Political Images in Scripture, Part One

Dr. Barr (professor of Hebrew at Vanderbilt University and Oxford University) perceives six distinct ways of considering politics in Scripture. Here are the first three:

1) The theocratic image: God has directed how human societies should be governed, most particularly in the Mosaic law. Human leaders are surrogates for God and rule with delegated authority (see Romans 13:1). Church and state are partners. Biblical problems with this idea center on the legitimacy of assumed delegated authority—when Israel demanded a king, God considered this rebellion against his established rule through judges (1 Samuel 8:1-9; compare Deuteronomy 17:1).

2) The alien state: The Israelites regarded the governments of the surrounding nations as anti-God and threats to their national safety; the prophets are full of words of judgment against the nations. Yet Jesus (as we will explore in greater detail later) seemed to take a far more neutral stance, saying little if anything against the civil government and speaking of his kingdom as “not of this world.”

3) The prophetic image: The prophets called for social justice and warned Israel of judgment in the form of political and cultural subjection by the surrounding nations. The role of the church, then, was to be the conscience of the state. In this case, the prophetic image conflicts with the theocratic image—God has seen fit to overthrow established authorities deemed abusive toward the people and hence disobedient to him. Yet the prophetic call to reform was usually cast in religious and not political terms—Israel was to return to the true worship of God and away from idols.