Asymmetrical Powers
Church and State in Biblical Perspective
This essay was published in New Polity in 2021.
It is misleading to use historically refined categories like “church” and “state” to describe biblical institutions and patterns of life. “State” is anachronistic even when applied to medieval political systems,1 more so when applied to ancient Israel’s. A distinction between “religion” and “politics” is equally out of place.2 Pre-modern societies certainly demarcated boundaries between “sacred” and “profane,” and medieval Christianity developed an idea of the saeculum, but these categories don’t correspond neatly to contemporary uses of these concepts or terms.3 For the sake of accuracy and to defamiliarize the biblical outlook, in this essay I generally characterize the relationship in other terms. In the Old Testament, the zones of operation are “sanctuary” v. “land”; the officials are “priest” or “prophet” v. “elder,” “judge,” or “king”; the characteristic activities are “purification” v. “punishment,” “sacrifice” v. “war.”
The Bible doesn’t present a single model of the relationship between priest and king, sanctuary and land, sacrifice and war. As head of a peripatetic clan, Abraham builds altars and presumably leads worship (Gen 12:7-8; 13:4, 18; 22:9), fulfilling what is later identified as a priestly role. Yet, when Chedorlaomer and his allies capture Lot, Abraham turns royal as he leads his three hundred and eighteen fighting men in a surprise attack to rescue his nephew (Gen 14:1-16). Priest-kings appear occasionally among Gentile peoples (Melchizedek, Gen 14:18; Jethro, Exod 2:16). Over the course of biblical history, more differentiated models emerge. Under the Mosaic order, priesthood is lodged in a single clan within the tribe of Levi, while tribal elders govern local communities. During the monarchy, priestly and royal institutions expand and become more complex. In exile, when Israel is scattered through the eastern Mediterranean, neither priestly nor royal functions remain intact. Finally, the church that emerges initially within Palestinian and diaspora Judaism is a modified form of the exilic community.