Martin Buber's Theopolitics

pa rt I I

The Anointed and the Prophet:

Theopolitics in Israel from

Exodus to Exile

The Lord has chosen to abide in a thick cloud; I have now built for You a stately

House, a place where You may dwell forever.

—1 Kings 8:12–13

From Moses to Samuel is only a step in the history of faith, whereas from Samuel

to Solomon, the son of his protégé, is a long way.

—Martin Buber

Buber never fulfilled his aim to follow Kingship of God with a trilogy on Das

Kommende, “The Coming One” of Israelite messianism. He abandoned work on
the second part of the trilogy, Der Gesalbte (The Anointed), after the Nazis shut
down the Schocken Press, and he did not take it up again upon his 1938 emigra-
tion to Palestine.^1 However, Buber did end up producing a biblical trilogy of sorts.
The Prophetic Faith and Moses are identical in genre to Kingship of God among
Buber’s biblical studies; although they do not share its biographical genesis, they
do show a relatively relaxed scholarly attitude and a greater freedom of expres-
sion. In part 2 of this book, I argue that they also reiterate, develop, and clarify
the central concern of Kingship of God: theopolitics. Theopolitics is not just an
incidental concern in what are otherwise works of edifying religious commen-
tary; rather, it is the unifying theme that combines with the historical-critical
genre to render these works into one integral whole, in contrast to the anthologi-
cal form in which Buber’s commentary is so often presented by English-language
publishers.
One way to emphasize the theopolitical nature of Moses and The Prophetic
Faith would be to enumerate the individual topics they share with Kingship of
God. For example, all three examine the matter of the Divine Name and its rev-
elation of YHVH as a God who descends to the earth at his pleasure, manifesting
where and when he wills, while also promising to be with Israel in its trouble. The