THE OLD TESTAMENT WILDERNESS IN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE A Christian Investigation D. Keith Innes The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective: A Christian Investigation D. Keith Innes Copyright © 2008 Donald Keith Innes Unless otherwise stated the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved. The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes Abbreviations BDB F. Brown, S.R. Driver and C.A. Briggs: A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952). BHS Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung, 1967/77) GKC Gesenius: Hebrew Grammar (edited and enlarged by E. Kautzsch, revised by A.E. Cowley; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910). GNB Good News Bible (Today’s English Version) (The Bible Societies/Collins, 1976). JBL Journal of Biblical Literature. JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. LXX The Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament. MT The Massoretic Text. NRSV The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version (London: HarperCollins, 1989). REB The Revised English Bible (Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, 1989). VT Vetus Testamentum. ZAW Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes THE OLD TESTAMENT WILDERNESS IN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE - A Christian Investigation CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction and Acknowledgements 1 1.1. The Natural Wilderness 1 1.2. The Biblical Wilderness 2 1.3. The Symbolic Wilderness 2 1.4. Conclusion and Acknowledgements 4 2. Defining Wilderness 6 2.1. Biblical Foundations 6 2.1.1. Vocabulary 6 2.1.2. Location 7 2.1.3. David in the Wilderness 7 2.1.4. Wilderness in the Created World 8 2.1.5. Wilderness as a Place of Threat 9 2.1.6. Wilderness as Chaos 10 2.1.7. Wilderness and the Supernatural 10 2.1.8. The New Testament 11 2.2. Later Developments 12 2.2.1. The Desert and the Origins of Monasticism 12 2.2.2. Celtic Monasticism 15 2.2.3. The Developing Wilderness Tradition. 17 3. The Wilderness Journey: Transition and Change 21 3.1. Biblical Foundations 21 3.1.1. Transition 21 The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes 3.1.2. The Search for a ‘Wilderness Ideal’ 22 3.1.2.1. Midianites and Kenites 24 3.1.2.2. Rechabites 26 3.1.2.3. Did Israel Have a Nomadic History? 27 3.1.3. Transformation 30 3.1.4. Transformation and the Second Exodus 31 3.1.5. Transformation and the Garden of God 32 3.1.6. Transition and Transformation between the Old and New Testaments 33 3.1.7. The Wilderness Journey in the New Testament 35 3.2. Later Developments 37 4. The Wilderness Journey: Revelation 41 4.1. Biblical Foundations 41 4.1.1. The Nature of the Phenomena 41 4.1.2. The Burning Bush 46 4.1.3. The Pillar of Fire and Cloud 48 4.1.4. Sinai 51 4.1.4.1. Exodus 19:1-20:21 53 4.1.4.2. Exodus 24 54 4.1.4.3. Exodus 32-34 55 4.1.4.4. Other Old Testament References 56 4.1.5. The Ark and the Tent 59 4.1.5.1. The Ark of the Covenant 59 4.1.5.2. The Tent of Meeting 62 4.1.6. Name and Word 63 4.1.7. The Deity Experienced as Unpredictable and Hostile 66 4.1.8. The Wilderness Revelation and the Wilderness Milieu 67 4.1.9. Wilderness Revelation in Later Judaism 69 4.1.10. Wilderness Revelation in the New Testament 69 The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes 4.2. Later Developments 71 5. The Wilderness Journey: Testing, Providence and Judgement 74 5.1. Biblical Foundations 74 5.1.1. God Tested Israel 74 5.1.2. ‘Murmuring’ 75 5.1.3. Murmuring and Providence before Sinai 77 5.1.3.1. Marah 77 5.1.3.2. The Manna 78 5.1.3.3. Rephidim 78 5.1.4. The Rebellion at Sinai 80 5.1.5. Murmuring, Providence and Judgement from Sinai to Kadesh 83 5.1.5.1. Taberah - ‘Burning’ (Numbers 11:13) 83 5.1.5.2. Kibroth-hattaavah – ‘The Graves of Desire’ (Numbers 11:4-35) 83 5.1.5.3. Hazeroth (Numbers 12) 85 5.1.6. The Rebellion at Kadesh 85 5.1.7. Approaching the Promised Land 86 5.1.7.1. The Rebellions of Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16) 86 5.1.7.2. Meribah (Numbers 20:1-13) 88 5.1.7.3. Rebellion Provoking the Plague of Snakes (Numbers 21:4-9) 89 5.1.8. Murmuring, Providence and Judgement in Deuteronomy 89 5.1.9. Murmuring, Providence and Judgement in the Psalms and Nehemiah 91 5.1.9.1. Psalm 78 91 5.1.9.2. Psalm 105 92 5.1.9.3. Psalm 106 92 5.1.9.4. Nehemiah 9 93 5.1.10. Murmuring, Providence and Judgement in the Prophets 93 The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes 5.1.10.1 Ezekiel 20 93 5.1.10.2. The Judgement of the Wilderness in the Prophets 93 5.1.11. Old Testament Summary Overview 96 5.1.12. The New Testament Use of the Themes 96 5.2. Later Developments 98 6. The Wilderness Journey: Conflict and Victory 100 6.1 Biblical Foundations 100 6.1.1. Rephidim 101 6.1.2. Hormah 102 6.1.3. Victories after the Departure from Kadesh 102 6.1.4. Midian 104 6.1.5. The New Testament 105 6.2. Later Developments 106 7. The Ecological Wilderness 109 7.1. Revaluing Wilderness: The American Roots of the Positive View 109 7.2. British Attitudes to Wild Nature – a Historical Perspective 112 7.3. Deep Ecology 113 7.4. Environmentalism 114 7.5. The Green Movement 114 7.6. A Christian View of Ecology 115 8. Postscript 118 8.1. Campaigning for Wild Places 118 8.2. Christian Wilderness Values 119 8.3. Dialogue, Common Ground and Witness 120 Bibliography 123 The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes 1. INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1.1. The Natural Wilderness Wilderness has never seemed so popular. Television programmes about wild places and wild creatures abound. Adventure holidays engaging with nature in far away places are in demand. Intrepid explorers continue to pit their strength against extreme conditions at the ends of the earth. Among some lesser mortals hill walking and other ‘natural’ pursuits hold more attraction than the artificial wonders provided by electronic science. Proposals for development in green and wild locations rightly provoke protests and opposition - whether in our local open spaces, or in the vastness of Alaska or Antarctica. Yet still the erosion of wilderness continues. Many human activities pose a growing threat to natural systems. Unbridled tourism, the greedy over-exploitation of natural resources, the destruction of natural habitats, the ravages of pollution, and the underlying disengagement from the world of nature constitute a failure to live in harmony from the rest of the created order. I do not believe that we can survive in any tolerable form without a radical shift of values and worldview. I am under no illusions that wholly unspoilt nature exists today: in Britain every landscape is to some extent a human construct; even the remotest parts of the earth are touched by global warming and other forms of human pollution. Nevertheless in places where nature is left even partially to take its course, glimpses can be caught of true wilderness. 1 The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes 1.2 The Biblical Wilderness The wilderness is a major component in the biblical landscape. In the Scriptures two wilderness areas are mainly in view. The archetypal Wilderness is the area through which the Israelites wandered during a crucial period of their history. And the Judean Wilderness formed the hinterland of the region where Jesus' ministry took place. We can infer from the Gospels that he visited it often. The wilderness motif in the Old and New Testaments also has symbolic significance. The Christian Church adopted and adapted the symbolism of wilderness. And in the physical desert, the Desert Fathers and Mothers of Egypt and Palestine began a movement whose echoes continue down to the present. 1.3 The Symbolic Wilderness Wilderness symbolism is not confined to the Church. The physical wilderness has a spiritual and emotional counterpart. Even in secular thought political and business leaders can be said to be 'in the wilderness' when their careers have suffered a setback; episodes of emotional confusion or mental disorientation can be called wilderness times. Periods of reduced support from other people and social structures can cause feelings of stress, vulnerability and even horror, akin to the emotions produced by the literal desert. I believe this secular usage grows in part from biblical roots. Some may consider that only the symbolic or interior wilderness is relevant to our lives, and that the physical wilderness is unimportant. I would suggest that the continued viability of the symbolic wilderness may depend on the existence somewhere of literal, if limited wilderness areas. I can 2 The Old Testament Wilderness in Ecological Perspective Keith Innes accept the dictum of Henry David Thoreau that ‘in Wildness is the preservation of the World’;1 as a Christian I also believe that wild nature and barren places belong to God, and God's purposes alone are ultimate.