Jon L. Berquist (in Horsley, ed., In the Shadow of Empire ) claims that during the Persian period, Israel devleoped prayer and observance of Sabbath as anti-imperial practices. Daniel’s prayers “resist the law of the king and the rule of the empire.” Sabbath too is anti-imperial: “Sabbath was always construed as an anti-economic event, refusing the rhythms of imperial production and consumption. The Hebrew Bible grounds Sabbath firmly within a tradition of social justice that resists the imperial stratification of wealth and poverty; Sabbath denies empire by insisting on God’s sovereignty over all earthly powers.”
This is intriguing, and right in a couple of respects: Keeping Sabbath is an act of defiance against the dominion of economics, and especially as it is deveoloped in the prophets (Isaiah 58) Sabbath is about social justice. Yet, Berquist’s account casts a broader net than he admits. Surely empires are not the only political societies that are stratified by wealth and poverty; isn’t the Sabbath a protest against the greed of the rich (and poor) and oppression by the rich (and poor) in a city-state as much as in an empire? If Sabbath “denies empire” by insisting on “God’s sovereignty over all earthly powers,” doesn’t that also mean that Sabbath denies all earthly powers, whether imperial or not? Doesn’t it “deny” oligarchy as much as empire?
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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