Introduction:
The time which king’s live and ruled was 100%
different form the time which we live today but the monarchy and inmperial
ethos deals with various segments and perspectives. Let us briefly look into that using map and
also comparing with prophets perspective and king’s decision. Specially how the kingdom divided(i.e.)
1. Prophets: voices of legitimization and voices of
dissent of monarchy
2. Kingdom divided: Israel and Judah.
3. Dalit, feminist and postcolonial
perspectives.
Prophets: voices of legitimization and voices of
dissent of monarchy
The
above topic can be précised to divided monarchy and charismatic prophets were
scholars divide this topic into two and they are
1. The age of ecstatic prophets
2. The age of rhapsodist prophets
The age of ecstatic prophets
The
age of ecstatic prophets (cir 925 B.C)
deals with temples, conenats, gold, etc.
“jeroboam i built tow men sanctuaries of Yahweh at bethel and dan. Jeroboam reptesented Yahweh as an invisible
figure standing on a young bull of gold.
It is true that the “golden calves” have been assumed by most scholars
to have been direct representations of Yahweh as bull-god” this was the argument
by Albright towards jeroboam whereas jeroboam represents the true Levitic
priestly tradition of Moses and Aaron.
The
current explanation of the word nabbi ”prophet” as “speaker, announcer” is
almost certainly false. The correct
etymological meaning of the word is rather “one who is called (by god), one who
has vocation (from god) likewise the king is repeatedly termed as the one whom
the great gods have called”. The prophet
was a man who felt himself called by god for a special mission, in which his
will was sub ordinate to will of god, which was communicated to him by direct
inspiration.
Time when David lived:-
Moral
and political reformation was more important prophetic mission at the time of David
and similarly it is purely religious revival, if we see the role of Nathan it’s
easily seen there.
Elijah and Elisha:-
The
prophet of ecstatic period includes Elijah and Elisha were men of deeds not men
of words. Elijah and Elisha founded the
schools of prophets whose members are called “the sons of prophets”, probably
“the members of prophetic houses or groups”.
They practiced Deuteronomy sermon, rather than oracles (i.e.) practically no oracles.
The
historical document for the entire prophetic movement is the periscope of
Elijah. It is the direct product of oral
tradition, where the message passed from generation to generation. Elijah and Elisha played a major role to the opposes
of baalism and won over that. This
clearly shows that both Elijah and Elisha were prominent at the age of ecstatic
prophets.
The age of rhapsodist prophets:-
The
age of rhapsodist prophets is between 84 and 836 B.C. This was the time when the religious
revolution inspired by Elijah was translated into political action in both the
north and south. Relationship with god
did not make religion a private matter between god and the individual
only. The prophets realized that the dimensions
of god’s action are the creation of whole of time. It contradicts with the covenant.
Hosea
was a man of deep emotions and spiritual life, whose unhappy matrimonial
experience. Hosea does not devote much time to social injustice and oppression;
for him the trouble lies much deeper, in the increasing paganising of
yahwism. His rhapsodic sermons attack
the cult of yahwism himself as practices in the northern kingdom. Hence the institution of monarchy had imposed
a certain strain on the covenant system whereas Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah,
Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, etc. Were the
voices of legitimization and voices of dissent of monarchy.
The
early prophets were spokesmen for god and people remembered only those parts of
their work which affected the history of Israel. The words of later prophets were recorded for
them by their disciples and some actually wrote books themselves. But always their junction was to learn god’s
will for his nation, and to warn or encourage the people of their time
accordingly. Thus the prophets were men
who spoke up in god’s name at such times, to rebuke the kings and to pint out
the way in which god wanted them to go.
Kingdom divided: - Israel and Judah
In
the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel dominated Palestine and the land beyond
the Jordan for more than half a century.
The great nations of Egypt and Mesopotamia were too weak to interfere. The smaller nations close to Israel surrender
to the power of the united Israelites.
But when Solomon died, the situation changes. The Israelite nation was split by revolution
into two unequal parts. The northern
territory continued to use the name Israel, but the southern territory became
known as the kingdom of Judah.
Omri:-
Omri
was a general who was brought to power, by army. But he became as a dictation even though Israelites
were skilful it was a serious problem because of this.
Omri
was so diplomatic that he made alliance with Jehoshaphat king of Judah. This
alliance was accompanied by closer family ties, marriage between Jehoshaphat’s
son jehoram and Omri’s daughter.
Assyria:-
Assyria
played a part in the life of palastine and the lands across the Jordan at this
time. It was a nation with long and
varied history and was gathering strength in the preparation for the period of
its greatest power, several times under different kings the Assyrians made bold
and successful attacks on the nations of their west and south west.
In
802 BC another Assyrian king, adadrirari fought against the Syrians, forced
their king to submit. After this the
Syrians were no longer strong enough to influence events in palastine and for a
time the Assyrians did not attempt to interfere in Israel and Judah.
The new kingdom of Israel:-
Judah
was smaller than Judah. But Judah had
the old capital city, the temple and David’s family as hereditary rulers. It was fairly easy for rehoboam and his
successors to maintain the life of state in Judah.
National worship:-
National
worship was another problem for jeroboam.
The ark was housed in the temple of Jerusalem; the people of Israel were
accustomed to making pilgrimages to worship there. But Jerusalem was also the capital of Judah
and the city where kings of David’s line reigned. Jeroboam in northern kingdom could not allow
his people to make Jerusalem the centre of their worship. So he introduced new cults in Israel, at
places where for a long time there had been shrines for the worship of god.
Disputes between Judah and Israel:-
The two kingdoms see to have been centrally
quarrelling about the right to rule over Benjamin. Jeroboam’s son nadab ruled in the north for a
very brief time and was murdered by baasha who took his place as king. Inspite of all these deputed the king of
Israel tried to make peace with Judah.
A time of weakness:-
The
situation on Judah was not much better.
Syrian was so powerful that her armies were able to attack Gath. Joash was wounded in the fighting and then
murdered by his own servants. Until the
power of Syria was broken the people of both Judah and Israel went through a
time of great difficulty.
A period of prosperity:-
From
853-71 BC were the period of prosperity the splendid buildings and luxurious standards
of living were paid for not only in wealth, but in oppression and
injustice. Agriculture and industry
flourished at that time. Thus sometime
happiness and sometime sadness were filled towards the divided kingdom of
Israel and Judah.
Dalit, feminist and post colonial
perspectives:-
Study
of Dalit resistance to dominant powers become possible in colonial period due
to the availability of source materials of various kinds produced out of the
imperatives of colonial rule. Dalits
appear as human beings with feelings, pain, expectations and with past, present
and future, Dalit studies will initiate a new critical debate on
colonialism. The issues of the abuse of
power and injustice that was prevalent under both the united as well as divided
monarchies were also been seen through this.
Dalit
perspective is also to gain practical insights from the struggling grass root
people to reformulate its themes. Dalit
Christians remains Christians by faith, nut not with significant liberation
oriented faith perspectives which are more needed at our time. This we can conclude that praxis in
unconditionally needed for all these discussions.
Feminist perspective at this studies something
that women were always oppressed by men where the ages deals with monarchy and
patriarchy. This so long journey for
women to see liberation, but women were more talented at that time where their
thoughts were different from men. This
clearly shows that dalits and women were totally suppressed. Thus Dalit theology, feminist theology/post
colonial perspective is needed to reveal more issue related to that and to
strong these reading.
Conclusion:-
Geographical
knowledge is absolutely needed for theology, where scholar gave various
thoughts about them and bible gives us vast information about them too. It is our responsibility to connect them
together and give a new perspective where history is absolutely needed for
that.
Bibliography:-
Albright, William fox well. From the Stone Age to Christianity. London: oxford university press, 1946.
Hinson, David F. Old Testament introduction I history of
Israel. Delhi: allied enterprises, 1991.
Johnston, Leonard. A history of
Israel. London: oxford university
press,1994.
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