heroes.

and

judge for himself. As

seen can

we shall

see, his deliberate return from the places

he has

distinguishes him from be little doubt that the

to live.

both

philosophers

But there

return

is

motivated seen

by deep

insight

about

the proper way

for

a man

Truly, he has
eyes.

far in his travels.

The calculating speech of Odysseus is mentioned as much as his intelligent After the Thersites incident his Achaean comrades applaud his verbal

victory:

verily hath Odysseus

good counsel and
wrought

ere now wrought good

deeds

without number as

leader in

setting battle in array, but now is this deed far the best that he hath the Argives (11.272-74) among
them of Calchas's prophesy,
Odysseus"

When he

reminds

they

shout their approval,

"prais

ing
out

the words of godlike

missiles

(11.335). In

a simile used elsewhere

only to

describe

falling

in battle (xn. 156-59, 278-89),

points

or warriors
most

Odysseus'

to fight (xix. 357-61), Homer

to speech as

marching important

weapon. Antenor says that

whenso on a winter's

he

uttered

his

great voice

from his
man

chest, and words

vie with

like

snowflakes

day,

then could no mortal

beside

Odysseus.

(in. 221-24)

Many
Troy.

years

later, Helen describes

that
were
speak.

She

says

he

slew

early spying mission of Odysseus in before they realized what was Trojans many
an

happening; they
their

"like

infants"

(abakesan) (iv.249),

word

suggesting

inability

to

They

were

dumbfounded, disarmed

of words as well as

In the spying and ambush in the Iliad he never uses a weapon. And that will destroy the unsus when, in his last ambush, he strings the great bow well-skilled in the lyre and in song easily pecting suitors, he does so as "a man
weapons.
"

stretches

the string

(xxi. 406-9).

Odysseus the

storyteller

ambiguous speech,

is, to some extent, suggested in the Iliad. His fame for deception, and ability to hold an audience point to
The Achaeans do
not witness

his later
16.

prowess

as a teller of tales.

the night

W. B. Stanford, The Ulysses Theme: A

p. 76.

Study

in the

Adaptability of

Traditional Hero

(Ann Arbor, 1976),

22
ambush

Interpretation

they

so

applaud; it is

Odysseus'

report of the

incident,

as much as the

trophies,

that must move the men. The most wondrous words at

Troy

come

from Sarpedon, Hector, Achilles, and others who attempt to comment upon their lives and deaths before they die. But the heroes speak of how their actions must
speak

for them;
must

words point always

to

fleeting

deeds.

Lasting
as

stories of

these

deeds

be

made

by

other men. of survival.

possible

Odysseus'

story is

one

His prudential,
endure on

opposed

to

heroic,

speeches at

Troy

make

it

for him to

the way home and in

Ithaca. His speech, like his vision, is

not always

disinterested. From very early

practical men on

in his

life, he

seems

somewhere

between narrowly thinkers,

went

the one
whose

hand,
adult gifts.

and poetical singers and

lofty

on

the other. The child

gazing usually But he brought back

results

in booty,
as well an

to Autolycus to

hunt,

and to collect

exciting story, the

Parnassus. But,
as

report of an adventure
"

which

took place on the mountain sacred to poets (xix. 462-66).

remains always a

In

a way,

Odysseus
Trojan

hunter

on

the only man from the

tale,18

war who

becomes both the

subject and teller of

his

he

memorial

izes himself

as a speaker as well as a man of action.

In the

Odyssey
a

he

acts

by

day
a

but

spends

his

nights

telling
to

stories.

His

speech

is less

compressed

expression of

the meaning of death than a discursive account of

life

which

Homer is
rather

careful

leave

Odysseus'

unfinished.

continuing life, mode is the

more
self-

rambling story
sufficient

than grand heroic address. He

and the professional at

is,

somehow,
whom

than

both Achilles
the

bard
and

he

resembles. of

Between the

eloquence of

dying

heroes

Troy,

the

immortal poetry
willingness

Homer,

are

the wondrous words which emerge

from the

to use

words as weapons.
Odysseus'

weaponless

triumphs at

Troy

are

in

keeping

with

his
the

unconven
unconven-

tional use of weapons when

he does

resort

to them.

Repeatedly,

tionalities point away from the battlefield to a very different way of life.

Archaeologists may wonder why Odysseus uses a bow in the spear in the Iliad, but Homer knows that the man "of many

Odyssey

and a

devices"

(polume-

khanos) would be Pandarus, Teucer,

seus'

comfortable with
and

Paris

switch

both. Perhaps this is why he notes when weapons, but does not remark on Odys
to

choice.

The bow does

seem more suited

him than the

spear.

It is in

keeping
victims

with

his distance from the heart

their vanquisher,
own strength. and

of

battle,19

his lack

of concern that

his

identify
his

his

use of machines as well

as simple

extensions of
of

Furthermore, he increases
arrows

the intrinsic capacity

the bow

by

using

poisoned

(i. 260-64). The

poison

is

unseen and

points once more

to efficacy
just

as opposed

to glory; as in night ambush, almost

his prey from its lair,

17.

The kill took Menelaus He

names

place

at

sunrise,

when

he

chased

or ambush-place

(lokhme),
18.

through which no sun could shine.

and

Nestor
son

also report

their experiences, but

a

they

are not

"storytellers."

Nestor's

narratives never move anyone to call 19.

him

bard.
Achilles'

his

Telemachus (cf.

son

Neoptolemus, "new

warrior").

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

goes.20

23

He also uses the instruments of battle in diverse ways. He is the anything only hero Homer names who uses a spear to obtain food (ix. 150-56, x. 156-71).
The
earliest report of and the

him
on

establishes

him

as a

heroic hunter; both the boar

as

on

Parnassus

stag

Circe's island

are

described

if they
also

were warriors

vanquished on

the

battlefield (x. 161-63,

xix. 447-54).

He is

the only hero

to make a weapon, the stake which blinds Polyphemus. He uses any

handy

instrument

as

weapon:

Agamemnon's
symbolic of men carved

sceptre

his bow to whip to govern men by force

Rhesus'

horses (x.500, 514), and when they fail to recognize its

authority (11. 199, 264-65). It is difficult to imagine the pompous lord so reducing his royal staff to a club, or godlike Achilles grabbing a
when

branch

there is no spear at hand.

Odysseus, however, has

and

job to
works

do;

effectiveness matters more than

his dignity,

any instrument that

will suffice.

The

armour of the other entries

heroes is described
are
not

at great

length, but in

the

Iliad,

Odysseus'

into

action

heralded
his

by

such

descriptions

of the

makers, former owners,

an extended passage of
night

and appearances of

equipment.

Only

once

is there

this sort; it is about the helmet

suits

given

to him

before the

foray. This helmet particularly stolen by his grandfather, Autolycus, inherited. The helmet
where

whose

might remind us of

since it originally was wily intelligence Odysseus has the so-called Hades cap worn else nighttime

Odysseus

by

Hermes to

make
at

himself invisible for his

thefts. The only

equipment of

Odysseus

Troy

that Homer

describes is

not a shield
a

held in

mighty hand,
remarkable

nor protective armour

for

a spirited

breast, but is

helmet21

for his

head.22

Odysseus,
weapons

more than most

uses.

heroes,

seems

distinct from his

armour and

the

he

Others

show great concern

exchange who

it for better

when possible.

In Hades Odysseus

for their equipment, seeking to sees former comrades

one

died in battle,

still clad

in their

armour

(xi.40). However

interprets the die in battle

takes his

prophesy of Teiresias, it seems that this former dress. In Book Two of the Iliad, Agamemnon
sceptre shield

warrior will not

rises,

dresses,

and

before going to council; Odysseus, when awakened, takes only his and even drops his cloak as he runs to halt the troops. Later, Helen and him
near

Priam
their

observe

the walls of Troy. Although all the men have removed

1

armour

(m. 88-89,
whom

13-15), in the individual

descriptions, only in

Odys-

20. 21.

Ilus, from

he first

requested

the poison, refused from "awe of the

as means of

(i. 262-63).
not

William Whallon

suggests and and

that "helmets,

defense, do
p.

lead to heroic
suggest

action."

Formula, Character,

Context (Washington, D.C., 1969),

of

18.

This may

differences between Achilles

would place

the shining helmet. A fuller understanding of Hector him between Achilles and Odysseus. But since Odysseus moves from battle to home,

Hector

and

Hector

moves

from home to battle, for this discussion, I have ignored

Achilles.
Odysseus'

crucial

differences

between Hector
22.

and

The

emphasis

on

head

and

eyes

interested in Homer's location

thumos and noos

of various

psychic

may seem a modern misreading to those faculties. Odysseus, like other warriors, has
and eyes

in his chest, but the

emphasis on

his head

is his

own and

Homer's.

24

Interpretation
case

seus'

does Homer his

armour

call attention upon

to the

difference between
"himself"

a man and
ranges

his

weapons:

the

men

ans.23

among In Book Ten also, he is distinguished from the other Achae Diomedes, like Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Nestor, lies outside his

lies

the ground, while he

(in.

195).

hut

be

him, ready to But Odysseus, after answering Nestor's summons, returns to his hut for his shield, part of his equipment, but by no means an essential part of himself. Not wholly defined by his activities
with arms around
weapons seem almost a part of

his

him. His

used

the moment he

is

awake and conscious.

as a

warrior, Odysseus

puts on armour when

put on maim

the task requires

clothes

it, just

as

he had
He

before (iv. 244-50), and will again, does not hesitate to disguise or even his
of ends.

beggar's his
own

for

other tasks.

The

constant changes of

many hats. Though he usually seeks to to his possessions, Odysseus shows little interest in collecting trophy-armour from the men he defeats. Socus, the one Trojan over

labeling him;

the

man add

in

Autolycus'

clothing in the helmet is

body (iv.247) to accomplish Odyssey suggest the difficulty

a man of

whom

Odysseus exults,
will

and whose

body

Odysseus threatens to feed to birds,

fears that Odysseus

neither

take his armour. But Odysseus never mentions it and

does

Homer.24

Odysseus

captures personal equipment

only

once

during

the night ambush.

Here he is distinguished from both base

prizes

and noble warriors.

Dolon thinks

of

in the lowest terms: he is

as
well

Achilles'

after

horses;

though Hector offers

also

glory
glory.

as

great

gift, the already-rich

Dolon,

impressed

with

Rhesus'

showy equipment, desires only the

material

reward; he

never speaks of

Diomedes, like Dolon, wants the horses because he knows they are valuable. But, unlike Dolon, Diomedes is a horseman. Descended from the horsemen Oineus and Tydeus, more than any other Achaean except Nestor, his epithets refer to horses; he is known by his shield, his helmet, and his horses (v. 180-83). In Book Five, Diomedes captures immortal horses, the
Aeneas'

"best horses that

are

beneath the dawn

sun"

and the

(v. 266-67). While he

and

makes use of these

trophies to rescue Nestor (vm.109-1 1),

to win acclaim

in the funeral
bring.

games

Rhesus'

(xxiii. 290-92), he is mainly interested in the renown they steeds resemble immortal horses and are like the rays of the sun

(x.547). But these Thracian

games, are
of value

horses, like
show.

the

Thracian

sword

he

wins

in the

primarily for

Unlike Dolon, Diomedes knows the

higher meaning
Odysseus'

of a war-prize.

acquisitiveness, also, is carefully

distinguished from
victory does
in Book Ten,
see

that of baser
not preclude

men.

His

willingness to use most means to achieve

23.

For

some similar observations about the

sleeping

warriors

Benardete pp

64-66.
24. won

Legend tells that Odysseus won the arms of Achilles, but the latter was his ally, and he them with words, not weapons. Homer does not mention the episode. The best depiction I

essay.

future."

know is in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book Thirteen, Fable I, which points to many themes in this Odysseus tells Ajax, "You have manly strength without intelligence, I have care for the
(xm. i. 363).

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

25

distinguishing between Dolon's bloody spoils,

stops to pick up least partly connected with his intent to honor Athena (x. 462-64, 529, 571). Unlike Thersites, he knows that a prize is not merely (11.237). But Odysseus booty to be is distinguished from Diomedes as well as from Dolon, for Homer mutes the

what

is

noble and what

is base. He
at

but his

concern

for them is

"digested"

intrinsic

worth of the reward

for the usually

acquisitive

Odysseus. Though he is be

increase his possessions, he is not a horses. As Telemachus reminds Menelaus, horses

always eager to souvenirs
seus on

connoisseur or collector of
would not

appropriate

for

an

Ithacan (iv. 607-608). Athena

makes

the same point to Odys

home (xiii. 242), and inventory to the stranger lacks horses. Ambushers go on foot; Odysseus does not even enter noticeably battle from a chariot; in the Odyssey, the Cicones who routed his men, knew how to fight from chariots (ix. 49-50). There is no indication that he has any horses. Hence, the Thracian steeds are stabled in the manger of Diomedes. It is all the more impressive that Odysseus, no is able to calm the
arrival
"horsetamer,"

his

Eumaus'

Thracian horses
vanquishes

and

drive25

them back to his own camp. In the next book he

are

two brothers who

the sons of a Trojan

horsetamer (xi.426, heroes

450).

Achilles, Diomedes, Hector,

prowess with who assumes
of

and

Aeneas,

are noble

who combine their

that of

extraordinary
postures when

steeds.26

Odysseus,

an unchivalric warrior

ignoble

necessary, is

not enthralled

by

the virtues

horses.

Seeing
and

that other men care

carries off the prized

Thracian

steeds.

attention,
comrades.
others

ours, is
as

absorbed

by

passionately for the noble animals, he While he clearly enjoys the triumph, his the act of acquisition and by its effect on his

Here,

to see and

in the Thersites incident, he improved morale by allowing honor him. He finally triumphs at Troy because the "horsetemptation to take
ambush an enormous wooden which makes use of

taming"

Trojans

are unable to resist the

horse
a

within

their walls. This

is the only

in Homer

horse. Odysseus is further distinguished from his

peers

by

not

sharing their

atti

tudes towards their forbears. Others

glorious

envision

themselves in the eyes of their

fathers,

as

well

as

their glorious contemporaries.

them or competing with them,

the first lines of the

they somehow Iliad, Achilles is Pelean Achilles;

spear.

Whether revering define themselves by them. From

though greater than
"Tydeus'

his

father, his
He
chides

weapon

is his father's

Similarly, Diomedes is
might

Glaucus for his

boasting

that

they

be better than their fathers

(iv.410),
1

and

prayers

to Athena recall

her former

main claim

10-12),

help deferring to Agamemnon

who could

to her

for himself (x. 284-94).

loyalty to Tydeus, his Emphasizing his youth (xiv.

and

(iv. 401-02),

to

the elderly Nestor

(vm.ioo),

Ten Agamemnon tells Diomedes to

25.

be his father (ix.58), he is preeminently a son. In Book choose a partner for the scouting mission:
disagree,
there

Though

some commentators

does

not seem

to be any horseback riding

in

the Iliad. The

Odxssey description
Iliad

striking
26.

when one remembers

him riding the board in the he does not use horses.

of

sea as

if it

were a

horse (v.31) is

The

end of the

signals the end of the

heroic horseman.

26

Interpretation
not thou out of reverent

And do

heart leave the better

237-39)"

man

behind,

and

take as

thy
not

comrade one that

though

one

is worse, yielding to reverence, be more kingly, (x.

and

looking

to

birth, nay,

Odysseus especially qualifies by virtue of his own abilities. In the Iliad he appears to be almost self-made; his military virtues do not seem to derive from his father who, though a grandson of Zeus, seems to have been a lesser warrior than the fathers of his comrades. In contrast to his semidivine peers, the divine lineage lived to
of

Zeus-born Odysseus is
unlike

not emphasized.

Laertes

once

fought

great

battles, but

Tydeus

and other warriors of

the preceding generation, he

return

home;

perhaps

this is the virtue Odysseus inherited from him.

reminds not

When Odysseus

prays to

Athena he

her that
of

she

has

always

been his

friend (x. 278-82). In the Iliad he does

voyage address uses

boast

his ancestors,
names.
neither

and on the
warriors

home he disguises himself Odysseus

as

under

different

family

Other he

"son

Laertes,"

of

but in the Iliad,

nor

Homer

the

patronymic.
Odysseus'

On his

maternal side

too,
and

excelled all men who

in thievery

oaths"

ancestry is atypical. Autolycus, "who (xix. 395-96), was a self-made man

seems to

apparently stole, rather than inherited, his possessions. He thrived in what be almost a different world from that of the grandfathers mentioned in
of

the daylight battles

"keen-sighted,"

the Iliad.

His

patron was

Hermes,28

Zeus'

swift-footed,

and eloquent messenger. sador

Hermes
protect

serves as an efficient ambas

a

to Calypso and helps Odysseus

himself from Circe. He is

especially
merchants.

traveller and a guide

associated with
mentions

for

much-travelled

men,

He is

lowly

him

when

tasks, he

rather than grand of

gestures; the disguised Odysseus

"boasts"

Iliad he quickly
the

yields

glory,
of

declining
and

his ability as a servant (xv.3i9ff.). In the to fight with the other gods (xv.211),
would not

and even says that

boasts
about

his defeat

disturb him (xxi. 498-501). In

says

Odyssey
shame

song

Ares lie

Aphrodite, he

laughter for

of all

the gods and goddesses

could

the latter are

he gladly would risk the said to have stayed home

if he

with the goddess

(viii. 339-42). The Homeric Hymn

Hermes'

speaks of
called

shifty craftiness; he too is polumetis and polutropos and is

the night"; the

"comrade

of

Phaeacians

pour

the

last libation

of

the

day

for him (vii.

never

136-38).

Hermes is equally guiding influence

of

comfortable

shines, and on earth,

mortals

to

Hades, where Helios Hades and (sometimes) back

friend.29

in

again.

Odysseus

shows the

this old

family

But Odysseus is

somehow

better than Autolycus, less dependent

giver of good
things,"

on

his

grandpaternal protector. gain.

Hermes, "the

is

associated with
propi-

Odysseus, like
The general, Homer
ancestry. as

all

merchants and

thieves, takes

advantage of the

27.

usual,

distinction between
28.

conventional and natural

is protecting his brother, and, thus, is forced to recognize the superiority which he rejects in Book One.
not

makes

Hermes the patron,

the

father,

of

Autolycus,

again

human
29.

emphasizing his

On Hermes,

see

Walter F. Otto, The Homeric Gods: The Spiritual Significance of Greek

pp.

Religion (Boston, 1964),

104-24.

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

tious moments provided
Odysseus'

27
when all men

by

the

god.

But
not

except

in times

of

war,

appropriate,

holdings do

increase

by

direct theft. He is
ambiguous as

stealthy,

but,

unprovoked, he does not simply steal.

Furthermore,
shall

it is, his

acquisition seems

less like

simple selfish appropriation than that of as

we

Autolycus.

Despite

Odysseus'

autonomy he is,

see, always the husband of

Penelope, father
irreverent
old

of

Telemachus,

and

the lord of Ithaca. Much more than the

a self responsible

thief who named

him, he is

for

others.

His life

differs greatly from that at his did give him gifts, he did not properly will his stolen possessions to his descendants; the helmet passes to his grandson from others. Like his grand
grandfather's mountain camp.

Though Autolycus

father, Odysseus is
steals,

"skilled

he
of

more custom

often
and

limits

but, just as he acquires rather than equivocates than lies; repeatedly, he circumvents the oaths without openly violating them. Autolycus, like
at

the oath";

Hermes,

was

known

as

a thief and a
not

liar,

while

Odysseus is

reknowned

as

"many-wiled."30

One does

boast he

of

descent from Autolycus,

to

and when

Odys

seus prays

in the

night ambush,

appeals

Athena,
himself

not

to Hermes. Resem

bling
Troy.

the

conventional

Laertes

and

the unconventional

Autolycus, he keeps his

as

distance from both

Odysseus'

and remains the measure of

does

no other

hero

at

differences from his

readers are

comrades are reflected

in his heroes

relations with

them.

Many

disturbed

by
of

the isolation of this only son of an only

other

son, the
men. even

grandson of

the

lone

wolf

(Autolukas). The

are mainland

Odysseus is like the island

his birth,

separated off

toward the

dark,
sleeps

from those in its vicinity alone, within his tent (x.140). Though
never see

(ix.25-27)31

In the Achaean camp, he

we

hear in

of several good

friends,32

we

him

with

a close companion or

a private

conversation

at

Troy.

Unequipped for
are

chariot
not

battle

with a partner

during

the

day, his

night exploits

directed, if
but

initiated, by

him. He devotes himself to the

might raise

needs of

his

companions

always seems

detached. This distance

with another

the question

whether such a man can

be friends

like himself,

as well as with

son, servants,
complement

especially with a woman whose qualities his own, but who is, by definition, other.
and

correspond

to or

B. The Human Being:

Keeping

in Touch

Heroic

warriors

die far from home.

world of men.

Striving

for

godlike glory,

they

separate

Odysseus'

themselves

from the

ships at

Troy
his

are

located

near

the

Hermes'

steals Apollo's 30. In the Homeric Hymn the infant Hermes favorite is descended from cattle rustlers, but he is distinguished

cattle.

The

grandson of

by

refusal

to violate the oxen

of

the
31.
32.

sun.

Austin,
One

p. 97-

importance of four lost comrades: Leucas, after whose only speculate about the Polites (the name is of interest perhaps), whom he Trojans several (iv.491); death Odysseus kills dearest and trustiest of his comrades (x.224); Eurybates, honored because he was
can
says

was

the

likeminded

with

himself (xix. 247); Iphitus.

could

who gave

him the

great

bow. but

was slain

by

Herakles

before the

friendship

develop

(xxi.l4ff.).

28

Interpretation
the gods (xi.8o8).
with gods

altars of

Repeatedly
not

noted

for his

piety,33

he does

not attempt

to strive

in battle. It is

oracle will others.

later

exhort men

to know

Despite his heroic

stature as

necessary for Athena or Apollo, whose themselves, to check Odysseus as they do a man (aner), he is distinguished from his remembering that he is distant
a

comrades

by

steadfastly
observed

and

insistently

human

being

(anthropos)
We have but
Odysseus'

somehow

relations with

his comrades;

we must also notice

that there is a peculiar tension between their desire for

transcendent glory and their relations with others. Though we are moved
attachments of
which

by

the

Glaucus
sends

and

Sarpedon,

and

the two

Ajaxes,

the speeches with

Achilles

Patroclus to battle

show

that he who would

be the best
way.

of

the Achaeans can share with his friend only in a very ambiguous

The

desire for
enemies.

battle-glory
Achilles is

requires that one outshine one's

Patroclus'

friends

as well as one's

never so much
"destroyed"

friend

as when the as well

latter is dead;
"lost"

Achilles knows that he has

(xvm. 82) (xvm.
and

(ton apolesa),

as

him

that he has

failed

"light"

as

to his other comrades as well

101-03).
outshine others

While the desire to

by
the

there is a greater likelihood of common victory. Achilles

lines

of

the

Iliad,

and

we

soon

see

assembly
comrades.

of peers.

But the
success

Shared

is

Odyssey more likely

in the opening he has difficulty participating in an begins by speaking of Odysseus and his
alone

intelligence may is

also

be competitive,

to be found in

ambush and council

than in

battle;

men confer together

conception and

planning
of

of clever

in the assembly place, and, even when the deeds are attributable to one superior intelli
Achilles'

gence, the execution of strategies often requires others as well.

are at

ships

the end

the

line, but

Odysseus'

are

in the

central place of

assembly
twenty-

(xi. 6, 806-7). His

places of the
year absence

long

voyage

home from the

councils at

Troy

to the meeting

Phaeacians takes him through from Ithaca there have been

cities and noncities.

In his

no proper assemblies on of

the island
Odysseus'

(ii. 26-27). Heroic striving lifts one out of the councils desire to return home restores him and Ithaca to proper
33.

men; but
political

human

life.

Attentive to

signs and omens,

cases.

he

expose

himself in doubtful

his piety is never simple dependence on the gods. Nor does After the sack of Troy, Atreus sons dispute about whether to
with

remain

to appease Athena. In this evening council which

not participate.

Odysseus does Zeus

He leaves

Menelaus

and others,

is ill-timed, disorderly, but when they

he does

and

besotted,
into Zeus
and

run

storm, polutropos
even

remarks on

Odysseus turns back to Agamemnon. his sacrifices.

"remembers"

Apparently

not offend

Athena,

34. A full account of the way he his humanity would consider cannibalism, incestuous marriages, and a variety of arrangements for living together in families and in cities The present discussion concentrates on Odysseus in the light of great men. In exploring the ways in which a superior man remains true to his nature, it cannot consider in depth the subhuman alternatives he meets.

images considered below are also discussed in a book published after this essay See Chapter 9 "'Poetic Visions of Immortality for the Hero") of Gregory Nagy s Tlie Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, 1979), pp. 174-210.
of

Some

the

was written.

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

Even the
eages emphasis

29
lin

by

Diomedes These

and others on their patronymics and give present relations

with

whose names

them.

up live up to. as well as those to whom they transmit Tydeus left for Thebes when Diomedes was a child (vi. 222-23). Though

is curiously

abstract.

men

those

they

strive to

the son

finally

completed

the sack of the city besieged

by

the

father, they
return

never

fought together. Exertion

carried to an extreme prevents

the hero's

to see

his
will

own children

(v. 408-9).
wife

Sarpedon,
and child

whose

father's

plan requires

his death, battle

not

return

to his

(v. 685-88). Before his

greatest

Achilles is

by his immortal mother, but heroic death separates him forever from his mortal father who, nevertheless, outlives his son: "For I am
embraced
not

there to

bear him

aid

beneath the

rays of the sun

(xi.498). Achilles

had hoped that Patroclus

(xix. 328-33).

would acquaint
of

his

son with

his holdings

at

home

In Hades he knows
great pathos
whose

(xi. 504-40). There is

the ambassador
.

Neoptolemus only by his reputation in his dependence on the report of Odysseus,

from life,
when

as the gates of
most

Hades."35

wily words Achilles had once called "hateful The terrible price the heroes pay for their glory is
parts

felt

keenly

Hector
will

from his

wife and

infant

son.

Like Achilles

he hopes that his for

boy

father (vi.497). But the

child glory. whom

price of

someday be considered a greater fighter than his future glory is the loss of present contact; the from him

he dies is
with

separated

by

the helmet

he

uses to win that

Like Achilles

the shade of Patroclus (xviii. 99-101), Hector with his

of embrace.

helmet on, determined to die, is deprived

He is already

out of

touch with the living. Andromache weeps with her handmaidens "while he yet

lived; for they deemed

The depictions
which

that

he

should never more come of

back from battle him.

(vi. 501-2). His parents, like those

of

Achilles,

outlive

human

mothers

the heroic life

is

opposed

in the Iliad convey powerfully the way in to the life of birth, nurture, the family, home.

Hecuba mourning for Hector, Andromache forseeing slavery for her son, and the mythical Niobe weeping for her children, make vivid the difference be
tween the
whom warriors who exhort

each

other

to "be

and the

women

for

they originally
overcome

went

to war.

In

extreme moments of

these men strain their

bodies to
always

the natural

temporality

these bodies. Their women

live

in time. Their

rhythms are natural and

ing, bathing,

clothing, shrouding, and

burying

they devote themselves to feed bodies.36 In a particularly mortal

no
not

harsh exhortation, Agamemnon warns his softer brother to let "not the man-child whom his mother bears in her womb; let
"

Trojan go,
even

him

escape, but let

all perish together

(vi. 57-59).

Odysseus,
35.

though absent

in

war and

lost

at

sea, keeps in touch.

Escaping
delicacy
his first

There is

no reason
mere

to think Odysseus lies. Achilles never

Odysseus'

appreciated

that tact and

and

may be between
address

lies

and

full

openness.

remarks

about

Achilles

to Nausicaa provide further examples.

"cause"

36.

Helen,

the

of

the war,

differs;

she

weaves their stories

to insure their immortal

reputations.

30

Interpretation

from the sea, he kisses the earth. Though he can no longer hold his mother in Hades, he lives to embrace his son. His references to himself as "father of
Telemachus"

of the as a

Odyssey. Cut

in the Iliad (11.260, iv.354) suggest the return which is the subject off from home and dependent on himself, he views himself
past

founder.37

link between
"Laertides."

On the way home he is, once again, a middleman, a restorer, a and future: polutropos. Now he too refers to himself as
most

His

important battle is the

reports

one

he fights
at

side

by

side with

his

father

and

his

son.
of

The

he fabricates

contain

least

one

truth about
unto

himself. He tells
tenth

the treasure Odysseus had accumulated:

"verily

the
xix.

generation would

it feed his

children after

him

(xiv. 325-26,

294-95).

He leaves for his descendants

security.

ble,

material

Once
and

more

only a respectable name, but tangi he is distinguished both from those who
not
who want

collect

booty

from greed,

from those
glory.

trophies to be used

who will

themselves die

for
is

Odysseus'

goods are

the

means

by sons by which
the

one maintains a

family
can

through time.
not so

This diverse
women; in him
nature. of

anthropos

implacably

alienated

from the

world of

be

seen

feminine

as well as masculine aspects of

human

Though he

condemns those who would

flee, he

speaks with

sympathy home

their

longing for home

in the

(11. 291-97). Even in war, his function

the

as peacekeeper

and provider

night suggests

less exposed, darker

is
appropriate.
concern

concerns of

economics, the rhythms of a household in time. His rational planning

plemented

is sup

by

an

intuitive

sense of what

Protected

by

divinity
attached

who combines masculine

daring

with

feminine

for life, he is
of

especially to his maternal line. I have suggested in the foregoing that the
sees

complex sees.

intelligence

Odysseus

deeply

and

is

able to articulate what

he

But the

protege of

far-seeing

but essentially practical Athena differs from philosophers as well as from warriors. In pursuing understanding and glory, the contemplative man and the heroic
warrior

have in

common their ultimate

disregard for

man's perishable
of

body. Socrates,
see the

as well as

Achilles,
and

turns away from the

feasts

his fellow
wish

mortals; he too is remarkable for his ability to things that are forever the
wish

do

without sleep.

The

to

to be seen forever are accompanied

yearning for uninterrupted light, and imply a wish to remove oneself from human flesh and human time. The shadowy Odysseus, on the other hand, is an

by

articulate advocate

for

man's mortal

flesh, his

need

for

sustenance and sleep.

wine"

Glaucus (xii.320) and Hector38 (vi.258) forgo "honey-sweet as they enter battle. Achilles claims that his anger is sweeter than honey to him (xvin. 108-10). But Odysseus, as Agamemnon and countless critics since have
Sarpedon
and

noticed, is repeatedly

identified

with

food.39

He is the only

great

warrior

in

37. 38.

See Benardete, p. 57. Hector's son will be excluded from the

common meals as a result of

his father's defeat

eat three

(xxii. 496-98).
39.
meals

An amusing objection to the authenticity between sunset and dawn!

of

Book Ten is that Odysseus appears to

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

Homer to
weapons

31
use

use

the word

"belly"

(gaster),*0

and, as

we

have seen, to

his
a

to hunt.

The

semidivine

Achilles is

sustained

by

the gods

with

transfusion of ambrosia, used elsewhere to maintain the

pedon

dead bodies
184-87).
a

of

Sar
man

(xvi. 670), Patroclus (xix. 37-39),

. . .

and

Hector (xxm.

"A

that is mortal

eateth a

the grain of

Demeter"

(xm.322);
Homer
the earth,

monster, the

Cyclops, is
Odysseus
warmed

not

like

bread-eating
food
of sun.

man"

(ix.

190-91).
on

emphasizes that

requires this

mortals,

grown

in the

seasons

by

the

life-giving

Calypso dines
now

on ambrosia and
Hermes'

nectar, as did

Hermes, but
"mortal
wine

she gives
eat"

Odysseus,

sitting in

chair, the food that

men

(v. 194-99),

and remembers

to give him

bread,
eat.

water,

and

for his journey. He kisses the earth, "giver of Gods enjoy a feast as much as men, but they do not
sweet

grain"

(v. 462-63,
need

xiii. 354).

to

The

odor and

taste of nectar and ambrosia give pure pleasure to the senses of autono
complete

mous,

beings; bread is necessary

that a

to

fill the

emptiness of perishable

beings
ship,

who are not self-sustaining.

Human eating, like human marriage, friend

mortal must maintain contact with some

and cities, shows outside

thriving

thing
for

himself in

order to complete

himself.
not
feast"

Odysseus'

good

eating, like his marriage and his city, is life. Thus, he urges that the "plentiful

merely for life, but before the battle be a

formal
bodies

reconciliation with

Agamemnon (xix. 178); the

chief ambassador

is

ever

a master of ceremony.

He knows that

feasting

sustains

men,

not

only because
event,

need

food, but because breaking bread

It is
a time
whose

with other men

is

a social

a communion.

among

men

for speech, ceremony, and sacrifice to the gods time is marked, not only by days and nights, but by the
of meals

taking
do

of meals.

The human taking hear

of

takes

time.41

In the Iliad those

who

not eat

like

other men are we

those who seek to be superior to other men. In the

Odvssex, too, like men: the

those who have neither the time nor the habits to eat

Aegisthus'

suitors,
and

banqueters,

the

Cyclopses, Laestrygonians,
Helios'

Lotus-eaters,

the

sailors who cannot abstain

from

cattle.

The

mo

tives and behavior of these two groups differ greatly. But once one abandons the
manner and manners of

men, it may
where

be difficult to distinguish between he meticulously

out of the
plea shares

gods

beasts. After the embassy ambassadors, Achilles moves steadily

and

his food
of

with

the

community

human

eaters.

In Book Twenty-One he

refuses

Lycaon's

for mercy

on

the ground that

they'd eaten together, and

ens

feeds him to the fish (xxi.

346-48).

122-27).
at

Later he threat

to eat the

corpse of

Hector (xxii.
eats
Achilles.42

Only

the very end does

he

accept

his mortality; then he

about

with

the aged Priam.

There is something
refuses much more

inhuman

the

wrath of

In refusing food, he

than bread
40.
41.

and wine.
p.

Stanford,

69.
of

See the description

his

return of

Chryseis (l.339ff.),

feasting

day. Norman Austin, "The Function of Digressions in the Iliad": Essays Modern Criticism, ed. John Wright (Bloomington, Indiana, 1978), p. 80.
42.

ceremony that lasts all on the Iliad: Selected

Wrath (minis) is
anger, though

used

Odysseus'

fully justified,

only for Achilles and the gods. Other never becomes minis.

warriors

feel

anger

(kholos).

32

Interpretation
too is a sign that one
Odysseus'

Sleep
night

belongs to the human

Cyclops'

community.

ambush,

his

vigilance and

in the

cave,

and

his

wakefulness

in

Aeolus'

cattle, extraordinary guarding His ability to keep his eyes open distinguishes him from Polyphemus, Elpenor, and the drunken suitors. But Odysseus, the associate of Hermes,
ness.43

bags

Helios'

are evidence of

alert

recognizes

the

need

for "honey-hearted
night

sleep,"

the
sleeps

prerequisite within

for the

next

day's
at

activities.

Before the

raid, he

soundly

his tent;
to return

skilled

lying in

ambush, he

knows
with

when

to lie in bed. Achilles

refuses never of

to relieve the

Patroclus'

pain of

death

sleep

as well as

food. Fated

home,

he only

rests

Odysseus'

awakenings.44

than

watch

"sleep homecoming is a delicately alternating pattern of sleeps and Arriving exhausted in Scheria, he prudently decides to sleep, rather all night. When he finally approaches Ithaca he is fast asleep. He
as warriors and

finally,

do, in death, the

bronze."

wakes,

refreshed

wary,

for the tense days intuitions.

not

ahead.

Penelope's restoring
rationality,
unlike

sleeps are encouraged guidance

by
of

her husband

who appreciates

that sleep may provide

in the form its

modern

dreams
does

Odysseus'

and

some of

descendants, does

demand total enlightenment; know

the dark. On the night

ing

how to

work at night

not mean

lighting

before
are

the slaughter of the suitors, both Penelope and Odysseus are sleepless.

We

briefly
in

reminded of

striking.

Odysseus

yields to
watch

Achilles, Athena,
the
and

restless

for revenge, but the difference is "There is

through"

more

who urges sleep: night put off

weariness also

keeping Only

wakeful

whole

(xx. 52-53). When the

until

suitors are

dead, Odysseus
then do

Penelope

sleep
great

they have
whose

told their

tales.

they

close their eyes

in the
come

bed
at

identification
man

has

proved

that wide-eyed

Odysseus has

home;

last the human

sleeps with

his human

wife.

The

godlike

"Would that I
538).
ences

might

heroes pursue, and, in a way, achieve, immortal glory be in this way immortal and ageless all my
shades
an

by

dying: (vm.
refer

days"

They

end as

fixed forever in Hades. There for

some great

are

intriguing

in Homer to

alternative end

warriors.

Menelaus.

lesser man, but

and of

a son-in-law of

Zeus,

will

be transported "to the Elysian

that resembles

plain

the bounds of the

earth,"

to abide in

a realm

Olympus, free
the goddess
she

the

seasonal variations which make

life difficult for

mortals on earth (iv.561-

69). It

reminds us of the

island

Calypso holds Odysseus

persuade
43.

by

of ease where, we have just heard, force (iv. 556-58). For seven years and ageless all
days"

tried to

him to become "immortal

my

(vii. 257), but he

It is impossible to discuss these incidents at length here. Some say that Odysseus alertness his men is responsible for his fatal sleeping in the Aeolus episode.'and that his talk of suicide and folly are signs that he recognizes his own responsibility for the disaster. But Homer's descriptions of the men throughout the poem (Cicones,
and suspicion of
"our"

suggest

that

Odysseus but in

Circe, Lotus-eaters,
errs not

Helios'

cattle)
nor

was not

simply wrong

not

to trust them. He
Return"

falling
44.

asleep,

failing

to realize that

in staying awake,
ed

in

they

would not

trust him.

See Charles Segal, "Transition in

1974). pp.

Odysseus'

in The Odvssev,

(New

York,

Albert Cook

47off., for

discussion

of

sleep

after the arrival at

Scheria

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

continued

33

to weep his

mortal

tears on her "immortal

raiment"

(vii. 259-60). As
who

he emphatically tells Alcinoos, "I am not like the heaven, either in stature or in form, but like mortal

immortals,
men"

hold broad

(vii. 208-10). Offered

something like an apotheosis, he chooses to remain a human being. Another warrior, far greater than Menelaus, is actually transformed from a man to a hero to a god. Homer refers from time to time to Herakles, whom Odysseus Zeus
encounters at several

important

moments

in his life. A

comparison of

these two great

of

labouring

strove with

never

do (viii. 225).

are bowmen, but the son immortals, something the son of Laertes says he would Both sack Troy, but in contrast to wily Odysseus, Herakles
returns to avenge and

heroes is instructive. Both

is merely a he-man, who hired him for his brawn,

reward

himself

upon the

Trojan

king

who

failed to deliver the horses he had

suggests grounds

promised as

(v. 638,

xx.145).

Homer
slain

for Odysseus to hate Hera Odysseus had begun his

a

kles. The

son of

Zeus had

Iphitus,
neither

with

whom

friendship."

"loving
table which

With "regard
set

for the

wrath of

the gods nor for the

slew guest and
which

he had

before

him"

(xxi. 27-30), Herakles

come

kept the horses the young Odysseus slays the suitors memory
times of
servitude
men of

man

had

to claim.

The bow
and

with

was and

given to

him

by

Iphitus

kept in

loving

him. In his birth

death too, Herakles departs from the

of

ways and

human beings. Homer tells

(xix. 95- 124),
and of

his delayed birth, the

cause of

his later
of other

his death which, though fated like those

the same as theirs.

(xvm. 117), is
not

nevertheless not

Odysseus figures

meets who

him in
are re

Hades,

among the

great warriors,

but

with

mythical

membered more as

symbols than as particular

human beings. Herakles is be

But Herakles

tween these two groups, a semidivine warrior with a human name, who, like

Achilles,
dies

mingled with gods and

centaurs, as
meets

well as with men.

differently

from Achilles. Odysseus

"he himself among the immortal gods to the goddess Hebe (xi. 60 1-04). Homer

only his phantom in Hades, for and is married takes his joy in the
feast"

mentions
of

only

the

last labour

of

Herakles, in
truly

which

he

carried off went

the

hound

death itself. Living, he

return there.
phantom

to the realm of the

Hades, apparently overpowering he does not dead;

"dying,"

His

inspires terror

around

the dead heroes. When

seems to suggest absorbed

he

meets

him; he is not part of the chatty world of Odysseus, he recognizes him immediately and
akin

that, in his suffering, Odysseus is in himself that he does not even wait for
goes there to
men

to him. But he

is

so

an answer.

Odysseus
will

also

goes to

Hades, but he
the

be told
at

of

his

own will

death: it
not will

differ from death

pre

those

of

fighting

he knew

Troy; he
and

embrace
come

maturely.

But there is

no

doubt that he

"himself"

again

to the

dark

realm.

chooses

In choosing to leave Calypso to return to Hades.

to return

home, he unequivocally

34

Interpretation

C. A God: Hephaestus down-to-earth hero in Homer, crafty (polumetios: xxi. 355) Hephaestus is the most down-to-earth His life and character are frequently reminiscent of Odysseus. After Zeus threw him from the threshold
most
god.45

As Odysseus is the

of

Olympus, he dwelled in Lemnos among

whose

the

Sintians,

an unheroic

band

of

brigands
piracy.

name

Later,
heart"

when

(from sinomai, to plunder?) may suggest their early his single parent, his mother, again hurled him down, two

female divinities
in his Now
tions.

rescued

him from the Odyssean fate

xiii. 90).

of

(xvm. 397, i.1-4,

For

nine years

suffering "many woes he was protected in a knew

where

cave surrounded

by Oceanus,
Zeus'

and neither gods nor mortals nevertheless retains

he

was.

subservient

to

order, he

his

matriarchal connec

In the Iliad Hephaestus is

mediator, speaker,

master of ceremonies.

Like

Odysseus,
appears over

we see

him

often at a threshold or of

in the twilight
and

honor

the affairs

standing at a gateway. He first Book One, arguing that if Zeus and Hera wrangle of men, there will be no "joy in the goodly
feast"

(1.575-76). While

insisting

on

the need to submit to the order established

urge

by

Zeus, he
"endure"

also

appeases

Hera. He is the first in Homer to

the sun goes

someone to

(tetlathi) (i.586). As
Like Odysseus
and

down, he

pours wine and serves

sweet nectar.

who provokes

the Achaeans to rare

laughter (at

Thersites
the
gods.

Oilean Ajax), Hephaestus

presence

evokes

"unquenchable

laughter"

His

in the Iliad

points to a world

among beyond the tragic glory of

honorable battle.
In the
and

Odyssey

also, Hephaestus makes the gods laugh. In the ballad of Ares

craftiness of the

Aphrodite the
(viii. 329),
bed"

divine

craftsman proves that

youths.

"slow

catches

swift"

Odysseus'

lesson to the Phaeacian

Hephaestus is the

Homer.46 Ares is like the suitors, who aim to only married god, besides Zeus, in husband.47 "share the of a Hephaestus never challenges him to open com

bat.

the smith successfully ambushes his enemy, whose physical destructiveness vie with his own intelligence and creativity for the beautiful but weak Aphrodite. Here too Hephaestus recognizes the need to forgo personal honor. He rightly exposes the intruder but, like Hermes, he
strength and

Rather,

doesn't
justice
release

seem

to mind

of punishment

exposing his own shame as well. Nor does he demand the beyond exposure. He yields to Poseidon's pleas for
Ares'

because it

would

not

be

"seemly"

to

deny

him (viii. 358). The two

Hephaestus'

versions of

marriage

in Homer's

poems resemble other marriages.

When
45.
earth.

courted

by

the powerful forces of might and

whom

desire,
spends

unstable

Beauty, like
mortals on

Unlike Hermes,
more a

he

sometimes resembles,
a go-between.

he

time

among the

Hermes is

messenger,

46.
P-

Kenneth John

Atchity, Homer's Iliad: The Shield of Memory (Carbondale, Illinois,

1978),

137-

47. The story points also to the adultery of Agamemnon's wite. Clytemnestra, referred to repeatedly in the Odyssey, and to the Paris-Helen story in the background of both poems.

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

35
as shal as
of

Helen, compliantly follows. After

low
and as

the

incident,

she returns to

Cyprus,

lovely

as ever. of

in Book Eighteen

the

legitimately united with crafty intelligence, Iliad, this same Beauty appears as Charis, a model

When

hospitable,

prosperous

fitting
fire
of

partner

domesticity. Here, like Penelope, she seems to be to her husband. But we must explore the likeness further.
on

Excellence
himself is

Hephaestus.48

not

battlefield repeatedly is identified with the unquenchable But though men may fight like blazing fire, Hephaestus usually a shining battle god. He interferes only once in battle, to
the

hide the

son of his Trojan priest in night (v. 9-24). Homer describes the fighting Hephaestus only once, after Hera reminds him that others expect him to halt the river Scamander. He neither boasts nor glories in this task, but does the job and departs when told to. Here we see not fiery display, but an effective instrument
of

destruction. More

directly

than
an

end of conflict:

burned ships,

hand-to-hand combat, immolated city. Heroic

and

the

flames

signal

the

combats cease when

the embers
pyres.

of

burning

buildings die out,

power of

bodies have been

consumed on

The fire that has the

to

destroy
on

has

also the

capacity to create, to
works at
shield

forge. Detached from deeds

night at a remote who will not see

glory

the daylit

field, Hephaestus

forge. His
it
as

for Achilles, he holds it before him in battle. We do not know what

most wondrous
upon

invention is the
hear

Achilles thinks
and

as

he

"gazes"

it, but

we

much about
maker of

its

size, weight,

especially its shining fiery resplendance. The different of it, one which at first seems to
"view"

the armour

has

resemble that of

Odysseus,
a small

who also maintains comment on place

some

distance from Human

and

weapons.

The

pictures on the shield

the main action of the Iliad. Heroic combat occupies only

of mortals.

in the lives

reputations are not everlasting; gods are named.

gods shine out singer music

among the rest,

only the

only the There is no heroic

on

to immortalize the deeds of the

anonymous

fighters

the shield; all

is

wordless except of

the pleasant

the passing

time. The elaborate

linos song mourning the end of summer, dances fade at their last steps. On the round
in time is
emphasized.49

shield the cyclical

women

life

of all

nature

Young

men and

in

circle

garlands

dance in circles, marry, have children, The

men also settle

plant

and

harvest, feast,
is
surrounded
Hephaestus'

and grow old.

disputes

and

fight battles. All

by

the river Ocean and the

regular circles of

the

heavenly

bodies.

view undercuts the view of the

heroic he

warrior even as

he dresses

him for
48.

glory.

Little is

permanent

in the

world

depicts.50

Cedric H. Whitman, Homer

I2ff.:

and the

Heroic Tradition (New York, 1958), 128-53,

and

Benardete,
49.
and

Agamemnon (xi. 155-61), Hector (xvii 87-89), Achilles (xvm 205-10)

of circle motifs and conflation of time on the shield, see

For discussions
97ff.

Atchity,

1 77ff.

Whitman,
50.

The

productive art or culture on

the shield

is

as

goes

into

harnessing
house

and

using

nature

into

agriculture rather than

rudimentary as the music. All men's skill high culture. The lovely city and
sense of them as

its

walls,

doors,

and gold swords are mentioned almost swallowed

in passing, but there is little

lasting

artifacts.

This city is

by

the widening circles of part-cultured

fields

and

36

Interpretation
of the smith

But in his description

well

himself. Homer
Hephaestus'

suggests

that making,
a

as

as

doing,

aims at permanence.

works

have

shining

excel

lence

of their

own; he is famed for his art, and he knows that his

the glorious

work

is

as

much a wonder as

hero

who will wear

it

and

that it

will

last

even

longer than that hero (xvm. 466-67). He has

ishable" Menelaus'

also made

Agamemnon's "imper
and

sceptre and

golden
Zeus'

bowl, jewelry for Thetis

and

Harmonia,
doors.

and

the palaces of the gods,

an

collonades,

Hera's

chamber

Hephaestus is
chanical shapen

improvisor

who experiments with movable tripods and me

serving girls who aid a limping god. He repeatedly refers to his mis body. Not swift-footed by nature, he compensates by invention. Interest
always

ingly, he is

described
as
well

as

bustling, in haste,

nimble, signs of his

see

success

ful compensation,
attempting to

as

his lesser dignity. We

in him intelligence In the

overcome

the limitations of

bodily

nature.

Odyssey

He

phaestus appears

in

radiant

Phaeacia,

the land of arts, culture, noncontact sports.

domestic accord, and soft prosperity, the place whose inhabitants delight in stories of the humiliation of Ares. There, like the tripods, maidens, and bel

lows,
youths

ships

move

by

themselves

in

response

to mere

wishes.

Golden

lamp-

light the darkness for banqueters;

days"
. . .

and gold and silver

dogs

are silent,

"immortal

and ageless all their

would

(vii. 92). The

stands

gold and silver palace midst of gardens neither risk

which, it seems,
which yield

never need repair

in the

fruits
We

regardless of seasonal change.

Life here demands

nor patience.

are reminded of

the timeless realms of

Calypso,

the

Elysian

plain,

and

Olympus itself.
suggests

Although Homer
when

a similarity between Odysseus and Hephaestus he differentiates them from the heroic warriors and fighting gods, he

clearly distinguishes the down-to-earth god from the down-to-earth man. Though, from the god's point of view, the glory of mortal warriors is an illu
sion, the inventive
effects of seus artist shares with

these glory-seekers

desire to

counter the

time, to transform radically, and even to conquer, nature. But Odys turns away from artistic, as well as heroic, immortality. His life takes into
the succession
Hephaestus'

account

of

generations, seasons,

and change

depicted

on

the

orderly home in the Iliad might suggest Penelope, but it lacks her child; there is something sterile about his artifice. While the smith's
shield. ornamental golden of grief.

dogs live forever,

Odysseus'

hunting dog

grows old and

dies

That is

somehow right. and

The difference between Odysseus

rials associated with them.

Hephaestus is

seen also unlike

in the

mate

Odysseus'

"shadowy"

palace,
and

the metallic

abodes of the
makes
rial.

gods,

Menelaus,
and

rafts,

bows,

Alcinoos, seems to be made of wood. He beds from lumber, a living, changing, perishing mate
bronze
and other metals of

In

contrast to the man-made

Hephaestus,

wood
and

vineyards, and the

greater untouched world of nature

There

are

sickles,
art

buildings, baskets,
is suggested, it is
picture.

linen, but

no

forgers,

carpenters,

and

weavers.

Though

productive

not

depicted. Hephaestus

seems

to have omitted himself

as well as

Homer from his

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

shines

37

less brightly,

and

is

more subject

to the ravages of time. On the other

hand, working
forge. Precious

with wood metals

is less violent, less disfiguring, than the toils of the must be ripped from the earth and transformed not only fashion
above a

in

shape a

but in kind,

while a most skilled carpenter might

bed

even and

from

living develop

olive

tree.

While Odysseus lifts himself

the

flux

change of
would

the natural world, the offshore

he does not utterly uproot himself or its gifts. He island that the Cyclops seems not to have noticed
would

so

that, like his father's farm, it

Hephaestus'

bear fruits in
physique.

season

(xxiv. 343, ix.131).

He

shares
yet so
narrow

head-and-shoulders

But his

leg

is only
still

marked.

Not

a specialist as the maimed

smith, he
a man

can

fight,

race,
one

wrestle, and swim. Homer

knows that Odysseus is

one

in transit. Once

leaves the
regulate

world of

heroic battle,

begins

an

irreversible

and difficult-to-

to

journey towards Hephaestus. Gazing leads to forging, to controlling, instantly gratifying, and to all the improvements and disfigurements which
such activities. exhibits

accompany

he

the defects

But Odysseus is only of both and the virtues

on the threshold.
ways.

Polutropos,

III. RETURN TO THE LIGHT

The story

of

Odysseus is the story

of a

"return to the light

of

the

sun."51

The

movement of

the

Odyssey

reverses

the dominant direction of the Iliad. On the

night of

the Dolon raid shining

(phaidimosf1

Hector

wants

to light the night with

a dawn victory (vn. 529-38), but by the end of the of time his the dawn is Iliad, fiery funeral. While other men face the rising sun, world. The funeral of Patroclus also begins in the he will enter the dark

fires. He looks forward to

darkness"

morning

when

his

comrades prepare

him to

go

"beneath the murky

(xxm. 5 1). The

pyre

burns

all night:

But
of

at

the hour
earth

when

the star of morning goeth

which

forth to herald light

Dawn

over

the face

the

the star after

even

followeth

saffron-robed

and spreadeth

over

the sea

then

grew

the

burning faint,

and

the flame thereof

died down.

(xxm. 226-8)

Achilles
set

appears

like the beacon fires that light the

and gleams

night when

the sun has

(xvm. 210-14),
xix. 381,

in his

armour

like the

moon

(xix. 375), and stars

Hyperion"

(v. 5,

xxm. 315-17), and

resembles

like "bright

(xix. 398). When he

repeat-

faces Hector he
51.

the rising sun

(xxn.135) But

the sun returns

Odysseus'

See Austin,

pp.

and space, and on 91-105, on the sun as a measure of time

experience as a progress

toward the sun (239-53)-

This
also

and other

discussions have been helpful in

"abstract

considering the
the Iliad.
52.

nighttime events

in both books. See

87-89

on time as an

in

The

word

is

used

although, when

he

rights

mostly for Achilles. Ajax. he, too, is in flaming bronze

and and

Hector,
hurls
a

not

in the Iliad for Odysseus,

spear.

bright

In the Odyssey, he

and Telemachus are

often phaidimos.

38
edly

Interpretation
Achilles is
"short-lived"

while

(mununthadios): he has
would

no

future. Achilles in
view

reminds one of

the constellation on his shield; he

watches

remain

for

ever, like the Bear that

particular star

Orion

and

is
of

never

bathed in Ocean. The

he

resembles

is Sirius, the

Dog
of

Orion (xxn.29). This harvest

shines out withal

Diomedes'

star,

which

helmet

also resembles

(v. 4-6),
.

others

in the dark

of

night; it is "brightest

all"

"yet

among all is he a sign of

evil,

and

bringeth

much

fever

upon

wretched

(xxn. 30-31). On the

night of the embassy,

Achilles

says

he

must choose

imperishable
the morning,

reknown

(ix. 412-16). Unable to

bring

between enduring life and himself to return home in

requests a new shield
of

he

commits a

form

of suicide.

When Thetis

for him,
the

she as

knows he

will never return

home (xvm.440-41). The last book

many have seen, is a preview of Achilles in the land of the Dead. The last book of the Odyssey tells how Hephaestus, who makes his shield, also

Iliad,

rest in the morning in the everlasting dark ness. Hades now seems too great a price for the song and barrow which remind men for all time of the glory that was Achilles for so short a time. made

his urn,

and

burned his bones; he too

was

laid to

(xxiv. 70-73). To Odysseus he laments his

condition

In the
without

Odyssey Odysseus becoming fixed. His

might meet

comes to

be

phaidimos without

dying

in battle.

departure from Hades is precipitated, he says,

the

by

his fear that he

turns

head

of

the gorgon, who,

we

may remember,
to the land
gods

up,
of

living, speaking men to mute even to kill himself, he nevertheless

and

stone.53

Tempted

on several occasions to give

return

regains

his desire to

living changing flesh. The return begins at the moment which the have set for his homecoming (i. 16-18), the right time, the "day of his
He
guides

himself

by

the fixed

Bear, but,

unlike

Achilles, he

never attempts to

imitate it. Though mortal, he is something like the sun in whose direction he sails, a shining source of life which regularly is obscured but repeatedly re
turns.
sea's

Having
dark
with

left Calypso

and

having
hides

avoided

being

covered

(kalupsen)
embers

by
in

the

waves

(v. 435), Odysseus

a man so

arrives at
a

Phaeacia
fire"

and covers

(kalupsato)
an

himself

leaves, "as
. . .

brand beneath the dark

(v. 488-89).
the city in a "thick

outlying farm covers himself to

and

saves

a seed of enters

Repeatedly
mist"

he

recover

himself. He

(vii. 15).

During

the farewell

feast, he impatiently
turn
to return

awaits

his departure:

But Odysseus verily he

all

would ever

his head toward the home. And

blazing

sun, eager to

see

it

set.

for

was eager

as a man

longs for supper, for

whom

day long
and

land,
with

has drawn the jointed plough through fallow for him does the light of the sun sink, that he gladly may busy him his supper, and his knees grow weary as he goes, even so gladly for Odysseus
a yoke of wine-dark oxen

did the light

Achilles'

of the sun sink.

(xiii. 28-36)

prayers
seus'

for

a quick

dawn (ix.240)

point

to eternal night, but

Odys
Ithaca

yearning for
But

night

looks to

a momentous next

day. The

arrival at

53.

some editors

think that Homer is not

referring

to any specific gorgon.

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark

occurs

to

Daylight

39
of

"when the brightest

of stars rose which ever comes to contrast to the year-end

Odysseus'

herald the light

Dawn"

early
Achilles'

(xiii. 93-94). S4 In
actions seem

harvest towards

which all

dawn awakening takes place in early spring; the polutropos aner is a man for all seasons. In Ithaca, fire, which burned the bones of Achilles and Hector, warms the
of

directed,

bones

of

the

man who calls

himself

"Blazes"

(Aithon),

and who

longed to

see

the smoke of this hearthfire (i. 57-59). Though he turns to the dark to avoid

being
light

recognized

("the facts

[amphada]"

becoming
head,
day;

open

(xix. 390),

glints of

are

beginning
sun

to show: we hear of the shirt he once wore,

mocked

which shone

like the be

(xix. 234); his bald

we might

by
he

suitors

and

servants
and

(xviii.

354-55),
will

(shining,

say, like the helmets of Achilles

all night

Diomedes),
lampbearer
the coming

restored

to honor the next

serves as a

living

in his
of

own

halls. When

day
the

comes at

last

feast

day

for Apollo

light is delayed; dark

an eclipse precedes
attack on

the slaughter of the suitors. The battle is

as

and unheroic as

Rhesus: the smoky, tarnished weapons,

unused

for years, send clean-up job. Odysseus

forth

no

gleams; there is no

boasting

or exulting.

This is
that
now

expresses no regret

though some readers have

Antinoos doesn't know

compared

who

kills him. In
the battle

a grim

inversion, Odysseus is
purgative. which

to the sun, not sustaining

after
Penelope55

life, but

as the

final killer (xxii. 388). The

fires that light the halls

seus'

are not

funereal but

Odys

extended night with

his

allies remain

hidden in

night.

only he and In the final daylight battle he fights openly, in is followed

by

dawn in

family
"year The

armour, to insure his

continued

life in Ithaca. One

need not prove

he is

daimon"56

to see that the nighttime

hero

of the

Iliad is

at

world of

the
and

living

is

a world of rhythms measured off predictable

last shining by Helios. The

forth.57

sun god comes

night

goes, in a

pattern, providing light times and

contrast

times,

each of which acquires value seasons of

in

to the other. The same is

more
reverence

true of the
times

the sun. Respect for Helios

than
absolute openness

is

for the
and

the god

makes,

and

clarity.

Mere

lying

punished by the god who violating wives and property in peacetime are sees all; Helios imposes limits, social as well as temporal, on the lives of
Telemachus'

over men.

54.

Other

events

in his
visit

return

also

occur at

dawn:

first

council

and

return

to

Eumaeus'

Hermes'

55.

hut, In Homer,
with no

to Calypso, the escape

from

the Cyclops.

respectable men are with women propriety. women

take note of this

only at night. Even the gods, Zeus and Calypso, In the daytime Hector must leave Andromache, and Achilles and

Patroclus lie Odysseus is

typical

at night.

Only
a

Paris

consorts with a woman

in broad daylight. While

wife

Paris,

neither

is he

Hector, willing
be lengthened

to

sacrifice

life

and

for

glory.

It is

equivocation

for

the night to

so

that he may respectably consummate

his

reunion.

56.

See, for
and

summarizes

1910),

(New York, 1966), which examples, J. A. K. Thomson, Studies in the Odyssey J. Menrad, Der Urmythus der Odyssee und seine dichterische Erneuerung (Lindau, J. A. Scott's attack on Menarad in Classical Philology, xn (1917). 244-52. A simile is

a simile, not an 57.

identity.
Odysseus'
"ephiphany,"

See Austin

on

self-revelation

as an

"coming into

phase"

(pp.

164, 213, 224-25), and

his discussion

of

the dawn formula (67-68).

40

Interpretation

But Odysseus is hailed for his ability to equivocate, and even Hector is not condemned for publicly swearing a false oath. A viable life in the sun is
polutropos: work.

it

requires patient

The hero's
of the
58

aim to giants

the

ways

waiting, willing obscurity, and even undercover live unremittingly in the sun is almost as inhuman as in the land where the sunshine is almost continuous
thought the three hundred and
year.59

(x. 80-86).
cattle of

Ancient

commentators

fifty

sacred

Helios

represented

the days and nights of the

The

men who

them, like Achilles, are immediately relegated to the world of total darkness; like the suitors (ii.284), they "perish in a By providing for variety and change within a formal pattern, Helios con
slaughter
day."

trasts

with

the dark unformed

flux

which

is the

chief

threat to

Odysseus.
strength

Achilles'

failure to defeat Scamandrus

to

shows

that mere human

is

powerless when the elements are

hostile. But

careful attention and even

to the way them to

they
their

function in time may

advantage. when

enable

men

survive

turn

Thus,

men steer

by

the sun and stars, and sail at night and dawn

the winds are favorable. After

cauldron which

Thrinacia, Odysseus is left

to face the

watery

threatens to swallow

him. From dawn till "the hour

when a man rises

fig

tree above

from the assembly for his (xii. 439), he clings to the him, patiently waiting for the keel to reappear. Having noted
pattern of

supper"

the regular

daily

the

whirlpool60

(xii. 105-6), the

man who respected

the sun, escapes from the sea.

Poseidon

menaces

human life

interesting
tasks at
attractions

sight or

encounter, a

only with violence but with drift. An beautiful woman, the demands and fatigue of
not

hand,

make

it

all

too easy to

forget those be

who are close

but distant. The

along the shore may not even

need not choose to

distract. One
years after
cates

lose touch:

Odysseus helps to

sack

powerful; they may merely may just drift away. In the ten Troy, Helios punctuates his time and indi
one waves and

so

his direction; Odysseus may wander Ocean's shores, but he does not merely drift. Repeatedly, the
and

dally

on

his
of

sun god reminds

him

home

this memory

keeps him human.

those who would maintain form and civiliza

But Homer
tion

also suggests that

resisting the violence for him. When Telemachus

by

and

drift

of

Poseidon

must

have

genuine respect
people

arrives

at

Nestor's shores, he finds the

sacrificing to Poseidon. It is not mere politic prudence which makes AthenaMentor lead the procession (iii.siff.). The tides of Ocean and the sights along his shores test our abilities and expand our vision; if we never ventured forth
58.

The beings

and places

Odysseus
Austin
as

sees present a

variety

of

departures from human life in

time.
59.

Austin, 134-35,
in this
about

137-38.

says that

prominent part

poem

[Odyssey]

it does

not

in the opening lines "we discover that time plays a in the But how can one not think of the
Iliad."

Iliad

as a

book

time and memory?

Odysseus

at

Troy

is

essential to provide an alternative to

the time-sense

of

the shining heroes.

earlier noted that
Cyclops'

60. As he had
that of Proteus.

unchanging schedule,

and as

Menelaus had learned

See Austin,

I33ff.

The Undercover Hero: Odysseus from Dark to Daylight

we would

41
of

be Cyclopes. The becalmed

with

and

riskless

civilization

Phaeacia

need

not cope

Poseidon

as others

know him,

complexity, it is somehow lacking.

have

fuller

experience of

Ocean. It is

Only fitting

therefore, despite its through Odysseus do the Phaeacians

and

that after surviving ten years on

the sea, polutropos Odysseus

this

will once more

leave his island to travel inland,

time to a people who have no experience of Ocean.

pursued will once more
most

There,

the man
of

Poseidon has

bring

Poseidon into the lives

others,

serving for the last, and perhaps The night and dawn incidents
to Achilles

important,

time as an ambassador.
as an alternative

of

the Iliad suggest Odysseus

from the very beginning. Odysseus on ambush, in council, on embassies, urging food, reluctant to risk his life for glory, distant from his armour and his comrades, yet constantly in touch with his humanity, is the man
to return. This is especially clear in the night raid of Book Ten, he is repeatedly called When Diomedes chooses him as his companion, he is sure that "if he but follow with me, even out of blazing fire
most

likely

"enduring."

where

might we need

both

"

return

(x. 246-47). As

we

have seen, Odysseus does

when she

not

the prompting that Athena gives Diomedes

return"

tells

him "be

mind

ful

of

(x.509)
a return

Within the Iliad the Doloneia depicts

which resembles
Odyssey.61

(nostos) in

miniature, one

that

difficult,

"honey-sweet,"

yet

return

depicted in full in the

A cunning man seeks adventure, outwits a spy, captures the dazzling fairy-tale horses of a foreign king, and returns just before dawn to the acclaim
of

his

comrades.

The triumphant heroes

refreshed

sit

down to

supper and

"honey-sweet

in the only baths taken by living They Iliad.62 the glorious heroes whose young Unlike in the and unwounded mortals lives end abruptly on the sunlit battlefield when dark night covers their eyes, have just
themselves

Odysseus lives through his

greet

night exploits

and

the harbinger

of

Helios,
the

rosy-fingered

his early morning councils, to Dawn. He thinks less about the

even

"tomorrow,"

distant future than

ten
years

about

journey

to

if

tomorrow may

be

in

coming.

61
Shewan

Some

critics

think the whole book

191

is

an

interpolation from the Odyssey. See Alexander

62

The Lay of Dolon (London, See in contrast, the hot bath

river

1),

and

Stanford for

summaries of

the evidence.
and also

which

the bath in the

that Agenor thinks of

Odysseus'

Andromache is preparing for Hector (xvii. 442-46) just before Achilles kills him (xxi.556-59). See
474ff.

Return,"

Charles Segal, "Transition in

The

Theology

of

Leviathan: Hobbes

on

Religion

Richard Sherlock

University

of Tennessee

In 1666,

some

fifteen

years after the appearance of

attack on of

Leviathan, Sir Charles

regard to appended

Wolseley
alleged

published a

atheism.

scathing At the conclusion

Hobbes especially with Wolseley's diatribe he

his
an

"atheist's
and

catechism"

which expressed view of religion and

Hobbes'

his understanding of its place in human society.

Hobbes'

atheism

Do

you

believe there is

God? belief? be
one.

No: I believe there is

What is the true

none.

ground of your

Because I have
What Because I If there be It
made

no mind there should

other reason

do

you give

for it?

never saw
no

him.
came this world to

God, how

be?

itself

by

meer chance.

After

what manner was

it first

pieced

together?

By

a casual

hit

of

Atoms

one against another.

How

came those
were came

Atoms

so to

hit

one against another?

an

As they Whence

eternally
the

dancing

about, in

infinite
that

space.

reason of

mankind; and

all

order and

regularity

we

find in

the world?

From
A

the meer accidental conjunction of those

men call

Atoms.

What is it that

Religion?
the
world.

politick cheat put upon were

Who

the

first
men

contrivers of this cheat?

Some cunning

that designed to

keep

the world

in

subjection and awe.

Wolseley's
strictures

charges were not new.

He merely
number

repeated the most significant

that

Hobbes faced from

of

his

most

important

critics:

Cudworth, More, Ross, Wallis,

was

and several others.

They

all

held that Hobbes

in fact

an

atheist

and

that this was the most unpalatable aspect of

his
not

teachings. In recent years the

interest in has been

Hobbes'

religious convictions a

has

noticeably
which

abated.

Rather,
of

there

steady flow

of

books

and articles
of

in

"theism"

the

Hobbes is treated

extensively.2

The majority

this

1.
quoted
P-

Sir Charles Wolseley, The Unreasonableness of Atheism Made Manifest (London, 1866) in Samuel Mintz. The Hunting of Leviathan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), Cf.
esp. eds.

392.

Ronald Hepburn, "Hobbes

Hobbes
and

on

the Knowledge of

God"

in R. S. Peters

and

Maurice

Cranston,
1972)
pp.

Rousseau: A Collection of Critical Essays (Garden City: Doubleday, 85-108; Leo Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes (Chicago: University of
1952); D. P.

Chicago

Press,

Gauthier, The Logic of Leviathan

(London: Oxford

University Press,

44

Interpretation
concentrated on

literature has

two questions that

have been taken to be

there

central

to the understanding of his overall system:

(i)

are

reasonable grounds system of

for it

belief in God in especially

work.4

Hobbes'

works3

and

(2) does

the mature

Hobbes,

as

it is

presented

in Leviathan,

require theistic premises

to make

Both
work

of these

and

important in understanding the full range of its broader implications. It seems to me, however, that a fascina

issues

Hobbes'

are

tion with these questions can lead us to overlook some really

pects of

important

as

Hobbes's understanding

of religion and

its relationship to God

politics and

society.

The

question of religion as a set of

human

opinions about and

was

and

his

rela

tionship

to man

interested Hobbes
mature

immensely
philosophy;

an

issue

of crucial

importance in his

political

the question of the truth of

of

theism was not nearly so important.

Roughly
none of

half

Leviathan discusses
works

ob

viously theological subjects.

comparable obvious
needed.

Yet in

his English

treatment
of

of

the reasonableness of theism

per se.

is there any In light of this departure is

indication
This
new

Hobbes'

interests, it

seems to me that a new

departure
with

will start not with

the question of the reasonable

ness of theism

but

the question of Hobbes's understanding of human reli

giousness and the opinions that mankind

has

come

to hold about

God

and

his

dealings
where
begin.5

with men.

any proper What follows is

and more

theism, is what interested Hobbes and it is interpretation of his analysis of religious questions should

Theology,
a

not

preliminary

attempt to unravel the place of religion

in

Leviathan

particularly the

place of

Book III in that

teaching.6

1969); F. C.

1964); Howard

Hood, The Divine Politics of Thomas Hobbes (London: Oxford University Press, Warrender, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: His Theory of Obligation (London:
Hobbes"

Oxford

Press. 1957); A. E. Taylor, "The Ethical Doctrine of in Keith Brown, ed., Hobbes Studies (London: Cambridge University Press. 1965); Willis Glover, "God and Thomas in Brown, ed., Hobbes, pp. 141-168.

University

Hobbes"

3.

On this
God,"

point

see

especially Hepburn, Hobbes. 37 (1962)

pp. 336-344.

and

Keith Brown,

"Hobbes'

Grounds for
Warrender

Belief in
4.

Philosophy

This issue has been One

raised most

forcefully

in the

substantial

debate

over the

thesis.
5.
of

the few who have taken seriously the teachings

are

concerning

religion

in Leviathan is
w

Leo Strauss. His insights

the limits of a more topic that might

highly important
conceived
order to see

and

I have

used

them in this paper.

However,

ithin

broadly
in

essay Strauss

could not offer a comprehensive view of the

be

needed

indicate the
of

relation of

Hobbes's

the

precise reformulation of

clearly the nature of Hobbes's teaching. Also he does not his predecessors and he specifically omits any discussion Christian theology which Hobbes found himself compelled to offer.
views to
Philosophy,"

Cf. Strauss, "On the Basis of Hobbes's Political coe: The Free Press, 1959) pp. 170-196. 6. The
rationale

What is Political Philosophy? (Glen

for concentrating
pp. 71-78.

on

shown, this work

is the

most complete statement of

Leviathan in this fashion is primarily that, as Strauss has Hobbes's mature political teaching. Strauss,
genesis of this problem

Pol. Phil, of Hobbes,

On the
of

in Hobbes,

see

Strauss, Natural

Right

and

History (Chicago: University

Chicago Press. 1953)

pp.

198-199.

The

Theology

of Leviathan: Hobbes

on

Religion

45

I. HUMAN RELIGIOUSNESS

It
of

will

be

recalled that

Wolseley's "Atheists
men"

Catechism"

had

accused

Hobbes

maintaining
the
power

the view that religion

is nothing

more than a

"politic

cheat put
of
of

world"

upon

political

who maintain themselves in positions by "cunning with its aid. Wolseley obviously thought that such a view origin was

religion and

its

false. Whether

such a view

is false may be debated,

closer to that

but it certainly is false to ascribe this view to Hobbes. The view that is ascribed to Hobbes here is perhaps Machiavelli. For Machiavelli
sense that
"virtu,"

held

by

man

does

not seem

to be naturally religious in the

he is for Hobbes. Machiavelli's prince, full of the striving eros of Renaissance has no need of religious convictions that would only
hinder his
striving.

Like

a reincarnated
and

Prometheus the

prince

overturns

the

Gods in

pursuit of

his

own

as a source of public order.

glory The Prince's transcendence

then finds that he

must reinstitute religion of religion allows

him

to refound
society.7

it

as an artifact of will

in the

service of that other great artifact: civil

This, however, is
result of

not quite

Hobbes's

view.

For him

man

is

religious as a

ing

and

his training at the hands of the prince. Social upbring human imagination would account for a person's holding certain spe
not

his nature,

cific religious

beliefs, but

the

fact

of

his

holding

some such opinions

is

rooted

in the

nature of all

men, not

in their

socialization.

Hobbes

argues

explicitly that
unknown.

religion

is the fundamental human

in the face

response

to fear in the face of the

Anxiety
7.
we are

of an unknown and

largely

hostile

natural world gives rise

Machiavelli's

views are scattered throughout

The Prince

and the

Discourses. In the Prince

explicitly told that the prince must maintain the fear of God in his soldiers as a means of keeping them obedient. The implication is strong that this is true for citizens as well (Chap. 12). In
the Discourses the argument is even
more explicit.

There he discusses in the

at

length the

role of religion

in the

founding
is

of

Rome

and

by

extension

its

role

founding
to

of

this section

that

Numa,

the successor of

Romulus, has

instill

any regime. The argument of fear of the Gods in the people

making them governable. Religion, he says, is the "most necessary It is precisely because of his role as a religious founder and assuring support of any civil that Machiavelli believes that the Romans should honor Numa, not Romulus, as their true founder
as a means of

taming

then and

society."

(book I,

chaps.

11-15).
political

In these
regime.

passages

the explicit argument is that religion is a necessary

wrath

adjunct to obedience

any

Fear
must

of

God's

will

do

more than not a

anything

else to

induce
sense

to the law.
position

This fear

be induced
not argue

where

it does

exist already.

In this

Hobbes's
power.

is different. He does
will attempt

that religion

is

necessary

adjunct

to political

In Book III he

to

show

that Christian beliefs can

support absolute

sovereignty,

but this is demonstrated only after considerable effort. Hobbes nowhere argues that a ruler would have to create a fear of the Gods as Machiavelli's Numa did. Such a reaction was natural in man,
not artificial.

The

one was

point

on

which

they both
political

agree

was

that
at

Christianity
as

was

species

of

religious

belief that

disastrous in its
and the

implications,

least

it

was

usually interpreted.
see also

Cf. Machiavelli, The Prince

penetrating Free Press. 1958)
comments esp. pp.

Discourses (New York: Random House, 1950);

the

on these matters 105-110.

in Leo Strauss, Thoughts

on

Machiavelli (Glencoe: The

46

Interpretation

to religious convictions concerning a providential ordering of that natural world.

As human beings

are confronted with a

threatening

and unpredictable

nature,

they

turn to religious

beliefs for

psychological aid and comfort.

The

natural cause of

religion, the

anxiety

of the time to come

For

being

assured that there

be

causes of all

things that

have

arrived

hitherto,

or shall arrive

hereafter; it [is] impossible for

himself
against

a man who

continually
the
good

endeavoreth

to secure
not to

the evil

he fears,

and procure

he desireth,

be in

a perpetual solicitude of the time to come; so that

are over which

provident, are

in

a state

like to that
man, was
on

of

every man, especially those that Prometheus. For as Prometheus,

a place of
as much

interpreted is, the

prudent

bound to the hill Caucasus,

large

prospect where an eagle

feeding

his liver, devoured in the

day

as was repaired
care of

in the night;

so that man, which

the future time hath

or other

his heart

all

the

day

looks too far before him, in the long gnawed on by fear of his anxiety, but

death, poverty
in
sleep.

calamity; and has

no repose or pause of

This
causes, as it
when

perpetual

fear,

always

were

in the dark,

must needs

accompanying mankind in the ignorance of have for object something. And therefore
either of

there

or evil
was

fortune, but
of

is nothing to be seen, there is nothing to accuse, some power or agent, invisible; in which
the
old poets said

their good,

sense perhaps created

it

that some

that the

Gods

were at

first

by

human

fear.8

In Hobbes, fear is the

religious

engine
of

that drives

men

toward political regimes and

beliefs. The fear

bodily

harms

at the

hands

of other men gives rise of the

to man's

imposing

political order on

himself

and

his fellows. The fear

a

unknown natural world gives rise cosmos.

to his

As in Hume, "The

natural

imposing history of

divine

order on nature and

religion"

is the

history

of man's

propensity to
world.9

imaginatively
saw

impose

providential

meaning

on an otherwise

hostile

Machiavelli

both
of

religiousness and religions themselves as artifacts of

who

the political design

politics and was

the prince

himself transcended both

religion and

thus free to refound both. For

or what

Hobbes

religions are artifacts,

but religiousness,
gions

he

calls

"the

natural seed of

is

not.

Reli
(that

themselves are created in the

and the

interplay

between this "natural

different "fancies, judgements and passions of several These differences in passions and imagination account for the different reli gious convictions of mankind, but they do not account for the most fundamen

is, fear)

men."10

tal

fact,

that man

is

homo

religiosus.

8. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan,

pp.

ed.

Michael Oakeshott (New York: Collier Books, 1962) 1:12.

are

87-88;
9.

all references to

Leviathan

to this edition.

The similarity to the views of Hume is striking. In fact most of Hume's argument on the origin of religious belief could have been lifted directly from Leviathan. Cf. David Hume, The Natural History of Religion (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1957).
10.

Lev. 1:12,

p.

90,

also 1:14. p.

1 10-111.

The

Theology

of Leviathan: Hobbes

on

Religion

47

II. THE REFOUNDING OF CHRISTIANITY: LEVIATHAN BOOK III

This dialectic
work within

of nature we

and convention understand unique reshape

forms the

presuppositional

frame

which

can

the place of book III in the mature

and content as
well.

system

of

Leviathan

and

its

structure

Briefly,
make

in book III Hobbes tries to

an

Christian teaching in
of a commonwealth

order to

it

acceptable,

even

necessary

part

founded dismiss

on

the

Hobbesian
opinions

principle of absolute sovereignty.

Since he
to

cannot give

religious
of

as

something to be

outgrown

he tries

an

account

the

fundamental
placed

religious opinions of

his

age that will

allow

those beliefs to

be

in the
we

service of sovereign power. must examine

Thus

book III

on

two separate levels. On the level

of

convention

Hobbes

reinterprets specific

Christian doctrines in
length

order

to render

them less disruptive to his overall political intention. At a deeper level the that Hobbes

fact
the

discusses theological issues

religion.11

at such

at all

is dictated

by

naturalness of ral

Furthermore,
he

the precise way in

which religion

is

natu

to man gives rise to particular political problems and determines the specific

theological

doctrines

which

must address sees religious

in book III. belief

as

As

we

have

noted

Hobbes
world

the response of human

order

beings to the fearful

efficacious

around

them.

Seen in this light, in

religious

to be
to

in providing

an answer

to this

fear,

beliefs

would need

provide a comprehensive view of a providential

God. More specifically, this necessity for a divided into two fundamental sorts of religious

relationship between man and certain kind of teaching can be

opinions.

First,

to answer effec the

tively

to the fear of death there

of the of

would need

to be a

teaching

about

divinely
of

grounded

continuity future life situation

individual through time,

including
must

a view provide

the
a

the person.

Secondly,

religions

for

may know of God's revelatory mediation between God providence on his behalf. God must both pacify the future for man and reveal His activities to man so that man may order his life in accordance with God's
and

man, so that man

will.

However, it is precisely
tive to the
power

these two sets of

absolute

opinions

that are the most

a

disrup

of

an

sovereign.

Belief in

divinely

ordained

afterlife mitigates against

the fear of death at the hands of an earthly sovereign

and undercuts
manner.
1 1

the power of the political regime to compel obedience in this

the accessibility of the
Mintz
and

Similarly, belief in
argued

divine

will

to man renders Hobbes

must

It has been

both

by

by

Glover (see
because

notes

I and 2) that

have
be

believed the

religious

views

found in his

works

no other reasonable explanation can

found for his publishing his understanding he

could
religious questions

such obvious

heretical

teachings.

I think that this

explanation overlooks

of the naturalness of religion per se.

Seen in this light Hobbes

was and

could not

ignore

in his

overall

teaching, especially if he

to

convince

his audience; however,

hardly

remain

content with

Christian orthodoxy

its disastrous implications for any

doctrine

of absolute sovereignty.

48

Interpretation
any human
obedience to

problematic

lesser

sources of authority.

If the

sover

eign cannot compel absolute obedience

to his will then he is

hardly

sovereign

in
of

the sense required

by

Hobbes's

political

teaching. Yet Hobbes's own that this very religious

"fancy"

human

religiousness

leads to the

conclusion

is in

the source of the

religious

greatest

difficulties for

political sovereignty. man's

In

essence

both

belief

and political

sovereignty derive from

fearful if

condition

the world. But their separate answers to the most elemental human

fears

are

fundamentally
of the conclusion

in tension,

tension that must be overcome

political regimes

necessary type are to survive. Hobbes himself clearly in what is perhaps the central passage in book III:
maintenance of civil

points

to this

The
of

life

and

death,

and other of

society depending on justice and justice on the power less rewards and punishments, residing in them that it is impossible hath
a commonwealth

have the sovereignty

should stand where rewards than eternal

the commonwealth;
other

any

than the sovereign

a power of

life

and of

inflicting
of

greater punishments

than

giving greater death. Now seeing

life is

a greater reward than the

life present;
is a

an eternal torment a greater

punishment all men

that

civil war

thing worthy to be well considered of desire, by obeying authority to avoid the calamities of confusion an what is meant in Holy Scripture, by life eternal and torment
than the
eternal.12

death

nature; it

Given this necessity, the

to creatively the future life
reinterpret and with

explicit content of

book III is formed

by
that

an attempt

those two strands of Christian

teaching

deal

with

latter is
whatever

more

the accessibility of the divine will to man. In a sense the fundamental than the former since in Hobbes's epistemology knowledge we have of the future life is dependent on divine revela
spends most of

tion.

Hence, Hobbes
the will of

book III

discussing

the various sources

a
mixture

by
of

which

God is known in Christian teaching. With

penetrating subtlety, brilliant insight and clever elision Hobbes turns Christian ity into a civil religion and the political sovereign into God's lieutenant on
earth.

On

a closer examination of the argument

ways

in book III

we

fundamental

in

which

God
at

reveals

Himself to

man

may single out three in Christian doctrine,

will

each of which

Hobbes treats

in Prophecy, (2) the work of Christ. In the Hobbes did

case
of

mediate revelation

length: (i) the immediate revelation of his in scripture and (3) in the person
revelation
of

and

the

immediate
what

of

the

will

of

God in prophecy,

flatly

denied
to
man

not speak

his contemporaries affirmed; God many simply in this fashion any longer. In reaching this conclusion, he

makes

two moves that are crucial to his approach to prophecy. The

the classical

first
a

move

renders

Christian

notion

of

point of view.
12. 13.

The

second move renders

PP-

prophecy harmless from it

obsolete.13

political

111:38,

p.

325; 11:29.

342-343of

111:36, passim. The reverse of this denial

immediate

contact

between the believer

and

God is the

lengthy

attack on

demonology

in book IV. At the level

of popular opinion

this subject

The

Theology

of Leviathan: Hobbes

on

Religion

49
revelation

The starting
self-justifying. own

point

for this discussion is Hobbes's belief that

not
with

is

not

It does

authority.

carry Since this is the

he turns to

it

an

immediately
"by

recognizable sign of
what most

its

case

Hobbes does

of

his

con

temporaries
known."14

did

scripture

to discover

what marks prophets are

There he finds two fundamental

and, second, the prophet

criteria:

First,

the prophet must per

religion

form
"that

miracles
which

must not

teach any other

second of

than

is already
greater

established."

Hobbes treats the

"marks"

these

first

and

at

length;

with

its

help

he

renders

any

prophetic

teaching

politically harmless in a crucial between church and state a true

sense.

If there is

an established modus vivendi

arrangement.15

prophet could not upset that

Later

on

Hobbes

an argument

reinforces the politically harmless nature of Prophecy with designed to demonstrate from scripture that in the Old Testament

the

prophet was a minister of

the

king

and acted at

his behest

and under

his

authority.

Of

prophets that were so

by

perpetual

calling in

the

Old Testament

some were

supreme and some were

subordinate; supreme were

first Moses

and after

him

the high priests, every

after over

one

for his time

as

long

as

the priesthood was royal; and

the people of the

Jews had

rejected

God,

that

he

should no

longer

reign

them those kings

which submitted themselves to

God's

government were also

his

chief

prophets; and the consulted,

commanded

high

priest's office

became

ministerial.

And

when

God
as

was

to

be

they

put on

the

Holy

Testaments
of

and enquired of

the

Lord,

the

King

them,

and were

deprived

their office when the

king

thought

fit.16

Having

thus

made

prophecy in the making the

classical

Christian

sense

vant, Hobbes

proceeds

to turn the category of

Prophecy

politically irrele into one of supreme in his

regime.

prophet"

political relevance

Since the

truth

by of Prophecy
it is
an

king

the "sovereign

is

marked

by

its

congruence

with

established

theological opinions

prophet"

"mantle

of the

easy move to view the king as having assumed the since he is charged with the duty of maintaining the
subject.17

established

beliefs
more

of

the

may have been

important than the

and

subject of prophecy.

Certainly
iv:45,

the

fears

associated with

demonology
anything that
of

were could

substantial

if

permitted

to remain

would

surely be

more significant

than

be

manipulated

by

the sovereign

authority.

pp. 460-469.

Cf. "Pretense

Inspiritation,"

11:29,
14. 111:32. p. 272.

P-

239an

This is

interesting

move given

his later

comments

concerning the

author

ity

of scripture. 15. 16.

Cf. Strauss "On the Basis

273-274.

p.

185.

111:32,

pp.

111:36, p. 311.
prophets"

17.

111:36,

pp.

315-317-

Hobbesian
power

presentation

of

This teaching concerning "sovereign Christianity. Once the supremacy of civil in

religious matters

is

central

to the

over

strictly

ecclesiastical

has been

established

then the most

essential reformulation of

Christian

teaching has been

religion

not

necessarily

The necessity of this teaching resides in the fact that while teaches of power greater than that held by any sovereign the fears associated with it are as great as those associated with an earthly sovereign (1:14). This follows because
accomplished.

of the

immediacy

of sovereign power and

its

punishments.

This dilemma for

religion can

be

solved

50
The

Interpretation
prophetic mantle of

the

king

is

reinforced

by

Hobbes's

view

that Proph

ecy in the Biblical conclusion follows Hobbes found in

miracles

sense

has

ceased

in the

modern era.
"mark"

The
of

argument

for this

directly

from the

second

true prophecy that

the prophet.

scripture:

the performance of miracles

now

by

Since
in

have

ceased then

ipso facto prophecy has

with

ceased.18

If this

argument

is true then Hobbes is left

modern

the one mark of

Prophecy
sovereign

that

is

still relevant

times, that
the

is,

maintaining the established religious order.

Hobbes
reserves

Since this

latter task is
effect

one that

for the

authority, we are in

left

with

teaching

that the

the postbiblical period is one

only mark of Prophecy that is relevant in that leads directly to the sovereign authority as
Hobbes'

God's

messenger on earth today.

This

role of the sovereign and the claims

ing
In
a

of

Jesus

understand authority is strengthened by about him which are central in Christian theology.
reduces

very between God

elevation of

subtle

way Hobbes

the status of Christ as a unique mediator

and

man; the reverse of this reduction

is

subtle

and

silent

the

sovereign as a current mediator

between God

and man.

The

central symbolic

figure in both the is that

made

reduction of

the status of

Christ

and

the elevation of royal authority

a.d., Christian
analogized
salvation."

apologists

had

Moses. As early as the second century Moses into an archetype of Christ and had
of

between the

activities and roles of the two

However,

this argument could cut two ways. It could

apologetic

figures in the economy of just as easily

argument

be turned from

an orthodox

into

an

Arian

that aimed to

deny
so

the special

uniqueness of

Jesus

and

his

mission.20

If Moses

and

Jesus

were

similar, it

was an

easy

move

to view Jesus as simply

filling

Mosaic

role at

a new point

in the

history
clearly.

of salvation.

The
see

radical nature of

his intentions

Hobbes's teaching at this point must be appreciated to The early Christian apologetic had viewed several
of works

activities of
activities of

Moses Moses

"precursors"

as were similar

Jesus

would

later

perform.

The
per-

to but not the same as those that Jesus

through the use of

human

mediators such as

the papacy, a fact of which Hobbes was well aware

supposed powers of these authorities
death"

(111:42). It is precisely in

order to render
and

illegitimate the

"of
that

giving greater rewards than life Hobbes finds his teaching on the logical
18. 19.

of

inflicting

greater punishments

than
core of

(111 38)

sovereign prophets to

be the necessary

his

whole "theo

project."

111:32,

p.

275; 111:36, pp. 318-324.

of

Eusebius,"

Cf. J. E. Burns, "The Agreement Vigiliae Christianae 31 (1977)

of the

Moses

and

pp.

1 17-125;

Jesus in the Demonstratio Evangelica of T. Glasson, Moses in the Fourth Gospel

(London: Allenson, 1963).

20.

The Arian doctrines

that lent support to

ideology

imperial

fourth century were taken over power. The Arian reduction

by
of

the emperors as

a political

the status of Christ and the

uses of such views

by

those seeking to support

increased imperial

power

bear striking similarity to

political uses of ArianCentury."

the politically motivated

Christological

views one
and

finds in Hobbes. On the

in

ism

see

George Williams,
20:3 (Sept. 1951),

"Christology
pp.

Church-State Relations

the

Fourth

Church
also

History
see

3-33, continued in Church History 20:4 (Dec. 1951), pp. 3-26;

als politisches

Erik Peterson, Der Monotheismus

Problem (Leipzig,

1935).

The

Theology
God to

of Leviathan: Hobbes
perform

on

Religion

51

formed. Neither did Moses

mediate man.

the most special task of Jesus which was to

Hobbes, however,
in the

takes the decisive step

of

arguing that

Jesus

and

Moses

stand as equals

most

fundamental

"representing"

role of

God to

man.

One

and the same

God is the

person represented

by

Moses

and

Christ. Our

savior, therefore,
person of

both in teaching and reigning, representeth, as Moses did the God; which God from that time forward, but not before, is called the

Father;
Moses
relative

and

being

still one and

the same substance, is one

person as represented person

by
a

and another person as represented

by

his

son

Christ. For

being

to representer, it is consequent to a plurality of

of

represented

that there

be

plurality

persons, though of one and the same

substance.21

This analogy between Jesus and Moses appears as throughout book III of Leviathan. Jesus and Moses are
role

a subtle alike

thread running
most special

in the

that Christians have usually reserved

God"

for Jesus, that

now seen

of a representer of the

"person

of

to
one

man.

But, if Jesus is
group

to

represent

God in

not

uniquely,

but

as

of a

of others who

have the

same role

other

"representer"

historical periods,

might

there not

be

different

in the

contempo

question very guardedly but I rary historical setting? Hobbes opens up this think that he does so sufficiently for us to see his deeper intention.

In the early

sections of

book III Hobbes first

states

the Jesus/Moses analogy

in the

following
successors

fashion:
at several times
and

For these three

did

represent

the

person of

God; Moses,
successors

and

his

the High Priests

Kings

of

Judah, in the Old Testament: Christ

on them

Himself, in
from
the
day.22

the time
of

he lived

on

earth; and the apostles and their the

day

Pentecost,

when

Holy

Ghost descended

down to this

Here the

representational

theme

is

expanded

to include a
"
.

line

of

later

"repre-

that

is,

the Apostles "and their

successors

down to the

present.

Who these

successors

in the

role

of

Jesus

might

be is

suggested

later in the function God's

argument. There the analogy is explicitly of Moses and the status and function of
"viceregent"

made

between the

status and

present

Kings. As Moses
person

was

or political

his "sovereign
resides.23

so too

is the

in

whom present

sovereignty

Given

what we

unspoken
analogical

teaching may be

much more

have already seen, however, the radical in its inclusion of Jesus in the
and the sovereign authority.

framework that includes Moses

sources of

These first two

the

mediation

between God

and man were cer were not as

tainly
21. 22.

crucial

in any

fully

developed Christian theology but they

III:4I, p. 358111:33, p. 283. In

and that of
chapter 26 of
de'

The Prince, Machiavelli specifically

analogized

the role of

Moses
23.
sense

Lorenzo

Medici.

111:36, pp. 315-316; 111:42, p. 378.

a
recurrent

Actually

the function of Moses as a ruler

in the

political

is

theme

in Book III.

52

Interpretation
relevant and

immediately
will

politically

explosive as was
program

the revelation of
successful

God's

in

scripture.

Hence, if Hobbes's
the appeals of

is to be

he

must

find

some

way

around

his

puritan contemporaries

to the sola scrip

tura principle as a test of obedience to the acts of the sovereign authority.

Hobbes's first

criticism of

the sola scriptura tradition is that scripture cannot

be interpreted
manded. shows

literally Essentially he argues

as

true in the way that this position has always de that a careful analysis of the biblical text

itself

the inconsistencies that

and

inaccuracies

of

the record of

Old Testament biblical

history

is

contained

therein. Time and time again Hobbes points out the

received view
were

insuperable difficulties inherent in the

text; the books
of the

of an

errorless

Old

and

New Testaments

by

the authors

traditionally

credited with the task and

mostly not written down in many cases only long into its
present

after

the events recorded was the material

finally

collected

form.

For

example the book of Joshua assumed its present

Joshua;"

form only

time of

the pentateuch itself was not authored

process

"long after the by Moses, even though

content and

Moses may have begun the form of our

that would eventually lead to the special

pentateuch.24

Seen in this light the revelatory

ably
weakened. was

position of the

Old Testament is
it

consider

If the text
not
written

cannot

be interpreted

as

literally
word

appears and

if,

further, it
credit

down

by

the prophetic authors

traditionally

given

for it, how

can

it be

assumed

to be God's direct

to man? The truth

is working toward at this point is bluntly stated in his next argu concerning the canonization of the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament was established not by an arbitrary act of Divine fiat but
that Hobbes
ment

through a historical process occurring

within

the Christian community.

The

authority
as

and witness of that

a unique

community
status

marked some

early Christian
as

writings

having

revelatory
the

and some

writings of

lacking

that same

authority.

"It is

not

writer

but the authority is the

the Church that maketh

the book

canonical."25

If the occurring
word

canon
within

of

the New Testament

product

of a

historical
of

process

the witnessing community, what has

claimed

become

the Divine
of

that

has been

to be represented in scripture? The

process places
of

understanding Divine

canonization as a

historical
word

the authority of the church between the supposed

word

the believer and the through a human

of

God. It in

mediates

institution
We

and

a sense makes
a

human authority the

arbiter

divine

revelation.

no

longer have its

own

carries

with

it the

marks of

Divine

authority.

self-justifying complete text that The Bible has become

human community has deemed
some respects

merely
This

a selection

of writings

that

a specific

authoritative.

historicizing
the

of

the problem of canonization is in

of

merely

a prelude to
24.
25.

politicizing

the process. There are two senses of the term

111:36,

pp. 273-281.

111:36, p. 282.

The

Theology
One

of Leviathan: Hobbes
to the rendering
of a

on

Religion
of

53
as an authoritative set

"canon."

refers

body

writing

of precepts would

to guide and

direct

action.

In this

case the question of canonization

concern

the way in which the Bible

this sense the
can

has become

a guide to cannot

Christian
obe

behavior.

However, in
precepts.

Christian Church
cannot punish.

compel

dience to its
the term
whom

It

exhort, but it

In the

second sense of

"canon"

the scriptures are made law. "When

they

are given

by

one

he that

receiveth

them is

rules

but

laws."

The

question

bound to obey then are those canon not only then becomes one of the power to make the
Hobbes's account,

Christian faith into To this

question

law.26

there can be only one answer

on

an

answer prepared given above.

for

by

the

historicist

account of the

first form

of canonization

The

as the sovereign

it is simply put; the Scriptures become law insofar declares them to be so. The Mosaic law became law because
essence of not as a result of

Moses

was the sovereign

divine
so.27

commandment.

The

rest of

the Old Testament was canonized

as

during
of

the restoration when

Esdras, operating

High Priest

and

sovereign, declared it to be

Finally

the New Testament

was canonized under the

authority

Christian sovereigns, principally Constan historical

Just
accident
as

tine and

his immediate
of

successors.28

The transmission

the scriptural text to the believer via

has important
case of

consequences

for Hobbes's

argument as a whole.

in the
con

Prophecy,

the denial of an

immediate "supernatural

revela

cerning biblical authority means that the believer is not obligated to accept that authority unless some human authority makes it imperative that he do so. By
mediating
scriptural of

texts through a
revelation under scripture

human institution Hobbes historical

opens

up the

placing possibility ity. By understanding

the notion of

the control of the highest human author

point of view

from

he temporalizes

revelation

into

any
the

appeal to that revelation

political regime.

merely human convention and renders unjustified beyond the control of the supreme convention of

He therefore to
and

whom

God hath

not supernatural

ly

revealed

that

they
to

are

his,

that those that published them, were sent

whose commands

by him, is

not obliged of

obey them
that

by

any authority but his

say,

already have the force

commonwealth

laws;

is to

by

any

other

authority than that of

residing in the

sovereign

who

only has the legislative

of

power.29

The authority

interpreting
of
political

the Bible and making the interpretation

power.

is

thus

an

aspect

Just

as

in the

case

of

binding Prophecy and

between
in

Christology
the Divine

the

reduction of

the status of a unique religious mediation

and

the human

realms elevates

the political mediation that exists

26.
27. 28.

iv:42, p. 376-377-

iv:42, pp. 378-379iv:42, p. 380.

29.

ni:33.

P-

284-

54

Interpretation
prophet."

the person of the "sovereign

Since

all religious

doctrines
of

and symbols

that are derived from the Biblical tradition are conventions

human

creation

they

cannot

be

appealed

to over against the power of the organized political

community and its The Hobbesian

appointed representative.

reformulation of

Christian doctrine

not

three sources of a relation

between God

and man that we

with

only dealt with the have just examined

(Prophecy, Christology
life
after

and

scripture), it also dealt

the

teaching
noted

about

the

death
of

which could

have important

motivational consequences

for the

willingness

the subjects to obey political authority.

As

already, the

necessity book III. In Hobbes's

of

reinterpreting this belief

political

follows from the

political
violent

intentions

of

philosophy the fear

of

death is the based

a

motivating force behind

political obedience.

However, he
be the

argues, the Christian

teaching
on

about the world since

beyond is incompatible
then cease to

with political obedience worst evil

this

fear

death

would

that could

befall

person.

It is in light

of

this understanding that we must

hope"

view

his

attempt

to

reformulate
men must

the "Christian

so that

it does

not conflict with

the fear that

have

of the power of the political authority.

not claim

Hobbes does beyond that

that it is merely the Christian

teaching

about a world

creates

the problems for absolute political power which he identi

beyond"

fied. Rather, it is the precise content of the "world the difficulties. By making this move he leaves
overtly

that is the source of

open

the

denying
while such

belief in

an afterlife

(which

would

have

shocked

possibility of not his contem

of

poraries)

remaining free to interpret the

was

conventional

formulation

the

doctrine

that it

will pose no great obstacles

to political power. In essence,

posited

the Hobbesian claim

that Christian

theology

the existence of a
could

heavenly
could
would

realm

that was a much greater reward than

anything that

be

obtained on earth and a

hell that
an

was much worse

than the punishments that

be be

meeted

out

by

much more

earthly sovereign. Believers in such a universe disposed to obey those who could assure them of their
of

receipt of the

blessings

heaven

and

their avoidance of the terrors of

hell than

they

would

any earthly

power who could

only threaten them

with

death for

failure to

obey.30

This may be the weakest part of the argument. Earlier he had argued that fear of death was the crucial motivation that drove human beings out of the
state of nature power

into

political regimes. of one

Human beings

placed absolute political

in the hands

archic,

deathly

consequences of their

authority because they supposedly feared the an failure to do so. However, if Hobbes even

maintains other

that there is life after

death,
is

then this motivation

is

undercut.

On the

hand if he

argues that there

no

life

after

death he
of

would

be

denying
century

perhaps readers.

the most central belief of the

Christianity
not pull

his

seventeenth

Even here,
30.

however, Hobbes does

back from the

radical implica-

111:38,

p. 325.

The

Theology
his

of Leviathan: Hobbes
If he
cannot quite

on

Religion
to

55

tions of

project.

bring

himself

deny
In

outright that there

is life

after

death he

can refashion the content of the

belief

so

that it no longer

seems to pose such serious problems

makes
after

for

political power.

order

to do this he

three

interconnected
up in the
of

moves.

First, he
God"

argues that the place of survival

or

death,

the supposed "Kingdom of

sky.

"Kingdom

Heaven,"

of

is

not a

place somewhere

Rather, he
meant the

notes that:
of the

By

the

kingdom

Heaven is

kingdom
Israel

king
ruled

that dwelleth in

heaven;

and

his kingdom

was the people of and after

whom

he

by

the prophets,

his lieutenants; First Moses in the days of Samuel they

of

him Eleazar, And

and the sovereign priests till a mortal man

rebelled and would

have

for their

king

after the manner of the other nations.

when our savior

Christ, by

the preaching

his

ministers shall

have

persuaded the

Jews to

return and called the of

Gentiles
our

to his obedience, then shall there be a new

shall

kingdom

heaven; because

king

then

be God,

whose throne

Scripture than
the
earth.3'

man shall ascend

is heaven; Without any necessity evident in to his happiness any higher than God's footstool,

The implication
sors to

of

this move,

when combined with

his

views on

the succes

Heaven is radically temporalized into a mere extension of the earthly commonwealth. This move does not flatly deny the Christian doctrines of resurrection but it cleverly eliminates the concomitant
subtle apparent. notion of a

Moses, is

but

transearthly

paradise

that is far better than

our present mortal

lives.

The

second stage of the reinterpretation of the

Christian hope is

denial that

men are

the

immediately resurrected at their death. Hobbes denies any doctrine of immortality of soul and holds instead that authentic Christian teaching
human
survival after

makes

death purely

a matter of

divine

fiat.32

This

allows

him the freedom to

this

postulate

any scripturally

plausible

interpretation

of when

resurrection will occur.

Relying heavily
day,"

on

the eschatological and apoca

claims

lyptic

passages
will

of

the New

Testament, Hobbes
a avoids stating. an

that the time of the

or even

resurrection

be "at the last

time in the

future the date

previous of

nearness of which also

he cleverly
of

Like the

move, this view

has the

effect

reducing

existential

commitment

life

after

death in

without

overtly abandoning the doctrine.

By

placing the time

of survival

definitely
can

in the future Hobbes

death
at the

reduces of

its

psychic significance vis-a-vis a

real threat of

hands

the political authorities. At the very

very least it

be

said

that this

version of

the doctrine of survival does not pose as many

obvious problems

for
the

sovereign political power as soul or an

does

either

the doctrines

of

the
of

immortality

of

immediate

resurrection of

the

body

at

the time

death.
Hobbes's third
move

here follows from his

hope-hell

temporal
and

interpretation
are

of the

Christian hope. The

antithesis of that

its torments

imagina
cumu-

tively
31.
32.

interpreted in
111:38, p. 327-

psychological and symbolic categories

that have the

111:38, p. 328.

Cf. iv:44,

pp. 438-439-

56 lative

Interpretation
effect of

reducing the

status of their torment as obedience

avoided at all costs through exegetical and psychological of

to Divine

will.

something that In passages

should

be

of superb

insight Hobbes

argues that the

biblical description
cannot

hell

and

its terrors is in his words,

literal descriptions

"metaphorical."

That is. they

must

be

viewed as

of cosmic

geography but

be

understood as

symbols

does
edge

not result

standing for the psychological reality of from a perpetual burning in some

mental anguish.

This

anguish

fiery

pit

but from the knowl

that one must exist in a state that is

hell"

less

exalted

than one might

have

achieved.

The "torments

of

are

the self-imposed torments of one who

knows he has failed to do his best

and sees above

him those

who

have.

discontent

All of which places design metaphorically a grief and Torments of Hell. of mind from the sight of that eternal felicity in others, which they
own

themselves, through their

incredulity
of

and

disobedience have

lost.33

This

psychological
which

interpretation

hell is

combined with a second

line

of

thought in

the

duration

of

this

torment

for any

particular

person

is

severely limited. The metaphor of hell symbolizes an eternal reality that exists as a possibility for any particular individual. Though the possibility of the
torment is always present it confronts many separate

individuals for limited

torment
of the

durations. It is

eternal as a symbolic person.

reality but

not as an actual

individual damned
The fire

prepared

for the

wicked

is

estate wherein no man can

be

without and

an everlasting fire: that is to say, the torture, both of body and mind, after the

resurrection,
and

shall endure

forever;

in that

sense the

fire

shall

be unquenchable,
who shall

the torments everlasting;

but it

cannot thence
with

be inferred that he

be

cast

into that fire

or

be tormented

those torments, shall

endure and resist

be eternally burnt and tortured, and yet never destroyed, nor die. And though there be many places that affirm everlasting fire and torments, into which men may be cast successively one after another as long as the world lasts,
them so as to
yet

I find

none

that

affirm

there

shall

be

an eternal

life therein is the

of

person; but to the contrary, an

everlasting death,

which

second

any individual M death.

of scriptural

The

argument

that leads to this position is

curious

piece

exegesis the upshot of which

which

is that for the

wicked

there will be a second death

wicked will

will

be

an actual cessation of physical much

life. The

be

resur

rected to a
with

life

like

what

they

now

lead

except that

they

will

be tormented
this
period

the
will

knowledge that they

could

have done better. At the

end of

they

die,

much the same as

no

being

that there will

they have already done. The crucial difference longer be any resurrection of the body.
becomes
apparent

The

resourcefulness of this position

if

we

the whole of
afterlife was
3334. in

Hobbes's

system.

The fundamental

problem

closely consider with belief in an

weakened

that

by

positing
iv:44,

an eternal

torment worse than death it

38,

p. 333-

111:38,

p. 333-334;

pp. 445-459.

The

Theology

of Leviathan: Hobbes

on

Religion

57
mete out

the motivation to obey an earthly power that could only

greatest punishment.

death

as

the

hell subtly tried to remove this difficulty. For the wicked, those actually inclined to political discord, there will be no permanent torment nor even a permanent life after death. In both ways
on

Hobbes's teaching

the significance
the one

of

the

teaching
is

on

hell

as a source of

discord is

reduced.

On

hand the

"torment"

not

necessarily
to suffer in.

worse than what we might expect

from

a violent

death

at the

hands

of a political sovereign.

Secondly,

there will

be

no eternal

life for the

wicked

Hobbes is much more radical here than in his teaching concerning a heav enly realm for a very good reason. For Hobbes, fear of the future, not hope, is the basis of the human motivation to enter civil society and obey the sovereign authority. This view of the priority of fear over hope in human motivation
suggests
more

that the Christian

teaching

about eternal torment

would

would

be

a much

likely

source of political

discord than

the doctrine of a

heavenly

reward. exegesis

Through

a clever combination of psychological

whole

insight

and scriptural

Hobbes turns the

theology

of

hell into

teaching
as

about mental

anguish and permanent

death,

neither of which would

be

tive

as

would

the

vision

hell that his

contemporaries

politically disrup saw in the works of

Breughel, Bosch,

or

Diirer.

III. HOBBES AND THE AUGUSTINI AN-CALVINIST TRADITION

In his

effort

to reshape Christian religious

views of earlier

beliefs, Hobbes departed

quite

markedly from the

and politics.
of

Christian

writers on

the relation of religion

Certainly

the Augustinian-Calvinist tradition that animated many

Hobbes's

countrymen

had

as much of a

dismal

view of

human

nature as

had

Hobbes. From this

premise

they

too had drawn a conclusion about the neces

as a supreme political end.

sary priority

of order over

justice

However,

though there are these similarities, Hobbes's departures

are more

from the

Augustinian tradition
tine and Calvin the

striking

and more

fundamental. In both Augus

it imposes is
an

duty duty resulting

to obey the sovereign power and support the order that

from the divine

command

in

scripture.

Theirs is

explicitly theological argument based on does Calvin attempt the lengthy, reasoned defense of eign power which we find in books I & II of Leviathan; in
nowhere

scriptural exegesis.

For example, Calvin

absolute sover

essence
subject

merely Lord's
or to

repeated

to

his

readers

the

command of

I Peter 2:13; "Be

for the

sake to

governors

to the emperor as supreme every human institution whether it be as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise

those
35.

who

do

right."35

Cf. Herbert Deane, The Political

1963);

and

University Press,
phia:

Westminister

Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Press, i960) iv:20, pp. 1485-1520.

Social Ideas of St. Augustine (New York: Columbia trans. F. L. Battles (Philadel

58

Interpretation
of

In Hobbes this way

of absolute
presented with

justifying

political obedience

is

absent.

The doctrine

sovereignty is already
the theological
of
exegesis

established of

by
as

"natural

reason"

before

we are

teaching
of

book III. In this framework the

a supplement

theological

book III is
view

offered

to

an

already

independently

established

the necessity of absolute sovereignty.

By

thus establishing the priority of natural reason to

faith in his

political philoso
writers could

phy Hobbes leaves that reason free to do what previous Christian not do in so radical or explicit a fashion: directly reinterpret some
theological tenets of

of the central

Christianity in
political

order to make them

less disruptive to the

demands
man

of absolute cannot

power.

By

Hobbes

dismiss it

as

Marx
the

would

viewing religion itself as natural to have done, but by establishing

can move

the priority of reason in

interpreting
in

faith, he

beyond the theolog

ical

tradition of

his

predecessors

an effort

to give an account of

Christianity

that will square with the new political universe that Machiavelli created.

Secondly,
essentially

the priority of reason to faith enables Hobbes to move in the

new

direction toward

justification

of absolute

sovereignty, a direc
realism.

tion not taken

by

the Augustinian-Calvinist tradition

of political

For

the theological tradition prior to Hobbes the priority of revelation to reason

generated

had

the many variations that one

of

finds

on the

"two

kingdoms"

approach

to the problem
of

the relation of religion and political life.

was

However,

this notion

"dual

sovereignty"

could not

tolerate and

something that Hobbes some of his most incisive

and

the Hobbesian system

are reserved

comments

for

those

who supported such views.

He is only freed from this tradition, however, once he has radically departed from the explicitly scripture-based argumentative framework that guided medi
eval

Christian

reflection on

the relation

of religion and politics.

Once Hobbes
in making and its
reason
will

had

articulated the

priority

of natural reason and

historical

accident

religious

beliefs

what

they

are, then he

can

dispense

with the

tradition

fundamental shaping work if he

presupposition

a political teaching.
can maintain

concerning the priority of revelation to Hobbes's view of absolute sovereignty

reason

in

only
not

the priority of

to

faith

and

his

prior understand

ing

of the origin of religious

belief

allows

him to

start with

human

nature

with

scripture,

as

his theological

predecessors

did, in deriving his

political

teaching.

IV

HOBBES AND THE MODERN STUDY OF RELIGION

In his book, The Sociological Tradition,

modern

Robert Nisbet
mythos

argues

that the

understanding

of religion as a

ing
of

to political and social

life finds its

in

world-ordering source in de Tocqueville's

America.1"

that

gives mean

examination
a measure of

religion, chiefly in his

Democracy

Though there is

The

Theology

of Leviathan: Hobbes

on

Religion

59

truth in this generalization I would argue that in many ways

Hobbes is

more

uniquely and strongly modern in his understanding of religion than is before him or many after him, including de Tocqueville.

anyone

Like de Tocqueville, Hobbes's treatment from the theological tradition

predecessors
Hobbes'

of religion

of

his

age. as

While

the

strikingly divorces itself theological tradition of his

to the study of theology, study of religion from the study of theology in book I of Leviathan sets the stage for the modern understanding of religion as an ideology on which men rely to give meaning to their own lives and to the live.37 communities in which they With Hobbes the study of religion has become
adjunct separation of the

was

to

study

religion

an

the study

of

human find

speech about the a

divine
a myth

and

the study of the continuing

human

effort to

language

and

that can shape a viable human

community and give meaning to individual human lives. De Tocqueville too understood the function of religion
personal ancient as an

as

a political

and

ideology, but his fundamental

of order and

view of religion still which

looked back to the only human from

a

tradition of political thought in

the role of religion was not

ideology
for his

life toward its

concern

proper end.

meaning but as For de Toqueville in true

a mythos

that

would orient

religion still elevates a man classical

material welfare and

fashion he

regards this as

its

major

benefit.38

Hobbes's
and

psychological

his

consistent adherence to the

modern

understanding of the implications

origin of religion
of

in human fear

this view again sets the stage

for the does

divorce it

of

the study of religion from the

of

investigation

of

the

philosophic question of the proper ends not elevate man; pacifies

him

and

human life. For Hobbes, religion removes his anxiety in the face of an

otherwise separated
man of

hostile The meaning that religion brings to human life is thus from the study of the ends of man. Religion, for Hobbes, relieves fear but it does not at the same time elevate him or orient him toward a
world.

"proper"

human life, in
modern

a manner similar to the

function is

of religion

in Plato's

Republic. If the study

of religion of

in the

social sciences

seen to

involve both

a rejection of

the dogmas

theology
we

and the philosophic preoccupation with

the good
religion

life,

then I think that

may

fairly

is

much more

strikingly

modern

than anything

say that Hobbes's treatment of from de Tocqueville.

Hobbes's blunt

arguments about

the

origin of religion

in human fear
1967).

and more

36.

Robert Nisbet, The Sociological Tradition (New York: Basic Books,

37. For example, Thomas Aquinas has an extensive discussion of religion as observance that is fraught with political implications. However the discussion itself is

an

outward

placed

in

strictly

theological context with the

distinction between true

and

false

religion always present

in the

background.
38.

Alexis de

Tocqueville, Democracy in America,

trans.

George Lawrence (New York: Dou

,

bleday,

1966) 1:11:9, pp. 290-294; 11:1:1-2. pp. 429-436; 11:11:1-3, 8-1 1

pp.

503-509. 525-534-

60

Interpretation
his
whole

deeply
trol

treatment of Christian doctrine as an

ideology

of social con

looks

much more modern once we can see

beyond the

antiquated

theolog

ical terminology to the deeper implications of his analysis. In short, though the explicit discussion of religion in Leviathan treats primarily Christianity, the
method of

the treatment begins to open up a whole new way of

looking

at

both

religion proper and

its

relation

to human life and society.

Pleasure, Power,

and

Immortality

Joseph J. Carpino

The primary function

role as a

of pleasure

and

its

ultimate appeal

consists

in its

"way
is.

being."

of

Pleasure

gives us

the mind in those great swells and

pleasure

something little twitchings of the

thinking,"

to think about, absorbing

nervous system which

goes. But eating tasting, chewing, swallowing, and that sublime distendedness which constitutes for a proper trencherman eating and its parts are all no less than as the

"Eating

is better than

saying

"nirvana"

forms
The

of consciousness and

thus, for

conscious

things,

are existential modes.

mind rushes

to the place where pleasure has

irrupted

and

it hovers there,
a sponge
with

pupils

dilated,
until

delight
pleased

it

basking can hardly

in the flood

of

sensation,

filling
what

like

be distinguished from

is to be

at one with

the pleasant. To know is in some way to

is pleasing it. To be be the

known, and to taste is to know. Pleasure, in short, is a mode of being, it is desirable. That's
one

of conscious
what people

existence, and as such, as a kind

like

about

it. It

reassures them:

if

is

being

pleased, one surely

exists.

And besides,

what else

is there to

want

but being? The only thing that

one wants we comes anywhere near pleasure
"Wanting"

in this

regard

is

pain.

No

simply
mean

not to

be.

requires an

object, grammatically, so

that whenever people say they want to cease to be, what is that they want no longer to suffer. And that's understand they really able. But it is not a desire not to be. Indeed, the only form of sensate con

may

fairly

assume

sciousness which comes even close to nonbeing, the total or near-total absence of

stimuli,

sort

of

sensory emptiness, is
such

one

which

people

avoid

with

passion, preferring even pain to

free-floating

sensationlessness.

Chil

dren, for example, will is bad, but nonbeing is

Of
course pleasure

sometimes risk a

worse, and

spanking to nobody wants it.

avoid

being

ignored. Pain

has its limitations. It is essentially passive,

the
can please

putting

of

one's self endings.

in the way

of whatever causes the pleasant excitation of

private:

the nerve than one

And it's

quite

same

cause

more

individual (and do
not

people can even

inflict

pleasure on one

another), but we really

a good con

enjoy

pleasure together

as we might,

for example, enjoy

of one's

versation with someone.

"spatial"

Pleasure has the

"apparatus"

limitation, therefore,
limitation

body, in

addition

to
of

the traditionally-noted temporal the

and

of one's

lifetime. (The

fragility

the

problem of

diminishing

returns are other

limitations,
all

to

be sure, but they

careful

are and

by

comparison quite secondary, even

accidental, and with

luck, they may be overcome.) Thus, for planning reassurance it provides, pleasure is inherently a doubly-limited "mode of
some and there are those

the

being,"

for

whom

it is simply too

confining.

62

Interpretation

Unsatisfied
getic

by

the circumscribed modalities of pleasure, some, more ener

"larger,"

types, demand another, their hands upon the world,

even

existence.

These few

reach out and put

bending it, twisting it,

And that's

crushing

and sometimes

admission:

molding "Thou
exercise

it, forcing from

art

the things surrounding them a grudging

reassuring. upon

but

real

(as

submit)."

we

The
others

of power

the imposition of one's will

the

bodies

of

is
all

being."

also a

"way

of

To have

one's commands

is

joy

its

own and

very

comforting.

(Cringing

is

also nice

summarily to see, but it's in the

obeyed
a

bit theatrical.) The

skin, is those

obedient

behavior itself, there,

as

outside the confines of ones are realized actions of

an extension of

one,

one's

intentions

obey In general, any intentional

who

one's commands.
modification of

the

world

is

way

of

being,

of

existing,
victims.

in that

world.

The

bully

exists

in

and

is

reassured

by

the fear of his

The bashful wallflower, sitting in the corner bending beer cans with his bare hands while his smoother fellows dance with the girls, is reassuring himself of his own existence, nothing less (and little more!). There are levels,

then, to the
At

exercise of

power, corresponding to the quality and extent of the

changes effected

by

it.
power

perhaps the

lowest level, forms

are

is

exercised

natural and artificial

merely

negated.

only destructively, as when Half the fun of ordinary vandal

original

ism lies in its

all

sheer

destructiveness,
indignant
the making of
more

and

for the

Vandals that

was about

there was to
on

ity
a

the other

it, hand,
is

observers

having

been destroyed

as well.

Creativ

things,
in

constitutes the exercise of power on

prior

higher level To

and

rewarding, but it usually requires some

a new

talent.

see one's own efforts embodied

which

reality, be it

an artifact or an

organization,

had

never

been there
at what

before, is
one

to get a return on expendi

ture like none other.

To look

has

made

is to

see

one's

own

thoughts. To be obeyed is to be confronted

with one's own

being."

will, and that is

of things

really to exist, an eminently desirable "way of a kind of surrogate for this modality and popularly

(Ownership
preferred

is

in its place.)

say they don't want power are either being less than candid or are using the words as a kind of shorthand for not wanting the pain and discomfort that the gaining of power often entails. The exercise of political power, for example, is a cold and lonely business (or
power. who so we are

No

one wants not to

have

Those

told),

and

it takes work,
all

a great even

deal

of

work, to achieve it. So too

with other powers:

they're

hard,

painful, to get and to exercise.

"dynamic"

The

opposites

to the exercise

of power are of pain

more complex and

than the simple static negativities

pleasure. power

and

senselessness

in the

case

of

Direct

opposition to

power, an attempt to cancel its exercise, requires

itself,

and

to fail here is to be
oppose
on power

made, because to
absence of

and

destroyed utterly; but win is to exercise

can never
"pregiven."

the attempt can be

power

anew.
as a

The

power,

the other

hand,
at

weakness,

be chosen;

lack

of

being

it is

always

imposed,

best

Pleasure, Power,

and

Immortality

63

But obedience, more or less voluntary submission to power, is an opposite which is complementary to power and even a component of its exercise, on
certain

levels.

Entailing
and

as

it does

kind

of

complicity, ready

obedience

has its

compensations:

better to be

a yes-man or a of power.

"gofer"

than a complete nonentity in

the

boardrooms
men.)

bistros

(We

speak not of children

here, but

of

grown

Disobedience,
...

on the other

hand, is

inherently
of power.

unstable and must

decay into
is
no and

obedience
of

or explode!

There are,
"spatial"

course, limitations to the exercise

as an extension

In

principle there

limit to power; it is

beyond the

confines of one's

body,

in theory the whole world might be brought under one's domination. But there is still the temporal limitation: no one exercises power after he's dead. School bullies in death. Creative
no more.

seem to

disappear

after graduation and

and

destructive
requires

powers cease alike when

of

every tyranny ends the body breathes

or at

(A legal
of

will

the authority

government,

least the

cooperation

thing

than the
men

friends, to be effective, and so is a much more complicated simple imposition, here and now, of my commands.)
very little
chance

Most
sense.

get

in life to

exercise

power

Lost in the thorns

and cares of

and never get organized enough

The gaining of power is a there is no joy at all in that. And besides, there is
the monument, the graves beneath are
all

every day they settle for power-seeking even to become an option. struggle. Exercising it entails the risk of defeat and
always

in any proper for a little comfort

death: however

grand

death is but

not an end to power

an end of

misery
men

as well.

therefore, but a sort of rest a limit to pleasure, to be sure, For some, however, death is not at all a limit but
morning?

the same. For most men,

a challenge.

Why
There

do

rich

get

up in the
equal

Why

don't they

all

sleep late? it be that

some of

are

few

pleasures

to

that of sleeping

late,

and almost none that can so what can

compensate

for the
Rich

pain of

returning to consciousness,

wakens them?

men get

up in the morning

and then even work, pleasures of

them, because they prefer the exercise of power to the And for most of them that's all there is to it.
But among the
satisfied with a
rich and powerful

indolence.

there are a

few,

fault (or

grudging daily doubly insecure) they

mere obedience

from

other men.

very few, who are not Ambitious to a

want more, more

than a sullen reflection of their

and actions of

wills, more than a mute and

lifeless

echo

in the fear blocked

those

who

obey them.
other men.

They
And,
grave

want, these

few,

to be wanted, to

have their

being

willed

by

inconvenienced

rather than

by

what we

have

called

power,"

the "temporal limitation to the

exercise of

they

seek some

way to be
willed

beyond the
other men

itself.

They

want, these

few,

to

have their

being

by
not

both

now and after

they

are

dead.
one's

Death defines the

temporal.

One's death is

limit in time. But it is

the limit of human desire for being. There have been many men who have wanted to exist beyond their deaths. Most of them have accommodated this

64
desire
their

Interpretation

by

belief in immortality,
and expectations

personal subsistence after

death,
have

or

by putting
to

hopes
not

in

their children. But there

natural remedies and

have been

others who preferred what

have drive

been

satisfied

by

such

who

a nail or

two of their own into the

network of

flux

by

seeking fame. And

is

called
after

glory is the
we are

pitons, as it were, that some ambitious

men

leave

them upon the mountainside of time.

Aurelius' told, is a fleeting thing. Where are the men, Marcus asks repeatedly, who flattered Caesar Augustus? But fleeting is precisely what fame is meant not to be! Fame is meant to last, to remain in time beyond the

Fame,

evanescent workings of power

itself.
exist? as

But

what

is fame,

and

how does it

It

exists,

first

of
of

all, in the minds others; it is to be

and wills of others.

To be famous is to be
we exist or

the intentions

in their rejoicing that

have

existed.

Like pleasure, fame is

somewhat passive and not

directly

under our control.

By

our glorious actions we place ourselves

in the way

of people's wants and

needs and then we wait

standing ovations like the exercise of power, fame is something more than pleasure; it is and can be a longer being than the mere bodily. A great confectioner
each

for their reactions, for their smiles, their clapping, their and for their inclusion of us in their history books. But
a

larger

"exists"

time

his

efforts are enjoyed

or recalled

at

dessert,

or whenever people

gather

for

a sweet.

Of

course

there are levels to

which can

fame,

and
and

it has its

opposites.

Infamy

is the
the

opposite to

fame
to

be chosen,

it

sometimes

other opposite

fame

sometimes much too assassins

may hard to bear for impatient ambition;

to

what we

call social and

is chosen, because historical irrelevance

we

is

have

"famous"

our

and,

on another never

is better than Fame pleasing

poral

level, ordinary exhibitionists. To be hated or despised have been noticed at all or so it can seem to some
can

myopic visionaries. and or

glory, its grander mode

people. a

be

achieved

benefitting
will
.

And the
of

size of the

in only one way: by fame, its spatial and tem

of

magnitude,
conferred

be if

function

the quality and extent

the pleasure

or

benefit

all goes

well, for there

a

are no guarantees

here,

and

there can be slip-ups.

vivants and
us

There have been

few famous

pure

enjoyers,

bons

the

like, but

these are quasi-mythical

stories.

to cluck over while

used

swapping
which

figures, even By and large, fame

power employed

archetypes, for

is the

result of

power

effectively,

is to say,
misery.

in

some

real

or

perceived alleviation of

apparent, the fame

will of

Thus the levels

nary; there

course if the benefits are merely be proportionately insubstantial.) fame, from ordinary pleasure-givers (or even extraordi

human

(Of

have been famous flatterers) to riverboat pilots and novelists, who transport us from this to some other place and time. Most famous of all are the
I.

Roman

emperor and

diarist,

121 to 180 a.d.

Pleasure, Power,
clothiers

and

Immortality
statesmen,
out

65
who

and

architects
we

and

help

to make more orderly and

bearable the lives

have to live
and

in the here

and now. are

But among the founders and

of new worlds
cities

glorious

this the ancients noticed along ago

of new

the

"instaurators,"

the
which

inventors

orders, the creators, in

are the

fine,
of
who

in

to

live. Most

obvious

among these
of all.

builders
men

and

states, the Lawgivers and the Liberators. These are the

countrymen"

"live in the hearts

of their

the

longest

Of
other

course

there are others,

founders

of other

kinds

of cities and givers of

kinds

of power.

any

one man

had to be invented for the taming of fire, and had discovered the wheel he would be almost as famous.2 Even now,
god all

countless scientists

to the

labor namelessly to make life more convenient for us self-effacing glory of Science. The poets and the philosophers are also among these founders
"others,"

of

new cities of

the mind, creators and

.

discoverers

of new words with which

to

think and

feel At

one

level there

are the

literary

spritzers and

tummlers

and

the

ordinary teachers who do it for their higher level there are Shakespeare
almost all

students and and

for larger audiences,

and

and at a

Socrates

others,

who

do it for

the

world.

The

rewards

for these latter

are not so

immediate. In fact,

the temporal dimension of their

almost

fame has

so outdistanced the spatial that we

tend to think of them as natural

users

phenomena rather abilities which

than as once to

living,
in

striving, human

of powers

and

they had
or

develop

themselves, carefully If fame and glory

two things

and painstakingly. can

be

achieved

only

by

pleasing
must

benefitting
in

people,

emerge clearly.

The first is that

some sort of

ability, some power

exercised
order

and not a mere talent or philanthropic

achieve

intention,
us, as if

be

to

it. "A

man of good will with no power might as well powers

be

a man of

bad
mix of

will."

But few
to

are

just

given

by

nature.

The ability to
can

ingredients,
all, and that
might

organize

people,
must

to put words together meaningfully

all

these are powers, and

they

first be developed before they

be

used at

will often require

the

foregoing

of pleasure!

(This,

that pleasures

"ordinary"

have to be postponed, is the

of

case even

for the

gaining

and

using

power.)
once

Then,
matter.

developed,
use

such powers must

be

used properly, or

glory-seeking
about

ambition will

be thwarted. And that is the

power
"imperio"

second remarkable

thing

the

For to

improperly, be it wickedly
at
not

or

even

clumsily, as

Machiavelli noted, is to
no

achieve

best, but
a crime

never glory. men

Ambition is

sin, in this world,

and

it is surely

for

who would rule

others.

The

sin

is faint-heartedness,
and

a willingness

to settle for anything

less

than glory
2. given

itself,

the crime is carelessness, imprudence in the use of power.

of the

In

our own

time, the inventor

and time

light bulb

and the phonograph,

by

which we

have been

power over space

themselves, has been immortalized

Turnpike.

by

the construction, in

his

name, of an

exit on

the

New

Jersey

66
In

Interpretation
"properly"

order

for

power to

beget fame it
of

must

be

used

properly, and

means which

here,

simply, "to the benefit

at

others."

If

others are not

benefitted

is to say,

the very least

turn can use

relieved of pain and at

the best provided with

and even admira

some power

they in

then

fame

will not

follow

tion will be offered only grudgingly. As a matter of that the beneficial use of power was only

fact, if it becomes

apparent

for the

sake of

being

glorified, then

the fame

will

dissolve like

smoke

into

bitter
within

memory.

Thus the For fame

precariousness of power of and grow

fame. But

it, like

a seed

that's rooted in a

crack, there is the

can

desire itself to

cleave the rock of

human

misery.

live

ing

the

lot

of those who give

only by bettering it in return, with

And

the condition of man,

"glory"

by

improv

as the

final crown, in

time.

Desire is for being, being: thus A little

mere

as we say.

a small

desire is for
out one's

little
at

parcel of

pleasure, caressing and

moves outside

filling
it,

body

the most.

more

desire

this skin we're in and acts upon the world

on and

around us: thus power and the exercise of

when

in the bodies
and

of others.

But
and

desire becomes

unlimited

it

will

be

satisfied

only in

by

the

hearts

wills and memories of generations yet unborn:

thus glory and the

immortality
for

it

brings. As Fame
a

way

of

being,
can

therefore, this glory is the

cannot

greatest to

be

striven

and

the most

desirable. But it
glory

be

chosen

directly

or enjoyed

immediately.

and

be

achieved

only

by

an effort which

operationally
self all

suspends

the primal concern of desire itself

initially ignores and the being of one's

and needs of others,

attending to and effectively fulfilling the wants in the hope of an eventual transfiguration in their
at the

by

"love."

A risky

undertak

ing

very best, but

worth a

try, for

some.

The really
achieved or

intriguing thing

not, the results of

terms

are

the same: some

is this, that whether glory is in fact for it in the long run and in human striving benefit to men. And the effort, curiously enough, is
about
all

it

in
us

almost perfect congruence with what moralists and others

have been telling

for

years!3

It's

as though

it had been

planned.

3.

Cf. James

1: 27.

The Lion A

and

the Ass:

Commentary on the
Robert Sacks
St. John's College

Book

of

Genesis (Chapters 21-24)

CHAPTER XXI

And the Lord

as

visited

Sarah

as

He had

said, and the

Lord did

unto

Sarah

He had

spoken. and

2.

For Sarah conceived,

set

bare Abraham
spoken to

a son

in his

old age,

at the

3.

of of And Abraham
to

time

which

God had

him. born
unto

called the name

of his

son that was

him,

whom

Sarah bare The

name

him, Isaac.
comes

Isaac

from the

word

meaning to laugh. Since the

verb will

appear several

times in the present chapter, under rather ambiguous circum

stances,
not

it

will

become
used

crucial

that we understand the

full

range of

its meaning,
Biblical

only as it is literature.

by

the author

but

as

it

occurs

in the

whole of

The Hebrew language is

a much more

formal language than the Western

ear

is

used

to. Each verb and most nouns which are not of foreign origin are built three letters. But oftentimes these roots themselves are interrelated.
of

on a root of

In the Book nearly

to the
alike.

Genesis there is
each case

In

play among four roots which sound the first letter of the root is one of the letters related
a constant

family

in

which our
'k'

V is

and

V belong,

and

has

very hard whereas in the

a

sound.

In two
a

cases

the middle letter

guttural.

in every case the last letter is a very soft guttural

The
words with whereas

other

two it

very hard
and

the soft

middle

letter

mean

playing
mean much

(sahaq)

laughing (sahaq)

those with

the hard the

middle words

letter
sound

four

crying (sa'aq) or complaining (za'aq). In any case alike, as if originally the ideas were all one and
make

people

began to

soften

their voices or

them

hard

depending

upon

their

feelings

and the slight

distinctions

which word

they

wished

to express.
related

As

we shall

see, it is important that the Hebrew

for laughter is

to words mean

ing
to

crying

and

yelling

rather

than to

words

for happiness

or

joviality. Needless

which

words the word joviality say Hebrew has no counterpart of have the soft middle letter and hence mean laughter, one begins with hard V sound and the other with a soft V sound. The latter can also mean
play.

itself. Of the two

to

Given this introduction let

the words are used.
with or

us consider more

deeply

the separate ways

in

which

The

roots

the

hard

middle a

letter cry

appear

six

times
a

in the Book

of

Genesis.

Justly

unjustly there is

of pain and

hence

cry for help. The

68
voice

Interpretation
brother'

of thy

blood

crieth unto me

from

the ground (Gen. 4:10).

cried
with

When
and

he discovered that he had lost his birthright, Esau

exceeding bitter cry (Gen. 27:34), cried to pharaoh for bread (Gen.
connection with

great

and when

they had

no

bread The
often

people used

41:55).

In this

sense

it is

in

the Children of Israel

verb

during

the years
mean

which

they

spent

in the

desert. Sometimes the

is

also used to
and

the wild cries of a violent

19:13).

mob, such as occurred in Sodom

Gomorrah (Gen. 18:21;

In

almost

related

every instance in the Bible the words for laughter are closely to crying and appear either as derision or as the laughter of a wild man.
Abraham laugh
and 18:12).

Sarah

and

derisively

when

the angel predicts the birth of a son take his warning to be mere

(Gen. 17:17
or

Lot's

sons-in-law

laughter

mockery (Gen. 19:14). Sarah is constantly afraid that people will laugh at her (Gen. 21:6). Potiphar's wife accuses Joseph of making fun of her (Gen. 39:14,17). The Children of Israel laugh before the Golden Calf (Ex. 32:6), and
the Philistines
sport
called

for Samson

out

of the

prison

house; And he
making

made them

(Judg.

16:25).

The

other word

for

laughing

or

sport which uses sense:

the softer first letter is used

by

Jeremiah in the

same

derogatory

sat not

in the assembly of the mockers (Jer. 15:17). In the early books it is sometimes used in the

sense of

innocent

play.

Isaac

innocently
forces
of

plays with

his

wife

Rebekah,
of

and at

the end of the war between the

armies

Saul

and

the forces

David the two

decide to
case

pla\

war

games, but in both cases the result is disastrous. In the one

Abimelech

discovers that Isaac is Rebekah's husband (Gen. 26:8), and in the other case the men do not know how to play and the war begins again (II Sam. 2:14).

Only
among

in the

character of

David,

the poet

king, does playing find

is very

a new role

men.

third chapter

The story of how this came of the Book of Joshua.

about

long

and

begins in the

Moses

was

dead,
of

and

the Children of Israel

were about

to cross the Jordan

with great and

River. The Ark

the Covenant was transferred across the river

sober circumstance.

No less than the

space of

two thousand cubits, about half a

we remember,

mile, was left between the Ark and the people (Josh. 3:4). As

this formal separation between the people and the Ark derives from God's

decision to

remain apart

.from

the people

because

of

the sin of the

Golden Calf

(Ex. 33:3, compare with Chapter Thirty-two). Joshua was the first to carry the Ark into battle. It

was used with great

ceremony when the people walked (Josh. 6:4). After the battle the Ark was
and

seven times around the

city

of

pomp Jericho

finally
of

erected

in

what was

intended to

be its
the

permanent

home

on

Mount Ebal (Josh. 8:30-33).

the

During

the period of
either a

Judges the Ark

was

in the House

Lord,

which

may be

reference to the town of

Beth-el

or more

probably

a reference to the

city

of

Shiloh (Josh.

18:1).

During
camp

the

first Philistine

war

the people
was

decided to

bring
of

the Ark

into the
it

as their protection.

While this

done in imitation

Joshua's

actions

The Lion
was

and

the

Ass

69

severely against God's decision to remain outside of the camp (I Sam. 4:3). The event proved disastrous, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines
(I Sam.
tines.
4:11).

However,

the Ark proved to be equally disastrous to the Philis

It was first carried to the city of Ashdod and placed by the statue of Dagon. In the morning the statue of Dagon was found fallen on its face in front of the Ark. The men of Gath, who will play a very special role in this story, imme diately saw the implications and suggested that the Ark be returned to Israel. But
their suggestion was not

listened to,

and one

by

one all the cities of

and

Philistia

fell

under a plague.

At last the Ark

was returned

found its way to Beit

smote the men even

Shemesh (I Sam. 6:12). After the Ark

was established

in Beit Shemesh, God

ark

of Beit

Shemesh because they looked into the

people

of the

Lord,

fifty

thousand and three score and ten men

of the (I Sam. 6:19). The demand

smote were

He

for

separation was still

enforced, but the

men of

Kirjath-Jearim
7:1,2).

willing to

accept

the Ark and treat it with

due

respect

(I Sam.

After the first intimations that he had lost favor

Saul
again

with

the Lord (I Sam. 13:14) the

attempted

to take the Ark into battle

against

Philistines, but
to transfer

during

the battle

he

almost

When David
the Ark to the the Ark
was

established

lost his son, Jonathan. his capital at Jerusalem he

This procession,
the

made a cart

new capital.

unlike the solemn occasion when

was

brought

across

River Jordan,

accompanied

by

much

festivity. Musical instruments The Hebrew

the time.
word

such as

harps,

cornets and

timbrels were played.

for playing is
procession

our word, the one we

have been

discussing
to

all

During

the

the Ark

wobbled and was about

fall

when a

man named

Uzzah tried to

prevent

the fall

by

steadying it

with

his hand. God

man

became angry because of the prohibition against touching the Ark. The was struck and died in front of the Ark (II Sam. 6:7).
David's
and plans

to transfer the Ark to the new capital were then abandoned, the home of Obed-Edom the

it

was

left

at

Gittite,

Philistine
of

who was

the days he among David's followers from Ziklag.

was

a vassal

King

Achish in

We have already
of

noted

that it

was

Obed- Edom 's

fellow townsmen, the

men

Gath,

who were

the first among the Philistines to recognize the powers of

the Ark.

On the

other

Philistines is

most

hand Gath is the city in which the character was also the home of the clearly portrayed since it

of

the

giants.

This

strange combination

is

one

way

of

presenting the

problem which we are

about to

face insofar
the Lord

as

it

affects

King

David.

Although David

abandoned

his

plans

angry

with

for the

obvious

for transferring the Ark, he became injustice done to the man who tried to

steady the Ark in

Sometime
prospered

all good will

word came

(II Sam. 6:8).

to David that the house of

later,

Obed-Edom had
continue with

because

of the presence of the

Ark,

and

he decided to

70 his

Interpretation
plan
of

original

bringing
entered

the Ark to the new city. On this occasion the

than the

procession was even more of

frolicsome

first,

and

David danced in front

entered

the

people as and

they

the city (II Sam. 6:14). As

King David

the

city

leaping
of

dancing
was

window

and

was

disgusted.

before the Lord, his wife, Michal, saw him through a According to her account, the dance of David,
nude.

King

Israel,

done in the
not

The tendencies
modern which

Michal's feelings may

seems even more mild

be completely
position

may have to share prejudices since her position

one

than the

God Himself had taken only

thirteen verses earlier when He killed the man who had touched the Ark. But

apparently God had seen a certain justice in David's complaint and hence a necessity for modifying His position with regard to the relation between the Ark
and

the people.
spite of

any man, may have seen the full implication of the need for respecting the Ark, at least from one point of view. Throughout its history the misuse of the Ark had always been connected
more than with

Now in

David's dance he,

the Philistines

(I Sam.

and

14).

On the

other

hand the Philistines

themselves somehow saw the proper position of the Ark more clearly than did

Israel herself. It
tions of the
man within

was of

the

men of

Gath

who

immediately
of

perceived the

implica
only

fall

Dagon

and the

necessity

returning the

Ark,

and the

the borders of Israel who was able to

a

keep

the Ark in safety was

Obed-Edom,
In the
of

Philistine.

revolution under

Absalom, Zadok,

the priest, offered to

bring

the Ark

God into battle, but David, being wiser than Saul, refused the assistance of the Ark and ordered him to return it to the Lord. His exact words were: If I find
the eyes

favor in

of the Lord, He

will

bring

me

back

and

let

me see

both it

and

His habitation; but Him do to It may

the wild

if He

says, I

have

no pleasure

in you,

behold, here I

am,

let

me what seems good to

Him (II Sam.

15:25,26).

seem strange at should

dance,

first that David, the poet king who could take part in also be the most sensitive to the use and abuse of the
of the

Ark.

Judging by

the

history

Ark

on

the one

hand

and

the picture we have

seen of

the Philistines on the other, this combination of opposites would seem

legacy which David received from his tutelage to the Philistines while serving under King Achish. It is almost as if no leader could be fully aware of the limitations of order without having been schooled, at least for a time,
to

be the

beyond its limits.

Michal's
seems

feeling
no

of

disgust

as

she

watched

David dance before the Ark

to

be

more

than a milder form of the Lord's reaction to Uzzah 's

touching the Ark. Although we can understand and perhaps even admire Michal, she was punished by barrenness for apparently following the ways of the Lord. This seeming injustice is related to the main thread of the Bible, as we have seen it develop from the beginning. In accepting David's dance, God established a new relation between man and the Ark. But, once it had become
acknowledged

that

new

foundation

was

required,

any

attempt

to remain

within the confines of the old

foundation became

sinful.

Consider

not

only

the

The Lion
actions of

and

the

Ass

71
return

Ham

and

Cain's desire to

to the

the part of a Jew to

such a

live

decent life

without

the Law of

Garden, but any attempt on Moses, perhaps even

given.

life

as

Abraham had lived,

much of

after

the Law

had been
could not

The total
pletely. cannot

rejection of older

ways,

however,

be

maintained com

Too

Israel's

present rests upon

her

past.

The past, though it

During
in

be relived, must upon occasion be recaptured in a sacred and holy way. the Feast of Tabernacles, Succoth, the Children of Israel are invited to
their

remember

flight from Egypt

23:33-44).

and

the time before

they

placed

their security

cities

(see Lev.
of

In the Book
spend seven

days

Deuteronomy this holy time, in which the Children of Israel living in booths as they had during those forty years in the
joyous time that
in the
ushers

desert, is
which

presented as a

in the

year of redemption

in

the Hebrew slaves are freed and the original equality of the people is
not

reestablished, though

complete

sense

of

the Jubilee Year (Deut. times seems to be a

16:13

ad

31:10).

The

sacred

recollection

of pastoral

prerequisite

for the

recapture of

that equality

which existed

in

precivil and

times.

Even before David's dance

on a new

level, joy,
of

as

momentarily distinguished from laughter, had

under special

which

placed

laughter
often

been

praised

playing in

the Book

Deuteronomy. However,

circumstances

laughter,

too, is ultimately praised, but not in terms of the life which all of us presently live. The innocent laughter of children is not totally unknown to the Prophets (see Zach. 8:5), but it belongs to another day and is only a dream of the future.

Rarely, if
in front
word

ever, does the Bible show us innocent laughter

as a

thing happening
use of the

of our eyes

(see Jer.

30:19).

But there is

one

outstanding

beyond any other passage. play 16:12 we had occasion to speak Gen. In the commentary to the Book of Job and the true chaos from which God protects
which goes well

about the end of us.

At that time
as a

God, in speaking of the Leviathan, God's greatest activity is protecting

Leviathan. From His
an
own point of

says

will thou

play

with

him

bird?
of

mankind

from the

chaotic

world

the

view,

however,

this activity, like playing,

is

activity done for its own sake. God does it because it is for the sake of its consequences (Job 41:5)-

enjoyable and not

4.

And Abraham

circumcised

his

son

Isaac

being
when

eight

days old,
Isaac

as

God

had
5.

commanded

him

And Abraham
unto

was an

hundred

years

old,

his

son

was

born

him.
said,

6. And Sarah
laugh
7.

God hath

made me

to

laugh,

so that all that

hear

will

with me.

And dren
The

she said,
suck?

Who

shall recite

For I have born him

of Abraham that Sarah has a son in his old age.

given chil

word which

I have

translated recite
106:2).

is

often used of people who

tell of
also a

the

great

deeds

of the

Lord (Ps.

Sarah's fear

of

laughter is

72

Interpretation
shares with
most

All poetry for the moment. Even the

fear

of poetry.

laughter the ability to put things aside horrible can be mediated through the beauties necessarily humor.
means

of

speech, but for Sarah, to

put aside

to put down. In spite of

her laughter, Sarah has For

no sense of

our remarks on circumcision see the

commentary to Gen. Abraham

17:6.

8. And
feast
9.

the child grew, and was weaned: and the same

made a great

day

that

Isaac

was weaned.

And Sarah

saw

the son of Hagar the

Egyptian,

which she

had born

unto

Abraham,
The
word

mocking.

translated as

feast

comes

from the

word to

drink

and

implies that because

of

wine was served.

It is

more

than

likely

that Ishmael was

of

laughing
she

his

merriment over misjudged

the wine,

and given

Sarah's fear

laughter

have

the boy's
wild

intentions. At least this

would seem

to

may simply be the case if

it is true that the

the New

ass, though he has many faults from the

point of view of

Way, is

not

guilty

of malice

(see commentary to Gen.

out

16:12).

10.

Wherefore
son:

she said unto

Abraham, Cast
bondwoman

this

bondwoman
with

and even

her
with

for

the son of this

shall not

be heir

my son,

Isaac.
was unto and

11. 12.

And the thing And God said

of the

very

grievous

in Abraham's
not

sight

Abraham, Let it

be

grievous

because of his in thy sight be

son.

cause unto

because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

lad,

13.

And

also seed.

of the

son

of the bondwoman

will

make a nation,

because he

is thy

Sarah's

reaction,

while

it

is
as a

not

commendable,
of

is

certainly

sufficient

to reveal Ishmael's

inadequacy
they
of

father

the New Way. To the extent that

Sarah's

actions are unjust

reveal a need

for law, but Ishmael,

tradition.

as the

Wild

Ass,
14.

would

be incapable
rose

carrying

on such a

And Abra-ham

bottle of water,
child, and
ness
sent

and gave

up early in the morning, and took bread, and a it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the

her

away: and she

departed,

and wandered

in the

wilder

15.

of Beer-sheba. And the water was of And she

were a

spent

in the bottle,

and she cast the child under

one

the shrubs.
went, and sat

16.

her down

over against

him

a good

way off,

as

it

bowshot: for

she said.
and

Let

me not see the

death of

the child.

And

she sat over against

him,

lift up her

voice, and wept.

compared with

Hagar's
cern

concern child

for her

child

is intended to be

Sarah's

con

for her

in Verse Ten. It is

not always the case

that the

more noble way.

passion

is the

more

fitting

passion as the

foundation

of

the chosen

The Lion
17.

and the

Ass

73 of the lad;
voice
and the angel

And God heard the Hagar

out

voice

of God

called

to

of heaven,

and said unto

her, What

aileth

thee, Hagar? fear

not; for God

hath heard the

of the lad

where

he is.
and 28:12.

For the discussion

18.

on angels see the commentaries

to Gen. 22:1 1

Arise, lift up
And God

the

lad,
her

and

hold him in

thine

hand; for I

will make

him
19.

a great nation. opened

eyes, and she saw a well

of water;

and she went,

and

filled

the

bottle

with

water, and gave the

lad drink.

20.

And God

was with the

an archer.

lad;

and

he

grew, and

dwelt in
his

the wilderness,

and

became

21.

And he dwelt in
of the

the wilderness

of Paran:

and

mother took

him

a wife out

land of Egypt.
time, that Abimelech
and

22.

And it

came to pass at that

Phichol the
with thee

chief captain of his host

that thou

spake unto

Abraham,

saying,

God is

in

all

doest:
of

After the birth

more

impressed

by

the birth of

Isaac the story of Abimelech continues. He seems to be Isaac than by any of the divine interventions we

witnessed

in Chapter Nineteen.
therefore
swear unto me

23.

Now

here

by God

that thou wilt not

deal falsely

with

me,

nor with

ness that

my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kind I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land

wherein thou

hast

sojourned. will swear.

24.

And Abraham said, I

Abimelech does

not use

the normal word

for

son.

The

words

he

uses

imply
used

distant

relations and sons of

many

generations to come. cases

will

They

will

only be

twice again in the Bible

and

in both

be

used

in

time of total

destruction

when

the author wishes to emphasize that not even a shred

is left.

There is something ironic and even sad about Abimelech. His name means the father of kings; he is concerned about his most distant progeny, and yet
none of

his descendants
who

will ever

be

mentioned

in the Bible, just is

as there

is

no

indication

his fathers

were.

While the

problem

still not yet solved

this

irony
by

begins to

give us some

became the
the

chosen one. of

insight into why Abraham rather than Abimelech It also explains why Abimelech was more impressed
was

birth

Isaac than he

by

anything that had happened to him in

Chapter Twenty.
And Abraham
Abimelech because of a
taken away.
well
which

25.

reproved

of water,

Abimelech'

s servants

had violently

26.

And Abimelech said, I

neither yet

wot not who

hath done this

today.

thing: neither

didst

thou tell me,

I heard of it, but

74 Part

Interpretation
of

the
are

answer all

to the problem

is
s

now clear.

Noble
not

as

Abimelech is, his

and

followers
therefore

thieves.

Abimelech

virtue

is

teachable virtue,

he

cannot

be

a teacher of virtue

in the

sense of a

founder.
cannot under
a man who

Abimelech does
stand

not understand

Abrahams

anger

because he

why he

should

have known that his incapable

of

men were unjust.

He is
of

lacks

all suspicion and was as

suspecting Abraham

trickery in

pre

senting Sarah

his

sister.

27.

And Abraham took sheep

and

oxen, and gave them unto

Abimelech;

and

28.
29.

both of them made a And Abraham set seven

And Abimelech

covenant.
ewe

lambs of

the

flock

by

themselves.

said unto

Abraham, What
lambs

mean these seven ewe

lambs

which thou

hast be

set

by

themselves?
seven ewe

30.

And he

said,
max

for

these

that
31.

they

a witness unto me, that

of my hand, I have digged this well.

shalt thou take

Wherefore he
them.

called that place

Beersheba; because

there

they

sware

both of

While Abimelech decides to

make a covenant with

Abraham, he is bewil

dered

by

Abraham's

naivete and nature.

The nobility of his own nature entails a certain hides from him the need for any convention which goes beyond
activity.

He has

a certain

kinship

with

the men who built the Tower of Babel in

for any foundation beyond what is at hand. But in his case his innate nobility allows him to live a worthy life in a foundationless world even though it cannot be communicated to others.
that the need

he, too, denies

32.

Thus they

made a covenant at

Beersheba:
and

then

Abimelech

rose up, and

Phichol the chief captain of his host, of the Philistines.

they

returned

into the land

So,
most

all

is

clear.

Abimelech
which

came are

from the land

the

of

the

Philistines,

the

like the

waters

above

heavens. Abimelech's
its surroundings,

virtue

country is a
are

purely

private virtue.

It is

neither caused

by

which

the

does it in any way affect his surroundings since his men will continue to be thieves. He is rather like the fish that live in the water and receive a blessing. They were the only animals which were able to live through
symbol of

chaos,

nor

the Flood without the

help

of the

Ark.

Out enemy

of
of

deference to Abimelech the city of Gerar is never mentioned as an Israel in the early books of the Prophets. However, as one might have

expected, the author of the Book of

giants and water and such nonsense

Chronicles,
as

who

has little
such

patience a

for

that, does

mention

battle (II

Chron.

14:13).

The Lion
33.

and

the

Ass

75
in

And Abraham

planted a grove

Beer-sheba,

and called there on the

name

34.

of the Lord, the ever-lasting God. And Abraham sojourned in the

when

Philistines'

land many days. for the Covenant. The

the land. It is
grove

Abraham,
he

alone, performs

a second sign

plants now will

be trees

when

his

children return to

a new

kind

of covenant and serves as an

introduction

to the next two chapters.

CHAPTER XXII

1.

And it

came to pass after these

things, that God did test Abraham,

and said unto

him, Abraham:

and

he

said,

Behold, here I

am.

The

chapter

begins

with a phrase

that underlines its

connection

to the

pre-

ceeding one where that relation is not readily apparent. Abraham's superiority to Abimelech lay in his having a son in the fullest sense of the word. He will
now

be

asked single

to

give

up that

son.
am

The intent

word

translated as Here I

and

determination. These
whom

words point

is a strong exclamation, full of back to the speaker as one who is

echo and re-echo through

present

and on of

one
each

may depend.

They

the

labyrinth
words as

Genesis,

time answering themselves:

they

are
a

God's first

He

announces

His decision to

annihilate the world

which

by

flood (Gen.

6:17), but they

9:9)-

are also the words with

He brings His Covenant (Gen.

They will appear three times in the present chapter. Later, Esau, when he is called by his father to receive the blessing, will announce his readiness to accept that blessing by these words (Gen. 27:1), but they will again appear when Jacob first receives the fruits of that blessing (Gen. 31:11). Joseph will repeat them when Israel sends him to bring word of his brothers, who will capture him and sell him into slavery (Gen. 37:13). They are also the very last words which any human being will speak to God in the Book of Genesis (Gen.
46:2).
spoken

As

a counterpart

to the whole of Genesis

they

will

be the first

words

by

any

man

to God after four hundred years of silence (Ex. 3:3).

2.

even

And He said, Please take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for
upon one

burnt offering The

passage

of the

mountains which

will tell

thee of.

is

elegant

in its

simplicity.

Its tone

comes

from the

gradual

build-up
had

of seven short phrases which pound and pound again.

S0ren Kierke

gaard wrote a
spent

book

called

Fear And Trembling. It is the story

about the present chapter.

of an old man who

many

years

thinking

He looks

at

it from

76

Interpretation
and

many sides,
promised

his final

thoughts were

the seed, and that seed could only come through

other

something like this: Abraham had been his chosen son,

that the

Isaac. On the
order

hand, God has

commanded must

boy

die. Abraham, in
promise would

to maintain

his faith in God,

believe both that the

be

kept

and that the son would

reason of

die. The

old man reaches

the conclusion that

it is

human

itself

which was placed on

the altar that

day

so

many

years ago

in the land

Moriah.
who considers

Kierkegaard,
the old man

himself

a master of

irony,

at one point says.

If

had known Hebrew

a

perhaps

he

would

have

understood the chapter

better. It is
true

pity for the

modern world

that

Kierkegaard did have

not understand the

irony
of
of

of that statement.
was

If he had, he
cause of

would

seen that

the old man's

lack

Hebrew
the

indeed the

irony

statement

lies

not

his misunderstanding of the text. The in its falsity, as Kierkegaard thought, but rather
a short word and words of uses

in its truth. The

word please

in Hebrew is
appears

is

often

ignored

lators, but
certainly
all of

when

it be

in the

God

spoken

to a

human

by trans being it

cannot

overlooked.

God

the word in four other places, but in

someone

them it

is

used

in the To

sense of

inviting

to accept a gift (Gen.

13:14; 15:5;

and 31:12).

no other person aside

from Abraham does God Abraham

he

say please in the whole of the Bible. God and Abraham had made a Covenant. God
and make

would give

a son

his

name great of the

if Abraham He

were asked

willing to devote that seed to the Abraham

whether would

establishment

New Way.

be

willing to give up that seed and the Covenant. The question is ham would be willing to relinquish the seed while remaining sense discussed in the beginning of Chapter Seventeen.

whether

Abra

perfect

in the

God's
refused?

request

was

dangerous
would

on

both

sides. of

But

suppose

Abraham had

Killing

Abraham

have been

two

of

them ever

face

each other again?

word would

little help, and yet how could the Could God have nullified the Cove be meaningless,
and what man could

nant?

ever

Perhaps, but then God's trust Him again?

So

long

as there was no command

of

there

was no

contradiction, and Kierke

of

gaard, in his sacrifice

than like Abraham.

reason, became

more

like the followers

Moloch

The

present

chapter

appears

Abraham

prior to the

destruction

in sharp contrast to God's discussion with of Sodom and Gomorrah. In that case Abra
as

ham

was

willing to
poles

argue with

God

any

man might argue with another,

but

here he

says nothing.

These two
right

may

not

be

so

different

as
no

first

appears.

God may have the

would

to request that which even He has the death

most
of

right

to that

demand. If God had

Abraham
have

commanded complied.

Isaac it is

by

no means clear

The

that can be said is that

God in

order

to save the lives of men

Abraham is willing to argue with whom he does not know while he is

The Lion
willing to be
of the

and the

Ass

11

silent when the about

destruction touches him

and

personally. name was

In the

whole

discussion
In

Sodom

Gomorrah, Lot's

never men

tioned.

way the present passage speaks more about God's faith in Abraham than Abraham's faith in God. If Abraham had refused, God would still be forced to keep His promise, but the relationship between Him and
a strange

Abraham

would

have become

unbearable.

As it is Abraham

and

God

will never

speak with each other again after

the present chapter.

clear

Get These

thee:
were

The

words

ring

distant but

bell in the

old man's

head.

the words

which

God first

addressed to
will

beginning
speak

of

his travels,

and now end

they

him many years ago at the be the last words that God will ever
and

to Abraham.

The

seems

complete
will

final. When Isaac is dead

there will

be

no

people,

and

Abraham
of

to the perfect way

spoken

trying to live according in Chapter Seventeen. When God first took

alone

be left
I

Abraham, He
Now He
says

said

Get

thee to the

land

which

shall shew thee

(Gen.

12:1).

Get

thee to the

the mountains which I will

pole.

land of Moriah; and offer him there tell thee of. Again we seem to be at
reduced

upon one

of

an opposite

Abraham's

position

has been

from

one

who

sees

to one who

hears.

3.

up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood And Abraham
rose

for

the

burnt
told

offering, and rose up, and

went unto

the place

of

which

God had This Like

all

him.
composed of six

verse

is

short sentences

spoken

sharply

and clearly.

Biblical

sacrifices

the description

is

mechanical and

precise, and there

is

barely

any

room

for

passion.

It

reminds

the reader of the time

he

was

trying

to follow the intricacies of the precise

world was

measurements

of an ark while all the

coming to an end. The details recall rose up early. Abraham had another son who Morning (Gen. 21:14).

another occasion when was also sent

Abraham
in the

away

Early

4.

Then

on

the third

day

Abraham lifted up his

eyes, and saw the place

afar off.

Abraham's
gaard,

three-day

journey,

so

beautifully

described

by

Kierke
pri

is

mentioned

in only
those

one short sentence, nor are we a

party to his

vate thoughts

during
of

long

three days.
another

In the Book

Exodus there is
of a

lead to the death

Children
of

first-born

son.

three-day journey which will also Moses requested Pharaoh to allow the

Israel to leave Egypt for

three-day journey
and

to sacrifice to their

God (Ex.

3:18).

The

request was

denied,
some

the result was the

of a sacrifice of

death

of

every

Egyptian first-born. Was that, too,

kind

the first-born?

78
5.

Interpretation
said unto and the

And Abraham
the ass; and

his young

men, Sit

yourselves

down here

with

lad

will go yonder and

bow down

and return

to you.

Throughout these three

speaks

long days
a voice of

Abraham has
catch

retained

his

nobility.

He

to the

servants

in

difficult to

in English. Even to his

normal

servants

he

uses

the

mild

form

the imperative. The

imperative is

shortened and

harsh form

of the

imperfect. But Abraham

uses a much gentler

form

which adds a syllable words reflect

to the verb.
concern

These

Abraham's

for the

comfort of

his

servants

in

spite of what

he believes he is

about

to do. His nobility

will not allow

him to

forget that the

world will go on and

that

he

must remain a part of

it.

6. And Abraham his

son; and

took the wood took the

of the burnt offering

and a

and

laid it
and

upon

Isaac

he

fire in his hand,

knife;

they

went

both of them
This is the

together.

same simple construction we saw

in Verse Three

four

simple

declarative

sentences.

The

words

are

clear, their effect

impressive. Unfortu its Hebrew

nately, the English translation cannot reproduce the effect since the English
word and

tends to connect and draw together more strongly than

counterpart.

Perhaps it

would

have been

more accurate

to

drop

the word com

pletely The The

by beginning
word

a new sentence each time. and the as a

passage
of

knife only occurs once again in the Torah is worth discussing since it almost reads
which

Early

Prophets.

horrid

and twisted

parody
perhaps

the same notions

account

lie behind the

present

chapter,

and

yet

may readily open to sight in the more formal account. In the days before Israel had a king there was Mount Ephraim
who

the twisted

reveal aspects of the problem which are not so

an

unnamed

Levite from
concubine

had

a concubine

from Bethlehem. When the

left him, he returned to fetch her back and, after being hospitably entertained by her father, returned to his own country. Since it was a two-day journey lodgings had to be provided, and the Levite 's servant suggested spending the night in Jerusalem, which at that time was still in the hands of the Jebusites.
The Levite himself decided to
spend

the night in

Gibeah,

which

had already

been

conquered

by

the

Benjaminites.

During

the night the Benjaminites at

tacked the
and the

house, and the story from that point on reads like the story of Lot men of Sodom, but in the Book of Judges there were no angels to save
horrible abuse, died.
part of

the man. The concubine was taken and, after a night of

The Levite dismembered her

each

body

with a

knife, sending

the

remains

to

of the

tribes of Israel. This sacrifice unified the people to reestablish

well over

into

an

almost

surrealistic attempt

justice.
three hundred years the people
the
of all

For the first time in banded together in

the tribes
after a

order

to

wipe out

daughters

of

Benjamin. Then,

The Lion

and the

Ass

79
realized the consequences of their
order that a

sober moment

in

which

they

act,

they
not

at

tempted to
stroyed out

find

wives

for the Benjaminites in

tribe

be

de

of Israel (Judg. 21:17).

the time of the

Now
been every

at

battle

all the

cities

had

sworn

not

to give their
which

daughters

as wives to the

Benjaminites.
the
oath.

Only

the city of Shiloh

was

had

not

present
year

did

not make

The Ark

the women of Shiloh performed a

in Shiloh in those days, and great dance. In order to uphold

their oath the men of Israel

men of

lay

in

wait

during
act

the

dance

and on signal
men of

killed the

Shiloh

and captured as a a

their

daughters

as wives

for the

Benjamin.

What began justice

with

sober attempt to

strictly

within

the bounds of legal

again

led to

twisted parody of justice which the author, in accordance

his delicacy,

retold

tions are summed up in the

often

simply and impassionately. The last line of the book a line

whole of which

his

reflec

had

recurred

throughout the book but whose full force only became visible at this

moment:

Because there
in his
of

was not xet a

king

in Israel: every

man

did

that which

was right

own eyes

(Judg.
which

21:25).

The Book league

strated of

Judges,
ends

began

with

the praise of a

loosely

connected

tribes,

by

showing the need

a who wanted

for kingship. This

need was

demon

by

means of a

story concerning

Levite from Ephraim,

night

a concubine

from Bethlehem,
Benjaminites
of

a servant

to spend the

in Jerusalem, the
and

Gibeah,
so

and the women of

Shiloh. A frightful story it was,

yet out of the nightmare seemed

to arise

an answer.

All had begun king. But how

well; and now

Israel, God's Chosen People,

into the hands
would of

needed

a
a

could

Israel

give unlimited power

of a

man,

being

such as themselves?

Some kind

divine limitation

be

needed.

At

that time, the

Prophets,

or

the Seers as

they

were

called, were appointed

by

God to implement those limitations. The first

was a

of these men was

Samuel. He too
prayed

Levite from Ephraim. He

was

the son of

Hanna,

who

had

for his

Saul. He, like the

proved

birth before the Lord in the city of men in our story,

Shiloh. The first

was a

King

to

be

appointed was

Benjaminite from Gibeah. When he

kingship was permanently established by David, a young man from Bethlehem, who finally captured the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. Many years later Nahash the Ammonite attacked the city of Jabesh-Gilead, and Saul, who was in the process of becoming the first king of Israel, was sent for. Saul at that time was living in Gibeah, the site of the earlier story from the
false,
the

Book

of

Judges,

and

had just
20:7).

come

from among the Prophets, prophesying (see

commentary to Gen.
And he took
the
coast

a yoke

of

oxen and

hewed

them

into

pieces and sent them throughout

of Israel
Saul
upon

by
the

the

hand of a

messenger, saying,

Whosoever

cometh not

forth

after

and after

Samuel,

so shall

it be done

unto

his

oxen.

And the fear of

1

the Lord fell

People,
the

and

they

came out as one man.

(I Sam.

1:7)

The

chapter ends with

verse:

80
And

Interpretation
all

the people went to

and there

Gilgal;
they

and there

they

made

Saul

king

before

the

Lord in Gilgal;

sacrificed sacrifices and peace offerings

before

the

Lord;

and there

Saul

and all the men

of Israel
sacrifice

rejoiced greatly.

(I Sam. 11:15)

For the

second

time

horrible

has taken

place

in the city

of

Gibeah,
of

and again

that sacrifice
of

brought the
the

people

together.

Back in the days

Joshua,

Hivites,

who were

the great success of the Israelite army and

in Gibeon, heard tricked Joshua into signing a

living

covenant with enough until

them (Josh. Chap. 9). Their relations to Israel went

great

smoothly

the

famine

near

the end of David's reign which,

the

Lord,

was

caused

by

Saul

and

his

bloody

according to house because he slew the

to
an

Gibeonites (II Sam.

not recorded
matters.

21:1).

Perhaps this

verse refers

incident

which was

in the Bible, but the Biblical author is usually careful about such Gibeon was never mentioned during the reign of Saul. But after his
scene of

death it became the between the

Chap. 2,
and men

the mock battle

which

turned out so
of

disastrously

of

Saul

under

Abner

and

the

forces

Joab (see II Sam.

This battle

commentary to Gen. 21:3). seems to have been the cause

of the great

the Hivites who lived in Gibeon

seven

during
of

the

end of

famine. At any rate David's reign demanded that

the scene of our earlier
and

descendants

of

the House

Saul,

men of

Gibeah,
battle
was

stories, be
afterward

hung

in

requite.

The famine

was

thereby
great

abated,
with

immediately bloody
the

the

men of

David fought their last

the Philistines.

Three times in its

massacre.

history
or

the city
each

of of

Gibeah

the scene of a
unified

For

good

for ill

these massacres

the people.
was

Horrible

and

twisted as it was, the

time in almost three hundred years

story from the Book of Judges that Israel had come together.

first

The
present

reader can

best judge for himself the

relevance of these accounts

for the

text.

7.

And Isaac

spake unto

Abraham his father,

and said,

My father:
and wood:

and

he

said, Here am
where

I, my

son, and
a

he

said

Behold the fire

but

is the lamb for

burnt

offering?

The

seventh verse of and

Abraham
care

his

son

that ever appears in the

marriage and

Chapter Twenty-two is the only conversation between Bible. Abraham will take great settling
a way of life for Isaac, but the Isaac ever see his father again until

in arranging

two of them will never meet again, nor will

he buries him in the Cave

their lives.

the dialogue gives it an aspect

of

Very

25:9). The elegant simplicity of eternity which makes it seem to last the whole few dialogues in literature bring men so close together.
of of

Machpelah (Gen.

Throughout their
ham
repeats

conversation the voxels father and son are stressed, and Abra to his son the reassuring phrase here am I which was discussed at
we can

stand the

length in the commentary to Verse One. At this point force of the connection between the present

begin to

under

chapter and the chapter

The Lion
which

and the

Ass

81
seemed

preceeded

it. Abraham
and

to

be

lacking

when

measured

by

the

standard of shows a arises

Abimelech

insensitive towards individuals. The

it is
not clear whether that

present verse

deep

sensitivity,
of

and yet

sensitivity, which
mundane problem matter

in the time

sacrifice, is

adequate

for the

more

implied in his failure to distinguish between Pharaoh how the

problem

and

Abimelech. No

is to be
is

solved the

necessary lack is
one of the

not within

the realm of

insensitivity.
Isaac's
question
of a new

kind. It is

few in Genesis,

aside

from

the question which Abimelech asked (Gen. 20:9). which implies simple won

der. Yet to the

reader

it

cannot

but have the

same effect

that so many of the

other questions gave rise

to.

The lamb is

used

in

lamb is the
Children

recompense which the

double sense, especially with regard to children. The Children of Israel pay for the death of the
also

of the

Egyptians (see commentary to Gen. 22:15), but ^ is

tne to

animal sacrificed
re-enter society:

by

the

mother of

any

new-born child when she

is

prepared

But

if she bear

a maid child, then she shall

be

unclean

two weeks, as

in her

separa

tion: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days. And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young
pigeon or a

turtledove, for

a sin offering,

unto the

door of the

tabernacle

of the

congregation, unto the priest.

(Lev. 12:5,6)
when a mother can re-enter society. which constitute a

The

sacrifice of

the lamb marks the time

of

Birth is described in terms

momentary
return

the flux and waters of birth

to the beginning. The sacrifice of the lamb is intended to

nature

disconnect birth from

insofar

as nature

is

flowing

liquid.

So

long

as she

the flux

which

is in the blood of her purification the mother remains part of was present in the beginning. By sacrificing the lamb she
the lamb to the chaos

symbolically

returns

from

which

the child arose, and the

two of them may

now enter society.

8. And Abraham
offering: so

said,

My

son,

God

will provide

himself a

lamb for

burnt

they

went

both of them

together.

To the

child these simple words mean that

God

will arrange

for

lamb to be

on the mountain.
years ago.

To Abraham they mean that God had provided the lamb many But the reader who is aware of the general context knows that the

boy
9.

is

right.

And they built

and

came to the place which

God had in

told

him of;

and

Abraham

an altar

there,

and

laid the

wood

order, and

bound Isaac his son, knife to slay his

laid him

on the altar upon the wood.

stretched

10.

And Abraham

forth his hand,

and took

the

son.

82

Interpretation
verses

In two
mark sion.

there are seven separate acts.

Seven

short

sentences

again pas

the

stark and almost passionless

way in

which the author

describes

n.

of the lord called unto him Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And the
angel

out

of heaven,

and

said,

The last
through the

conversation

that

will ever

take place between God and Abraham

is

medium of an angel.

minor characters such as angels will appear and

Up to this point angels have only spoken to Hagar (Gen. 16:7) and Lot (Gen. 19:1). In the future, to people like Balaam (Num. 22:31), Gideon (Judg. 6:11),
wnen

the wife of Manoa the father of Samson (Judg. 13:3). In part, the verse is to
parallel

meant

Gen. 21:17
the
relation

tne ange'

called unto

Hagar, but for

see the

fuller

understanding

of

between it
will

angels and

heaven
to

Gen.
words

28:12.

For the
again

present

be

sufficient

note that

commentary to Abraham's last

are spoken

to

God,

declaring

his

preparedness

to follow the

Lord,

through the medium of an angel.

12

And He

said,

Lay

not now

thine

thing

unto

him: for

hand upon the lad, neither do thou any I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast
son

not

withheld

thy

son, thine only

of

from Me.
to be more zealous towards their god

The followers had to be

function
sacrifice

Moloch

would seem

than the Children of Israel since

made clear

they

are

willing to

give

him human

sacrifice.

It

that the lack of human sacrifice in the New

willingness.

Way

was not a

of

the lack of

The God

of

Abraham does

not wish such

to take place.

13.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, him up for
a

and offered

burnt offering in

the stead of

his

son

The distinction between the lamb in the commentary to Gen.

assumed

15:9.

has already been discussed In Verse Four of the present chapter Isaac
and the ram

that the offering would be a

lamb,

the symbol of a child,

but his

true replacement

Perhaps Bible horns

of

is the ram, the symbol of the prince. more importance than the ram itself are the for that in
It is

ram's

horns. In the
towards the
of

are often used as a simile and

man which aspires

highest (I Sam. 2:1,10,

the discussion concerning the position

a strange simile

Moses

in commentary to Gen.
while

15:9,10,11).

because the horns,

they

reach

the problem can

up to the sky, are rooted in the animal. But more insight into be derived from the function of horns in the architecture of the
was pointed out was

Tabernacle. As
artfulness of

the Tabernacle

a replacement

in the commentary to Gen. 15:9-11, the for nature as the proper sur-

The Lion
roundings

and the

Ass
The

83
center of

for

sacrifice.

the

Tabernacle,

the altar, was to have

four horns,
overlaid

one on each corner

(Ex.

27:2).
was

They

were made of shittim wood

an

with

gold.

The

altar

itself

thus transformed into

sacrifice.

artificial

animal which replaces and mitigates

the natural origins of

But human
the

art

is

not sufficient

to replace nature completely. For that

reason some of

blood
since

of the sacrificed animal

is

placed on

the horns
of

of

the altar (Ex. 29:12)

the blood is understood to contain the life

the animal (Gen. 9:4).

14.

And Abraham
to this
name

called the name

said

day, in
which

the mount of the

of that place Jehovah-jireh: Lord it shall be seen.

as

it is

The

Abraham

gives to the mountain now sees the

back to Verse Eight. Abraham

Isaac. Verse Eight

full truth

is obviously a reference of what he had said to

and

literally

reads

God

shall see

for Himself,

it

should

be

contrasted with what

has been

said about

hearing

in the commentary to Verse

Two. Abraham of Heaven the

thou

15.

And the

angel

of

the

Lord

called unto

out

second

time,

16.

And said,
That in

By Myself have
and

sworn, saith the

not withheld

Lord, For because

son, thine

hast done this thing,

17.

hast

thy

only

son:

blessing
thy

will

bless
the

thee and

in multiplying I

will

thy
18.

seed as the stars

of

heaven,

and as the sand which

multiply is upon the

sea

shore; and

seed shall possess

the gate of

his

enemies;

And in thy seed shall all the thou hast obeyed My voice.
received

nations

of the

earth

be blessed; because

Abraham
care since

four

similar

blessings, but they

must

be treated

with some

they

are not

identical. The first

blessing

(Gen. 13:16)

was a

bless

ing

simply in terms

of manyness.

most common,

the dust of

The simile, though profuse, is the lowest and the earth. After the war of the Four Kings against
changed

the Five Kings the simile was

to the highest of the

profuse

things, the

in Gen. 17:5 was a general stars in the sky (Gen. 15:5)- The blessing given present the but blessing seems to be the most blessing which included Ishmael,
complete

blessing
has been
the

since

it incorporates both the

to the
sand which

sand and
on

the sky. The dust of

shore.

the earth
cance of

changed

is

the sea

The

signifi

change should

by

comparing it

with

Its double meaning can be understood Gen. 1:5a. By going from the dust of to the commentary be
apparent.

the earth to the sand on the edge

of

the sea,

to translate

more

literally,
no

the

blessing
Again,
prior

has

gone

from

diverse

multitude

to a defined

multitude which

has

that clear limits. The limits go up to

as was

other multitude,

the waters,

but

further.

blessing is

discussed in the commentary to Gen. 14:4, this change in the words of Verse Seventeen. In the made more explicit in the final
enemies. no mention at all was made of

blessing

That is to say,

at

that

84
time

Interpretation
it
was not mentioned

that

wars

would which at

have to be fought before the first

would seem

blessing

would occur.

Verse Eighteen,

to be incom

patible with

the

final

words of

Verse Seventeen, is in fact their justification.

When Abraham
striving for though he had
showed that

agreed

to the sacrifice,

he tacitly
of

agreed

to continue his
even

perfection as

discussed in the

beginning
his

Chapter Seventeen,
to
sacrifice

relinquished

the promise. In

willingness

Isaac, he

he does

not understand

the highest political

goal

to be the highest

goal,

simply.

Both the desire for

political greatness and

the understanding of

the limitation of that goal

would seem

to be

In
to

order not
we

to lose the unity of this chapter

now return.

necessary for God's purposes. we ignored a number of details

have
understood

which

must

Thus far

we

the chapter
sacrifice of

as

Abraham's

sacrifice of

the

Covenant, but it
the one

was also

Abraham's

his
the

first-born. In
pare
other

order to understand that we must return to

Verse Four

and com

those two

three-day journeys;
of

leading
prior

to the

binding

of

Isaac,

to the death

the Egyptian children

to the exodus

from Egypt.

The full relationship between the deaths of the Egyptian first-born and Israel is discussed in a number of places. God had seen that the death of the Egyptian

first-born

would

be necessary

even

before He

sent

Moses into Egypt. God had

told that to Moses one verse

neglected to circumcise

before He threatened to kill him because he had

his

son.

21.

And

the Lord

said unto

Moses, When
let the

thou goest to return

which

into Egvpt,

sec thai

thou

do

all those wonders

before Pharaoh,
shall not

I have

put

in thine hand: but I

will

harden his heart,

that

he

people go.

22.

And thou

shalt say unto

Pharaoh, Thus
unto

saith

the

thee, Let My
will

son go,

Lord. Isra-el is My son. that he may serve Me:

even

even
and

Mv firstborn:

21.

And I

say

if

thou refuse to
came to pass

let him bx the

go,

behold I

slay thy son,

thy firstborn.
and sought

24.

And it

wax

in the inn, that the Lord

a

met

him,

to

kill him.

25.

Then Zipporah

look

sharp

stone, and

cut

and said, she

said,

Surely a bloody bloody husband

foreskin of her son. and cast it at his feet, husband art thou to me. 26. So he let him go:
the thou art,

then

because of the

circumcision,

(bv 4:21-26)

Moses'

neglect of the circumcision

is

explained

by

Zipporah. She evidently

understands circumcision as a mitigated

form

of

filiacide.

By juxtaposing

the

first three
right.

verses

with

the last three the author the circumcision

would

tactly

admits that

Zipporah is

Moses'

neglect of

then stem from his hope that

the measures spoken of

in the first three

verse

verses would not

solution

be

necessary.

But In

God's
order

words

in the first

imply

that such a
at

is

not

available.

to understand them

we must

look

the

next relevant passage.

And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among

of
all

the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the

shall

the children of Levi that

bc Mine; because
the

all

Children of Israel instead Children of Israel: therefore the firstborn arc Mine, for on the day
the

smote all the

firstborn in

born of Israel both

man and

land of Egypt I hallowed unto Me all the first beast: Mine shall they be: I am the Lord. (Num. 3:12,13)

The Lion
In these

and

the

Ass

85
claim to

verses

God lays death

Israel because
as a

of the of

of the

every first-born among the Children of Egyptian first-born. This practice is intended
of

repayment

the debt that Israel owes because

the

death

of those

children. will at

The Bible is

keenly

aware of the

be necessary if any ultimate lished. The difficulty may be seen more clearly in the
times

fact that many personal injustices foundation for justice is to be estab

following
She

way.

There been

can

be

no

doubt that Pharaoh's daughter is

noble.

could not

have

unaware of the consequences

to herself had her activities in relation to

we shall see

Moses become known to her father. As

45:12, the
author will go out of

his way to

present most of the

in the commentary to Gen. Egyptians we

shall meet as at the time of

decent people,

with

the exception of Pharaoh and

people

his

army.

Even

the plagues the Egyptian

treated the Jews not unkindly and

escape.

provided them with the material means

for their

And the Children of Israel did according to the word of Moses: and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and the Lord
gave

the people favour

in

the sight of the

Egyptians,

so

that

they lent

unto

them such

things as

they
of

required.

And they

spoiled the

Egyptians. (Ex. 12:35,36)

to be

The slaying

the Egyptian

first-born

would appear

thoroughly

unjust,

and yet without

it there

from slavery;
any form the Book
of of

and

possibility of delivering the Children of Israel slavery, too, is unjust. The destruction seemed inevitable if
was no was ever

justice

to arise, and yet it is admirable that the author of

Nations

often

Exodus is willing to face the problem directly. find themselves at war with other nations for

reasons which

have very little to do with the personal relations of the two soldiers who happen to be facing each other on the battlefield. Pharaoh has kept the people slaves,
and so an could the

individual Israelite is forced to kill individual Israelite

must either

an

individual Egyptian. But how

not

bring

himself to kill the Egyptian if he did

hate him? He firstborn

longer
and

force himself to believe that the individual Egyptian

deserved death
the
no

or accept

the debt of that death in some form.

By dedicating

all

that openeth the matrix

he

acknowledges

the debt in the sense of

understands

feeling
of

hatred toward the Egyptian,

no guilt.

while

he

the situa

tion

hence feels

By

accepting the debt Israel rejects that almost

service which

necessary form

hatred.
of the

Ultimately
sons of

the

debt

first-born is transformed into the in the Temple. The temple

the sense of
of

the
a

Levi pay

by
be

their role

service

becomes

constant reminder that strict

justice in

giving to each what

conflict.

is his

due

cannot always

accomplished

because

legitimate

That however is
animals.

not

the only root of the sacrifice of the first-born among the

is extremely complicated and has already been partly described in the commentary to Verse Six. We shall, however, add a few The
other root

details.

Deuteronomy

15:19

relates

the sacrifice of the first-born of the animals to

86
the

Interpretation
in
which all

year of redemption

Hebrew

slaves are released

from

slavery.

When freedom is
self-support.

restored

to them their masters are to give them their means of

reminds us strikingly Year back in the commentary to Gen. poor shall never cease out of the land:

The

end towards which

this sacrifice points

of

the discussion concerning the Jubilee

15:17.

Deut.

15:11

reads:

For the

therefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt open thine

hand

wide

unto

thy

brother,
The

to

thy

poor, and to

thy

needy, in

thy land. Rather

than a final solution,

this sacrifice presents a permanent means of

symbol

dealing

with an eternal problem. sacrifice

itself is

wasteful

sacrifice.

Unlike the

of the

Jubilee

Year it is

not enjoyed together with the

point

burnt. The

comparing it with in Deut. 15:18, one

sendest

community as a whole but is merely of the sacrifice described in Deut. 15:19 can be seen by the final words concerning the year of redemption described
verse earlier:

It

shall not seem

hard

unto

thee,

when thou servant

him away free from to thee, in serving thee six

that thou

thee: for

he hath been

worth a

double hired bless

years: and the

Lord thy God

a

shall

thee in all

doest. The

wastefulness of

the sacrifice prepares a

man's soul soul

to give
which

up the
places

servant

without

compensation.

It

promotes

largess of

it

above the concern

for

things.

19.

So Abraham

returned unto the

together to

Beer-sheba;

and

young men, Abraham dwelt

and at

they rose up Beer-sheba.

and went

The two young men are still with Abraham. He has not lost touch with his fellow men, but Isaac is no longer with him. Despite the care which Abraham
takes in arranging his son's life in Chapter Twenty-four the two of them
never see each other again.
will

Beer-Sheba is last

conversation with

with

particularly appropriate place for Abraham to live after his God. It is also the last place in which any man will speak God in the Book of Genesis (Gen. 46:1). It is used twenty-three times in
a

the Bible to

describe
and

border, four
phrase

of

those in the famous phrase from Dan to

of

Beer-Sheba,

three times in the Book

Chronicles in the
it

phrase

from

Beer-Sheba to Dan. The

became

so universal that

was often used to

describe the borders

of

Israel

even

during

the periods in

which

the borders

were

actually much larger, and it was from Beer-Sheba that Elijah left to go into the desert (I Kings 19:3). Beer-Sheba is constantly used to mark the edge or limits of a land or of a way. The sons of Eli, who were the last judges before the rise
of

kingship, had
and

a seat of go

their judgment in Beer-Sheba (I Sam. 8:2). Both

Abraham

Isaac

to Beer-Sheba after their meetings with Abimelech. In

understood

this case, too, Beer-Sheba represents a border since Abimelech was

to be the one man capable of
all

retaining his nobility borders in the watery land of the Philistines.

And it
came

even

though he lived beyond

20.

to pass after these things, that it was told

she

Abraham,
thy brother Nahor;

saying,

Behold Milcha,

hath

also

born

children unto

The Lion
21. 22. 23.

and

the Ass

87
and

Uz his firstborn, And Chesed,

and

Buz his brother,

and

and

Hazo,

Pildash,

and

Jodlaph,

Kemuel the father of Aram. and Bethuel.

And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these

s

eight

Milcah did bear to Nahor,

Abraham'

brother.
whose name was
and

24.

And his concubine,

Reumah,

she

bare

also

Tebah,

and

Gaham,

and

Thahash,

Maachah.

The tension built up

by

the account of the

binding

of

Isaac is broken

by

the news that the woman who

is to be his

wife

has been born.

CHAPTER XXIII

And Sarah
were

was an

hundred

and seven and

nventy

years old: these

the years of the

life of Sarah.
same

2.

And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the Canaan:

is Hebron in the land of

Sarah died in the city of Hebron, that Abraham will buy for her grave,
the

where she will

be buried in

bit

of

land

Children

will all

and it will be the only property connecting Israel to Canaan for many years. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be buried there, and when the Children of Israel return after years of of

the

slavery in Egypt, Hebron will be the first city the spies see when they cross into new land (Num. 13:22). But the giants will be living there then, and after

little

more than a

first

glance the

Children

of

Israel

will

be forced to

retreat and

take the longer route. When Hebron was

finally
and

taken it was awarded to Caleb this city of the fathers became

for his
It

great prowess

in

facing

the giants,

the center of the New Way.

was

one

of

the few cities to become both a city

21:13).
commandment

of refuge

and a

city

consecrated

to the Levites (Josh. 20:7;

a

It death
made

was
was

lost for

time,

and

God's first

to David after Saul's

to conquer Hebron (II Sam. 2:1). And it was there that David was

king.
makes sense.

Thus far the story

on their graves

Sarah

and

Abraham

settled

in the land,

and

the

edifice would stand.

In

spite of this careful preparation

capture

David decided to Hebron. In the

Jerusalem

and make

everything suddenly it his new

changed.
capital

One day,
place of of

in

following
understand

pages we shall

try

to discover

what

lay

in back

David's decision. There is

a traditional explanation which

is extremely helpful,

but in

order to

it

we shall

have to

consider

the political situation in

the country

prior

to David's decision.
of

After the death

Ish-bosheth, declared

King Saul, Abner, king in the city of

captain of

his armies, had Saul's son,

gained control of

Mahanaim. Abner thus

over all of the northern tribes

leaving

only Judah in the hands

David. In II

88
Sam.

Interpretation
3:1

it becomes

clear

that Ish-bosheth was merely a

figurehead

and

that

Abner himself held the

was unable

real power.

to

manage affairs with

Soon however, Abner, perceiving that he Ish-bosheth, decided to turn his forces over
so

to David but was prevented from

doing

by

David's general, Joab.

It
of

would

be

almost

impossible to have

a complete view of the establishment

David's kingdom

without a

Joab
and

was a ruthless man

in

some

days

when

way David

even

of this very strange character. knew the heart of David (II Sam. 14:1) loved him. Their relationship seems to go back to the

full understanding

but

a man who

was a vassal of

King

Achish in

Ziklag

prior

to the death of

King

games which were games

unjust.

Saul. At any rate, the first time we meet him face to face is at the war discussed in the commentary to Gen. 21:3. Soon after the Joab
murdered

Abner. On the
which

surface the murder of

after

Abner

would seem

In the battle

broke

out

the war games

Joab's

youngest

brother, Asahel, an impetuous and green youth, in poor imitation of young David, attacked the well-seasoned soldier. Abner pleaded with the young man
to find an adversary more
would not

fitting
was

his

years and

experience, but the young

presents

man

listen

and

Abner

forced to kill him. Joab in terms

this occasion
seems

as

his justification for the

murder of either

Abner. However this justification

of

neither

fitting

nor

sufficient

justice

or

in terms

of

Joab's

character.

actions.
about

Two very different causes seem to be playing a role in Joab's On the one hand Joab had good cause for believing that David was
not

own position

Joab's fears for the safety of his have been the may only motivating force. Under the reign of Abner had tried to place himself in the position of ruler, and it is Ish-bosheth,
that

to replace him with Abner. However

likely

he

would

have tried to
suspicions,

gain and

the same position under

least Joab had

such

those suspicions were

other

King David. At by no means un

makes

founded (II Sam.

clear

3:6ff. and 3:25).

On the

hand the Bible

it

quite

that when Joab himself was presented with an

threaten David's position and perhaps gain control

immediate opportunity to for himself, his respect and

I2:26ff.).

love for David

prevented
of

him from

doing
who

so

(II Sam.

After the death

Abner, Ish-bosheth

was

killed

by

two of his Amorite

followers, from
a

the town of

Beeroth,

large

reward

(II Sam. 4:2ff.).

brought his head to David, expecting David however was able to regain favor in the

north

by

punishing the

murderers of their one-time of

king

(II Sam. 4:8-11)

and

making

great public

display
reign.

3:33-39)-

Nonetheless this David's

original split

his mourning over the death of Abner (II Sam. in the kingdom posed a constant threat
was the second man to gain partial control of as

throughout

David's
the

own son,

Absalom,

without battle, and David his kingdom in the one-time setting up capital of his first Mahanaim, rival, Ish-bosheth (II Sam. 2:8). David, partly because he had at his command

country Hebron (II Sam.

north

and establish

himself

king,

this time in the original capital of

15:10).

Absalom took Jerusalem

fled

the Philistine

forces

under

Ittai the Gittite (II Sam. 15:18),

and

partly because

The Lion
he

and

the

Ass

89
those around

was able to gather the affections of at

him,
of

was always able to made

retain

least

one part of the

country, but the lack

internal unity
returned to

it

difficult for him to

When the
still

maintain the whole.

men of

Judah

who

had followed Absalom

David
was their

David they
on the

thought of themselves as separate from Israel and claimed David as one of

their own on the personal grounds that

other

kinsman. Israel

hand

claimed

David

on

the political grounds that

one

they

represented ten allowed

tribes whereas Judah was

an otherwise

only

(II Sam. 19:40-43). This division

forces

of

completely unknown man named Bichri to gather the dissonant Israel and foment a third revolution, this time back in the north.
conclusion of

At the

Absalom's
whom

revolt

David had

made an agreement with

Amasa,
order to

a nephew of

Joab,

Absalom had

made captain of

his forces. In

country David appointed Amasa head of his forces and dispatched him to put down the revolution under Bichri. However, Amasa never reached Bichri because of the intervention of Joab.
reunify the Throughout his
none of them reign

David

made several attempts to get rid of

Joab, but

were

successful.

partly in fear that Amasa would it impossible for David to fulfill his demise.

Joab, partly in fear of his own position and ultimately prove dangerous to David, rendered
part of the agreement

by

arranging Amasa's
cry to the
people

By
Joab
under

reasserting his Bichri

absolute obedience to

David in

a great

was able

to regain control of Amasa's men and put down the revolution

without great

difficulty, ending for

scholars
was

a time the struggle

between

north and south.

According
establish the

to

most

modern

David's decision to leave Hebron

made

and

kingdom in Jerusalem

for

geographical reasons.

Jeru
was

salem,
still

a city situated on a high hill which in the hands of the Jebusites. Since it

could

be defended far the

with

ease,

was on the
was

border between

north

and south and as yet claimed site

by

neither

it

by

most advantageous

This understanding of David's sudden decision to leave Hebron makes a great deal of sense and undoubtedly played a role in his decision. However it does not account for the strange circumstances under

for the

new capital.

which the

decision

was made

(II Sam.

5:6-8).

This decision
an old one

appears

in

an obscure passage.

shall present

two

translations, is
not

from

King

James

and a new translation

quite

by

H. W

Hertzberg. The

grammar of the sentence certain which of the

is

complicated, and the present author

interpretations is intended:
his
men went

6. And

the

King

and

to Jerusalem

unto

the

Jebusites,

the

inhabitants

of the land;
and the

which spake

lame,

thou shalt

unto David, saying. Except thou take away the blind not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither.
stronghold

7.

Nevertheless David took the

said on that

of Zion: the

same

is the city of David.

8. And David
Jebusites,
and

day.

Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the

the

lame

and the

blind,

that are

hated of

David'

soul,

he

shall

90

Interpretation
said,

be chief and captain. Wherefore they the house (II Sam. 5:6-8).

The blind

and

the

lame

shall not come

into

Hertzberg in
crucial passage

his commentary
this
way:

on

First

and

Second Samuel translates the

6. And

the

King

and

his

men went to
said
off'

Jerusalem

against

the

Jebusites,
in

and the

inhabitants of the land, who and the lame will ward you
theless David took the

to

David, 'You

will not come

in here, but the blind

here.'

saying,

'David

cannot come

7.

Never

stronghold

David

said on

that

day, 'Whoever
the

of Zion; that became the city of David. 8. And and smites the Jebusites and reaches the shaft

(smites)
and

the

blind

and

lame,

who are

hated

by

the
son

lame

shall not come went

into the house

so as to

(He

David because they sax, 'The blind And Joab shall become
chief!'

the

of Zeruiah

up first

become

chief.)1*

The two translations

clear that

are quite

different. Nonetheless from Verse Eight it is

David's decision to take the city was related to his attitude towards no The lame and the blind. The word lame appears infrequently in the Bible
more

than thirteen times

and yet

it happens to

appear

in

an

important

passage

in Chapter Four, At the time

years old.

immediately

of

preceding David's decision to capture Jerusalem. Ish-bosheth's death, Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, was five

His nurse, fearing that David would try to kill the boy, attempted to flee the country, but in the flight Mephibosheth fell and became lame. Some
time

later,

after

relative

amount

of

country, David
whether

sent

for

one of

Saul's

servants named

stability had been established in the Ziba in order to discover Saul

who should

there were any

living

relatives of

by

rights

be

rein

stated

lands

after

into their lands. Now the servant, Ziba, had become master of Saul's the flight of Mephibosheth, but when the royal decision to reinstate
was published
pretended

Mephibosheth (II Sam. later Ziba

4).

Ziba

was

forced to

return

to the life of a

servant

Ziba

to be pleased at the king's

of

decision, but

some

time

when

the country was

in turmoil because

the

revolution under

Absalom,
the

returned

to David claiming that Mephibosheth had taken

advantage of

situation

to revive the House of Saul

rescinded

his

earlier

orders,

and

by proclaiming himself king. David then the lands reverted back to Ziba (II Sam.
David that Ziba had
was a true

16:1-4).

After the

war

Mephibosheth

arrived and explained to

lied in

order to gain control of the

lands

and that

he, Mephibosheth,

servant of

David.

The
24.

passage reads as

follows:
of Saul
came

Mephibosheth

the son

down

to meet the

King,

and

had

neither

dressed his feet,

*As Mr.

nor

trimmed

his beard,
a

nor washed

his

clothes,

from

the

dax
have

Hertzberg

mentions

in

footnote,
not appear

all

words

included
of

within the

parentheses

been taken from I Chron.

1.

1 1:6 and
and

do

in the Book

Samuel.
Library,'

H. W. Hertzberg, /
1964,
p. 266.

II Samuel, 'The Old Testament

S.C.M. Press Ltd.,

London,

The Lion
the

and

the

Ass

91

King departed
he
was come

until the

day
with

he

came again

in

peace.

25.

And it

came to pass,

when

to

Jerusalem
thou

to meet the me,

King,

that the
26.

King

said unto

him,
Mx lord,
ass,

wherefore wentest not

Mephibosheth?

And he

answered,

O King, my servant deceived me: for thy servant said, I that I max ride thereon, and go to the King; because thy
hath
slandered

will saddle me an

servant

is lame.

2j.

And he

thy servant unto my lord, the King; but my lord the King is an angel of God: do therefore what is good in thine eyes. 28. For all s of my house were but dead men before my lord the King: yet didst thou set thy servant
father'

among them that did

cry any
more unto

eat at

thine own table.

29.

What

right therefore

have I

vet

to thou

the

King?

And

the

King

said unto

him, Why
the

speakest

any

more

of thy

matters?

I have

said thou and

Ziba divide

land.

30.

And

Mephibosheth
the

said unto

the

King, Yea, let him

his
own

King

is

come again

in

peace unto

take all, forasmuch as my lord house. (II Sam. 19:24-30)

Mephibosheth
the

lands

and

perfectly just, and Ziba should have been stripped of all severely punished. David however decreed that the lands be
was

divided equally between Mephibosheth and Ziba. The injustice done to Me phibosheth, which he himself is too kind and gentle even to feel, seems to be David's first
such error related

to

his

attitude toward

the lame. David

of

made several

errors,

all of which were related to

his love

beauty

and

hence to his in the

hatred

of the crippled.

His love for Bath-sheba,

was also part of

which we will speak of

commentary
there were

to

Gen. 23:4,

that side of David's character, but

other problems as well.

David's love he
was

of

beauty

had

a glorious

beginning. Beautiful his father

and

ruddy-faced,
while

the

youngest son of went out

Jesse

and a shepherd who sent

kept the flock

his

him up to the camp with day some cheese and bread, and David, as any young man would, began to mosey about. He heard some talk about a giant in the Philistine camp who challenged
older

brothers

to war.

One

the

first

comer when

to single combat. Eliab was not much different

wants

brother him to
once

his kid brother lion

to get

into the

marble

from any older game, and he told

go on

home. But David

a

went right

killed bare-handed

who

had

attacked

up to the king and told him that he his lambs. Perhaps the closest

one gets to genuine

humor in the

whole

David faced Goliath. He

a

would not sling.

book is the light-hearted way in which accept Saul's armor but faced Goliath with

stick, five stones, and a

His

beauty
they
18:7).

and the ease with which

cried

he

went

into
and

combat so charmed the people that

Saul hath

slain

his

thousands

David his ten thousands (I Sam.

Absalom inherited his father's beauty,

sheth

and as

distinguished from Mephibo

the soles of his blemish in him (II Sam.

is

said

to have been
the crown

much praised

for his beauty. From

was
no

feet

even

to

of his head,

there

14:25ft.).

David
attacked

was

so

entranced

by

the

beauty

of
and

his son,

that

when

Absalom
without was

Jerusalem David
after

was

benumbed

abandoned

the city

giving battle. Even

the war in which Absalom

was

killed only Joab

92

Interpretation
was only one in a series of events which between David's love of beauty, which caused him to play many errors, and his ever-present Joab, the only one able to handle him

able to comfort

David. This incident

present a constant make

in

such situations.

In Chapter Thirteen David banished Absalom for the

murder of

his

halfsoul spite

brother, Amnon,
was ripped

who

had

raped

Absalom's sister, Tamar. But David's

which

in

pieces

because
was

of

the love

he felt toward Absalom, in

to David's

of the

banishment. Joab

the only

man sensitive enough

feelings
parts of

to devise a plan

for returning Absalom in

way that

would

satisfy both
and

David's Just

mind.

as

Joab had

arranged a reconciliation

between David
was

Absalom

when

such reconciliation seemed

salom with

best for David, he

equally

ready.

to kill Ab

his

own

hands

when

times changed (II Sam. 18:14), ar>d yet when mourning, at a time
was

David

was caught

up in the

midst of almost animal-like reign

when a new revolution was able

threatening his

(II Sam. 19:5), only Joab

to

bring

David to his
of

senses.
which

The story the death of Uriah. As

pitiful

Absalom,
as there

began in Chapter Thirteen,

the first
child of child

was preceded

by
so

another son of

David,

Bath-sheba,

the wife of
was

long

was

life left in the

that his servants

came

feared to tell him

the seventh

of the child's

David's mourning death.

And it

to pass

on

day,

that the child

died. And

the servants

of David feared to
the
child was yet

tell

him that the

child was

alive, we spake unto then vex

dead: for they said, Behold, while him, and he would not hearken unto our
tell

voice:

how

will

he

himself if we
his

him

that the child

is dead? But
was

when

David

saw that

his

servants

whispered, David perceived that the child servants, Is the child

and

dead:

therefore

David

said unto

dead?

and

they

said.

He

is dead. Then David

and changed

arose

from the earth,

washed,

and anointed

himself,

his
to

apparel,

and came

then

he

came

his
eat.

own

house;
said and

and when

into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: he required, they set bread before

him,

and

he did

Then

his

servants unto

him. What thing is

it
was alive:

this that thou

hast done? Thou didst fast

the child was
xet

weep for the

rise and eat

child while

but
be

when

dead,
child

thou

didst

bread. And he
can

said,

While
will

the child was

gracious

alive,

I fasted

and wept:

for I
I

said,
now

Who

tell whether

God

to me, that the

may live? But

again?

he is dead,

wherefore should

I fast?
to me.
with

Can I

bring

him back

shall go to

him, but he
in
name

shall not return

unto

And David

comforted

Bath-sheba his

wife, and went

her,

and

lax

her:

and she

bare

son, and

he

called

his

Solo-mon;

and the

Lord loved

him. (II Sam. 12:18-24)

By placing the two stories David's nobility at the death soul after Absalom's death.

next
of

to

each other

the author

forces

us

to contrast
of

Bath-sheba's

son with

the disintegration

his

Joab's ways of handling David vary from occasion to occasion. Sometimes it is merely a jest or a gentle reminder of what a true king should be (II Sam. 14:17). After Absalom's death Joab speaks with a firm voice:

The Lion
5.

and

the Ass
into
the

93
house
to the

And Joab
the faces

came

King,

and

said,

Thou hast

shamed this
and

day

of

all

thy

servants, which this

day

have

saved

thy life,

the

lives

of thy daughters,
that thou

and the

lovest

thine

lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines; 6. In enemies, and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this for
this

day,
that
well.

that thou regardest neither princes nor servants:

day

I perceive,
pleased thee

if Absalom had
7.
swear

lived,

and all we

had died

this

day,

then

it had
unto

Now therefore arise,

go

forth,
go not

and speak

comfortably
not

thy

servants:

for I

by

the

Lord, if thou
be

forth,

there will

tarry

one with

thee this

night: and

that will

worse unto thee than all the evil that

befell

thee from

thy

youth until now.

(II Sam. 19:4-7)

of

So David's love friends.

The

beauty

has led him to love his

Satanic

enemies

and

hate his
Joab
con

speech also reveals

something

about this

guardian angel.

mentions

God but rarely,

we can gain

and those passages must

be

considered

in their

text

ity

any insight into the one man who could bring rational into David's life. Joab first mentioned the name of God when he offered
and

before

peace

friendship

to

Abner, but in

the context it is clear that Joab had

Amon-

During the war against the already ites, Israel's enemy was able to contact the Syrians, and a contingent under Hadarezer attacked Joab's army from the rear. Joab divided his army in two
planned and sent
and

to kill him (II Sam. 2:27).

his brother Abishai

play
the man

off with

the

following

words:

Be of good courage,

let

us

for

our people, and for the cities

the

Lord do

what seems good to

him (II Sam.

10:12).

of our God; and may Joab's cry to the people

encouraging them to battle mentioned

men

God twice.

Publicly
words

it is

an appeal to

the

to fight for their God. At the same time the

What

seems good to

him, literally, What is good in his eyes, is the common Biblical expression meaning whatever he likes, which occurred so often in the second half of the
Book
of

Judges. If taken in its

actions and

normal

sense
win

it

would

imply

that Joab is

indifferent to God's When David

intends to

the battle in any case.

was an old man and near

the end of

his life, he decided to take

times as many but it; why does my lord

a census of the people.

Once

again

Joab

used the

term the Lord: But Joab said

to the

King, May

the

Lord your God

add to the people a

still see

hundred

as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king the King delight in this thing? (II Sam. 24:3).

Much David's
would makes

against
census.

his
But

own
when

will

he

returned

Joab travelled throughout the land conducting the prophet Gad announced that there God's
opposition

be

a seven-year

famine

as punishment.

to the census
same passage
your

Joab's

character even more

difficult to

comprehend.

In the

in he

which shares

Joab dissociates himself from God God's insight that the

census were passions

by

which

speaking lie in back

of the

Lord

God

of the old

king's

decision to take the Thus far

Samuel. It
we

beneath David's dignity.

career

have followed Joab's

the scene

to the end of the

Second Book

of

culminated with

in

which

Joab

rejected

God,

and yet

in

94

Interpretation
and wisdom

the very same verse displayed the height of his courage

up to the king be wrong.

by

condemning him for

see

an act which

both he

and

in standing God knew to

David's desire to
the

the fullness
of

of

his

own power

by taking
by

the census was

ultimate expression

his love
David
the

of

beauty. In
able

punishment

for this

sin

the

Lord

sent

a plague of

which

was

to abate only

threshing floor
the site.

Araunah,
is

Jebusite,

and

building

an altar

purchasing the to the Lord on

Hertzberg

haps

even stands on

in claiming that the altar preconceives and per the ground of Solomon's Temple. The city which David
quite right at

originally captured through his natural but questionable love of beauty is in token paid for and sanctified by the holy beauty of the Temple. The
of

least

charms

young David The

end of

were no of

less

real

because they faded, but they had to

give

way

to another kind

beauty.

This

new

book

Joab's story is told in another book called the Book of Kings. will bring with it new ways and Joab will die. The events
are rather

surrounding his death When the book

complicated, and

we shall

be forced to inves

tigate each particular thread.

opened

David

lay

on

beautiful

maiden named not revive.

Abishag

was chosen

his deathbed, cold and lifeless. A to be his bed companion, but the

king

did

In the

meantime

there were two contenders for the

throne, Adonijah

and

Solomon. The

split was

by

no means a simple geographical split as the others

had been.
And he
and
conferred with

Joab the

son

of Zer-u-iah,

and with

A-bia-thar the

priest:

they following Ad-o-nijah helped him. But Zadok the priest, and Be-na-iah the son of Je-hoia-da, and Nathan the prophet, and Shime-i, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Ad-o-nijah. (I Kings 1:7,8) But this
party.
can

only be

made more

intelligible

by considering

the men of each

Adonijah

Solomon
general

Joab, the Abiathar,

the priest

Benaiah, the general Zadok, the priest Nathan, the prophet Shimei, of the House of Saul Rei, an obscure friend
were

Joab
of

and

Abiathar

two of David's oldest

friends. Abiathar
appointed

was

the son

Ahimelech,

the priest of

Nob,

who

had been
from

keeper
went

of the great

sword of

Goliath. After David's

escape

King

Saul he

to Ahimelech

and was given the sword. When Saul discovered this plot he ravaged Nob, killed Ahimelech, and only Abiather remained to escape. He was David's priest at Keilah and at Ziklag. But those days came to an end when David became

king.

The Lion

and the

Ass

95
under

Soon thereafter Jerusalem had fallen to the forces

to establish a
appeared

Joab. David

wanted

home for the Ark

blood

and

build

temple to the

Lord, but Nathan

would

for the first time Too

much

and explained was on

to David that he was still part of an

and the

old way.

his hands

Temple

have to

wait

to be built

by

another

king.
new names appear

Shortly
appears

after

that conversation several

in the text. Zadok

together with
and

Abiathar
served

as

priest, and Benaiah

as priests.

was appointed general. and one

Zadok

Abiathar

jointly

They

never squabble

never appears without

the other. The only

difference between the two is

that

Abiathar

remembered

the old days while Zadok was a newcomer.

Two lists

were given of

David's staff; In
each

one

immediately
and

after

he

realized

that

he
of

would not

be the

king
8:18;

to build the
20:23).

Temple,

the

other

followed the death

leader
of

Amasa (II Sam.

list Benaiah

appears as the

the Cherethites and the Pelethites.

These troops had been

part of elite

David's army

since

Ziklag

(I Sam.

30:14).

They

seem to

be David's
the

troops composed of Philistines. But

unlike

the

troops of
15:18).

Ittai,

Gittite,

their allegiance was

directly

to David (II Sam.

The Cherethites
the

represent

the essence of a Philistine. Although we have

calls them

accepted

King

James transliteration, the Hebrew simply

Cretans.

The Philistines, the chaos of the sea, had come to the land of the Canaanites from the Island of Crete shortly before the Children of Israel arrived. Some of them seemed to have retained the full force of their
who always represented ocean origins

by

calling themselves Cretans.

They

became followers
risen

of

David

and were placed under the rule of

Benaiah,

who,

like David, had

the
men on

to power

by killing
except

lion (II Sam.

about

23:20).
our

That just

completes

description
was a

of

the two sides,

of

for Shimei

and

Rei. Shimei

dissident from the House

mentioned

Saul
else

who and

joined Solomon's camp through fear. Rei was appears as new blood in the new administration.

nowhere

The pretender, Adonijah, had only been mentioned once before. Like his older brother Absalom he was born in Hebron, and his name appears fourth on
the list
of

the

king's

sons given a

few

verses

before David's decision to

capture

Jerusalem

and make

it his

new capital. revolution.

When David took to his bed Adonijah began the

as

The text

reads

follows: Then Adonijah the

and

son ofHaggith, exalted

himself, saying, I

will

be

king:
it

he

prepared

him

chariots and revolution

horsemen
began

and

him (I Kings

1:5).

Absalom's

with

the

fifty men to run before following words: And

horses
and

came to pass after men to run called

this, that Abaslom

prepared

him

chariots and

fifty

before him (II Sam.

15:1).

Adonijah's

men came

together in

place

En-rogel. Aside from two

of cities given

verses

in

which

the name

En-rogel

appears

in the catalog

in the latter half

entire

of

the Book of

Joshua,
it

En-rogel only
as a retreat

appears once more

in the

Bible. Absalom had

also used

during

his

campaigns

(II Sam.

17:17).

96

Interpretation
capitulated

After Adonijah Solomon

he

asked

Bath-sheba to intercede for him

with

him Abishag. Solomon, of course, refused, and immedi ately decided to have Adonijah killed. This was also part of Absalom's war. Ahithophel, David's counselor, defected during Absalom's revolt, and under
and grant

his

advice

Absalom

spread a

tent out in
rule.

public and slept with one of

his father's
Ab
to

concubines as a symbol of

his

Adonijah
salom's

revolution

was

an

old

revolution.

It

was

an

imitation
David

of

in

all

its details,
Jerusalem. born

and

the

men with

him had

all

been

with

prior

the

capture of

Solomon
the men

was

after

the establishment of Jerusalem as capital, and

all of

backing

his

side were

introduced into the text

and

immediately
and

after

the

capture of

Jerusalem. Joab, his wisdom,

to be replaced

his

violence

belonged to

an old

way

which was

by Solomon,
under

his wisdom,
as

his Temple. These

shown

two ways coexisted

for

time

David

is

dramatically
is
soon

by

the

fact
in

that the list of David's men which includes both parties the

presented twice

text,

once

in the

eighth chapter of
a

II Samuel,

after

David had

ex

pressed

his desire to build

temple,

and again

in the twentieth chapter, im

at

mediately following the death of Amasa. Joab and Adonijah were both killed by Benaiah

the command

of

Solomon

following
author

the advice of David. But Joab

died

on the altar of was

the Lord. The

recompense

thereby

raises the question of whether

Joab's death

just

for

actions committed

during

his life

or whether the
wisdom on

last

scene of

his life

was

the sacrifice of an old and outmoded

the altar of the Lord. Con

sidering the last days

atheism.

of

Solomon, his

pagan wives and

his

pagan

temples,

one

wonders what was achieved

by

the substitution of public paganism for

private

But

perhaps we great

have been

misled

by

concentrating
and

on the end of

Solomon's

life. His
wisdom,
was

prayer, delivered at the opening of the

Temple,
of

contains the new

which outlasted

both his Temple

his

pagan shrines.

Although it
of

followed

by

a sacrifice and a

feast, in his description

of
of

the purpose

that

building

the word sacrifice

never appears.

He began by retelling the story God's decision to wait for the son

David's desire to build

Temple

and of

the conquerer to come and

build it. The

Heaven of

body
come

of the

speech

is

prayer

to

God

bidding

Him

whom

the

Heavens

cannot contain

(I Kings
at

8:27)

to listen to the prayers of those who

an encouragement

into His Temple. It is Temple in it

and

the same time

to the people to

come to the

Pray. Fourteen times the

word prayer appears

in the is

chapter,

and

prayer

silently

replaces animal sacrifice.

main

What

caused

this change in the Way? After the

and

body

of the prayer

over, Solomon stood,

of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto His people Israel, according to all that He promised; there hath not failed one word of all His
all the congregation good

blessed

promise, which He promised

by

the

hand of Moses, His

servant,

(I Kings

8:55,56)

The Lion
The first
and

and

the

Ass

97
wars which occupied the people

promise

had been fulfilled. The

under

brought them together

were was

Moses

and

Joshua,

under

the judges and the

first kings, the hoopla

the

over,

and the

Lord had

given rest to

His

people. and

The time
would

of

over;

now

they had only

themselves to

face,

that

be

hardest.
was
not

Solomon
author's

hopeful. In

this speech

Solomon looks forward

to the

day,

when

Babylon had
thee

come and
no man

the people were set adrift:

that sinneth not,) and

If they
with

sin against and

(for there is

Thou be angry

them,
the

deliver

them to the enemy, so that

they carry
shall

them awax captives

unto

land of
whither

the enemy,

far

or

near; yet

if they

bethink

themselves in

the

land

they

were carried

captives, and repent, and make supplication

Thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; and so return unto Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies,
unto and which

led

them

away captive,

and

pray

unto

Thee

toward their
and

land,
the

which

Thou

gavest unto their

fathers,

the city which

Thou hast chosen,

house

which

I have built for

in Heaven
that

Thy name: then hear Thou their prayer and their supplication Thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Thx people
Thee,
and all

have

sinned against
against

their transgressions wherein

they have

transgressed

Thee,

and give

them compassion

before

them who carried

them captive, that

they may have

compassion on them:

(I Kings

8:46-50)

But
were

where was

this compassion to
spoke them

come

his last. After he

Solomon

from? The only words he had for us went his own way, but they went

like this:
And let
these

my words,
the

wherewith

I have

made supplication

before

the

Lord,
of His

be

nigh unto

Lord

our

servant,

and the cause

God day and night, of His people Isra-el at

earth

that
all

He

maintain the cause

times,

as the matter shall require:

that all the people

of the

is

none else.

Let

your

heart

therefore

may know that the Lord is God, and that there be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk
as at

in His statutes,

and

to

keep

His commandments,

this

day. (I Kings

8:59-61)

Now it

should

be

clear

why Abraham

was more at

home in Hebron than in

Jerusalem.
And Abraham for Sarah,
weeping
to

2b.

came to mourn

and to

weep for her.

the virtuous pas
range of

As distinguished from
sion, though weeping does
passion can

laughter,
not

will emerge as

necessarily
when we

imply

sadness.

The full

this

only be

seen

later

try

form

a picture of the character of

Joseph.
And Abraham
up before his dead,

3.

stood

and spake unto the sons

of

Heth,

saying,
of

Although the Hittites

the Bible were descendants of Canaan (Gen. 10:17)

they

played

special

role

distinguished from the

other

Canaanites, but it

98
would

Interpretation
be
more proper

to

speak of

that distinction in the commentary to

Verse

Eighteen.

4.

am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession

with

of a

buryingplace
5.

you, that I may

bury

my dead

out

of my
unto

sight.

And the

children

of Heth

answered

Abraham, saying

him,
thee

6. Hear
of

us, my

lord:

thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice

withhold from

our sepulchres

sepulchre,

but

that thou mayest

bury thy dead; none of us shall bury thy dead.

himself
as a

his

Abraham

presented

stranger, or

more

literally

a sojourner, not

one who was

merely passing through

and yet not one who

belonged to the land.

It is the
to

word used

for the Israelites

the
new

during
land,

their

long

possess a certain part of

possession

and as we

stay in Egypt. He wishes shall see in Verse Sixteen

and

this legal

will

be the link between Israel

years

the Promised Land

during

their

four hundred

in Egypt.
to take
place

In the discussion that is

will occur

about

the word

hear in the imperative

the

finally feeling

appear

five times, and it will culminate in Verse Sixteen when the verb will in the indicative mood. The tension that is thus built up increases
that more than the simple sale of a piece of land
show

is

at stake.

In Verse

Six the Hittites

though

that

they

recognize are

Abraham's

special position and either

through respect or through

fear

willing to

grant

him burial privileges,

they

said

nothing

about a possession.

7.

And Abraham

stood up, and

bowed

himself to If it be

the people

of the

land,

even to the children

of H eth.
your mind

8. And he

communed with them saying, out

that I should
me to

bury

my dead

of my sight;

hear me,

and entreat

for

Ephron the

son ofZohar.

Abraham

was

careful of

to make sure that the discussion take place in the

people

assembly in front

the

Ephron,
suited

the son of

Zohar, he

chose

of the land. Rather than going directly to to deal with the people as a whole.
would not

Presumably
to the

a private sale could purposes.

have been arranged, but that

will of

have

Abraham's
notion

In Verse Eight he

was able to commit the

Hittites

that it was the general

the people as a whole that Abraham

receive

the land from Ephron.

9.

That he may

give me the cave

of Machpelah,

which

he hath,

which

is

in the
it
me

end

of his field; for

for

a possession

as much money as it is worth he of a buryingplace amongst you. of the

shall give

The

precise

legal description is
given

location
will of

of

the plot

which

Abraham

intended to

purchase

in full detail. It

be

repeated once more

in this
also

chapter and no

less than five times in the Book

Genesis

as a whole

(see

The Lion

and

the Ass

99
The
author's a

Gen. 25:9, 49:30

and 50:13).

insistence

on

the legal

formality

of

the purchase seems to

be

crucial

for

full understanding

of

the present passage.

Abraham
their

repeated the word possession which the

of

Hittites had dropped from

formulation
me.

the arrangement in Verse Six and repeated their words

possession

Hear

He

also

insisted that the

be legalized through the

use of

money.

IO.

answered

And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite Abraham in the audience of the children ofHeth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying,
(In Verse Ten Ephron
was

forced
of the

to speak in the
city.

hearing

of the Hittites, of
of

all

who

went

in

at

the gate

The

rhetorical

form

Verse Ten

reminds us of

Verse Seven. In

each verse

the assembled multitude

was referred

to twice

in

order to stress the public character of the

sale.)

1 1

Nay, my lord, hear

therein, I
thee:
give

me: the

field

give

I thee,

and the cave that

is

it thee; in the

presence

of the sons of my people give I it

bury thy

dead.
with

Ephron begins
possession.

the

imperative hear
upon

me and

His insistence

presenting the land

conjointly drops the as a gift may be no

of

word

more

than a polite Middle Eastern way of

given

beginning

the process

bargaining, but

Abraham's
would

strength

as

mentioned

in Verse Six, it is
the grant

more

likely

that

Ephron

have basis

preferred

to give Abraham a burial place

rather

than sell

him

legal

possession which would

imply

of certain

rights, and per

haps form

the

of greater encroachment

in the future.
use of

Ephron took

advantage of a certain

looseness in the

tenses which can

hardly
a

be

reproduced

in English.

Strictly

perfect

and

an

imperfect. One is

used

speaking Hebrew has only two tenses, for acts which have already been
not yet

completed, the
cases

other

for

acts which
started.

have

been
when

completed and

in

most
of

have

not yet

been

These two tenses

past and used.

interpreted in terms
respectively.
one would

time as in Western
present

grammar

become the

the

future,

If the

is to be

stressed the participle

is

In Verse Eleven

have

expected either

the imperfect /

will give or

the participle / am giving. Instead

verbs are not

Ephron

used the perfect

gave.

Since the Hebrew

perfect

directly

con

nected with
would

time one may also use the

as good as

to

imply

actions which

are, as we

say in English,

done.

By

speaking in this
me.

manner

Ephron

accomplished two things.

He began
words

with the words me

No, my lord, hear

to the the

Abraham had just Ephron's Abraham

used the

hear

in

reference

notion of possession. words which not

word

No,
to

hear
hear.

me are

intended

as a correction of

wanted

By

which would

using the words / have given Ephron be demanded by Verse Six, but

only

shows a

the magnanimity

by

making it

fait

accompli

he

100

Interpretation

also tries to prevent the transfer

by

legal

sale and the

full

commitments which

that sale

would

imply.

12. 13
.

And Abraham bowed down And he

spake unto

himself before

the people of the

land.

audience of the people of the land, hear me, I pray thee: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.

Ephron in the

saying,

but

if only

thou wouldst

Again Abraham

repeated

the words hear me.

of

Momentarily,

at

least, Abra

ham

spoke

in the language
and used

possession

Ephron. He provisionally dropped the word Ephron's word give instead of his own word buy. His

compromise of speech was prefaced used me.

by

a much stronger phrase than

has been hear

in the

conversation

by

either

party thus far: but

if

only thou wouldst

14.
15.

And Ephron

answered

Abraham, saying
land is
me and thee?

unto

him,
four hundred
therefore
shekels

My lord, hearken
saw

unto me: the

worth

of

silver: what

is that betwixt
that he
sale

Bury

thy dead.
to commit

Ephron

could not escape

the deal

but

was careful not

himself to the
essence

as

such.

He merely

mentioned

the price

of

the

land, in
implied
The four

agreeing to
the

accept

the exchange of gifts while not committing himself

or the people to

public sale which would give

Abraham

rights not

by

a mere gift.

Four hundred
number

shekels repeated

that should ring a great

bell in

our

minds.

has been

in the
7:4 it

same general context throughout was shown

the book. In
and

the commentary to Gen.

that the

numbers

forty

hundred

always

appear with reference to a time of waiting,

a time

in

which

nothing happens on the surface, and yet it is always And now a bit of land worth four hundred shekels
of

a time of great expectation.

will

be the only

possession

the sons

of

Abraham

during
unto

their four

hundred

years of servitude

in Egypt.

16.

And Abraham heard

Ephron;

and

Abraham

weighed

to Ephron

the silver, which

he had

named

in the

audience

of the sons of

H eth, four

hundred
The

shekels

of silver, current money with the merchant.

word

hear has

finally
in

appeared
current

in the indicative
with

mood.

Abraham
The

pays

the four hundred

shekels

money

the merchant.

author

suddenly places us within the crass that a business transaction has been
And the field of Ephron,
the

world of market exchange

to make

it

clear

made.

17.

which was

in Machpelah,
therein,

which was

before

Mamre,
were
sure

field,

and the cave which was

and all the trees that

in the fields,

that were

in

all the

borders

round

about, were made

The Lion
1

and

the

Ass

101
in the of his
presence city.

8.

Unto Abraham for

all that went

a possession

of the

children

of Heth,

before

in

at

the gate

The final
used

statement of

the arrangements returns to the phraseology originally

procured a possession

by

Abraham. Abraham has

in the fullest

sense of

the word

in

spite of

the intricacies of the discussion.

at the

As

was

mentioned

beginning

of this chapter

Israel's

relation

to the

different from its relationship to the other Canaanite tribes. Abraham's insistence on the legality of the transaction appears as a grim joke
Hittites is
somewhat

he already knows that the land will be taken by force (see Gen. 15:20). In later times another grave injustice would be done to the Hittites. A noble man
since
named

Uriah

will

be killed because
Even God

of

David's

passion

for his wife, Bath-sheba

(I Sam. Chap.
(I Kings
15:5).

11).

will point

to that exploit as David's greatest sin

The David

absolute and

decency
the

of

the Hittites is not only seen

in Uriah's devotion to
own

his

magnanimous unwillingness

to rest at ease in his

also seen

bed

while

other men suffered reference

discomforts

of a

battle, but is

in the

one other

to a Hittite. When

David,

fugitive from Saul,

was about

to

attack

the

king's army, he turned to two men, Ahimelech the Hittite, and Abishai, Joab's brother, and said Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul
(I Sam.
26:6).

Ahimelech

was silent

but Abishai

went

down

with

David.

Ap

parently Ahimelech did not wish to accompany David on an had it not been for David's piety, could have led to the death Sam.
26:8-17).
occupied

expedition

which,

of

the

king

(see II

In former times Hittites had

called

the city of

Beth-el,

which

they had
city
of

by

the name of Luz. When Joshua's men were about to attack the
were aided

Luz they In exchange for this

and the
name man went

by

Hittite spy

who showed allowed

them the entrance to the city. to go

service

the spy was

the

free,

and the text adds

and called

to the

land of

Hittites
(Judg.

and

built

a city,

its

Luz;

that

is its

name to this

day

1:26).

There
to
equate

was no other ancient

Luz

with

Luz. But apparently the author meant Lud, the Hebrew name for Lyddia, which formed a signifi

city

called

cant part of the

Hittite

empire.

it is unclear, to say the least, whether there famous Hittite was any connection between the Hittites of the Bible and the from Anatolia empire in Anatolia, although it is possible that some Hittites and account historical the Canaan. in making the were By reversing From
an

historical

point of view

living

Canaanite tribe the father

of

the Hittite empire, the author

acknowledges

the

injustices
the

which

the Hittites suffer

during

and after

the

conquest.

He

presents

rise of their civilization

in

another part of

the

world as

the full recompense

of which the

four hundred

shekels was

only

a token.

The only problem which remains is whether the author was reporting what he believed to have happened or whether he was consciously rewriting history

102

Interpretation
to indicate what

in

order

he believed

should

have happened. In this instance

same problem will

there is probably no way of answering

come

our

question, but the

up

again

in the commentary to Gen. 39:8,

where we will

be in

better

position

to

reach some conclusion.

The relationship between Israel and the Hittites is further fact that Esau's first wife was also a Hittite, and from that
most

complicated

by

the the

marriage came

important
that

of

his in

sons. our

However

we shall

have

sufficient

opportunity to

consider

family

discussion

of

Esau.
wife

19.

And

after

this, Abraham buried Sarah his

in the

field of Machpelah before Mamre: Canaan.

20.

the same is the

cave of the Hebron in the land of

And the field,

and the cave that

is therein,

were made sure unto

Abraham for After the

wife

a possession

of

Buryingplace

by

the sons of H eth.

commercial arrangements

had been transacted Abraham buried his

at

Sarah

as

he had

planted

the grove

the end of

Chapter Twenty-one,

and

thereby Abraham's

acquisition of a possession was made complete.

CHAPTER XXIV

And Abraham And Abraham

all that

was

old, and

well stricken

in

age: and the

Lord had

blessed Abraham in
2.

all things.

said unto

his

eldest servant

of his house, that

under

ruled over

he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand

my thigh:

3.

And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of Heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
But thou
unto shalt go unto

4.

my country,

and to

my

kindred,

and take a wife

my

son

Isaac.

In this
active

chapter

Abraham is

presented as an old

man,

well stricken

in

age.

His

life is over, and he will never speak to God or to Isaac again. Neverthe the chapter is concerned with the pains he takes in carefully laying out the less, plan for Isaac's future life. The
practice of

number of significancies.
whom

swearing by placing the hand First of all it implies the in the

person who

under the thigh

may have

absolute trust that

the one to

the

oath

is

made places or

is taking the

oath.

In the Bible the thigh

loins is that

part of the

body

closest

to our inner

feelings,
but
also

even

in the

case of

feelings

of guilt which we would not

hide from the

world as a whole

(see Num.

5:27).

The thigh is

only

related to the personal

to

generation.

man's

descendants
46:26).

are often spoken of as the souls own

that came out of

his loins (Gen.

All these things, his

the

life

and the

lives

of

his descendants, Abraham is placing in

hands

of

his

servant.

The Lion

and the

Ass

103

Throughout the
God God
so

chapter one must

keep

track

of the various names used

for

far

as

the servant is concerned. In the third verse Abraham

the

refers to

as the

God of

Heavens

and the

God of

the earth.

Abraham begins

by

making
His

no special

demands beyond
the order
special

the assumption that God is the God of the them. Neither

great world who ensures

which all men can see around

personal name nor asks

of

His

Abraham
the

the servant to the

swear

relationship that he will

to Abraham is mentioned.
not

take a wife for Isaac from

daughters
chosen

Canaanites. In phrasing
in the
not seem
nor

the oath in this manner Abraham

tacitly
been

assumes that even

normal course of affairs a wife would

have

for Isaac. Isaac does Haran he

to share the spirit which allowed

which will allow

Abraham to leave his father's house

the related spirit

own wife.

Jacob to
5.

return to

where

will

find his

And

the servant said unto

him, Peradventure

the woman will not follow

me unto this

land:

must

needs

bring thy

son again unto the

land from

whence thou earnest?

6. And Abraham
thither again.
7.

said unto

him, Beware

thou that thou

bring
s

not

my

son

The Lord God of Heaven, which took me from my from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto
unto me, saying, unto
angel

father'

house,

and

me, and that sware

shall send

thy

seed will

give this

land; He
my

his

before thee, from

and thou shalt take a wife unto

son

from thence.

8. And

if the

woman will not

be willing
under

to

follow thee,
my
son

then thou shalt

be
9.

clear

this my oath: only

bring

not

thither again.

And the

servant put

his hand

the thigh of Abraham,

his master,

and sware to

him concerning that

matter.

about

When speaking with the servant in Verse Seven Abraham is more his relationship to God. He is a God who has chosen a particular

explicit man

for

a particular purpose and will aid that man sixth verse

his

opposition

in carrying out that purpose. In the to Isaac's return to Haran is even stronger than his
wife.

opposition to a

Canaanite

Apparently
some

even

if Isaac

were to

take a Ca

naanite wife, there would

still

have been

possibility that the promise might

be

fulfilled,
to

though we are to assume that

naught.

if Isaac

were

to return the promise

would come saw

Even

at

this early stage in its

children

development, Abraham

that the distractions that lure his

from the New hold

a

Way

would not

come

from

foreigner. Canaanite last.

ways might

it

would not

They

would soon

be dropped
near

or so

fascination for them, but transformed as to become

part of

the New Way. But something

to home

that was the problem. The

Way

could

be lost

and no one would notice.

While

a more systematic account of even

the

role of angels will of

be

given

in the

commentary to Gen. 28:12,

in terms fruition

the present passage it appears as

though the angel will ensure the

crucial

of

this

journey,

even

though this

link is left in the hands

of a servant.

104
io.

Interpretation
servant took ten camels

And the

of the

camels

departed; for all the goods of his master were and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
The
servant

of his master, and in his hand: and he arose,

is in do

complete

possession

of

Abraham's goods,
of

which

he is

holding
be
service

in trust for Abraham's son, Isaac. if

we

Many

the

following

passages will

unclear

not

bear in
and

of

the New

Way

has become very old in the that he has already turned it over to younger
mind

that Abraham

hands.

1 1

And he
water at

made

his

camels to

kneel down

without the

city

by

a well

the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to

of draw

water,
12.

And he said, O Lord God of my

master

Abraham, I pray thee,

unto

send

me good speed this

day,

and shew

kindness

my

master

Abraham.

13.

Behold, I

stand

here

by

the well of water: and the

daughters of the

men

of the city

come out to

draw

water:

The

well outside a

city

gate seems to

be

fine

place

for the beginnings

of a

marriage.

This

will not

case of

Moses

as

only be true in the well (Ex. 2:15). The

case of
servant

Jacob (Gen. 29:10) but in the prays to Abraham's God to

servant will act with

ensure the success of

great

his journey. While it is true that the

what

wisdom, much of
providence

happens in the

present chapter will

depend

upon

divine
thus

in

a sense

far in the book.

Up

radically different from anything we have seen to now little has happened which to a Greek eye could
not

be

called chance.

This is

to

deny

that God called

Abraham, but
forethought large

to note that
and that

Abraham's

reaction

to that

call was carried out with

his

actions were
with

those

of a man

who,

given

his divine calling, rely to

a

arranged

his travels

great awareness.

The

present chapter will

extent on the
servant.

good offices of

the angel whom Abraham said would

accompany his

14.

come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for shewed

And let it

thy servant Isaac; and thereby kindness unto my master.

plan

shall

I know that thou hast

The

servant's

for

determining

the virtue of the young

virtues
and

lady

is
of

not

altogether

foolish. It is intended to

reveal the

kindliness

the

young lady involved. The main virtue which the servant is looking for in a wife for his young master is her willingness to care for her husband. If the woman
shows prove

kindness for himself

herself to be the best

as well as to the
wife

dumb beasts

with

him

she will

for Isaac.

The Lion
15.

and

the Ass
pass,

105

And it

came to

Rebekah
16.

came out, who was

before he had done speaking, that, behold, born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife
with

Nahor, Abraham's brother,

of

her

pitcher upon

her

shoulder.
man
and

And the damsel was good looking, a virgin, neither had any known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her
came up.

pitcher,

17.
a

And

the servant ran to meet

water

her,

and

little
And
And

said, Let me, I pray thee,

drink

of thy

pitcher.

18.

she

said,

pitcher upon

19.

when

Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her her hand, and gave him drink. she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water
trough, and ran his camels.

for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. 20. And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the
again unto the well to

draw water,

and

drew for

all

The heard
He

angel

had done his

work well.

This is that

about

before Sarah died. The

servant of course

was

what a

only told to go to Haran, but nothing was fine girl she is, too, full of that same spirit

three visitors stood

young lady that we knows nothing of all this. said about Rebekah. And Abraham showed the day
same
girl

by his

tent.

She is

good-looking

too,
man real

not

beautiful like
then to the
will

Sarah, but
camels;

good-looking.
and

She runs, too, just like Abraham ran. First to the all are cared for and none shall want. Isaac has a
not.

prize, but

he

know that? Maybe

Does that

matter?

Maybe

not.

21.

And the

man

Lord had
22.

made

wondering at her held his peace, to his journey prosperous or not.

shekel

wit whether

the

And it

came

to pass, as the camels

had done drinking,

weight, and two

that the man

took a golden

earring of half a

bracelets for her

is there

23.

hands of ten shekels weight of gold; And said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell
in thy
father'

me, I pray thee:

room

house for

us to

lodge in?

24.

And She

she said unto

which she

him, I

am

the

daughter of Bethuel the Son of

straw and provender

Milcah,
25.

bare

unto

Nahor.

said moreover unto

him, We have both

enough, and room to

lodge in.
constantly reminded of Rebekah 's generos Her thoughts for his comfort seem to be more

Throughout this

passage we are servant.

ity

and care

for the

important to her than the

golden

rings

and

bracelets,

and

the complete

descrip
its

tion she gives of her parentage seems to show that she is somehow aware of

importance for her destiny.

106
26.

Interpretation
man

And the

bowed down his head,

and worshipped the

Lord.
who

27. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, hath not left destitute my master of his kindness and his truth: I

being

in

the way, the

Lord led
of

me to the

house of my

master'

brethren.

So the kindness brethren. The

God. We
about a

the Lord brought him to the house of his master's

servant was

shall see

in the way, going to Haran, but the rest was up to providence expressing itself more strongly now that Isaac is
was a careful man.

to inherit the New Way. Abraham

mistakes

few

at

times, but he
a while.

was always servant was

planning,

always acting. and

He may have made Things

will

be different for

The

led to Laban,

Isaac

will

be

led
had

by Rebekah, by
made.

the world around

him,

and

by

the plans which

his father

28. 29.

And the damsel ran,

And Rebekah had
a

and told them

of her

mother's

house

these things.

brother,
when

and

his

name was

Laban:

and

Laban

ran out unto the man, unto the well.

30.

And it

came to pass, s

he

saw the

earring

and

bracelets

upon

his

sister'

hands,

and when

he heard

the words of

Rebekah his sister,

the man; and,

saying, Thus spake the man unto me; that

he

came unto

behold, he
31.

stood

by

the camels at the well.

thou

And he said, Come in,

For I have

blessed of the Lord;

wherefore standest

thou without?

prepared the

house,

and room

for the

camels.

Laban is certainly much more Apparently he does not share her And the

aware of

the gifts than his sister, Rebekah.

natural gifts and goodness.

32.

man came

into the house:

and

he

ungirded

his

camels, and

gave straw and provender

men'

for the camels,

and water to wash

his feet,

and

the

feet

that were with

him.
the words the
man refer

In

spite of

Laban's

great welcome

to the servant,

who was

left to look

after

his

own camels.

Laban's

greetings seem to

have been

superficial

though the grammatical structure is unclear and it would

be difficult

to decide anything about Laban's character on the basis of it.

33.

And there

was set meat

before him

to eat:

but he said, I
on.

will not

eat,

until

I have told

mine errand. am

And he said, Speak

servant. master

34. 35.

And he said, I

Abraham's

And the Lord hath blessed my

and

greatly;

and

he hath

given

him flocks,
36.

herds,

and

silver, and gold, and mansen'ants , and maid

servants, and camels, and asses.

And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.

when she was

The Lion
The

and

the Ass

107
message

servant

delivers his

clearly Their

and

in

simple words.
and make

He had taken

the time to refresh

able. until

himself,

give straw to the

camels,

himself present

But food

was another matter.

common meal would existed

have to

wait

community Abraham my master because he knows the name will mean something to Laban, he and all that is with him now belong to Isaac. Abraham was old and tired and had already passed the New Way on to younger
Although he
calls

his

errand was completed and

between them.

hands.
In the
next chapter we shall see will

the old

man come

back to the
with we

prime of

his

life, but it
shall

life only vaguely connected discuss that life in the next chapter, but now that
another

be

the New Way. We

seen

have

of the author

it is time to stop for

to it. times

a moment and

begin to

reflect on

something his work

and our own relation

Other

men

in

modern

have

also noticed that

Abraham

was old and that

in Verse Sixty-six

the servant will call Isaac my master. From this

which

they

assume was

that there had once been another account in

retold sometime soon after

the

death

of

Abraham

there

is

no need

Verse Nine. While there may have been such a text, to suppose one. Abraham has already given the servant to his
proper that

and it is only Abraham's lifetime.

son,

the

servant call

Isaac my

master even

during

Even though the

the next

modern

interpretation
can that

cannot

chapter, how important

be?

bring out the full impact of Any commentary including the

the author's intention than it the words and
always as

present one

is certainly bound to

miss more of

is
of

able to capture.
another guesses unified. author which

Trying
is
at can
at

to

understand and express

intentions
hunches

best

hazardous task. It is become

more

full

of

and

most

reasonable

they become
made

more

If

book tends to fall into

a whole picture the completeness of that

understanding is
the author and

a minor guarantee that some contact

reader.

has been

between

his

Clearly

anyone who makes

the effort to reach out

for

the intentions
times further

of an
away. such

author will

land

sometimes close to the mark and some

In making

remarks, I certainly do not mean to

imply

that there were no

such earlier texts nor even that

it

can

be known that there

was no text

in

which

Abraham's death did

poses

occur at an earlier

that the author of Genesis had more ancient texts

particular

date. This commentary clearly presup from which he learned

give

many

details

of past

ages,

but to

understand what

the author

intended in his final

redaction

up the task of trying to is a fatal blow to our

have the
good or

own attempts to understand the real problems.

All

of us who world

bad fortune to have been born into the Western

where

find

ourselves

some

in the

middle of

life full

of thoughts.

If it
our

were not so we would

have

little to

think about, and yet since

it is so,
before

heads

are are

full

of the

partially
not

digested thoughts

of those who came

us.

They

largely,

though not

completely, misunderstood, and

they have

all

been twisted together, but

in

108
such a some

Interpretation
way that
we cannot

begin the

task of

clarity

about our own prejudices

unravelling them. In order to get it is imperative that we make the sober

attempt

to understand those thoughts as

they

were when

they

were

fresh,

that is

to say, as

they
it

were

in the

minds of

the men who

first thought them.

the Book of

priori

could not

have been known

whether

Genesis

as

it

exists

in its

present

form

merits such close reading.

It

could

have been the

case

that a thoughtless

redactor compiled a work

leaving
One

many

contradictions which
virtue of sense or

he

either

did

not notice or

did

not care about.

can

the redactor
not.

by

examining the text carefully to see

whether

only judge the it makes

It may be that the way we have chosen is filled with giants and lead into unconquerable lands, but once an author, such as the

will often

author

of

Genesis, has
part of

shown

himself to be
reduce

as reliable as

he has, it is

wiser

to play the

Caleb than to

the Promised Land to a printer's oversight.

37.

And my
son

master made me swear, saying,

Thou

shalt not take a wife to

my 38. But thou

of the

daughters of
son.

the

Canaanites, in
s

whose

land I dwell:

father'

shalt go unto

my

house,

and to

my

kindred,

and take

a wife unto

my

39.

And I

said unto

my master, Peradventure the

woman will not

follow

me.

40.

And he

said unto me,

The Lord, before

whom

I walk,

will send

his
for
mv

angel with
son

thee,

and prosper and

thy

way; and thou shalt take a wife

s

41.

of my kindred, Then shalt thou be

father'

of my
give not thee

house:
when

clear

from this my oath,

thou comest to

my

kindred;

and

if they

one, thou shalt

be

clear from mv

oath.

In Verse Thirty-eight the my kindred

unaware chapter.
a wife which

servant adds the words to

appear

father'

actually of, taking for granted, the great role which providence On the other hand he seems to be concerned that the goal
or
achieved not of

did

not

in the

oath.

my It is

house

and to

almost as

if he

were

plays of

in this

obtaining

for Isaac be desire

through providence but through the conscious

consent and

Rebekah.
a reference
me and

Verse

Forty is evidently
before
in this
way
seems

commanded to walk servant's

back to Gen. 17:1, in which Abraham is be perfect. The angel who will prosper the

case

to be related to the

heavy

emphasis upon what

later theology
the angel

will call
regard

divine

providence.

The

servant

with

to Isaac has as its origin

is saying that the task of the God who had witnessed

Isaac

Abraham's As
we

personal virtues.

shall

see through
with

the

next of

few

chapters the

concerns

itself

the relation

the virtue of the

story father to

of

largely
it

providence as

affects the son.

The Lion
42.

and the

Ass

109
said, O Lord God of

And I

came this

day

unto the well, and

mx master

Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go; 43. Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come
when the virgin cometh

to pass, that

forth

to

draw water,

and

sax to

her, Give

me, I

pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink; 44. And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the Lord had appointed out for
master'

my
45.

s son.

And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and drew water: and I said unto

her, Let
46.

me

And

she made

and

said,

drink, I pray thee. haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and
drink
and also.

she

made the camels

47.

And I

asked

her,

said, Whose
Nahor'

daughter
whom

art thou? and she said,

The daughter of Bethuel, put the earring upon her face,

48.

son,

Milcah bare
upon

unto

him:

and

and the

bracelets

her hands.

the

And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed Lord God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way
master'

brother'

to take my

daughter
gave

unto

his

son.

The

account

which

the

servant

of

his meeting
with

with

Rebekah

was

essentially

a repetition of the

facts

as

they

occurred with one minor exception.

According
versation

to his account he presented Rebekah

the gifts after their con

beginning

though, in fact, that happened prior to the events related in the of Verse Forty-seven. His motivations for changing the story are The
overall effect

somewhat unclear.

is to decrease the importance

of what we

would call providence waited until

in the

eyes of the servant

he

was sure

that Rebekah was a

by making it seem as if he had descendant of Terah before giving

change

her the gifts, but

unclear.

whether

the servant made this

consciously

or not

is

49.

And

now

if ve

will

deal

kindly

and

truly
right

with

my master, tell
or

me: and

if
50.

not, tell me; that I may turn to the

hand,
bad

to the

left.

Then Laban

and

Bethuel

answered and

said, The

thing

proceedeth

from the Lord;

we cannot speak unto thee

or good.

In Gen. 31:24,29 it will become clear that to Laban the you good or bad mean to do harm to. In the early books generally

words to speak to

of the

imply

the knowledge

appropriate

to a

king

political

wisdom

Bible they (see

commentaries

to Gen. 3:6 and Gen. 20:7). Laban's understanding of the polit

ical

seems

to confirm the indications concerning

his

character which were given

in Verses

Thirty

and

Thirty-two, but

men are complicated and we must wait character.

to

see more of

him before making any judgments concerning his

110
51.

Interpretation
take

Behold, Rebekah is before thee;

And it
came to

her,

and go, and

let her be thy

master's son's wife, as the

Lord hath

spoken.

Abraham'

52.

pass, that, when

s servant

heard their words,

he
As

worshipped the

Lord, bowing himself to

in
an earlier

the earth.

was mentioned

note, Abraham began the

and the

discussion

with

the

servant

24:3).
wish

by Only

referring to the God of the Heaven

when

God of

the earth

(Gen.

the servant

raised

the

objection

that the woman might not

as the

to accompany

him did Abraham

father'

refer

to

God

Lord God of Heaven

house (Gen. 24:7), thereby assuring the servant of God's special care for Abraham. Throughout the chapter (verses 12, 27, 42 and 48), the servant has continually referred to God as the God of my master,
which took me from

my

but

after

having heard
speech

Laban's

reaction

he

speaks of

Him

as the

Lord.

Laban's

in Verse

Fifty
is

is tantamount to
caused

a confession that whatever

of

decency
his

there

is in his

actions

native

character.

Being

impressed

by his by the

fear

the Lord rather than

on

by
the

effect

God has
master

Laban,

servant no

longer merely
servant

considers

Him the God of my

but the Lord.

53.

And the

and raiment, and

brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother
things.

and to

her
54.

mother precious

And they did

eat and

drink, he
they

and

the men that were

with

him,
send

and tarried

all night: and master. and

rose

up in the morning,

and

he said,

me

55.
a

away unto my And her brother

her

mother

said,

let

the

damsel

abide with us

few days, And he

at the

least ten;

after that she shall go. me

56.

said unto

them, Hinder

not, seeing the Lord

go to

hath

pros

pered

my way;

send me

away that I may

my

master.

57. 58.

And they said, We will call the damsel, and enquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah their sister, and said unto her, Wilt thou And
she

go with this man?

said, I

will go.

Once the
which

arrangements

have been

made the servant

is willing to
of

eat

the meal
and

he had

refused

in Verse Thirty-three. This for the ten days

rather

gesture

friendship
the

agreement

becomes

a substitute

which

he

was

unwilling to

spend at

the home of Laban. It appears in

sharp

contrast to

twenty
the

years which of

Jacob

will spend with

Laban

and

is

part of

the curious combination

subject matter of

divine

providence and careful

planning

which

forms the

present chapter.

Rebekah's answer, consisting of one short word in the Hebrew, is clear and definite and comes from the same spunk with which she ran down to fetch the
water.

59.

And they

sent

away Rebekah their sister,

and

her

nurse, and

Abra

ham's

servant, and

his

men.

The Lion

and

the

Ass

-111

60. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let
gate

art our

sister,

thy

seed possess the

of those

which

hate

them

The

blessing
final

which

Rebekah
which

receives at the

home

of

Laban is

almost

iden

tical to the

blessing
I
will

Abraham
and

received

from God:

That in
stars

blessing

bless thee,

of the

Heaven,

and as the sand which

shall possess

earth

the gate of his enemies: be blessed: because thou hast obeyed

in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the is upon the sea shore; and thy seed and in thy seed shall all the nations of the

My

voice.

(Gen. 22:17,18)

The
there

obvious changes are that the cosmological simile

no counterpart

is dropped

and

that
not

is

to Verse Eighteen in

Laban's blessing. Laban does

limits formed
towards

consider

the growth
nor

of

the state in terms of the natural

by

the

waters,

does he

understand

the political as a

means

justice. His

blessing

is

much more of a

parody than

a repetition.

61. And Rebekah arose, 62. And Isaac

in the

and

her damsels,
way of the

and

they

rode upon the and went

camels,

and followed the man: and the servant took

came

Rebekah,

his

way.

from

the

well

Lahai-roi ; for he dwelt

south country.

time

Evidently Isaac had left Abraham before he was being he had no one to care for him and went
when she escaped

married

to Rebekah

For the had

to

Lahai-roi,

the well Hagar

and

fled to

from Sarah for the first time (Gen. 16:14)

author wishes

nowhere
without

to

go.

Perhaps the have

to

indicate that if left to himself in the

the care of Rebekah and the servant, Isaac would have stayed
nowhere

place of those who account

to go. Such a supposition would not only

for the

present verse

but

would also account

for Abraham's

great care

in planning the young man's future. However role in the next chapter. 63. And Isaac lifted up his
The
went out to

we shall see more of

Rebekah's

languish in the field

and,

at

the eventide: and

he

eyes,

and saw,

behold,

the camels were coming.

sometimes translated to walk

word which we

have

translated

languish is
of

about and sometimes to meditate.

All

these translations require some change

in the text. The Hebrew alphabet,

thousand years, contains two
other to our sh.

as

it has been known for the last two is

equivalent

letters,
corner

one of which
and

to our s, the

They

are

identical in form

differ only

by

virtue of a small

dot,

placed over the

corner

left-hand

in the

case of the s sound and over

the

right-hand

in the

case of the sh sound.

The Hebrew text

nowhere else over
which

appears reads

lasuah,
that

a word which

is found

it presently in the Bible. The

as

translation we are
misplaced and

suggesting assumes that the dot hence the word is really lashuah, ultimately
comes

the letter

has been
to
to

sink or to melt and vanish and

to

mean to

originally meant be saddened or

112

Interpretation
44:26).

languish (see Ps. 42:6,12; 43:5; but

also

Often the

word

is taken to be lashut

meaning to rove or to walk about, which would require not

pointing
assumed

suggested

a change

in

one of the root

word

only the change in letters. Others have This latter

that the

word

is

related to

the

lasiah meaning to be troubled,

anxious, or plaintive, and which

assumption

may

also mean to muse or study.

is

much more reasonable than the

which

former

suggestion.

However, in
would seem

the

light

of

Verse Sixty-seven, in
either to sense of

Rebekah
word

comforts

Isaac, it
or

more

reasonable

accept

the

as

lashuah

to take the word

lashiah in the
same

being

plaintive, which would come to very much the

thing.

64. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes,

off the camel.

and when she saw

Isaac,

she

lighted
in the

65

For

she

had

said unto the servant,

What

man

is this that

walketh

field

to meet us?

And the

servant

she took a

veil, and covered

had said, It is my herself.

master: therefore

66. And

the servant told Isaac all things that

suggested

he had done.

As has been
custom

many other commentators, there may have been a that the intended bride should veil her face upon meeting her future

by

husband. However in the Biblical tradition it may have a greater significance since the notion of covering has played a significant role in several points

during

the story. The

most

important
Shem

occasions on

which

we

have

seen

the

word are

in Gen. 9:23

when

and

Japheth

covered their

father's
paid

naked

ness, and again in Gen. 20:16 when the money

which

Abimelech

to Abra

ham is
case

spoken of as a

covering of
a

the eyes unto all that are with thee.

of the past as was

In

each com

covering implies mentary to Gen. 9:23. The term is

forgetting

discussed in the

also used with reference to

Moses

after

he

returned

from Mount

Sinai. Rays
to her

of

of the people.

light beamed from his face, and he was forced to veil it in front As we shall see in the following chapter, Rebekah's relationship
much the same character. unseen ways.

husband has

She

will

love him

deeply

and will

protect

him in many

67. And Isaac brought her into his

and she after

mother

Sarah's tent,
and

and took

Rebekah,

became his
mother's

wife; and

he loved her:

Isaac

was comforted

his

death.

As

compared with
of

death

his

mother

than

Gen. 25:9, Isaac by the death

it develop.

seems
of

to be

much more

disturbed

by

the

his

father,

which

may be

part of

his

character as we shall see

Discussion
Paradoxes of Education In a Republic. sity of Chicago Press, 1979. $12.95)

By

Eva T. H. Brann. (Chicago: Univer

Chaninah Maschler
Wonder
of

wonders, this is

an

enchanting book. To convey its spirit,

except

by

citation, is impossible. For Aristotle

prise. about makes a

example:

distinction

of

the

greatest

importance to

the educational enter

He distinguishes between thinking about truths and ends and deliberating ways and means. (Nicomachean Ethics, ill, 1112). My argument will be that
most proper object of

the

former is the

education,

and

it

moreover

leads to

less

floundering
the world
could

practicality, for

all ambitions

to affect people, solve problems, change

of what

require the most careful

formulations

is desirable.

Nothing
is

be

more

ill-conceived than
.

a whole curriculum

based

on urgent social and

personal problems. much more passacaglia

On the contrary, it

seems to me that an education

world

likely

to prepare

for

action

in the

if it, like the Buxtehude

in Auden's poem,

makes

Our
For

minds a civitas of sound

where

art

nothing but assent was found had set in order sense,

and

And

feeling

intelligence,
order grew

And from its ideal

Our local understanding too (pp. 29,

30).

What

course of

oh-seal-them-so

study would teach, that is, show (p. 16) that an assent to the features of the self-evident (p. 21) is the end to which and
the charm and of the good of Miss Brann's

from

which all

human seeking leads?

A large

portion of

book derives

from the

prosiness of

her

answer:

I think that the

an education and as

course of education

is the I

course of

learning

to read,

and

to

have

is to know how

to read.

mean

reading in Just

a wide sense,

[as exegesis,

including, for instance,

the reading

of mathematical

sentences, musical

scores,

diagrams] but I do
are

mean reading.

as the public obligations of

teaching
of

distinguishable from the

with

private pleasures of

learning,

so the

labor
the thought

study is not identical best of schools must be itself

are can

the activity of thought.

The

daily life

of even

a mundane

mastering

of other people's reflections

be facilitated but

not scheduled.

Therefore, institutions
and all attempts

of education

known

by

the

quality
a

of their
of

book learning,

to alter that

fact

end either

in

decline

the institution or
question of

in

a counter-reformation

(pp. 16,

17).

Now that the overwhelming

made

the true nature of education

question

has been
students

practical, we can ask the

manageable

"What

should

learn to

Here is her

answer:

114

Interpretation
of the

The books

West,

ancient, medieval, and modem (p. 65).

And why these,

and not

the

Tao-te-ching

or

the Upanishads?

Roughly, for

the

her saying that the course of education is that of learning to read, namely, that education is inherently traditional, and tradition, by its are very nature, is never tradition in the abstract but ours, whoever the
same reason that ruled
"we"

who are

"bookish."

perpetuating themselves in the new generation. Now our tradition is What Mohammed called the Jews, "the people of the we in
Book,"

the West must

all

be called,

with

this

difference,

that the Book

has become

books.
What sharply defines the bookish Western tradition acquired by study. That is to say, it is appropriated
of

as a

handing

down is that it is

by

set, episodic application

world's
absorbed

the

intellect

business but
a

sensibility The tradition is not

to be

and

the

carried on
.

in distinction from the

an

group

of works

confronted

influence to be atmospherically (pp. 65, 66).

and

This is the idea Miss Brann The

action:

of education which

is imperiled
(p.
102).

for the saving

gives

of which

gives

"reasons

ways"

and

central

chapter's

concluding

section and

(pp.

108-19)
and

her
how

plan

of

The poetic,

mathematical

scientific,

philosophical

works copious
current

which rank as monumental

because through them

to be studied; but
relics

we are reminded
"monuments"

the mind's
sense of

capacity is,

are

not as

in the

the word,

not

as

of

deceased "cultural epochs"; rather,

as

winged words whose

target

is

ourselves:

[assume] a radical originating power of thought. To offer providing their historical setting is simply to deny the truth of the text before making it read. I dismiss, on the basis of experience, the pedagog
most major works

to explicate them

by

ical

contention a

that students

cannot read

books

without such preparation, which

is

largely
(P-

way

of

saying that the teacher does

not

believe in their

intelligibility

"5)conviction"

"With only slightly less tion of the Liberal Arts,

understood

(p. 116) she pleads, further, for the cultiva in the strict sense of the three trivial

(grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the four mathematical arts (theory of num bers, geometry, astronomy, and music, the last construed as "the study of
bodies executing harmonious motions, that is, physics.") Thus, quietly, she more than one battle that between artes and heard
"composes"
auctores,1

music and

the

music of

the mind, and that between

philosophy

and

poetry.2

The

restoration of

chiefly intended to
1.

undo

something like the Medieval Arts curriculum is, I believe, division into departments: Whatever else the faculty

See Paul O. Kristeller, Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic and Humanist Strain Torchbook, 1961), p. 7; Eugenio Garin, Geschichte und Dokumente (Rowohlt, 1966), pp. 2lf.; Actes du de Congres internationale de philosophie medievale, Arts Liberaux et Philosophie au Moyen Age (J. Vrin: Paris, 1969).
(Harper
2.

See Republic X.

Discussion
may have
arts

-115

studied or
with

be studying, their

being
on

at

least
off

apprentices

in the

seven

entire

the

language

arts

not

fenced

from

the

mathematical

is

a precondition unless

for their

being genuinely

speaking terms

with one another.

And

they

are, isn't it pure miracle for the students to conceive the hope
education?

for

an

integrated

The locale
What
goes

and

opportunity for
no matter

such an education

is

the college:
students comes
.

before is,

how strenuously teachers try to "make

a

think for
after

themselves"

properly is again, properly, training; namely, professional, graduate,

of
.

mostly

and

kind

training.

What

or practical.

(pp. 19,

20).

Accordingly, it is
It is
an

the precarious condition of the college,

our

colleges, that is

the center of her concern:

ineradicable American tradition that the

education

collegiate episode should not

be training but

(p.

20).

The bewildered

reader

may

sputter:

"How

can

this be? A native growth (that

document)3

the American college is such Miss Brann does somewhat

rooted as to

so

firmly

deserve the
"majors"

epithet

"ineradicable"

would

hardly
future

need

the support

solicited.
or

And how is
with

one to overlook

the fact that students head for their B.A.s

profession?

B.S.s

selected with an eye to some

"In
will

eradicable"

is,
not

to use one of the

as are.

book's favorite words,

"brave"

talk that

have things be
answer not a current

The
an

they is, I think, that Miss Brann's

fact but debates
a series of

adjective qualified not a

thing but

idea,

facts

and

deeds interpreted

over time.

By

placing

about the obligations of

the college in the context of

of

texts culled from more than two hundred years of discussion

she shows that recrudescent unease at

the question,

turning

colleges or of

into training institutions

of

(whether

of the research-oriented
as characteristic of

university

the advanced trade school

type) has been

conscience at
cial
"helps."4

the idea of the American college as pangs

using it to
of

prepare aristoi

for their best happiness through

"paradox"

artifi

Something
3.

the sense of Miss Brann's word

the fact that

may
days
colleges

now

begin to

The story is complicated by "general schools"; Miss Brann's "age

4.

in the
them

Founders'

were, apparently,

sixteen"

fits

better than it does

our colleges.

regret

that Miss Brann does not take

and

up the profoundly important

15, 1813, in
1959).

exchange of

letters

between Jefferson
to

Adams

on

the subject of aristoi natural and artificial, for

instance, Jefferson
2 of as

Adams, October
ed.

28, 1813; Adams to

Jefferson Letters,
shows, higher
that

Lester J. Cappon (U.

Jefferson, Nov. of N.C. Press,

volume

the Adams-

Jefferson wanted,

Miss Brann
recognized

education

to equip the natural aristoi

for their

responsibilities.

Adams

distinguishing

between

them and their artificial counterparts can

I say that the higher education of the upper classes in Europe, and for assimilation to the ways of life and thought of aristoi natural
and perhaps even
"us."

become extremely dangerous. of those whose ambition hopes

can

or artificial

be, has been,

"them"

in

some measure must

be
or

refining that draws boundaries between

soldier's

and

Many

an

American movie, novel,

returning

army

stories revolves around

this

theme.

116
emerge:

Interpretation
She means,
(p.
i).
not a contradiction which calls

for

our

mending

or replac

ing

the

foundations, but
and

tension which
and analyzes one
she

constitutes

precisely

our

kind

of of

"opposites,"

equilibrium

She lists
are

a number of such

which

being

serving

life,
not

citizen/philosopher.

only I believe

instance
wants

excellence/equality, school/
argue

to

that

our

polity is

"between"

thing
only What
of

and

that therefore our education

lies "between the

extremes,

ideality bearing does

and

reality (p.

40).

this

notion of opposites

in tension (reminiscent

of certain

descriptions

of our polity's

Constitution, for

example,

Interpretation of the

being born of Declaration of Independence and Harry V Jaffa's Crisis of the House Divided: An Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Garden City,
on

N.Y.: Doubleday, 1959), have

college?

the argument
seems

In outline, Miss Brann's reply

for maintaining the liberal-arts to be three-fold:

do we owe our intellectual and moral controversy of education? must recognize that fitting the college in the descendants, way into the polity is unavoidable. Now the polity can remain and become what it of its origins. Utilitarianism, was meant to be only through
The
parties to the what
"reactivation"

anti-traditionalism, and

rationalism modern

style,

so

through study of Jefferson's major writings on education,

Miss Brann shows, primarily have from the begin

ning been
who selves

a threat to

the collegiate episode in her sense of the word. But those

the genteel party should remind them

might,

by Jeffersonians, be dubbed
with

that these isms are coeval

the polity: accordingly, the school

de

signs of

Jefferson

should

be

understood as
on

just (though to be tempered) inevi

should ask

tabilities. The

Jeffersonians,

the

other

hand,

themselves
what

whether

they do

not agree

that each of the

isms listed draws life from

it

rejects.

Or

rather, if they would be wise, those in Jefferson's camp would use the colleges as prime instruments for redeeming from decay into ism what once was choice and act and idea. The decision of the "important question whether societies of
men are

choice"

and

really capable or not of establishing good government from (Federalist 1) was made, and could only be made, by
midst

reflection men who

held in their
who

the likes

of

Adams, Jefferson,
self-awareness

and

Madison,

men

had the

advantage of

lowed them to distinguish the

new

from the

old

because they knew that (p. 88).

a matter

which al

Our maintaining of what they established is equally equally in need of self-awareness and its conditions. Alongside the
argument

of

decision,
are

just

sketched

there is another,

more not

implicit: We

becoming
or

more and more aware

that much of human

life is

problem-solving
spiritual.5

dissolving,
5.

not

razing

and

building, but

maintenance, physical and

Renaissance
still shot

philosophic even
with

literature

Machiavelli, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes

section on the architectural

is full
of

of

architectural

imagery. And
through
as

Kant's Critique (hence the it. That Jefferson's

not even

Architectonic
with

Pure

Reason) is
argument.

interests

were profound needs no

But

as

far

I know,

those who substituted for this

fascination

building

Discussion

111
as our

Is it far-fetched to think that

with works of

young

men and women

become intimate
to be (and are)

stature,

developing
will

attachments to such as claim

one another's

begin to harbor the thought that the tradition they they inherit may be sustaining precisely because the oppositions in it cannot ener without the setting right turning out wrong? The ripening getically be "set
rivals,
right"

of such a thought

(New Jew

and and

Job for the

people of school.

Jew; books?)

Old Testament for the Christian; Deuteronomy and Christian and Moslem for all who have become
profound effects on

would

have

how

one

lives

outside of

But the

argument

dearest to Miss Brann is that because

an education so

we need colleges which

the Western tradition

philosophy.

framed is
as

most

likely
amor

to

study lead to
which

Philosophy
as

she understands

to

be

both that

fati

loves its
paradox.

own

revealed

through constitutive paradox and the resolving of

Early, in
which

the chapter on

Utility, her

thesis

is that because

ours

is

a republic

"does

not attempt to provide

happiness but to facilitate its

of

pursuit

[where]
ophy,

the public realm

as the

study

of

is primarily one ends (pp. 6 iff.).

means,"

therefore we need philos

In the
of

chapter on

the products

livingin Tradition, the claim is that as Moderns, of reason "theories, techniques, instruments, and

the midst

mach

we need

philosophy, so that our environment of artifacts of reason may

air of spurious naturalness and of
as

become

intelligible, may lose both its

ugly

gadgetry. respon

Philosophy
sible

is here identified

the study of the

115).

philosophic

works

for

technological power

(p.

Finally, in
poem

the

chapter on argues

Rationality,

through which she

brings her book to

of which

its end, Miss Brann

spoke, to

that to regain the kind of

self-diremption6

integrity
and

Auden's
pre

overcome

into head
as the

heart

(vividly

figured in Jefferson, "the best part in us,

As

see pp.

135-42),

we need

philosophy, as the activity of

selves,"

perhaps our

very

life

of

intellect.

is, I hope,

very well, 1

resonate.

and said so sufficiently apparent, to much of what is said, But when I called the book enchanting I did not mean
sense.
"education."

this only in its winning

Take, for instance, Miss

the fascination
with

Brann's

use

of

the word

Sure,

you

Elective gardening (see Goethe's

Affinities)

came around
nation

to the thought Eric

shown

Hoffer

once expressed not

in

a television

interview,

that the stamina of a

is

by

how

well

it

provides,

for

new

projects,

maintenance.

Such

physical

but for building, road, train, statue, every sort of maintenance and spiritual maintenance do not seem to be
because I

physical

separate

things.

6. I

use

the Hegelian

word

not

fancy

such

language, but because

the author's

"document"

reflections seem much affected picture of

by

Hegel. The
as souls

that figures prominently

themselves

in Miss Brann's

Jefferson

and

his heirs
at

divided Wills

against

Jefferson's letter to Maria

Coswayis also

discussed

Independence, Doubleday:
upon

(Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of by Garry New York, 1978). I learned of Wills's book through William Mullen,
length

his reading

of this review.

118-

Interpretation
words

can

pay

extra, that
as
your

is,

explain

yourself,
a

and offer a part of what

they

commonly

mean

whole.

So there is

sense

in

which

it is silly to
on,
or should rhe

Miss Brann's reserving go on, in colleges. But aren't you paying too torical advantage of the "persuasive
quarrel with

"education"

for

what goes

much

for idiosyncrasy? The

definition"

is

small.

The ambiguity due to

the old,

broader,
is

"education"

schools prior

the new, narrower sense both clinging to the word I believe Miss Brann's way of contrasting what goes on in to college with what should be done at college is modeled on
and great.

the contrast between

Republic, books

II

IV,

and the

"longer

way"

of

books
aren't

V-VII,

where

the

former is
Athens

"training"

and

the latter

"education."

But

there tremendous differences between our youngsters

and

young Athenians?

Our polity
on

and the
words

Socrates'

of
of

Socrates'

in behalf

the

nomoi at

by

the words "division of church

by ruminating Crito 5od,e, coarsely summarized from state"? Isn't it really very hard, for
shown
and attitude

day? Differences

us, to see just how

formation

of

habit

(training) is

and ought

to be

different from
for
myself:

and connected with reflection on

"training"

habit (education)? I
for
precollege and

shall speak
"education"

/ find it hard to

reserve

for the is

college years.
wait

My difficulties
make

lie deeper than the

us that a

obvious one

that

we

didn't have to
age

for Piaget to tell

(or

young
so

person of

high-school Our
re

of rather

different
such

than a child

between,

say,

six

and ten. as

industrial society is
quire

has,
large

perhaps, been
age
and

misunderstood?)

to

that children of

high-school
so

be taught extremely

sophisticated sci
make

entific

theory in

groups

by

teachers so trained as to

it

in the necessary to turn the instruction into something like "basic in the factory, although the subject taught is army or "on-the-job
training"

training"

at odds with

instruction in this

mode.

am

while

disposed to believe, and I doubt that Miss Brann would disagree, that there are stages of intellectual growth, each stage wants rhythmic alterna

tion between

doing

or

saying

and

wondering

about

the

doing

and

the

done,

the

saying ferent forms,

a college

and

the said. Reflection runs through, if allowed, though

not always of speech. stuck to

it takes dif

Had Miss Brann

her

guns

(bottom

p.

4),

she would

have

spoken as
upon

teacher attempting to articulate the rationale of the

teaching
might not she

which she

is

engaged

(middle
speak

p. 5).

Then

she

might,

or

again,

have

found it necessary to
necessary,
she

of education

prior

to college.
us

If

found it

might,

choose subject matter

might

for example, have in such a way that

a

warned

that it is advisable to

"training"

in it isn't ludicrous. This

have meant, for example,

music, and dance as
as

strong

argument

for the study

of

foreign lower

languages,
schools.

a required part of of

the curriculum of the

But

her book stands, many

the remarks about lower schools

being
or

places

followers

for training are confusing, at least to me, because when of Rousseau take this seriously in something like the
she

Dewey ites
character-

formation sense,

becomes very angry (see especially bottom

p.

44, top

p.

Discussion

-119

45), though that is the

music

sense of

Republic II-IV,
on

and she

herself

wants patriotic

for

our republic.

When,

the other

hand,
she

she writes as supporter of not take

"back to
of

basics''

in the

subject-matter

sense,

does

up the

question

how the

natural sciences should or could

be taught,

or what the

basics

are

for
on

those who will not attend college, though these are matters
education

directly bearing

in

and

for

our

republic, both in the broader

college

sense of education and

in

her

narrower

sense.

We

teachers

do,

after

all, depend on our high

schools.

But her heart is

emulates

given to the and and

college,

and

it is

as a college teacher that she

who

those
of

"priests

priestesses"

in Plato's Meno

try

to "give an
of

account"

their

station

its duties. It is because

of

the

richness

her

understanding

of what

is

doing

and why, that

miniature

history

of

by any her book, in addition to being a practical proposal, is the idea of liberal arts and assorted other matters, and
entailed

is

serious effort to understand what one a a

series

of

reflections on

the good of a college education and,

good"

standards

necessarily, eventually on "the

such

therefore, by her (Republic V-VII; Nicomachean have tried to

very expensive, perhaps

Ethics i, 6). Without

answer

perseverance, one cannot claim to

retention of a

the fair question, "What justifies

schooling?"

merely decorative, type of If only I understood better how philosophy is be the study of ends, the recovery of "roots in
of

all

the things it is declared to

thought"

(pp. i, 148), the life

intellect

as an erotic yet
and p.

to the

Symposium,

intelligent spontaneity (see p. 143, with its reference 137)! That it is, one is made to feel through citation
and

of or allusion

to texts from Plato

an

Aristotle.

Not surprisingly, in
part

essay
such

of a mere

left

unexplicated,

allowed

to "speak for

167 pages, the texts are for the most Thus readers pre
themselves."

viously

unacquainted with

ideas

of

human life, philosophy,

and

intellect

are persuaded of their

persuasive

reality for

writers of obvious stature.

The

words are so

that some of these readers may indeed take up the ancient books

one of the

things, I suppose, Miss Brann hopes to

readers she

achieve.

But the

chiefly

meant

to

address

fellow teachers

at other col

leges,

college

trustees or administrators, and perhaps legislators

how

are

they

helped?

Of course, the Introduction's modest statement of the intent "to find more telling terms for the debate [about education in
me

of

the

inquiry,
makes

America],"

feel is
To

mean and ungrateful

for

finding
I
must

fault.

Why

not

take

what

is offered,
in

which

lot,

as promise of more

to be said in some future piece?

turn to
particulars.

explain

my

reservations,

The

passages

Plato's Republic

why a man who has lived on the philosophic into the city to take on civic responsibility down back heights would go in ways which Jefferson would be un are described, or rather, alluded to, his eyes went over the Greek read some able to recognize. Where he would as
which explain

thing like:

120
Will
share

Interpretation
our

alumni, then,

disobey

us when we tell them this and will

they

refuse to

in the labors

of state each

in his turn

while permitted

to dwell the most

of the time with one another

in the

purer world?

Impossible, he

said, for
tr.).

we shall

be

imposing

just

commands on men who are

just (520c

Shorey

In Miss Brann's text he (p.

12).

would read

that "the

leap
as

into the city is

studied

made

for

love"

On

p.

85, Miss Brann

cites

Jefferson

having
and

the differences

between the
The

pagan philosophers and

the Jews

Jesus

on matters ethical:

philosophers'

"precepts

are related

great,"

philosophy they
were short and

were

defective,"

really for

In this branch chiefly to ourselves. but "in developing our duty to others they
. .

of

"they

taught

justice

and

friendship, but

not as

did

Jesus, benevolence

charity."

and

According
olence and

to these words, of
action

which

she

differences between

from justice

and

for their perceptiveness, self-respect and action from benev

approves

she owes Jefferson and such as are charity like him is, then, a reference to her long essay on the Republic ("The Music of Agon: Journal of Classical Studies, pp. 1-117, April 1967. See the are
Republic,"

important. The least

also

Symposium 2o8d,

Apology
me

30a, Euthyphro 3d, Lysis

2i8e-222).

And

though
enough

it is difficult for
for
one

to say this, even

as much as that might not

be

who, like Miss Brann,

and

speaks of the self-evident

(p. 21)

and

finds

eugenic

measures

benevolence bilities

and charity.

am

infanticide self-evidently abhorrent, contrary to bluntly saying that Jefferson's Christian sensi
See 461c,
with

were offended

by

the Republic.

James
on

Adams'

com

mentary. at

When

such a passage

is

compared with

Aristotle's

infant exposure, in Plutarch,

Politics vii, 16, 1355,

proposal well

and with

the portions of the Politics where Aristotle

takes the
16.

to eliminate
with

family

life literally, the

said
about

passages

1, fit too

what

Hamilton

these things. See

Harvey

Flaumenhaft, "Hamilton Reviewer, Fall 1976, p.

When love
and

on the

Foundation

Government,"

of

Political Science

169.
are

desire

adumbrated,

as

ultimately

of the

higher,

then such a fusion

of self and

in the Platonic dialogues, as intellect and love with

may be
possible.

their object as Miss Brann

believes
is

must

be

possible

But in

that case, how could the philosopher, who knows that the city (subject to

generation, change,

decay)

not

love? His best best

self

self

does

not need

worthy of such love, leap into the city for it, and how his lesser selves are needed by his
primal

is

obscure.

That for the Christian love

is

of the

lowly

has been

argued,

and

I think truly, many times (Anders

of

Nygren, Agape

and

Eros,

Harper Torchbook, 1969). For me, as is plain, the theme

feeling

and

thought or head and heart is

vastly more tortuous and tortured than for Miss Brann, who believes that Socrates at least got it right, as did Buxtehude. But Buxtehude got it right only in the passacaglia. And Socrates had the
advantage of

instruction

by

lady

from Prophetsville.

Discussion
Is it just

111 Jefferson's
part

wilfulness on

that,
on

having

to a married

lady,

the prospect of

gazing

the sea

apparently become drawn of beauty is no consolation

for loss
speak of

of a

friendship

that ought not properly to ripen? Jefferson tends to

himself

with extreme reserve: which a

that his
makes

letter to Maria Cosway, though it difficult for me to understand

is why I agree with Miss Brann jeu d esprit, is also a love letter. This Miss Brann
can

that

imagine herself to

be speaking to his condition: Jefferson's head plays it safe. His heart is willing to take risks. The head is detached (except from self). The heart attached. The head forecasts. The heart hopes. The head is Stoic Christian. To this divided
ahead or

Epicurean. The heart is Look

what

being
the

she

is saying, "Heal
or

yourself.

lies
the

if

you

do

not: or

love

of

hazy

lurid;

the vague,

decaying, infinite;
or otherwise

freakishly
cated quick

sub-

superhuman; the
not

shriek of

drug-induced

fabri

ecstasy."

At least, I do

know how

otherwise to construe

Miss Brann's
roman
with

linkings

of

eighteenth-century

rationalism with

nineteenth-century
and
all

ticism with the counter culture of the nineteen-sixties,

of

that

Jefferson's letter to Maria Cosway. But

talgia for a golden age
center of
when

will either

threat or evocation of nos

the capacity for thought had "its station at the

human

life"

heal

a man

divided

against

himself?

Thus, I do
essay, it is

not

also

believe that it is only because of the extreme brevity of the because I seem to be given incompatible clues as to where an
lead that I
resist

expanded version would

the

peace of

doing
cited

what

I like to do
when

(study
Plato's

and

teach much
about

For example, (p. 24), it

to

opinion

accepting her reasons for in the way recommended). the true uses of mathematics is

sounds as

though the author approves of that opinion. And the

allusions

contemplation

in Aristotle's
But there

sense of are also

the

word point

in the

same

direction,
speak of

toward the eternal.

many passages, those which

"origins", "roots", "reactivation", "radical

which

reflectio

in

what

looks

like
of or

historical context,
who

seem reminiscent of

Heidegger,
wrote

or at

least,

the Husserl

under

the influence of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit and/

Dilthey

and/or

political

developments in the
no claim

1930s

the

Krisis d.

eur.

Wissenschaften. I

make

to have

understood

these books.

But

provisionally they

seem

to me to spring from an idea of originating

revela

tion which sets us tasks.

cannot square such a

notion,

heavy

with

Hebraic

thought,
The
as

or with

Rilke's

angels of annunciation made

intellectual,
Brann

with classical

philosophy.7

chief

issue between
clarified

us

is,
she

probably,

that Miss

often

speaks and

though she had

when

the

relationships

between history, tradition,

thought, clearly The

7.

I do

not

believe

has,

or else

I disagree

with what seems

said.

beginning

of

this

review

cites

a passage

in

which

she

speaks

of the

Compare, for instance, Heidegger's What is Philosophy?

(bilingual ed.

by

Wm. Kluback

and

Jean T. Wilde, College and and Tradition as Religious

1971).

University Press,

n.d.),

Beilage iii to Husserl's Krisis, "Revelation

Categories''

in Gerschom Scholem, Messianic Idea in Judaism (Schocken,

122

Interpretation
thought."

"radical originating power of go to heaven we would not become

Because I hold that

even

if

we were

to

creative

(that in heaven

we might can

is the

implication
originating.

of a witticism on p.

7), I doubt that human thought

all

be radically

Therefore, because
am

I believe that if I
must

to grasp
and

what

human spontaneity seems to me responsive, is meant by another's words or deeds, I

were

try

to learn
a a

who

what

fabricating
Here is

meaning
vivid

rather

than quickening one that

adventitiously addressed; lies dormant.

with

else

risk

example:

We

are

told that Jesus dined

sinners

and

tax-collectors, and that the Pharisees were appalled. How could one grasp what is at issue, how could one feel the burden of choosing sides, or even (as some
be inclined to, though they would have something like a providential idea of history
might no

right to

such a

made

sense) say "a

leaning unless blessing on

who

both

houses,"

your
office

without

knowing
and

that the tax-collectors were Jews

bought their
taught

to serve Rome

their own pockets, and that the men to be

by

Jesus'

shocking
and

association were

those through

whom

the people of

the book

the synagogue became just that?

believes that meaning tends to be affected by historical setting denies that words and deeds may justly claim our assent, or claim it unjustly, or with partial justice. Rather, because of hope for an author's
It is
not

true that one who

speaking truly even over the gap of ages, I want to grasp the truth he meant. I agree with Miss Brann that, in a mere four years of college, it is vastly wiser to invite students to read original works minutely, sans secondary litera
ture about the epoch,
since

it is

by

dint

of

such

instance,

the differences between

our

Bureau

of

minute reading that, for Internal Revenue's officers and

the tax-collectors of
exercise of

Judaea is

Jesus'

day

would

be

found.8

And

not

only the

judgment

with reference

to great issues in

our past

turns on reading,

all manner of

dailiness becomes charming

not

or manageable or some other good

thing for the discerning reader. I further agree, though this is

of

books

of

intellectual

size tend to

something her book dwells on, that authors know that a written work, like the cloak

that survives its weaver in the

ous sort of sion.

Phaedo, has a consoling and potentially danger beyond its immediate addressees or immediate occa permanence, The written word is different from the spoken.
when

But

too

author and original addressee

cumstance or
gratitude

of the removability of books from their leads to the removing of letters from their cir to the condemnation of men to whom we owe large debts of much

experience

because they
a
nice

wrote some
see

books for the

men of

their time which we

and

8. For
(Methuen:

example, 1974),

Plates i

and

ii in Victor Ehrenberg's Man, State,

Deity

London,
I
offer

where what

is to be decided,

by

final

aims?"

it to indicate that

"reading,"

to serve as

reading coins, is "what were Caesar's Miss Brann proposes, may eventually

have to spring the confines of script. I offer it also to record that where Miss Brann and I may differ is that I believe that eventually it may be necessary to look not only to what the author or maker intended, a meaning paraded, but also to a meaning betrayed when the work is set in its
universe of

life.

Discussion

123
wonder whether the sound classroom principle of

find tedious to read, then I

interpreting
On
p.

the given book

by

the given book hasn't become

perverted.9

6 the humanists
than
of

are

wittily

written

off

for

"living

in

world

of

reason"

reference rather responsible

and on p.
of our own

7 "humanist

groundlessness"

is held

for the vacuity

writes so

educational tracts.

Precisely
One
of

because

Miss Brann

memorably,

such

judgments disturb

Erasmus'

me.

contemporaries wrote of

him:
which

He is the springing The clear

man

that to Isaac may be compared, the

wells that the

springs of

Philistines destroyed
that the

and with

digged up the goodly dirt and dung overfilled.

so troubled
now

Holy Scripture
or

Philistines had

that

no man could and

drink

have the tme taste

of the water,
.

they be

by

his labor

diligence to their
John

old pureness and clearness

and

21 of

Olin, ed., Christian Humanism

the

restored (Hervet, cited p. Reformation, Harper Torchbook,

1965)

For Miss Brann, for me, for most of our contemporaries, the Gospels cannot be the ground in which our lives are rooted. But for those whom Erasmus sought
to reach through a

fresh translation

of

the Gospels it may have been different. I

spoke

have

no reason to

doubt that Erasmus

an equal

seriously
itself

when

he

wrote:

This doctrine in little ones,

degree

accommodates
measure

to all,

lowers itself to the

adjusts

itself to their

everything until but it is also an

much with

we grow object of who are

those
read

fostering, sustaining them, doing in Christ. Again, not only does it serve the lowliest, wonder to those at the top Indeed, I disagree very unwilling that Holy Scripture, translated into the vulgar
if Christ taught
such

tongue, be
that
pp.

by

the uneducated, as
understood

intricate doctrines
. .

they
96ft0.,
am

could

scarcely be

by

very few theologians.

(Paraclesis,

ibid.)
saying is,
of of

What I
perhaps some of

course, that enormous though this fact be

constituted

repellent

recovery our forebears. Does Miss Brann know

to bank on Lincoln's

Sacred Scripture

recovery

of their roots

for

alternate game-plans
access

for

history

well enough

having

had

to his Bible without the

work of such as

Erasmus?
to many of the texts (other than the

Since

our own access

Bible)

which

Miss

Brann believes
and

we ought to
of schools

guages"

equipping (not just Latin, but Greek

Erasmus
contributed so

and

study faculties like Louvain,

and

owes

something to the

founding
to

and

staffing

where were

the "three lan

Hebrew

as

well)

since

largely

to this enterprise, there is

be studied, and for me some in the

thing impious in biting the hand that feeds us. Miss Brann speaks eloquently of the uses of piety, better, sense of Kant's word meaning "respectful
"Achtung,"

"reverence"

attention

Her

remarks

9.

wonder whether

reading

major

books

as

though

they

were all

intended

as a

"possession for
generations as

all isn't, in a curious way, a modernism. Bacon envisages indefinite future Instauration. addressed by his work. See the Proem to his Great
time"

124
on p.

Interpretation
102

("In

reverence ought

law-based democratic republic, the fostering of scriptural to be an essential part of a properly republican education.

secular version of credo ut

intellegam, something like T trust,

so that

I may
the

learn,'

is

necessary

part of

the devotions due to

liberty")

are alone worth

price of

the book.
against one

heirs to

This theme is first brought up when she argues that the revolt a bookish tradition was perpetuated on our shores by
special responsibilities of not

being
un

who, as

founder, had
controlled

indulging

in

"hasty

and

hence

She is speaking of Jefferson. Jefferson's disrespect for Platonic texts is discussed at some length, presumably because (p.
96).

interpretations"

his

attitude

to these (for Miss

Brann, exemplary texts) illustrates his

exemplifies the

overall

attitude

toward books that would make one reconsider one's own stance; and
nation.10

because Jefferson, at least on matters educational, not the nation, but the educational pace-setters.

No,

Not only did Jefferson, according to Miss Brann, treat "the older (Plato and the Bible represent them!) without piety; she holds that he betrays
general

texts"

disrespect for "the

a

language"

older

when, in

letter to Adams, he

declares himself
I
would argue

friend

of neology.

She

writes:

that this

untroubled repudiation of

the sanctity of grown

language,
Jeffer

natural consequence of a

depreciation

of the

word, is the

most pregnant of

son's premonitions,

(p. 99)
of the role of of

She

horrendously opaque description (unidentified), implying "This is the kind of talk

adjoins a
erence."

the legislator

begotten

Jefferson's irrev
of

is

newspeak

And concludes, wickedly, "The precise English rendition Appendix)" (p. 100). (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four,

neology

Before retrieving the letter (August 15, 1820, pp. 565L, in Adams-Jefferson Letters, ed. J. Cappon, U. of N.C. Press, 1959), I had noticed two things in
the

fragment

quoted:

that half the sample words are scientific, so that only if

English Greek

scientific

words

had generally been formed

"electricity"

on

the

Dutch

(Stevin-

consistently using native roots could the newfangled have been avoided; and that it is the French language that is being talked about: "What a language has the French become since the date of their revolution. As I was a seven
"oxygen"

originated?)
of

model

of

and

teaching

teenth-century French literature class, I was of the Old Regime undone by the Revolution
that the the

aware was

that one of the constituents

Academy,

through its

"normative"

French Academy; further, dictionary, intended to "weed out

the
to spread,
eleventh

riotous

growths of

Renaissance
(see

French,"

by

royal

edict, le bon
p.

usage

of the upper classes

Brittanica,

ed., volume 9,

761,

10.
point
years

Cf Lawrence A. Cremin, The Genius of American Education, p. 40: "My interest at this is in the extent to which American educational debate over the past hundred and fifty can be viewed as a series of arguments for one aspect of Jefferson's program as opposed to
the practical
versus

another:

the

liberal;

the

individual

versus

the social;

and

most

important,

perhaps, the elitist versus the

equalitarian."

Discussion

125

"French Language"). The exceeding spareness of Racine's vocabulary as com pared to Montaigne's or Rabelais's has, I should think, something to do with this. Far be it from me to deny the power of Racine's French, connected with
that spareness. But it is really

impious of Jefferson to rejoice that autocratically imposed bands confining writing have been dissolved? Upon reading the letter in its entirety, I find my surmises about Jefferson's intentions amply borne out, and much evidence for Jefferson's rationally rever
ent attitude

toward the English

language."

The only fault

me

one could

find

with

1 1

cite

the passage almost in full because it seems to

to show Jefferson at

his

sweetest.

The

words

underline

side of

the reviewer

indicate that he is arguing who breached his own rule

reviewer's rule

ad

hominem to begin with; then comes over to the while ignorantly measuring Jefferson by it; next,
And finally,
all rules are
users.

the case that

placed

broke the

is

used to enunciate a new rule.

in the

over-all context of

the life of language and its

For this
be the

word

arbiters of

location, see Bailey Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, etc. But if dictionaries are language, in which of them shall we find neologism? No matter. It is
well sounding,

to

a good word,

obvious, and expresses an idea which would otherwise require

circumlocution.

The
as

reviewer was

justifiable, therefore, in using it;

am a

although

he

noted at

the same

time,

unauthoritative, centrality, grade, sparse: all of

which

have been

long

used

in

It is the only way to give to a language copiousness and euphony. Without it we should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred or of Ulphilas; and held to their state of science also: For I am sure they had no words which could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen, cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism,
common speech and writing.

friend to

neology.

electricity,

hyaline,

and thousands of others state of their

communication

in the

expressing ideas not then existing or of possible language. What a language the French has become since
of new words! not

the date of their revolution

eloquent

by

the

free introduction

The

most copious and

in the

living
in

world; and equal to the

Greek, had

that been regularly modifiable

or adopted a root,

almost ad all

infinitum. Their

rule was that whenever their

language furnished

every part of speech, were legitimated by giving them their appropriate terminations. And this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted the adjective fraternal it is a root which should legitimate fraternity, fraternation, fraternization,

its branches,

fraternism,
as a

to

fratemate, fraternise, fraternally. And

give
.

the

word neologism adjectives

to our

language,

root, and it should give us its fellow substantives

verb

Dictionaries are but the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. the is Society workshop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, if illformed it is rejected in society, if wellformed, adopted and, after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. And if in this process of sound neologisation, our transatlantic
and adverb.

brethren

shall not choose

example of a colonial

to accompany us, we may fumish, dialect improving on its primitive.

offended.

after the

Ionians,

a second

Jefferson is beyond

being
taking

am

unable

to say

why /

am

so

offended

by

false

homiletic that in

comes of

a man's words out of

their own text and context and placing them

"textbooks."

Instead I shall add another instance. Nowhere does she sympatheti for writing Miss Brann is very hard on and its implications. Didn't Diderot give half his life cally consider the full title of the Encyclopedia, to preparing that work because he hoped thus to break such illegitimate power as is due to reserving craft or trade secrets for one's viva voce apprentices? Power which, he held (and doesn't Miss Brann think so too?), should be made available to all who desire to know, do, or make.
a new one to point a
"moderns"

"moral."

Lavoisier's textbook
ratus

on the elements of

in

part

iii for the

same reason,

chemistry contained an elaborate description of appa because he wanted to teach "fellow workers in the vineyard",
Man"

"fellow builders New Organon,

of the edifice of

the sciences", "fellow founders of the Kingdom of elsewhere)

what could not

(Bacon,
artes

aphorism

lxviii

and

be learned

at schools

teaching

126

Interpretation
aware that

him here is that he is too little

without rules

English

is,

as though of set
underwrite.

purpose,

in

what coinages

it does it

and

doesn't
me

But thinking
now.

back

on some of

Johnson's

words

occurs
a

to

that this supposed characteris

tic of English across the ages may be the juxtaposition of Orwell's

feature

of

English

as

it is

Surely,
is

new regime and

Jefferson is be

uncalled-for and

really irresponsible, from which Miss Brann

obvious

since not

quotes.

every And if

reader can

expected to procure

the letter

she

is joking, her joke is far less her

animus against
"their"

than Jefferson's on

neologistical.

cannot

help

but think that the

laud

real source of speaks

Jefferson

as

author of

the

cited

letter is that he

in

praise of

(the

French)

revolution,

where she would

ours and condemn theirs.

not

ill

This is plainly too large a theme for a book review, equipped to handle it. Yet I am obliged to touch

to mention my

being

on

it because,

although

she

is

a seasoned and

beginning
he
calls

reader of

to me tendentious in her interpretation.

Jefferson, too often she seems Thus, in the same letter to Adams,

Jefferson I

speaks

of what

exist.'"

When Miss Brann first

and a

his "habitual anodyne, T feel: therefore quotes this (p. 93), she describes it as
formula."

"sensational

materialism"

"transformed Cartesian

The

risk of
feel"

that last description is that it tends to obscure the fact that Jefferson's "I

is

transitive, like French sentir, not intransitive or Briefly put, I suspect that Jefferson is speaking in the Common Sensists,
toward
writes:

"middle"

as

in French

se sentir.

spirit of

the Scottish
on

men

like Thomas Reid. I doubt that this is is how Miss Brann eventually
reads

"romanticism";

which

the way it. Jefferson

Let

me

turn to

your

croud
read

(ital. added)
and

of scepticisms

puzzling letter of May 12 on matter, spirit, motion, etc. Its kept me from sleep. I read it, and laid it down;
exist.'

it,

laid it down,

obliged to recur

bodies

which

again and again; and to give rest to my mind, I was I feel ultimately to my habitual anodyne, T feel: therefore I are not myself: there are other existences then. I call them matter.
motion. or

I feel them changing place. This gives me matter [to touch) I call it void, or nothing,
sensation, of
can
matter and

Where there is
space. of all

absence of
of we

immaterial
the

On the basis
the certainties

motion,

we

may

erect

fabric

have

or need.

can conceive

thought to

be

an action of a particular organization as well as that attraction

of matter,

formed for

that purpose

by

its creator,

is

an

liberales Are The

need

and

despising

artes serviles

(the

passage

about surgeons

in the Hippocratic

oath

is

an

eye-opener!).
our

textbook writers, the same zeal?

"reversal"

especially those

who

insist that

students

buy
"the

the

latest

edition.

prompted

by

grim

that

Lavoisier
view

was executed

by

men who shouted

revolution

does

not

savants!"

is hidden from
as

enchiridia

such

seeing nothing but continuity between our textbooks and Diderot's Encyclopedia (or Machiavelli's Prince, or Zarlino's on the art of

by

counterpoint!)

If,
is
not

predecessors where

Miss Brann too believes, human history has a tragic aspect, knuckle-rapping of our it is our contemporaries who deserve it, and who could do something about it, called for, but truthful fellow-feeling.
as

Discussion
action of

111
or magnetism of

matter,

loadstone. When he

who

denies

to the

Creator

the power of

endowing

matter with the mode of action called

thinking

shall show

how He
reins

could endow the

Sun

with the mode of action called of their

attraction, which

in the
a

planets

in the tract

orbits,

or

how

an absence of matter can

have

will, and

by

that will put matter

into

motion, then the materialist

may be
of

lawfully
thinking.
of

required to explain the process

by

which matter exercises the

wind.

faculty

When

once we quit the

basis

of

sensation, all is in the

To talk

immaterial

god are
no

existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, immaterial is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, soul. I cannot reason otherwise: But I believe I am supported in my creed

of materialism

this
a

by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it.
. .

the

Christian
not

church

do

know. But

quote

beyond

what was needed

to

show clear

that for Jefferson

"feeling"

is of

something, because it is
Adams'

by

no

means

to me that Jefferson
as a
heresy.12

or our
son

leg

when

he

speaks of

immaterialism
or

is pulling First, Jeffer

absent

is

quite right that an

and

immaterial Soul

God is

Greek import,

from

Old Testament

Synoptic Gospels. Second, inadequate as Jefferson's phi be losophy may (unsatisfactory as is any philosophy that does not attend to contrasts and relations between and "signification"), relational
"nomination"

notions such as mode

particular organization of so much deserve obviously won't get it so long as we delude our selves into thinking that familiar ways of talking precisely fit their theme, that I have a certain sympathy for Jefferson's trying out some brand of (rather un-

of action of ox
and so

a run

for their money,

Cartesian)
tion

in

Last, and this brings me back to Paradoxes of Educa Republic, I find it necessary to accept, provisionally, distinctions that
materialism.13

matter

to the

authors

about whose writings

am thinking.

Taking

people

at

their word

is precisely what Miss Brann wants us to do perseveringly. The Jefferson-Adams correspondence is full of repeated efforts to discrimi
religion

nate

continued

from theology and the faithful from the clergy. Charles Peirce in this line. The schools of the Brethren of the Common Life (where
Luther both
received their
there.14

Allowing early education) began these distinctions (however difficult it may in the end be to retain them), I have
Erasmus
and

thus far found no

reason

to

hold that

when

Jefferson

elects

Jesus

as

his

moral

example and rejects

even

his

divinity

he is,

by

his lights, speaking irreligiously,

or

nonreligiously.15

12. 13.

I have

not read

[Joseph] Priestley. Jefferson is

of

Cf. Thomas C. Mark, "Spinoza's Concept

4,
pp. 40lff.

Mind,"

probably using his ideas. Journal of the History of Philosophy,

XVII,
14.

van Overzee, Het Humanisme als Levensbeschauwing in de Nederlanden, Hafkamp: Amsterdam, 1948; Charles S. Peirce, Letters to Lady Welby, ed. Irwin C. Lieb (Whitlock's: New Haven, 1953), Dec. 23, 1908, p. 27.

See P.

15.

Cf. how Jefferson

conclusion.

concludes

his

narrative of

the life and morals of Jesus of Nazareth with

Gospels'

the

128 As

Interpretation
noted

earlier, Miss Brann herself

cites

with

approval

sentences

from To

Jefferson

where

he

speaks of

Jesus

as a moral teacher of nonclassical stripe.

hold that

religion

is primarily

a matter of moral a

perception, attitude,

and con

duct

and not a matter of

theology may be

Judaizing

but is

not an

irreligious

streak.

To

cite

Peirce, "The heart

made

too is a perceptive

and

according to

Jefferson God from his

it

so.

Miss Brann's failure to distinguish Jefferson's

attitude

to church and clergy

attitudes to religion is all the more puzzling because her chief mentor, de Tocqueville, in The Old Regime and the French Revolution, knows the distinction full well. I cannot consider this a minor matter because in this re

Jefferson may be comparable to other great Americans Mark Twain, Melville, Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, even Louisa M. Alcott and Henry
spect and

William James. For

none all

of

them

is

religion
sense of

dead issue. However held

is
accountable
not

different they which I deem

and ranting.

be,

there

is in

of them a

being

religious.

Certainly

Jefferson's talk

about religion

scoffing

Equally puzzling is that while several pages are given over to showing how hard Jefferson fought to prevent clerical influence over the schools (or to make
milder such rationale

influence

or control as

existed), there is only

on:

one spot where note

the

of

his

anticlericalism

is touched

On

p.

161,

50, the

pos

sibility of "private know nothing about

the one, sufficiently
of church
"first"

reasons"

(clerical

opposition
were

to concubinage) is

cited.

this.16

But surely there

of

large

large

itself,

that realization of

reasons, beyond the principle of division

public

from state, as urged by Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, was in America, and was not unreasonably felt to stand in need of constant As
was said

vigilance.17

earlier, I

suspect that

Miss Brann

suspects

that Jefferson

was

too close to the French

"liberals."

philosophes

and

modern

Suppose he did

support much

thereby, in her judgment, to of their Is there not

platform.18

a vast
must

difference? Given the

hire themselves
out

situation of

their

own

nation, Diderot and Voltaire

much

to foreign kings and therefore were

of

tempted

to make
of

do

with

hatred

lies

and

"history's

verdict"

as

entire
as

foundation
in Virgil's
Fathers

virtue, withholding from

16.

view

the fact that

loyalty

(pietas
and the

But

see

"The Jefferson

Scandals"

in Douglass Adair, Fame

Founding

(Norton,
17.

1974).

See especially ch. xx, for instance, pp. 26if., Dover ed., and consider the full Latin title. There is, I think, far more variety of opinion among the philosophes than such talk about a common platform suggests. Note that the man whose writings Jefferson cared about sufficiently to
18.

to translate them into English, Destutt de Tracy, differed profoundly from Jefferson fundamental issues. At least, Jefferson thought so, because he writes to Adams:
undertake

on

gather

from his

other works that

and

he

adopts the principle of

Hobbes,

that justice is founded

in

contract

soleley,
on

does

not result

from the

construction
and

[by

nature or

by

nature's

God]

of

man.

I believe,
seen

the contrary, that it is

that of

instinct,

much a part of our constitution as

innate, that the moral sense is as feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise creator must
1816).

have

to be

necessary in

an animal

destined to live in society (October 14,

Discussion

129
nature

Aeneid), by its very

decent
of and

partial, plays

large

role

in making human life

power,
and

honorable. Jefferson, however, had

experience of real

establishing a nation that more nearly than any hitherto met the requirements of Aristotle for a good polity (that there be no conflict between being a good citizen and a good man; cf the Spinoza quotation in note 16). Conse being quently, Jefferson speaks in many letters of what he hopes or expects the
French
or

Dutch

or

South American

nations

to do. The

"liberals"

whom

Miss

Brann distrusts are, I think, those

who consider

themselves primarily as

mem

bers

of a

homeless international intelligentsia

a

and as such the new salt of

the

earth.

Jefferson built
a member

fine home!
the "republic of
ecclesia catholica
letters"

He is Kant. As vainglory
salvation education

of

that was

being

established

as an alternative

to the

by

such as

Bacon, Harvey, Diderot,

of

executor of

Bacon's

by humbling
through work

extracting the serpent's venom work-science, he must be a Socinian. The Gospel

program of not compatible with

is

to a

church

that perpetuates
of original sin.
revulsion works

allowing large influence the doctrine of men's inability to

But my
overall

over raise

themselves, the doctrine is that he

words regards

impression
and

of

Jefferson
of

the

"new"

at the self-indulgence

idleness

without

without

as pledges

of their truth

as

the work, not of

chance, but

of providence.

Jefferson's seeming
"republic"

word

as

"government

inconsistency in on the one by the citizens in

taught in the schools

mass"

hand circumscribing the and on the other hand be

offending the
the context I

sensibilities and wishes of the mass of the citizens who respect

should

churchmen and want religion

sketch.

considered

in

Miss Brann,
representation

gleefully calls Jefferson's omission in the letter to Taylor quoted on the word
who seems

of the

principle

of

"republic"

"not

insig
fel-

nificant"

(p. n),

to see the issue almost as Rousseau

49ff.

saw

his former

low -philosophes in the First Discourse (pp.

in

Masters'

ed., St.

Martins'

Press: New York,

at

1964).

Rousseau
of

condemns

them

for smiling
not

"disdainfully
as

the

old-fashioned

words

fatherland
virtue an elite

religion,"

and
and

because,

he

judiciously
want

points

out,

"they

hate

dogmas"

our

but because they

against public

to assure themselves of

being

opinion no matter what

the public opinion

setting themselves happens to be.19

by

19.
with

wish

Miss Brann had bon

undertaken a real critique of

Rousseau, instead
(p.
9).

the unelaborated

mot about

iron fist in

velvet glove

of writing him off Didn't Rousseau see with

uncanny clarity precisely

the
philosophes want

some of the things that concern as men apart.

Miss Brann? He saw, for example, that

machinery
of

to

be known

He

exposes the entire affixed

Swift in the Letter

of

Dedication to Prince

Posterity

to his Tale of a Tub (vol.

serving what I, Prose

Works)

called

by

its

right name:

The lies

avant garde serves prompts

that is mere

opinion.

Hatred

of

Restraints
the

upon selfishness which philia

Prince Posterity by undermining opinion raising of doubt about warrants for loyalty or love. imposes are thus loosened. The justification for this is that
condition which will

nihilism

fostered

by

the elite

is

merely interim

become

a true philan

thropy

when the members of

the larger society themselves have become empowered

for truth

and

130

Interpretation

I believe this is the wrong way of seeing it. As Miss Brann amply shows, for instance by her quotations from the Rockfish Gap Report on pp. 55L Jefferson
,

is

"populist"

not

but thinks in terms

And in
a

of

distinctions between
of

citizens

and

statesmen/legislators/judges.

letter to Adams
a

the same year as the

letter to Taylor, he "plunge into

The idea Their
all

props of

depths

up his hope for human

has

better future in Europe despite the

enormity"

by

saying:

of representative government

taken root and growth

among them.

masters

feel it,

of their own powers. a representative

by timely Belgium, Prussia, Poland, Lombardy, etc. are now offered organization: illusive probably at first, but it will grow into power
and are

saving themselves

offers of this modification

in the

end.

Opinion is power,

and that opinion will come.

Even France

will yet

attain representative government.

(Jan. 11,

1816

[pp. 458f.,

Cappon])
as

Why

shouldn't

man

who

holds the beliefs described try to lead have

not yet

did

Jefferson? Readers
of

this review who

taken up

its

original

may
not

wonder

why I dwell
rather of

at such

length

on

Jefferson,
conscience

and

may

chide me

for

speaking
of

the

book's

central

proposal, that the

as

fostering

of

the life of the

intellect be taken up in
education.

substa

good

the "content and

I reply, first: Much

of what of

is

said about our republic

is "writ

large"

in Miss he

Brann's book

by

saying it

Jefferson. Thus, did

by

her

own

standards,
the

a misread
republic

ing

of

Jefferson

should amount

to a misreading of the
not misread

ways of

helped found. I We hold that

wonder whether she

both in important

respects.

men as men are equal.

The Athenian demos held that (autoch

a

thonous) Athenians as Athenians are equal. If Athens was what was said by Miss Brann on p. 51, that democracies as
simply"

democracy,

then

such fundamentally (or on p. 122, where she speaks of democracies as "humanity "enfranchising the individual"), is not in the strictest sense true.

value

Second, I
against

wonder whether our own

ideas

those of the Athenian demos (as one

equality among men differ from constructs them from the arguments
of soul so

them) because
alone

of changes

in the human

large in

as to

deserve to be
terms that

called religious:

vainglory
of a

Whether the equality be would stand in the way of

Hobbes'

understood a man's

man, as of anything else, is

or

so much as would

recognizing that "the value be given for the use of his

and
prece-

power,"

in Kant's

that the rational agent in

his precedent-setting

recognize workers
passion

that the search for truth is the enterprise that needs

on

(cf. C. S. Peirce

for distinction
what

cannot

an unlimited community of fellow community of inquirers). But on the other hand, because the be curbed if it is really only Prince Posterity's Governor, time, that

the

decides
views.

has been true, the

as soon as

elite will

be half-hearted it
will set

about

Or rather,

it has

succeeded

itself

apart again with a new truth.

winning the larger society to its Doesn't

effects of

this expose of the malaise of

at

temporalizing
he

truth deserve a respectful hearing? And isn't Rousseau

least

worth

arguing

with when

speaks of the

demoralizing

luxury,

what we call

"consumerism"?

Discussion

-131

dent-keeping

capacity is invaluable, or in the Biblical sense that man, and not the cosmos, was made in the divine image, or in the Christian sense that in God's eyes all are sinful: it is as capable of agency that men are men and men
are equal.
works

This is why the of art. It cannot be but

musical. a

call to contemplation accident

has, for
from

us, become

a call

into

that

a citation

Nietzsche20

leads to the

words that culminate

cosmic

in the Auden

poem about a civitas neither political nor

Manifestly,
as

book

on education that prompts such soul and world

searching

this review contains should be read and read over again.

When I think of the lust for action which continually tickles and spurs all the millions of there must be who cannot bear boredom and themselves, then I apprehend that Europeans young cause for a probable from that derive order to in some way, suffering in them lust for suffering in for a deed. Need is needful! Hence the shouting of the politicians, hence the many made-up,
20.

doing,

exaggerated

'critical

of all possible classes and

should come or

the blind readiness to believe in them.

visible

This

young world but unhappiness;

that
P-

demands that there

and their

become

from the
with

outside not

happiness

imagination is

busy

even

beforehand

forming

it into

a monster, so on

they

can afterwards

fight

with a monster.

(The

Gay Science,

I, 56, quoted

by

Miss Brann

29)

Book Review
The Truth of Freedom: an Essay on Mankind. By John M. Anderson. (Univer sity Park, Pa.: The Dialogue Press, 1979. $3.55 ppd.)

Steven Gans
The Truth of Freedom: an Essay on Mankind sets out to provoke us to rethink with him the origin, meaning and purpose of the human political enterprise. He suggests that by speaking freely
monograph on what

John M. Anderson in his

ultimately
preface

concerns

us,

which

he takes to be the truth

of

freedom,

we

move on a

In the

revolutionary of his

path

toward the fulfillment of our humanity.

work

Anderson

compares

Socrates he
essential

stands outside practical political expects

life, he

himself to Socrates; like addresses his fellows in

prepared

language, he

to be misunderstood and is

for the

He too speaks indirectly and ironically through questioning and dialogue. Anderson's opening words in the foreword of his essay recall the first moments of The Republic where the stage is set for the introduction of the
consequences.

fundamental
arguments question
what

problematic

of political

philosophizing, that
won't

is,

what

good puts

are

(Socrates) if force (Polemarchus)

of

listen? Anderson

the
to

forward in the subheading

In
answer on existential natural with one of

his opening chapter, "Free Speech

are

end?"

to this question Anderson argues that political authority

is founded
open

law. Men

free speakers; beings

of

engaged

in

relatedness

another.

Curtailment
essence.

man's

potential

for free

speech

is

violation

the human

On the

grounds

of this

funda

mental, free speech, Anderson rejects all political speech that is in the service of force or violence. Violent or rebellious speech is not genuine speaking. All
violent modes of
speech

are

self-contradictory,

they

cancel

themselves out

since no one can

listen

or speak

in

an atmosphere of terror and

intimidation.

Violence

cannot support

free

speaking, the call from and to each of us

for

free

and open

response, the call that we speak the truth.

The

body

of

Anderson's

work

traces how

free

speech

tends to

be

curtailed

by

violence

in the form
under

of the quest

for

unlimited might.

His

analysis shows eclipsed as a

how language falls

the spell of social control and

negative phase of

becomes

in its

potency to
toward a

speak truly.

This

his
and

work

is intended

bridge

more radical politics

founded

on

free

true speech. Here a warning

is in

order.

It

would

poetical Utopian

be wrong to regard Anderson's work as yet another dream. In fact Anderson is expressly against Utopian thought.
to the guiding
metaphor

Anderson
suggests

returns

in Plato's Republic, the cave, Plato 's/Socrates's

and

that it is

an

ironic

clue which reveals

deep

distrust

of Utopian

visionaries.

For Anderson the

single most
state

important factor in the

dissolution
mining,

of

which

community life in the Greek city supports the shift from agrarian to

is the introduction

of

mercantile economy.

Ander-

134

Interpretation
that
collective production of might

son argues

is

a response

to the temptation to

see might and power as the condition or even

the purpose of freedom.

caught

In

classical

Greece

men

found themselves life

in

basic

conflict

of

values, between
virtue on

traditional

which emphasized

the development of

human

the one hand and on the other the appeal of the

future

with

its

promise

of unlimited acquisition of goods and might.

the

past

in the belief that

a new world would

The visionary dared break with be built, which would fulfil men's

desires. But the dream quickly turns into a nightmare. Production becomes separated from consumption, owners from workers, men from one another. Tradition and virtue are overthrown and men become homeless, without ties or bonds to land,

family

or the

Gods.
utopia
daring"

Anderson remarks, "the designers of freedom, but only the necessity of their
wealth enslaves men

have
(p.

shown us not

13).

the reality of The decision to acquire

to the means to acquire it. Those

who pursue might must with

set aside

the past and present, sacrifice their

integral

harmony

the world
and

and produce a rational

technically

efficient manner.

economy deploying As a consequence

"goods"

their activities in a
of

logistically

this transformation of orien

produc
mean

tation, man's nature is transformed. Man measures what is useful and tive but forgets what these mean to him. Men forget what they
one another and are
no

to

longer

able

to genuinely speak, care or love.

The

develops. The wealthy are expected to pay for the cost of arousing their desire for the goods and services they con sume. The channel for the expression of freedom collapses into the absurdity of
market place organized profit

strictly for

conspicuous consumption of extravagant and useless products

To
vision

summarize

is that it

cannot

Anderson's detailed exposition, the give an account of how its

collapse of

paradox of artificial

the Utopian

maintained. of

With the

the Utopian pretension.

unity can be into there is a collapse factions, unity warring Even the notion of a continual social revolution for
of wealth raises

more equitable

distribution

the

issue

of

how this

revolution can

be

achieved peacefully.
of

Will

people reject current

bonds

and allegiances

in the

hope initial

achieving

a so-called

free

humanity
families

and a new man

in the future? The

problem

facing

the

founders
their

and planners of a utopia so as

is that they
of

must

break the ties

of children with

to create a collective with a

new allegiance.

Enforced

homelessness,

perpetuated

by

the

dissolution

fam
to be

ily,

promiscuity,

and state

toward a
achieved?

future
The

new

child-rearing free humanity. But how is this break

free individuals. The
yet

and education

is to

redirect allegiance with

history

planner-founders must persuade a nucleus of men and women to paradox of

form

collective of

being
at

brainwashed

to

freedom is painfully obvious, utopia. How, Anderson asks,

this is the

inescapable lie
of

the core of every

act

can a

lie

serve as the crucial

founding
of

deter

mining the movement of history toward the truth In Part II of his work Anderson poses the

freedom?
the grounds for

question

Book Review
political

135

obligation
with
a

in terms

of an of

analysis of sovereignty.

Anderson begins
Is the
a

his
an

analysis

reappraisal

the basic

family

structure.

family
"good
of

enough"

insufficient good, as Utopian thinking suggests, basis to provide the framework on which
What is the
nature of the

or

is the

family

to build a politics

free
and

speaking?
wife?

basic human bond between husband

was not

In the

ancient world the

bond

on spiritual one

links to

the ancestral
and

today, but line. Marriage bridged the unknown between

on

based

affection,

as

family/ancestral line
to renew the

another.

The

patriarch-sovereign marriages

welcomed

stranger,
order

developed.

family line. Authority vested in

Through

of renewal

political

the patriarch-sovereign was derived from

the charismatic potency of his roots in the tradition. Tyrants on the other hand
gained power

future.
The

by breaking with Sovereignty requires the

of

the past in the name of their

unification of

vision

of

the

the patriarchal and tyrannical

functions

leadership.
unify the past,
on

sovereign must

our common

future,

where our relations with others will not

basis for relating, with our be consummated. Anderson implies

grounds, for

sovereignty is
example,
will

legitimated

any

of the classical philosophic a contract

theory (Socrates), theory (Hobbes), a general a justice natural rights) or a common theory (Rousseau), theory (Locke good theory (Mill). Rather, the real test of legitimacy is the extent to which the
a consent sovereign succeeds

by

in unifying do

past with

future

so that men

may

achieve

lasting

bonds On

with

their fellow men.

we assess

what grounds

adequate to the political regime?

non

task so that

we are

according to Anderson that a sovereign is not justified in our opposition to a particular

speech

For Anderson democratic free

is the

absolute sine qua

for relating, that is, for establishing and maintaining the human bond. Control of speech is out of bounds in principle. Nevertheless, the pure applica
tion of this rule may result in political chaos,
as

instanced in the Weimar

speak

Republic

of

Germany. All babble in

and

spoke with equal

justification to drowned

for

all and

the

result was a

which the

and violent groups claims of groups

must resolve

many factions. How a

were

by

innumerable

vocal

regime evaluates and recognizes question

the

to speak for the many is the

order

every democratic

regime

in
can

to exist and survive. The locus of ultimate sovereignty

(legitimacy)
political never

never

be fixed
The

once

and

for all, "it floats in the only the

stream of

action"

(p.

54).

sovereign

those who speak

be

finally

fixed

and

determined

since

regime

for the many must that is open to free

Polity,"

discourse

achieves

legitimate

sovereignty.

In the third
son addresses

and

concluding

section of

himself to the

question of

Ander his work, titled "The the place of the individual's transpolit Men
are free but paradoxically they become prey to Das Mann (in

ical

or philosophic commitment

in

society.

use their freedom to

identify
to a

with others.

They

Heidegger's

language),

false

self system.

Should

a man

instead

commit

himself to that

which

is beyond man, to the

136

Interpretation

ultimate, in order to realize his humanity? Should he like Socrates prepare to

"disappear from
resolves

our midst"?

(p.

58).

Anderson

states that the singleminded man

the paradox of

doing

so

freedom in contradiction, in transcendence. But in he denies the power of the call of other men, the call to stand in
them.

freedom
sacrifice

with

So Anderson
merely the

enjoins us not to
act

be singleminded, "when

supports

not

of the

aspiring individual
to others

disappearing
(p.
59).

from
up;
gift

our midst towards

the ultimate, but is

a gift

by

each who gives

it

different"

supports the mutual recognition of each other as a

This

develops

bond

and

this bond of mutual recognition opens us to the

potential

for free
we can

collective action.

By

a series of what

Anderson

calls

'political

actions'

tie together past, present and

future,

and

become
and

a people.

As

such we are on a path of

toward what lies beyond the ultimate,

the.

articulation

its

richness

in

our midst. ways

The

path of
groups

paths, the

sequence of public actions

built in diverse
enables
political

by

diverse

tending

towards the same

direction

the ultimate,
reality.

the truth of freedom to be realized in our social and

work

The

and unending.

It is

man's

attaining to such public action is revolutionary imitation of free becoming, which is the truth of
of our creative

freedom.
the

free

"Along this path becoming of the

man's

freedom is
this path
what

embedded with

integrity
71-72).

in

ultimate,

and

the work of revolution

him"

becomes

truth and his

dwelling

in

lies beyond
up

(p.

John Anderson has in broad

philosophy
racy.

strokes taken

the central

issues

of political

and clarified some of

the basic terms of political philosophic dis

course, for example, might,

freedom,

utopia, sovereignty, the state and democ

He has done this

within

the context of a Heideggerian approach to Being.

argument
political

He has
ment

woven a complex

dialectical itself.

of a wide

array

of prototypical

giving belief

grounds systems

for the
as
well

assess as

the

political philosophic orientation

How
sities,
and

well will

Anderson's theoretical
and political

position

translate to praxis, in univer

readers

hospitals, industries

institutions? Will his

order

"revolt
as

break the existing counsels? Or is there a

order to seize our own

chains

of

political

for

freedom"

he

contradiction in Anderson authorizing us to rebel in authority to speak the truth of our freedom? The primary contribution of Anderson's work is to counter the criticism that Heidegger's philosophy of Being amounts to an ontological imperialism.

If

we

are

to subject ourselves to the call of

Being
result

and

history

as

Heidegger

seems

to advocate, does this in certain circumstances amount to underwriting

charge
gained

fascism? This
acquiescence

credibility

as

of

Heidegger's

apparent of

to the Nazi regime in the

early

1930s.

Anderson in defense
of

Heidegger's line
results
release

of thought makes explicit

of

that a faithful reading

ultimate

Heidegger

in

politics

Seinlassen. The

task of this
mit sein,

politics

is to for

the potential of all

and
open

human beings for their

association
within

their potential
political

free

expression

democratic

order of

mutual

recognition, respect and community.

Book Review
To
what extent

137

Anderson's

call

for the
will

overthrow of

the

violence of social

control

in

conventional political
or

life

find
will

a resonance and spark a response

to

dialogue,

to what extent this call

be ignored
remains to

and seen as the

delu

sional system of an

ivory-tower intellectual,

be

seen.

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Aristotle's Art Conquest

of

of

Acquisition

and

the

Nature

Thomas Prufer

Notes for BookX

Reading

of

Augustine, Confessions,

Larry

Peterman

Dante

versus

Machiavelli: Politics
on

and

Language in the Dialogue

David Lowenthal

Language

Shakespeare's
Economics

Caesar7

Plan

J.

Harvey

Lomax

or

Political Philosophy:

Which Should Prevail in Public Policy?

Robert Sacks

The Lion
on

and

the Ass:

Commentary

the Book

of

Genesis (Chapters 25-30)

Discussion

George Anastaplo Stewart

Response to Thurow Eros Thumos

Umphrey

and

David Bolotin

Response to

Umphrey

ISSN 0020-9635