God against Messiah | 105‘speakers’ which as association attempted to fulfill that which Moses intended.”
They preach in favor of the Mosaic project and in opposition to the Joshuanic
reduction, calling for the renewal of a politically functioning confederation under
the rule of its melekh, capable of waging a new, defensive YHVH war. These speak-
ers actively engage in the battles of the people and eventually produce those “judg-
es” whom they perceive as temporary holders of the charis: “They appear to me
as the divine-militant society distributed over the land which gives birth to and
supports the judges.” Some, such as Deborah, serve as judge and prophet. Over
time, the title of navi acquires a certain respect and currency, and forces opposed
to theocracy later attempt to appropriate it. But “the tradition of the pre-Davidic
period... knows no other reception of the charisma than the prophetic; even the
judge, such as Gideon and Jephtha, also the great berserker, such as Samson, must
first of all become a nabi” by declaring the Spirit to have come upon him.^84
The Song of Deborah (Judges 5:2–31), considered “the oldest coherent histori-
cal source of Israel, absolutely contemporary,” exemplifies these traits: the view
of YHVH as a melekh-leader who goes before the people, whose throne moves
with the people, and who commands the heavens and the people Israel.^85 Merely
human kings are instructed by this singer to listen to the tale of the true, divine
king’s victory. Buber designates this personality type as “primitive-prophetic,”
although he knows some scholars consider the term navi a late artifact. There-
fore, he defines the prophetic office contrary not just to the views of other schol-
ars, but even to the views of those biblical writers who think of the navi as an
accredited court prophet who would use his divine connection to see the future
and to reveal hidden things. For Buber, however, navi designates a “‘pronouncer,’
who announces that which is communicated to him from above in intelligible
manner to those below—and that which is addressed to him from below in ac-
ceptable manner to that which is above.”^86 This argument serves one of Buber’s
larger purposes: to establish a continuity from the covenant through the pro-
phetic and postexilic periods without involving the monarchy, thus establishing
the antimonarchic essence of Judaism. By claiming that the societies of nevi’im
first emerged after Joshua’s death, preaching in the name of Mosaic theopolitics
against the Joshuanic reduction, giving rise to the judges, and continuing to sup-
port the ideal of a unified and politically focused Israel under the rule of a divine
melekh throughout the monarchical period, Buber traces his line of continuity
throughout the historical span covered in the Bible.
Der Gideonspruch: Gideon’s Refusal of Kingship
as Primal Moment of Theopolitics
For Buber, the period described in the book of Judges, in which the people vac-
illate between charismatic leadership and anarcho-theocracy, is the time when
political and theological conflicts within Israel become most intense. The ulti-
mate expression of anarcho-theocratic idealism for Buber is the passage in which