Martin Buber's Theopolitics

158 | Martin Buber’s Theopolitics

has done for you! / You pursue evil, but your evil that you do will sweep you

away, both you and your king.^24

This version of 1 Samuel 12 eliminates the reference to the Exodus, the litany of
the shoftim and their involvement in a cycle of sin and redemption, the people’s
fear of Nachash and the Ammonites, the repeated accusation that they rejected
God’s kingship, the miracle worked by Samuel to prove the impudence of their
demand, their confession of sin, and Samuel’s reassurance that YHVH will re-
ward their confession. It may seem puzzling that Buber eliminates the verses of
1 Samuel 12 that reiterate the people’s sin in asking for a king. Is this not his own
view in Kingship of God? Why does he excise this as a later addition, which, when
removed, leaves us with a passage lacking further evidence of Samuel’s opposi-
tion to the people’s request?
Although Buber is sympathetic to the redactors of the antimonarchical book
of Judges, he does not conflate or harmonize diverse biblical viewpoints. The
narrator of the core of 1 Samuel, according to Buber, does not stand with the
anarcho-theocrats of old, or with the likely authors of the antimonarchical inser-
tions to chapter 12, but neither does he stand with the elders of the people. He is
hopeful about the prospects of the monarchy but has serious reservations. He is
not a propagandist but an inquirer:

The questions, which stand over the narrators, are about the origin, purpose,

and destiny of the greater Israelite monarchy, where purpose and destiny are

indispensably related to the origin and the early transformations, and these

questions appear answerable to the narrators only from out of the historical

faith which they believe: the reciprocally-acting opposition of a God and of a

people that he leads, without coercing it, and that he still leads, if it is submis-

sive to him, but thereafter to the opposition of this God and the ones “chosen”

or “seized” by him from out of the people, who nevertheless act against him

over and over again.... [H]ow [our narrative] renders this report, how it rep-

resents particular proceedings and how it excludes other ones, what it achieves

and what it only indicates, its stories and its teachings, its realism and its sym-

bolism are essentially determined from that which for the narrator here, in the

inception, hides the arcanum of the monarchy, the problematic of the divine-

human encounter, the sense of faith of a historical tragedy and possibly also

already of the seed of the promise of overcoming it.^25

From Priests to Prophets: The Philistine Emergency and
the Rise of Samuel

The narrative begins in a time of crisis. The Philistines have dominated Israel for
generations. Attempts at liberation have failed, and YHVH has not sent a judge
to redeem the people in many years. In this context Samuel, who is to anoint the
king of Israel, becomes a prominent public figure. For Buber, this context colors