The New Testament cites the Old Testament on its every page. My critical edition of the Greek New Testament has an appendix. In it, there are over thirty pages taking note of all of these citations and allusions. But biblical researchers who believe that the Bible is divinely inspired eventually run into a problem. Many of these citations do not strictly follow their Old Testament sources. Sometimes it is apparent that they are using a free translation of their own. At other times they engage in a sort of midrash that produces a composite text from numerous sources. But there are instances where the authors seem to use a text that is deficient in terms of textual criticism. Could the New Testament authors actually have quoted faulty Old Testament texts?
A Faulty Old Testament Text
I follow Drew Longacre’s good work over at OTTC: A Blog for Old Testament Textual Criticism. Several years ago he posted a really nice paper there on Deuteronomy 32:35-37. He makes a strong argument for the background of the Septuagint’s translation of these verses, especially in verse 35. The Revised Standard Version, like almost every other translation, follows the standard, Masoretic Hebrew text:
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.
Deuteronomy 32:35, RSV
Longacre, for all sorts of reasons, argues that the Greek Septuagint is probably closer to the original sense of the Hebrew:
In the day of vengeance I will recompense, whensoever their foot shall be tripped up; for the day of their destruction is near to them, and the judgments at hand are close upon you.
Deuteronomy 32:35, from the Sir Lancelot Brenton translation of the Septuagint.
There are a few differences, but I’ve put the important ones for our purposes here in bold.
Longacre’s strongest argument for preferring the Septuagint here is that it offers a tighter, Hebraic parallelism than the Masoretic text. If you go back and read both of the versions above, I think that you will quickly see what he is talking about. In the Hebrew text, it is really simple to account for the shift from “in the day of vengeance” to “vengeance is mine.” It is the difference of only a few letters. And it makes more sense for the letters to fall away and render the current Masoretic text than for a scribe to supply more letters in a pre-Septuagint Hebrew text.
Deuteronomy 32:35 in the New Testament
But this is just where we have our problem. Usually, when the New Testament cites the Old, it does so with the Septuagint. But in the two places where the New Testament quotes Deuteronomy 32:35, it does not. The first is Romans 12:19, where Paul writes,
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Saint Paul, as painted by Diego Velázquez. Paul quotes a faulty Old Testament text in Romans 12:19.
The other is Hebrews 10:30:
We know him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
The Implications: Faulty Old Testament Texts in the New Testament
There are several things that are interesting about these two verses. First of all, they demonstrate that the proto-Masoretic text at Deuteronomy 32 had already in the pre-Christian period crystallized into the text-form that rabbinic Judaism preserved into modern times. (When you consider that the space between these citations and the oldest Torah manuscript is nearly 1000 years, that’s pretty significant). This also means that many of the faulty Old Testament texts also become an integral part of this manuscript family.
Secondly, apparently both Paul and the author of Hebrews intentionally chose a text that was closer to the proto-Masoretic text than the Septuagint. This is significant because both of these books have numerous citations from the Septuagint. But they either re-translated Deuteronomy 32:35, or made use of another Greek translation that was closer to the proto-Masoretic text with which they were familiar.
And this is the big problem. If scribes corrupted the proto-Masoretic text of Deuteronomy 32:35, then isn’t the fact that these New Testament authors directly cite it a mark against the divine inspiration of the texts they are composing? Isn’t this a manifest error in the Bible? Could inspired authors really cite faulty Old Testament texts?
Should It Bother Us that the New Testament Cites Faulty Old Testament Texts?
This is the sort of thing that brought on my faith crisis so many years ago. But today, this doesn’t really bother me. I do think that this is probably a corruption in the proto-Masoretic manuscript family, and that these New Testament authors did perpetuate this corruption in their citations of Deuteronomy 32:35. Paul was a brilliant rhetorician. He wasn’t a textual critic.
But I think we should take this one step further. I would argue that the quoting of this manuscript error in the New Testament also took place under the providential inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just as everything else that the biblical authors and editors wrote.
Perhaps I feel this way because I have been reading too much midrash. The rabbinic sages were aware of textual irregularities in their biblical manuscripts, and instead of worrying so much about how this could happen to their sacred texts, they considered that God allowed this as part of His plan. So, the scribal mistakes are inspired, too.
Midrash Provides a Way Out
A classic example is 1 Samuel 13:1. “Saul was . . . years old when he began to reign.” That’s how the RSV renders the faulty Hebrew text. But in the Hebrew, it literally seems to say that Saul was one year old when he became king. That’s obviously not the case. Saul’s age has disappeared from the text.
Enter midrash. In Yoma 22b of the Babylonian Talmud, there is a delightful explanation for this scribal error.
It is written: “Saul was one year old when he began to reign” (1 Samuel 13:1), which cannot be understood literally, as Saul was appointed king when he was a young man. Rav Huna said: The verse means that when he began to reign he was like a one-year–old, in that he had never tasted the taste of sin but was wholly innocent and upright.
So, the Talmud provides a spiritual explanation for the obvious fault in the manuscripts. Saul was not literally a year old, but he was innocent of sin like babies are.
The Talmud’s Response to Midrashic Skeptics
Now, you might just be skeptical about the validity of this interpretation, especially if you have studied the historical-critical exegetical methods of our day. And if that is the case, you’re in good company. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak felt just the same as you. In fact, this was his response: “You could just as well say that he was like a one-year-old in that he was always filthy with mud and excrement.” But be careful before you reject the interpretations of the rabbis of old! Just look at what happened to poor Rav Naḥman after he said this:
Rav Naḥman was shown a frightful dream that night, and he understood it as a punishment for having disparaged Saul. He said: I humbly submit myself to you, O bones of Saul, son of Kish, and beg your forgiveness. But once again he was shown a frightful dream, and he understood that he had not shown enough deference in his first apology. He therefore said this time: I humbly submit myself to you, O bones of Saul, son of Kish, king of Israel, and beg your forgiveness. Subsequently, the nightmares ceased.
Relax: The Holy Spirit Is in Control
I think that we can do with the New Testament citations of Deuteronomy 32:35 something like what the rabbinic sages do with 1 Samuel 13:1. Paul and the author of Hebrews assumed wrongly that the proto-Masoretic text of this verse with which they were familiar was correct. It was an honest-to-goodness human error. But the Holy Spirit allowed this because you and I needed to hear what Paul has to say in Romans 12:19.
And we need to hear, specifically, what he has to say from that faulty text. Vengeance is God’s alone. You and I have no right to pursue revenge when we suffer even the greatest of outrages. Instead, we are called to trust the God of justice to call everyone to account in His own providential working in history. This is a difficult, but necessary aspect of the Christian life. And this is not a message that was originally a part of the Book of Deuteronomy. But thanks to the New Testament perpetuating and enshrining this manuscript error, it is a message that is now an integral part of Christian ethics.
Praying at the Western Wall during my last visit to Jerusalem.
The Personal Context for “Prophetic Zionism”
If you know me or have read much of anything on this blog, you know that I am very fond of Judaism and Jewish culture. In fact, I am Catholic today largely in part to exposure to Jewish culture and liturgy. My wife and I lived in Beer-Sheva, Israel for nine years while I completed my graduate studies in the Hebrew Bible at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. This was a great privilege. Some of our closest friends are still in Israel. All of this is the background for what I have to share here about “prophetic Zionism.”
And we also have close friends who are Palestinian. Needless to say, with friends like these, we have had numerous interesting discussions about the current political situation between the state of Israel and the Palestinians!
I remember one day in particular on which I visited a friend in Bethlehem. We had met a few years earlier when he was studying in the US. I had deeply offended him because I was now studying in an Israeli university, learning Hebrew, and living among “the enemy.” Nothing I said could mitigate his disappointment in me. It was an uncomfortable conversation that has never come to resolution between us. But that evening my wife and I invited another friend to have dinner with us. He is a passionate Zionist. In our small talk, I mentioned that I had been to Bethlehem to visit a friend. I thought that he was going to leave immediately!
Wisdom Measured by Weeks, Months, Years, and Decades
Image from https://www.catholic.co.il/?cat=&view=article&id=17932&m=
Some time later I was sitting and discussing these things with our parish priest at St. Abraham’s Church in Beer-Sheva, Fr. Paul Collin. (Just last spring he went to his reward, and I miss him dearly; may his memory be for a blessing). I wanted to know how Catholics are to approach these problems with the mind of the Church.
Fr. Paul’s response has helped me more than anything else. “When a person visits Israel for a week, they go back and write an article for a travel magazine. If they stay for a month, they return home and produce a travel book. If they stay here for a year, they can manage to write an entire book about the political crises here. But if you have lived here for more than ten years, you realize that the wisest thing you can do is keep your mouth shut, because you don’t really understand what is going on, and you certainly don’t know how to solve the problems here.” (As I recall, he confessed that he had heard this somewhere else, but I can’t track down the source. Perhaps someone can help me?).
An Alternative to Conventional Perspectives: Prophetic Zionism
I did not quite make it to the ten year mark, and so I suppose that I did not acquire the wisdom to keep my mouth shut. But I want to confess with all humility that I do not really understand the Arab-Israeli problem. The more I learn about it, the more bewildering it is. I know people who have suffered tragedies on both sides. In this article, I am going to do my best to avoid particular, contemporary issues like the two-state solution and Israeli settlements. I would like to think that this is because on these things, at least, I have taken Fr. Paul’s advice to heart. More likely it is because I am a coward.
But in broader terms, it seems to me that Christian support or opposition to the return of the Jewish people to their homeland polarizes around the legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel. In this article, I am intentionally attempting to move these goal posts. Instead of the traditional Zionism that we immediately think of, I want to propose an alternative to help Christians consider what the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel might mean for them. I am calling this alternative “prophetic Zionism.”
An Outline of Prophetic Zionism
By “prophetic Zionism” I intend the following:
Israel’s Covenant Status the Basis of Prophetic Zionism
The Jewish people remain God’s chosen people even now. St. Paul says,
As regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:28-29).
God has confirmed this special status with an indelible covenant. Actually, He has confirmed it with multiple covenants. The first of these covenants was with Abraham. Genesis 17:7-8 is explicit in stating that this covenant is both everlasting, and involves the bestowal of land.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 8 And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
The Return of the Covenant People to Their Covenant Land
The return of the Jewish people to their inheritance is indeed a prophetic sign. (Thus the term “prophetic Zionism”). Jesus Himself seems to predict that His people will come back to Israel.
Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Luke 21:24).
That phrase “times of the Gentiles” is interesting, and we will have to deal more with that below.
Ezekiel 36
This return is not predicated by the virtue of the Jewish people returning to their homeland. One of the most vivid predictions of the return is found in Ezekiel 36. When we read this text carefully, we see that God will pour out His grace of conversion on Israel after they return to the Land.
24 For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
28 You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses; and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds.
What Makes Prophetic Zionism Different: Disentangling the Promise of Restoration from the Secular Jewish State of Israel
Nota bene: None of this has anything to do with a secular Jewish state. I think it is a serious mistake to understand these covenant promises in a strictly nationalistic manner. The prophets never envision anything like the modern state of Israel. Instead, they foretell the restoration of the Davidic dynasty in its ideal state. As a Catholic Christian, I heartily confess my faith that this prophesied government subsists in the Church as ruled over by Jesus the Messiah. Like all human systems of government, including our own, the state of Israel stands in opposition to the reign of Jesus in numerous ways.
The Government of Israel Has Been Instituted by God … Like Every Other Government
Even if the state of Israel is not an ideal political system, in His providence God has been using it to achieve His righteous purposes, as He does with all human governments. What Paul says of the Roman government in Romans 13 applies to Israel’s government, as well:
1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
The Government of Israel Can Serve God’s Purposes and Still Not Be Ideal
It seems to me that the particular purpose for which God has used Israel is to encourage His people to return to their inheritance.
But remember: Paul is writing this in regards to the very government that will eventually behead him for his subversive activities! Revelation 13 describes this same government as a satanically inspired monster! And make no mistake, as with all human governments, there is plenty about the state of Israel that bears the odor of the beast of Revelation 13.
Romans 11
For Catholic Christians, any discussion about the future destiny of the Jewish people has to include St. Paul’s prophecy in Romans 11.
25 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, 26 and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
The reference to the “full number of the Gentiles” reminds us of Jesus’ words in Luke 21:24. Considering the connection between Luke and Paul, this parallel seems to be intentional. It seems very likely that Paul believed that the return of Israel to their homeland would accompany an even more dramatic spiritual restoration.
The Land Belongs to … God!!!
Technically, according to the Scriptures, the Land of Israel does not belong to the Jews, (or any other people!), but to God alone. “The land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Leviticus 25:23). The use of “strangers and sojourners” here is key, because these words usually designate foreigners. So, though God has given Israel an explicit legal right to dwell in this land, their legal status is not terribly different from that of aliens.
Finally, according to Ezekiel 47, foreign peoples living in Israel are to be granted equal rights with the Jewish people!!!!
21 So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as native-born sons of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the alien resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, says the Lord God.
Prophetic Zionism and Catholic Dogma
These statements, taken together, constitute what I intend by “prophetic Zionism.” It is distinct from what usually falls under the titles of “Christian Zionism” or “biblical Zionism” in that it is intentionally aloof towards classical, secular Zionism as enshrined in the modern state of Israel.
I must confess that “prophetic Zionism” is not part of the defined dogma of the Catholic Church. It is merely my attempt to take seriously the things about Israel that I find written in the Scriptures. But the Catholic Catechism does explicitly anticipate the spiritual restoration of Israel as a necessary eschatological development:
The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel”, for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”
St. Paul echoes him: “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” The “full inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of “the full number of the Gentiles”, will enable the People of God to achieve “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, in which “God may be all in all”.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 674
Conclusion
This “‘full inclusion’ of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation” does not require the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. But I think the fact that Paul’s words in Romans 11 about the “full number of the Gentiles” echo what Jesus says in Luke 24:21 about Jerusalem being trodden down by the Gentiles until their time is fulfilled strongly suggests that they are connected.
For excellent commentary from a different perspective, check out what Jimmy Akin had to say about this several years back. He focuses on the legal ownership of the land and the legitimacy of the Jewish state, however. As stated above, Torah is pretty clear in its assertion that the land does not belong to any particular nation, but to God alone. And part of what I am trying to do here is demonstrate that the covenant-right of the Jewish people to live in the land of Israel is not essentially dependent upon a Jewish state exerting sovereignty over this territory.
But I do anticipate some objections, and I will try to deal with a few of these below.
Anticipated Objections
Didn’t the death of Jesus put an end to the Law of Moses and the Old Covenant?
No. We have to take Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17-18 seriously:
17 Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
Some commentators have attempted to identify the crucifixion with “all” being accomplished. But this is not a natural reading of the text. Surely Jesus is simply saying that Torah remains in force until the end of time. Here I appeal to my principle of the kerygmatic burden. Does it really make sense that the Gospel author would include three extensive chapters of Jesus’ exposition of Torah if everything that He had to say there was now defunct? Likewise, in regards to the covenant with Israel, there is ample testimony in both the Old and New Testament that this covenant will never be repealed. We already saw that God promised Abraham an everlasting covenant in Genesis 17:7. Paul confirms that this covenant is irrevocable in Romans 11:29.
Wasn’t God’s covenant with Israel conditional?
No. But this will require a bit of explanation. First of all, there is undeniably a conditional aspect to all of God’s covenants. He does not force us to remain in relationship with Him. So, yes, we can remove ourselves from the benefits of the covenant. Deuteronomy 28 offers a vivid illustration of this conditional aspect.
1And if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
In the verses that follow, He describes these blessings in detail, and he describes the curses that attend disobedience in even more detail. But the entire testimony of the Bible demonstrates that even when Israel is unfaithful, God is faithful to His covenant. One example is Hosea 11:
8 How can I give you up, O E′phraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! How can I make you like Admah! How can I treat you like Zeboi′im! My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. 9 I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy E′phraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy.
The New Testament confirms this in 2 Timothy 2:13:
If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.
So, God never repeals His covenants, but we can remove ourselves from the benefits of covenant blessing.
Isn’t the Church the new Israel?
No. This supposition is often supported with a misuse of a statement from the Vatican II document Ad Gentes section 5 (later cited in paragraph 877 of the Catechism): “The Apostles were the first budding-forth of the New Israel.” But of course the Apostles were all a part of Old Israel, as well, so the intent here probably has to do more with the correspondence of the Twelve Apostles to the Twelve Patriarchs of the Tribes of Israel. It is a renewal of Israel, but not a replacement of Israel with something else. And this is abundantly clear in Romans 11.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. … 24 For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.
So, there is one tree, Israel. God didn’t uproot Israel and replace it with another tree, the Church. No, Gentile Christians have simply been grafted onto the ancient trunk of Israel.
This is one of my favorite Christmas songs, written and performed by my good friend, Jack Korbel. (I really need to ask Jack whether he considers this to be a Christmas song). If I were to try and describe its message in one phrase, I think it is about epiphany and the nobility of humankind.
Oh, the wondrous light of a guiding star
serves to remind us of what we are.
Be humble for you are made of earth.
Be noble for you are made of stars.
Earth and Stars Hymn by Jack Korbel
“The Adoration of the Magi” by Botticelli
The Creation of Adam
I thought of this song the other night as I was reading Midrash Bereshit Rabbah on the creation of Adam.
Everything that you see is generated from heaven and earth, as it is said, “God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). On the second day He created from on high, as it is said, “And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament'” (Genesis 1:6). On the third day He created from below, “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass'” (Genesis 1:11). On the fourth day He created from on high, “And God said, ‘Let there be lights'” (Genesis 1:14). On the fifth day He created from below, “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm'” (Genesis 1:20). On the sixth day He came to create Adam. He said, “If I create him from on high now, the heights will lord it over the lowly things by one creation, and there will be no peace in the cosmos. And if I create him from the lowly things now, the lowly things will lord it over the heights by one creation, and there will be no peace in the cosmos. But, behold! I will create him from both the heights and the lowly things for the sake of peace.” Thus it is written, “And the LORD God fashioned the man, etc.” (Genesis 2:7). [He was made from] the dust of the earth, from the lowly things. “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). This is from the heights. As Rabbi Simeon Ben Laqish said, “‘Sovereignty and fear are with Him. He makes peace in His heights’ (Job 25:2). ‘Sovereignty’ is Gabriel. ‘Fear’ is Michael.”
My translation of Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 12:8
Rivalry Between Heaven and Earth
So, human beings actually, by their very composite nature, are mediators between the material creation and spiritual realities. Consequently, our existence establishes peace (the Hebrew uses the richer word, shalom) between heaven and earth. Of course, the midrash above conveys this as though heaven and earth were engaging in a not-so-friendly rivalry. Depending on how God created Adam, either faction would be able to claim him. (This reminds me of my school days, when we learned about Kansas state history, and how the pro-slave and abolitionist parties violently quarreled over this territory in the days following the Kansas-Nebraska Act, hoping to build their respective representation in the federal government). God intentionally created Adam in such a way that both sides would be able to claim him as belonging with them. Thus, he is a bridge between heaven and earth. And being a mediator is one of the important jobs of priests. This further illustrates what I recently said about Adam’s priesthood.
St. Thomas Aquinas on the Composite Nature of Human Beings
This is actually very similar to what St. Thomas Aquinas has to say about human nature. You can read a great example of this in Summa Theologiae I:76:5:
The Philosopher [Aristotle] says (De Anima ii, 1), that “the soul is the act of a physical organic body having life potentially.”
… Since the form is not for the matter, but rather the matter for the form, we must gather from the form the reason why the matter is such as it is; and not conversely. Now the intellectual soul, as we have seen above (1:55:2) in the order of nature, holds the lowest place among intellectual substances; inasmuch as it is not naturally gifted with the knowledge of truth, as the angels are; but has to gather knowledge from individual things by way of the senses, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vii). But nature never fails in necessary things: therefore the intellectual soul had to be endowed not only with the power of understanding, but also with the power of feeling. Now the action of the senses is not performed without a corporeal instrument. Therefore it behooved the intellectual soul to be united to a body fitted to be a convenient organ of sense.
Now all the other senses are based on the sense of touch. But the organ of touch requires to be a medium between contraries, such as hot and cold, wet and dry, and the like, of which the sense of touch has the perception; thus it is in potentiality with regard to contraries, and is able to perceive them. Therefore the more the organ of touch is reduced to an equable complexion, the more sensitive will be the touch. But the intellectual soul has the power of sense in all its completeness; because what belongs to the inferior nature pre-exists more perfectly in the superior, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. v). Therefore the body to which the intellectual soul is united should be a mixed body, above others reduced to the most equable complexion. For this reason among animals, man has the best sense of touch. And among men, those who have the best sense of touch have the best intelligence. A sign of which is that we observe “those who are refined in body are well endowed in mind,” as stated in De Anima ii, 9.
“Stuck In the Middle With You”
You might have to read that a few times before you really understand what St. Aquinas has to say there. In fact, it will help to read this whole section, including the preceding and following questions. What is important for our purposes here is that Thomas contrasts human beings with angels in that we have a much less perfect intellect, and with other animals in that our spiritual soul “has the power of sense in all its completeness.” So, you and I hold a middle position in creation. Another way of saying this is like this: in the human person, God really has established shalom between corporal and spiritual realities. We have a material body. But we bear the “image and likeness” of God. This is because Our Creator breathed our soul into us directly. He made us to rule over nature as His vassal lords and ladies. “I have said that ye are gods” (Psalm 82:6).
What Happened to Our Nobility?
Of course, the biblical narrative quickly moves away from this ideal picture of shalom between heaven and earth. In the Fall, our parents revolted against their Creator. The consequence is that nature now revolts against us. That includes our own personal natures. We easily fall prey to our bodily desires. Every broken New Year’s resolution is a reminder that you and I all too often behave more like earthly, brutish beasts than spiritual intellects. What we really need is an epiphany of the nobility of humankind.
If that’s where the story ended, the lowly things really would be able to take home a win in their struggle against the heights. Our debased and debauched identities would never be able to lay claim to our shared heritage with the denizens of heaven. We would never realize our crucial role as mediators between heaven and earth. There would be no shalom between these rival factions.
Epiphany Restores the Nobility of Humankind
Enter Epiphany.
Christmas is the great festal season of the Mystery of the Incarnation. On the Twelfth Day of Christmas we celebrate the manifestation of this mystery. In the modern West, we focus on the story of the Magi, and the manifestation of this mystery to the Gentiles. In the East, the focus is more on the Baptism of Our Lord. (But note: in the modern Catholic Church we still celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Baptism on the Sunday following Epiphany).
In any case, both of these Gospel events are all about helping us enter into the wonder of the Mystery of the Incarnation. The Eternal Word of God has entered into Time and Space and taken on our very humanity. The Creator Himself now has a created body, crafted from the same dust that we are. He whom the heavens cannot contain has come down among the lowly things. A new mediator, a new Adam, bridges heaven and earth once again. Shalom returns to the picture. The visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Our Lord both bring us face to face with the epiphany of the nobility of humankind as uniquely embodied in Jesus.
More Epiphany of the Nobility of Humankind to Come!
This tips the balance of human nature towards the heights to an astonishing degree. What St. Thomas Aquinas says about our status in relation to the angels is, strictly speaking, true of our created nature. But the supernature of the Incarnation has done something to all of this that is beyond our comprehension. St. Paul says that we will judge the angels! (1 Corinthians 6:3). St. John says that what we are going to be has not yet been revealed, but we will be like Jesus (1 John 3:2). Whatever we are going to be, this revelation will be an epiphany of the nobility of humankind.
The Epiphany of the Nobility of Humankind and the Transfiguration
Perhaps this is why the third stanza of Jack Korbel’s sweet song is about the Transfiguration, another manifestation of our Lord’s identity. It is in the Transfiguration that we really see what humanity ennobled by divinity looks like. Following the star to Bethlehem, entering into the waters of Baptism with Jesus, and climbing up the path of Mt. Tabor all result in encounters with Jesus that wind up telling us something about ourselves. We recognize our frailty and earthiness.
The only proper response to such an epiphany is to bend the knee in reverent worship. To really see Jesus is to be humbled in an excruciatingly delicious way. But it is also to see the nobility that God has conferred upon our race. In Jesus, we once again reign with God over the cosmos. We can finally experience what it is to fulfill our Creator’s purpose of building shalom between the things on high and the lowly things within our particular domain. At last we can recognize the epiphany of the nobility of humankind.
