Reading Historical Zedekiah with Anti-Imperialism
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This paper purposes to reveal the historical Zedekiah as a weak and tragic king who struggled to survive in the arena of imperial powers, focusing on Zedekiah’s reign (597-586) with anti-imperialism. An anti-imperial approach defines imperialism as ‘inherently evil’ and as a ‘cultural dominion and political sovereignty of one nation and against another.’ This study starts with asking why Zedekiah is portrayed as diverse characters in the book of Jeremiah which is already pointed out by Stipp. According to Stipp, early writings describe Zedekiah more favorably than later writings. He sees that there are major shifts from positive to negative parallel to the destruction of Jerusalem and explains that the negative theological stance on Zedekiah reflects the perspective of later writers themselves and their communities. This paper argues that negative descriptions of Zedekiah in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Chronicles reflect the imperial perspective of Babylon and Persia. In the pre-exilic prophetic writings, we see that prophets blamed kings and people for diplomatic relationship with the imperial powers of Egypt and Assyria. The theological mood regarding imperial powers is changed in exilic and post-exilic writings. Rather than criticizing the imperial powers of Babylon and Persia, later writers describe Zedekiah negatively by aligning the theological stance with the imperial powers of Babylon and Persia in order to maintain the theology of God’s sovereignty over history. It reveals that biblical writers described Zedekiah within the political autonomy which imperial powers allowed. In later Jewish literature, Zedekiah was evaluated more favorably. Zedekiah is depicted as a sympathetic and pathetic man. Accordingly it is implied that the anti-imperial approach helps to understand the real history by eliminating imperialism-aligned theological and political prejudices described in the Bible.
Abstract
This paper purposes to reveal the historical Zedekiah as a weak and tragic king who struggled to survive in the arena of imperial powers, focusing on Zedekiah’s reign (597-586) with anti-imperialism. An anti-imperial approach defines imperialism as ‘inherently evil’ and as a ‘cultural dominion and political sovereignty of one nation and against another.’ This study starts with asking why Zedekiah is portrayed as diverse characters in the book of Jeremiah which is already pointed out by Stipp. According to Stipp, early writings describe Zedekiah more favorably than later writings. He sees that there are major shifts from positive to negative parallel to the destruction of Jerusalem and explains that the negative theological stance on Zedekiah reflects the perspective of later writers themselves and their communities. This paper argues that negative descriptions of Zedekiah in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Chronicles reflect the imperial perspective of Babylon and Persia. In the pre-exilic prophetic writings, we see that prophets blamed kings and people for diplomatic relationship with the imperial powers of Egypt and Assyria. The theological mood regarding imperial powers is changed in exilic and post-exilic writings. Rather than criticizing the imperial powers of Babylon and Persia, later writers describe Zedekiah negatively by aligning the theological stance with the imperial powers of Babylon and Persia in order to maintain the theology of God’s sovereignty over history. It reveals that biblical writers described Zedekiah within the political autonomy which imperial powers allowed. In later Jewish literature, Zedekiah was evaluated more favorably. Zedekiah is depicted as a sympathetic and pathetic man. Accordingly it is implied that the anti-imperial approach helps to understand the real history by eliminating imperialism-aligned theological and political prejudices described in the Bible.
참고문헌 (21)
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