Literary Criticism and Theology of P - Christus Rex

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20 E. CORTESE temple, but rather in men’s heart. The general message of the prophet is that God has abandoned His temple which has to be reconstructed and that the exiled people will return to their land, and settle around the new temple. It is always by means of the temple that God will be present in Israel. The only text of Ezek on a spiritual divine presence is the above quoted 11,16, where the adverb m‘† points out the reduced and temporary form of such a presence. Besides, the famous promise of the new heart and the new spirit (36,26, where however the formula of the divine presence is not mentioned) is framed by the prophecy of the return to the land, and it will be realized only there (36,24 and 28). Our Christian reading of that promise extends up to the profound meaning of the presence of the divine Spirit in the heart. But, as we shall see soon, this is the final stage of the promise and of the plan of God, that is the presence of God in Jesus Christ. The presence of the Spirit and the Trinity in us have their basis in the Incarnation of God which is not merely the divine presence contained in the Sinaitic relation between God and Israel. In other words, it is not purely a spiritual presence. Ezek 20 too, which has been emphasized by Pola after having reduced all the second part of P to Ex 29,45f. and 40,16.17a.33b, expounds the return to the land. The holy mountain to which Israel is lead again is neither a spiritual mountain nor Sinai. The house of Israel will serve God in the land (Ezek 20,40); there He will accept them and their sacrifices, gathering them from all countries. He will bring them into the Land (20,41f.). Ezekiel testifies that the priestly theology of the divine presence implies the motif of the Land. So, against Pola and even against Noth, Pg cannot be trimmed as Pola does, but must follow through the episodes of the traveling till the borders of the Land 24 . Nobody denies today the importance of Ex 29,43ff. But the method of saving merely the central theme of the priestly document or only its “structural elements” in Ex 25-31 is wrong 25 . By this method, using the example of a palace, we should conclude that the original construction is only a central pillar, with few other “primitive” structures, whereas rooms, stairs, 24. As I have demonstrated in my thesis La terra di Canaan nella storia sacerdotale del Pentateuco (SRB 5), Brescia 1972. Note that Noth, altough negating the interest of Pg for the theme of the land, did not dare to eliminate completely the priestly document from Num, as Pola does. 25. Pola, Die ursprüngliche Priesterschrift, 53-116. He classifies me among the Hexateuchian exegetes (for instance pp. 21 and 99), but, as far as Pg is concerned this is absolutely false. In my Josua 13-21. Ein priesterschriftlicher Abschnitt im deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk (OBO 94), Freiburg Schw. 1990, I show that the second part of Jos is substantially Ps, but also that it has been translated from the end of the Tetrateuch, by the last redaction, which united Tetrateuch and Dtr Work.
THE PRIESTLY TENT 21 doors and so on, are all “secondary additions”. And that he does it in addition to the discussed erroneous “spiritualization” of the divine presence in the tent. 4b. OT texts in general terms. That this presence is not merely spiritual is deduced already from the simple fact that God is said to be present in material objects, in the ark and in the tent, even in absence of human being. But it is important here to remember the principal biblical data on this theme. Here it is particularly important to move on to the NT. Without it, we cannot appreciate the complete biblical message on the divine presence. God becomes occasionally present to the Patriarchs. Remember especially Gen 28: the dream of the ladder with the angels, and the God’s epiphany to Jacob. After the sleep he says: “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not” (v. 16); playing on the word “Bethel”, the narration adds: “this is none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven” (v. 27). However Bethel is never considered the place of the perennial presence of God in the following story, although Jacob himself comes back there accomplishing his vow (Gen 35). We read about yet another particular presence of God, viz., the presence of God to Moses (Ex 3 JE, on Sinai, and Ex 6 P, in Egypt, as it seems). Israel himself experiences this presence at Sinai (Ex 19-24), and P makes it the center of its theology of the divine presence. Congar ends here (in his ch. 2) the first section of his examination of the Pentateuch’s texts on the divine presence, pointing at Jos and noting the disappearance of the divine cloud in the Land. Here he tries to minimize the physical presence of God in the tent, reaching too quickly at the contrasting conclusion, viz., the presence of God in the heart of Israel 26 . He affirms that the ark was a sort of sacrament of the heavenly temple and that there was some “localization of God”, but he appeals also to the “theology of the name” of dtr 27 . Then, after praising the priestly theology and its merit in affirming “the promise (?) of the divine inhabitation”, he, like Janowski, is lead astray by Ezek 37,27 28 . Before discussing these oscillations, it is better to follow him, considering the above mentioned opposition to the temple by Nathan in 2Sam 7 29 . Congar sees two meanings in the counterproposal of God: the glorious future of the Davidic monarchy and a new way of divine presence or inhabitation in Israel 30 .The first meaning is developed in the theme of Messianism, till Zech 26. Congar, Il mistero, 26-32. 27. Congar, Il mistero, 26. 28. Congar, Il mistero, 30. Here he similarly connects Ezek 37,27 with Ex 29,45f! 29. Congar, Il mistero, 33-69. 30. Congar, Il mistero, 46.
Page 1 and 2: THE PRIESTLY TENT (Ex 25-31.35-40)
Page 3 and 4: THE PRIESTLY TENT 11 Pg has only th
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Page 7 and 8: B. Ex 35-40 THE PRIESTLY TENT 15 Al
Page 9 and 10: THE PRIESTLY TENT 17 As for Ex 35-4
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Page 17 and 18: THE PRIESTLY TENT 25 Kabbalistic th
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Literary Criticism and Theology of P - Christus Rex

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