The God of All Flesh

And Other Essays

Brueggemann, Hanson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498206457
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Biblical faith is passionately and relentlessly material in its accent. This claim is rooted in the conviction that the creator God loves and cares for the creation and summons creation to be in sync with the will of the creator God. This collection of essays is focused on the bodily life of the world as it is ordered in all of its problematic political and economic forms. The phrase of the title, "all flesh," in the flood narrative of Genesis 9, refers to all living creatures who are in covenant with God--human beings, animals, birds, and fish--as recipients of God's grace, as dependent upon Gods' generosity, and as destined for praise and obedience to God.The insistence on the materiality of life as the subject of the Bible means that the hard issues of economics and the demanding questions of politics are front and center in the text. So the Pentateuch pivots around the exodus narrative and the emancipation from an unbearable context of abusive labor practices. In like manner the prophets endlessly address such questions of social policy, and the wisdom teachers reflect on how to manage the material things of life and social relationships for the well-being of the community.This accent, pervasive in these essays, is a powerful alternative and a strong resistance against all of the contemporary efforts to transcend (escape!) the material into some form of the "spiritual." All around us are efforts to find an easier, more harmonious faith. This may be evoked simply because life is "too hard," or more ominously because of a desire to shield economic, political advantage from the inescapable critique of biblical faith. Such a temptation is a serious misreading of the Bible and a serious misjudgment about the nature of human existence. Thus the Bible addressed the most urgent issues of our day, and refuses the "religious temptation" that avoids lived reality where the power of God is a work.

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The God of All Flesh

Of all of Terry Fretheim’s remarkable published corpus, I regard his 1991 article, “The Plagues as Ecological Signs of Historical Disaster,” as his most remarkable piece and arguably his most important.1 In that article, Fretheim argues that Exodus 1–15 is grounded in creation theology. He makes his case by careful attention to the rhetorical usage of the inclusive adjective “all” (lk) and by translating Cr) as “earth,” not merely “land.”

This essay builds upon that article by exploring four Jeremiah passages that reflect the horizon of creation through the recurring phrase “all flesh” (r#b lk). That phrase refers not only to human beings but to all of God’s creatures. This analysis advances the well-established understanding that the Jeremiah tradition operates on the horizon of creation.2 It does so in order to take full account of the “world upheaval” that is coming at the end of the seventh century and to claim that Yahweh will instigate that upheaval through the agency of Babylon. This upheaval impinges upon the theological claims of Jerusalem and the royal-temple ideology that is placed in jeopardy by the upheaval of the sixth century.

“All Flesh” in the Flood Narrative and in Second Isaiah

Jeremiah’s usage of “all flesh” is best understood as flanked by two texts that function theologically with reference to the world upheaval and to the restorative power of Yahweh as creator. First, the phrase “all flesh” occurs prominently in the flood narrative of Genesis 6–9.3 On the one hand, the rhetoric of the narrative presents the flood in sweeping categories, envisioning the termination of every creature, that is, “all flesh.” On the other hand, the narrative celebrates the ark as a device whereby representatives of “all flesh” are rescued and offered new life:

• all flesh is corrupt (Gen 6:12)

• all flesh is to be destroyed (Gen 6:13, 17; see 7:21)

• representatives of all flesh are protected by entering the ark (Gen 6:19; 7:15–16)

• representatives of all flesh leave the ark to begin new life (Gen 8:17)

• a promise never again to destroy all flesh (Gen 9:11, 15)

• God’s covenant with all flesh whereby new creation begins (Gen 9:15–17)

The phrase recurs in order to trace the characteristic pattern of Israel’s faith that leads into the abyss (chaos, flood . . . exile) and that hopes out of the abyss into new life.4 While the flood narrative is articulated in generic, non-Israelite categories, there is no doubt that the pattern of presentation reflects the pattern of Israel’s own life (a) into and out of exile, or alternatively, (b) judgment and hope. Marvelously, though “all flesh” is sentenced to destruction, “all flesh” is rescued and given new life guaranteed by divine promises of fidelity. The usage of “all flesh” refers to every aspect of creation; all creatures die and live by Yahweh’s activity.

Second Isaiah employs a double usage of “all flesh” in Isa 40:5–6:

Then the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together,

for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

A voice says, “Cry out!”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are grass,

their constancy is like the flower of the field.

This NRSV rendering of r#b lk as “all people” unfortunately misses the cosmic accent of inclusive creatureliness.

All creatures will witness the dramatic return of Yahweh’ s glory to Jerusalem. The return is presented as though it were of significance beyond Israel, a point related to Jerusalem’s cosmic significance (see Isa 2:2–4). To be sure, the second in v. 6 tones down the claim of v. 5, because “all flesh” is transient. That qualification, however, does not dim the claim made in v. 5 that “all flesh” shall see the triumphant sovereignty of Yahweh disclosed through the restoration of Judah. It is appropriate to the very creatureliness of “all flesh” to attend to the work of the creator-restorer God, upon whose rule they depend.

While Second Isaiah’s usage of “all flesh” is much more limited than that of the flood narrative, reference to the flood in Second Isaiah demonstrates the doxological sweep of the Isaiah passage. Yahweh is indeed “getting glory” by the restoration of Israel, a glory fully visible to the creatures in ways that enhance the creator’s splendor (see Exod 14:4, 17; Isa 42:8; 48:11).

Four other uses of the phrase appear in Isaiah. In Isa 49:26, “all flesh” attests that Yahweh is sovereign and savior of Israel. Isaiah 66:16 claims that Yahweh’s punishment of Israel’s enemies visited upon “all flesh” will cause Jerusalem to rejoice. The phrase is used in a characteristically dual way in Isa 66:23–24. Verse 23 anticipates that “all flesh” will worship Yahweh; but in v. 24 “all flesh” will abhor the deathly scene left byYahweh’s judgment. These latter usages reinforce the double usage in the flood narrative. Isaiah 40:5–6 and 49:26 demonstrate that Yahweh’s judgment and restoration of Jerusalem are exhibited and available to all creation. While the impact of those actions is directly upon Jerusalem and upon Israel, the reality is the effective operation of Yahweh’s total and unfettered, unqualified governance.

“All Flesh” in Jeremiah

The Jeremiah traditions will now be considered in light of these usages. Since Isa 40:5–6 and the final form of the flood narrative are clearly situated in the sixth century, it follows that the Jeremiah tradition that flourished in the same period would similarly employ “all flesh.” The events pertaining to Jerusalem at the time of the exile are broadly presented and concern Yahweh’ s effective governance of the entire cosmos. Inevitably, interpretation of those events would proceed on a very large scale in order to draw Babylon into the world of Yahweh’s rule. We turn to the four usages of “all flesh” in Jeremiah, each of which occurs in a distinct genre and from a separate strand of the tradition.

Jeremiah 32:27–41

This extended divine prose oracle divides into two parts. The chapter appears just after the “Book of Comfort” in chaps. 30–31 and precedes the miscellaneous collection of promise oracles in chap. 33. Thus it occurs in a context of hope but is distinguished by its prose style. Chapter 32 proceeds from the brief narrative account of vv. 1–15, but then is filled out by the prophetic utterance of vv. 16–25 and by the divine oracle that concerns us (vv. 27–41). The first part of the oracle is a conventional prophetic judgment speech concerning Jerusalem (vv. 28–35). Most of this material indicts Jerusalem, but the divine threats concerning its capture by Nebuchadnezzar and the “removal” of the city are direct and unqualified. The judgment speech begins with a divine declaration of punishment (vv. 28–29), followed by an extended indictment detailing Jerusalem’s recalcitrance. The declaration of punishment, governed by the divine “I,” is crucial:

Therefore, thus says Yahweh: I am going to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon . . . (Jer 32:28a)

In vv. 28b–29, Nebuchadrezzar is the active agent of punishment, so these verses offer a characteristic formulation of double agency. In sum, vv. 28–35 assure that Jerusalem’s punishment is justified.

The oracle turns in v. 36 with “and now,” followed by “behold” (or “see”) in v. 37. Again Yahweh is the subject of a series of first-person verbs: I am gathering, I will bring back, I will give, I will make, I will put, I will rejoice, I will plant (vv. 37–41). This divine assurance is remarkable in light of the reference to Babylon’s approach authorized byYahweh (v. 36); that negative reference, however, is rhetorically overridden immediately by hnh (“see”) and the turn to restoration.

The two subunits of the divine oracle, vv. 28–35 on punishment and vv. 36–41 on restoration, summarize the final form of the Jeremiah tradition, a twofold assertion variously voiced through the verb cluster in 1:10. Notably, the God who speaks this double future for Jerusalem is “the God of all flesh” (v. 27). The scope of Yahweh’s rule is as broad as creation. In the Jeremiah tradition, however, this language suggests that Yahweh is God of Israel, but also God of Babylon. This usage of “all flesh” expands Yahweh’s sphere beyond the covenant with Israel. Yahweh’s sovereignty is not fully comprehended in “they shall be my people and I will be their God” (v. 38), but pertains elsewhere as well. Conversely, the phrase “God of all flesh” de-absolutizes the pretentious ambitions of Babylon and makes imperial power penultimate. Thus, the “creation faith” voi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Chapter 1: The God of All Flesh
• Chapter 2: The Creatures Know
• Chapter 3: Jeremiah: Creatio in Extremis
• Chapter 4: Israel’s Sense of Place in Jeremiah
• Chapter 5: Imagination as a Mode of Fidelity
• Chapter 6: Psychological Criticism: Exploring the Self in the Text
• Chapter 7: Psalm 37: Conflict of Interpretation
• Chapter 8: The “Us” of Psalm 67
• Chapter 9: Authority in the Church
• Acknowledgments