EXPERIENCE OF THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF FORMATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HEBREW METAPHYSICS IN AN ERA OF AXIAL TIME
Journal Title: Філософські обрії - Year 2018, Vol 0, Issue 40
Abstract
The axial time of VI - III centuries is regarded as a great mental revolution, during which there was a difficult transition from the naturalistic-force system of coordinates of the value-mental space of culture to a reasonable-virtuous. After Babylonian captivity, the restoration of Jewish mentality began, which was carried out in two closely related streams of religious searches, dominant, orthodox and semilegal, hidden. The representatives of the official movement of priests and scribes, mainly from the diaspora of Babylon, offered to return to the conventional law of Moses, which, in essence, meant an attempt to return to the archaic past. The main innovative energy of the Old Heavenly Spirit was gathered in the illegal and semi-legal Jewish religious movements, in which the mystical-metaphysical ideas were the most developed. The subject of our study was to the books of “Job”, “Wisdom of Solomon”, “Parables of Solomon” and “Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Syrah”, which are the brightest examples of reorganizing Spirit of the axial age. The purpose of the article is to trace the formation of a certain kind of metaphysical knowledge, as well as to show that the unknown Jewish righteous wise men were at the root of the most powerful tradition in metaphysics - the Orthodox and Sufi versions of the Path’s metaphysics. It is thought that the book “Job”, which is most burdened with archaic, naturalistic-violent images, was written in the second half of the sixth century. B.C. It is considered as the initial stage of the formation of Hebrew metaphysics. In Job’s reflections, the idea of God prevails as the power of a cosmic scale that can create and do everything. The unbiased study of the image of Job convincingly shows that he was very far from the true harsh piety. The book’s wisdom, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” written most likely later than a century, is significantly different from the previous one. Under the influence of the dominant in the Persian Empire of the Zoroastrian doctrine, according to which the god Akhura-Mazda was conceived as Reason-Blessing-Truth, it is true that the theme of “Wisdom” as an objective, reasonably-virtuous one, sacred reality came to the fore of the intellectual work of the Jewish ascetics. Apparently, the doctrine of Wisdom, as a fundamental spiritual ontological reality, played an important role in the destruction of archaic naturalistic-power representations of ancient Jews and the formation of their mystical, intelligent, virtuous worldviews. At the same time Wisdom was conceived not as an independent reality, but as closely connected with God as a manifestation of His grace. In the book “Parables of Solomon” which was written in the second half of the IV century. BC, the Hebrew devotees managed to advance much further along the path of piety and substantially deepen their mystical conceptions of the nature of Divine reality. Fundamentally important for the Hebrew thinker was the position on the inextricable unity of God in the clever and virtuous sides. The Lord, as aboveminded, the whole reality, entered into the heart of the ancient Jew and became the reference system of all that is happening. Therefore, the forefront of the believer is the establishment of high moral relations with God, although for the faithful Jews, the sacrifice and ritual were fully preserved their strength and significance. The authenticity of faith measures the fear of God. This means that the Lord really entered the heart of the believer and in the mental space of his life world takes the original, absolute system of counting all values. God is not so much conceived as living in the heart of the believer but directs him on a pious way. To have a mystical involvement with the Lord through the existentially overcome fear of God, it must be pursued in every way, overcoming the pride and anger with persistent development and strengthening in the soul of humility and meekness. The high and severe moral requirements set forth in “Prophecy of Solomon” allow us to assert that the orthodox Jews managed to achieve the true piety which was further developed in Christianity. Theological representations and moral settings in comparison “Solomon’s Parables” with the book “The Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Syrah,” acquired greater rigor and clarity, which to a certain extent indicates its later origins, about the beginning of the III century B.C. The mystical, metaphysical, merciful nature of the Lord continuously cares for the righteous man. If in the dark Archaic, the Almighty caused, for the most part, the creepy fear of the orthodox Jew by his infinite power and physical force, then by the end of the rebuilding axial time in the III century. B.C. The Lord has unceasingly attracted the righteous through his insightful spirituality and endless moral strength. In all respects, the Lord is the Absolute, who mercifully cares for the righteous. For the Jewish ascetic God acquired the character of a secret sacred reality. The article contains some statements said by Orthodox monks and Sufi Muslims who reached old age to show the conceptual proximity of these three, it seemed substantially different religious-mystical streams. It is noted that the period of Hebrew ascetics, who is considered in these three books, in a certain sense laid the tradition that further received fruitful development among the strong ascetics in Christianity and Islam. Thus, in the revolutionary epoch of the axial age of VI - III centuries. B.C. Hebrew culture is one of the most amazing cultural phenomena. On the one hand, on the surface of the cultural processes, the ancient Jews are hopelessly stuck with Moses’ law in the gray Archaic, which they cannot escape from in the XXI century, and on the other hand - the heartless, humble, humbly unknown ancient Hebrew righteous for this relatively small historical period secretly managed to undergo such a great difficult mystic-metaphysical mental path that appeared in front of the most advanced shepherds of the great mental revolution. Without knowing it, they prepared an even greater spiritual and moral Christian breakthrough. We succeeded in discovering and tracing the formation and development of peculiar metaphysical knowledge among the Jewish righteous of the unorthodox flows of Judaism, which ended and did not continue in Jewish metaphysics. However, many efforts of unknown Hebrew wise men were not lost. Their mystical and intellectual experience was picked up by the first Christian monks, and then in the course of a great laborious act he was further developed in Orthodoxy. Moreover, their mystical-metaphysical representations were close to the advanced Muslim Sufis. Their mystical and intellectual experience was picked up by the first Christian monks and then in the course of a serious practical acts it was further developed in Orthodoxy. Moreover, their mystical-metaphysical representations were close to the advanced Muslim Sufis.
Authors and Affiliations
Петро Анатолійович КРАВЧЕНКО, В`ячеслав Михайлович МЄШКОВ
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP492288
- DOI 10.5281/zenodo.2535619
- Views 99
- Downloads 0
IMAGE OF HOW POLYPHONIC FOLK MUSIC THINKING
Analyzed the origin and evolution of forms of polyphonic performance as the image of the national musical thinking. The analysis of the literature on the subject based on the experience of leading researchers of folk-son...
Дискурс інтерпретації в рефлексіях соціально-філософського знання
В статті розглядається проблема інтерпретації в контексті філософських рефлексій соціального пізнання, що стало умовою формування нового, сучасного мислення. Аналізується багатозначність інтерпретації, яка залежить від п...
INNOVATIVE ACTIVITY OF THE PERSONALITY AS AN ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF THE CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL SPACE HARMONIZATION: PHILOSOPHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECT
The article deals with innovative activity as one of the most important components of modern cultural and educational space, based on the preservation and development of the creative potential and active life position of...
УКРАЇНСЬКА ДЕРЖАВНА ІДЕЯ ЗА ГЕТЬМАНУВАННЯ ІВАНА ВИГОВСЬКОГО: ВІЗІЯ МИХАЙЛА ГРУШЕВСЬКОГО
У статті розглядаються ключові проблеми гетьманування Івана Виговського (з поміж яких визначальна – Гадяцький договір 1658 року) у працях Михайла Грушевського. Підкреслюється неоднозначність ставлення вченого до українсь...
ОСОБИСТІСНА ІДЕНТИЧНІСТЬ: ІНТЕРПРЕТАЦІЯ СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНИХ МАРКЕРІВ
У статті розглядається проблема логічної і ціннісної інтерпретації провідних маркерів особистісної ідентичності та їхніх показників на прикладі українців. На основі філософсько-культурологічного трактування змі...