Category:Determinism (subject)

Determinism

When Philo describes the major features of the Jewish concept of God, he states that in Jewish view "God exercises a continual care for that which he has created" (Op. 172). God is deeply involved in the history of humankind and has the authority to influence or modify the events of history. To which extent, however, God's determinism does not undermine human freedom was a matter of debate among different Jewish groups and theologies. Josephus put the relation between fate and human free will as the central criterion of distinction between the major Jewish schools of "Sadducees", "Pharisees" and "Essenes" (

Extant literary sources from the Second Temple period confirm that there was indeed a lively debate on this issue.

The idea of covenant implies that God will reward and punish individuals and peoples, determining their future destiny, sometimes establishing "times" of punishments or reward. In this sense God's action is not seen in opposition to human freedom but on the contrary as the necessary response to human responsibility, as God's authority would be undermined (and human choice nullified) if God did not have the power to fulfill his promises and carry out his threatens. As the rabbis would later stress: "All is foreseen and choice is granted. The world is judged by grace; and everything is according to work." (m. Aboth 3:15).

Sapiential traditions prefer to stress the absolute sovreignity and freedom of God, who is able to pursue his goals turning everything (even evil) to good. As ininfluent to challenge or modify God's plans, human freedom is equally exalted while humans are reminded that true happiness come from freely adjusting to God's times. Sirach, Wisdom Philo.

God's determinism is mostly emphasized in apocalyptic traditions. Their stress on the power of evil goes to the direction of limiting the authority of God on human history, which is rather seen as the unfolding of demonic sources. However, such an emphasis requires that at least in its final outcome the opposition between good and evil would be resolve with the triumph of good. The book of the watchers ends with the promiseset a limit of seventy generations

The crisis of the Maccabean revolt was a turning point. As the present was seen as a time of evil, it became necessary to stress that however disturbing, the disorder of evil was compressed within a framework of goodness. In the book of Daniel the 490 years are a long but clearly defined time of punishment in which the evil forces are unlashed but only in order to be defeated at the end with the reestablishment of the liberty of Israel'

In the Animal Apocalypse, in the Apocalypse of Weeks and in the Book of Jubilees the preordained framework now extends to the entire course of history, from creation to the end of times, and everything unfolds in the appointed times with rigorous precision.

The most radical position is that expressed in some "sectarian" texts of Qumran, like the Community Rule, where the deterministic stance come to include the destiny of individuals.

Later apocalyptic texts (including early Christian texts), while reiterating that history unfolds according to a preordained framework until the end of times, would bounce back from a much too specific narrative of events and times. Even texts written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem, like 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch and the Revelation of John, refrain from providing a strict periodization of events. The tension between God's determinism and human free will remain unresolved. On one hand,

In sum, the very nature of the Jewish concept of God implies some unresolved tension between God's determinism and human free will. The problem in fact resurfaces in all traditions of Second Temple judaism. A direct link seems to exist between God's determinism and the emphasis on the power of evil in this world. The more this world appears to be out of God's control, the more it is stressed that everything happens however under a preordained divine plan. The more God's authority in this world is reaffirmed, the less urgent appears to provide a periodization of events.

Bibliography:

Qumran and Predestination: A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns (1975 Merrill), book Weisheit und Prädestination (Wisdom and Predestination / 1995 Lange), book 2 Determinism and Petitionary Prayer in John and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2008 Tukasi), book

Ursel Wicke-Reuter, Göttliche Providenz und menschliche Verantwortung bei Ben Sira und in der frühen Stoa <German> (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000)