Towards Jerusalem in “Athens and Jerusalem”: On Jewish Political

Abstract

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the origins of Jewish political theology, this paper analyzes the idea of Jewish political theology in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Pentateuch, in the light of the German Old Testament theologian Gerhard von Rad’s Old Testament theological paradigm of the history of traditions. The Deuteronomists ultimately established Judaism’s“Mosaic Tradition, “TorahScripture,” “Monotheism,”and“Deuteronomistic View of History” in the time of Josiah, and strengthened the Jewish ethnic identity under Assyrian rule, which favored religious integration over kingdom politics, and inaugurated Judaism’s prophetic tradition and its messianic dimension of hope in the promises of God. Gerhard von Rad’s historical-theological analysis of Deuteronomy opens up a strange new world of the Hebrew Bible, demonstrating the dynamic roots of Jewish monotheistic faith, prophetic spirituality, and the political theology of messianic concepts in the history of Western thought and in world history.