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Jewish and African conceptions of God
John S. Mbiti
It is impossible to do full justice to this topic since it is so vast that it cannot be covered in a few pages. We shall therefore give only an over-all view of the question, as an invitation for further reflection and discussion. These observations will be confined to the religious life of ancient Israel in the biblical record, without getting into the question of its interraction with Canaanite and other Semitic religious traditions. African religion will be used here to mean the traditional religion of African peoples (which is neither Christianity nor Islam). The religion of Israel is a religion of the book, the Bible, while that of Africa has no sacred scriptures; one has reached us through practice and written records, while the other is inscribed in the lives of the people. When we talk of Old Testament Jewish religious life, there is a sense in which this religion is ancient, almost removed from the daily life of the Jewish people today whatever their religious beliefs and practices may be. On the other hand, African religion is very much a living and contemporary reality.
Thus, this comparative exercise is, in some ways, unbalanced and limited. It will revolve around the respective conceptions of God, because here we find many striking parallels between Jewish and African religious life, as well as some clearly divergent views.
Monotheism
Jewish monotheistic faith is articulated in the creed Shema Israel: « Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord is our God, one Lord » (Deut. 6:4). It is reinforced in the Occalogue: o You shall have no other god to set against me 6 (Ex. 20:3), as well as in other teachings of what we Christians call the Old Testament. Worshipping the Lord is a primary injunction which has become a deeply rooted practice in Jewish life. The making and adoration of idols arc strictly prohibited and any breach of this is severely punished even by death.
When we turn to African religion, the notion of God is similarly very basic. But monotheism is not raised as an issue. It is taken for granted that God can only be One, and his position as such is unquestionable. Belief in the existence of God is taken for granted, being held corporately by each African people. There are no laws to enforce this belief or to safeguard this monotheism since that is not called into question. Whoever fails to conform to this corporate belief is regarded as foolish, strange and out of place in his community. Religious conformity is assumed but nonconformity is not punishable — except when rituals or morals are broken. Also, in African religion, worshipping God is not a legal practice. It is a community concern, which is often dictated by the needs of society as they may arise. Individuals may worship God in a private way, but they may also show respect to other religious beings and objects without incurring the wrath of God and without feeling that they are unfaithful to him in any way. However, there are no idol represenrations of God in African societies, as far as research has revealed. Indeed, it is held to be absurd for anyone to make physical representations or images of God.
One Pygmy hymn about God says:
In the beginning was God (Khmvoum).
Today is God,
Tomorrow will be God.
Who can make an image of God?
He has no body.
He is as a word which comes out of your mouth. That word! ft is no more,
It is past, and still it lives!
So is God.
And yet the emphasis on monotheism leaves a number of problems unsolved both in Jewish and African traditions. It can be interpreted, at least by implication, that there ere other divine beings in the cosmology of the ancient Israelites. The Bible makes references to a gods g (elobim), and the Lord is depicted as being a jealous God (Elobim). The « gods g of the nations that surrounded Israel are mentioned, but Israel is under strict prohibitions not to worship these other « gods ». There are implications of an assembly or council of gods — e.g. Psalm 82:1, 6 f.
God has taken his place in the divine council;
In the midst of the gods he holds judgment ... I say, « You are gods,
sons of the Most High all of you;
nevertheless, you shall die like men,
and fall like any prince. »
Obviously there are many explanations of these and similar references. But the difficulties still remain. To these we may add the question of divine duality which is implied in various ways in the Old Testament.
For example, Isaiah 45:7 reads: I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe... »; Jacob wrestles with the Lord who at the same time blesses him (Gen. 32:24-30); it is God who both hardens the heat of Pharaoh (Ex. 9:12, 10:1, etc.) and consequently punishes the Egyptians so severely; it is the Lord who sends an « evil spirit » into king Saul and makes him mad (I Sam. 16:14, 19:9 f.).
African religion seems to wrestle with similar difficulties. It acknowledges a variety of divinities that function at various levels and for various reasons. Some are thought to have been created by God, to fill up the ontological gap between God and man, and to be protectors of human beings. But by far the majority of divinities are simply personifications of naturalphenomena and objects such as the seas, the lakes. the forests, thunderstorms, earthquakes, death, etc. They are, in this respect, fixed divinities who pose no threat or competition to God since they are tied to particular natural phenomena or objects. Further. more, these divinities are acknowledged almost exclusively by those African peoples who traditionally had chiefs and kings. This means that the introduction of divinities into African cosmology is also a reflection of the political structure of the peoples concerned. Very rarely, if ever, are prayers offered to these divinities, or sacrifices made directly to them.
Problem of Evil in Relation to God
A more serious problem is the one that attributes a form of duality to the activities and nature of God. Almost invariably this is connected with the problem of evil, particularly illness and death. We may illustrate this from a number of African sayings about God. It is held by some African peoples that « God kills and makes alive »; others accept misfortunes as « the will of God g; some say that God « gives and causes to rot g; all believe that God gives them children, but some say that God kills children; in some places when someone dies, people say that « God has cheated us of a life g (i.e. God has taken away one life from the community). As Job observed, so also it is the experience of many African peoples that God gives and takes away.
However, these unresolved difficulties and experiences do not stop people from holding firmly on to God whether in the Jewish tradition or African tradition. He is supreme above all, almighty, ruler of the universe. God is held to be essentially good, merciful and loving towards his people. We need not belabor this basic belief.
Holiness of God
Holiness is stressed a great deal in the Jewish tradition. God is often spoken of as Holy One of Israel e; Isaiah sees the vision of the Lord and hears the angels singing his holiness (Isaiah 6). God demands a holy relationship between himself and Israel, in the Snaffle covenant. Indeed, the whole theology of sin, starting with the so-called fall of man in Genesis, going through the history of ancient Israel, is cast against a background which takes God to be essentially holy and man to be constantly, if not incurably, sinful.
This emphasis on God's holiness versus man's sinfulness is absent in African religion. God is simply other than man — dwelling in his own place in the heavens or sky, creating and sustaining the world and being ontologically separated from what he has created. Man is not depicted as a sinner In the sight of God —he is simply a creature like other creatures, and his limitations am ontological rather than moral. One African religious belief is stated like this:
Nzame (God) is on high, man is below!
Nzame is Nzame, man is man;
Each to himself, each in his dwelling.
However, stress is laid on observing the correct procedures in ritual performances, so that failure to follow these procedures correctly constitutes ritual uncleanliness. The breaking of many taboos is also regarded as a form of impurity which has to be removed ritually. Such impurity is not an offence against God as such, but simply against tradition, custom, or community.
Manifestations of God
Various manifestations of God are mentioned in the Bible. Some of them arc anthropomorphisms, others am theophanies, and there is emphasis on the glory of God being manifested through fire (Ex. 24:17), cloud (Ex. 16:10; Num. 16:42, etc.) and earthquake. Moses is privileged to see the glory of God, (Ex. 33:18 ff.); an a angel of the Lord » appears to various people like Hagar (Gen. 16:7-12), David at the threshing floor of Oman (I Chron. 21:16, 18, 20), Moses at Horeb (Ex. 3:2), Salaam (Num. 22:22), etc.
These manifestations of God as recorded in the Jewish tradition are either unknown, of take on different forms, in African religion. Theophanies are unknown. But God's manifestations in or through natural phenomena arc widely acknowledged. In particular, heavenly phenomena are interpreted to be manifestations of God. The sky is intimately associated with God as his dwelling place. The sun is a manifestation of God's all-seeing, all-shining nature; the stars are regarded as God's children or fires; the rain is a special blessing from God; thunder is interpreted to be God's voice, and lightning us God's instrument of accomplishing his will in the world. There are no references in African religion to anything like “ the angel of the Lord 6. However, there is a belief in one part of the continent that God exists in a kind of trinity or triad as Father, Mother and Son. The functions of these three are not defined.
God and Angelic Spirits
In the realm of God and angelic spirits, both Jewish and African traditions have plenty to say. In Jewishtradition we hear about angels as messengers of God, and some have names (like Michael, Gabriel, etc.). We also hear about different categories of angels, the seraphim and cherubim; and about the involvement of angels in human affairs or history under the direction of God. In addition there are other but malicious spiritual beings, commonly referred to as demons, which, according to one tradition, were made by God, or g fell » from glory, or came out of sexual union between angels and beautiful human daughters. The role of demons is not stressed in the Old Testament, however; and what Christians say about them comes mainly from the New Testament account and extra-canonical sources.
A wide variety of spirits is incorporated into the African religious system. Some are said to have been created by God in the class of spirits; some are personifications of minor natural objects or phenomena, but the majority are simply the spirits of the departed, some of whom are still remembered by their surviving family members. Only rarely would God use any of these spirits for communicating with man. There arc some spirits that do mischief to people, but on the whole the spirits depict the character of human beings who arc neither good nor bad but many do both good and bad things to other people. Also spirits serve as one of the explanations of evil happenings in the world, even if they are not always responsible for them.
Worship of God
Worshipping God is a primary occupation in the religious life of ancient Israel and a great deal about it is recorded in the Bible. It is both a command and a spontaneous expression of the human soul, an expression of human commitment to God who is pictured as being jealous in connection with worship being rendered to anything or anyone else. This worship takes on a variety of forms — sacrifices, offerings, prayers, dedications, festivals, singing, dancing, ritual and ceremony. There are sacred places, altars, shrines, mountains and temples. Worship is the highest act that man can render to God. indeed, the welfare of Israel es a nation is intimately linked with its life of worship. Liturgical functionaries, especially the priests, have a leading position in the sentiment of the nation. Sacred places are utterly different from other places.
We find many similarities between Jewish worship habits and African worship. However, in African religion, worship is not commanded by God. It springs primarily from necessity — man feels that he needs God, and this need is expressed through worship. Much of African worship is communal and corporate. People make sacrifices of animals (and formerly of human beings in times of great distress) and offerings of food stuffs as well as other belongings. However, the world of the departed is more integrated into the worship of African peoples than is the case in Jewish tradition. Some symbolic offerings and sacrifices are destined for the departed, as are also a few of the prayers. This does not mean that the departed are worshipped as such: they are simply acknowledged as part of the wider community and as belonging to the families concerned. For this reason, since they are part of the worshipping community, they have to be taken up in the acts of worship.
There is no feeling in African religion that people would ever forsake the worship of God or that this would bring them any ill consequences. Worship is so integrated into the life of the people that it is almost impossible to stop it. Prayers are central acts of worship, and reveal man's utter spiritual nakedness before God. In prayer man reaches his highest spiritual heights. In the African setting, this comes out in corporate communal expressions, since personal and private spirituality is not stressed.
God and Man
Much is said about the relationship between man and God, in both Jewish and African traditions. There are some parallel concepts about this, as well as others which differ considerably. In the biblical tradition, man is created as the final and culminating creature, and as a special creature since he is made in the image of God. Man's early state is a paradise, in the garden of Eden. Then comes the so-called fall of man, the expulsion from paradise, the dispersion of man, experiences of suffering, etc. Out of this fallenness, God establishes a covenant with Abraham (or Noah, wherever one wishes to start), Isaac and Jacob. The notion of the chosen people of Israel emerges, and the formation of the nation with its special history from the exodus onwards takes over the scene. God becomes the Creator, the Covenant Maker, the God of a nation, who not only shows favor to that nation but also punishes it when it is unfaithful. God speaks to this nation through the prophets and, in later years, he commits a universal mission to this nation or its faithful remnant. This nation's history is not simply secular: it is sacred, it is salvific — a history of salvation which Christians have taken over nearly two thousand years ago. Attached to all these concepts are the expectations of Israel, especially messianic and apocalyptic, and an eschatology which is largely linked to the notion of history which divides time into two: this age (ha-olam ha-zeh) and the age to come (ha-clam ha-ba). One age is evil, the other is glorious. History will culminate in the Age to Come — the faithful will be resurrected, inherit the kingdom of God, enter paradise regained,and be restored to a state of eternal bliss. But the wicked will suffer a kind of endless torture or punishment often pictured in the form of fire or darkness. God will execute judgment on the last day, when everyone will be gathered before him.
Such is the Jewish view of human relations with God. Obviously we have oversimplified it for the sake of brevity. The African view is very similar at the beginning, namely the creation of man by God (but not in the image of God as such). According to a large number of myths, the early state of man was one of bliss — God lived close to early man, and provided him with food and shelter. Death and disease were not a threat. In some myths it is said that if man died, he was to rise again; or if he grew old, he was to change and became young again. Immortality, resurrection and rejuvenation were basic gifts of God to the early man. However, for various reasons these gifts got lost, the earth and sky separated, man and God separated; and evil, suffering and pain became the order of the day for man. Ever since, man keeps in touch with God only through worship — sacrifices, prayers, rituals.
According to African religion this separation is not a moral separation and man is not depicted as a sinner in the eyes of God. Consequently, there is no special calling of man by God, as was the case of Abraham and other patriarchs. There arc no chosen or elect people — everyone is equally created by God. God continues to work in and through human history, but not by any special acts of a covenant nature. There is no culmination of history at the last day nor is there a day of judgment. There is no future end of history as we know it with the beginning of a new earth or regained paradise. Death cannot be resolved, since immortality is lost for good; the resurrection was a past possibility and man does not expect a change in the direction of history. God provides for the daily needs of people, even if suffering and pain continue. People pray to him, make sacrifices, speak to him, and he responds by answering their prayers but not by speaking to them. The Jewish prophet who is the mouthpiece of God and who proclaims x Thus says the Lord ...» is completely unknown in African religion. So also there is no messianic expectation, nor are there salvific hopes, since man is not a sinner in need of salvation. This does not mean that there ere no ethics and morals in African religion: on the contrary, corporate, community life, so characteristic of traditional Africa, demands a very close observance of morals, ethics, taboos and customs. Reward for observing these rules, as well as punishment for breaking them, are meted out by the community itself — rarely would God come into the picture. Therefore, there is neither heaven nor hell in African religion — except what the community may tender to its individual members, and what that individual may deserve because of his conduct and actions as a member of his community.
With regard to human history, Jewish and African views about the beginnings of man are fairly similar, but their views about the future or finality of man are extremely divergent. Jewish religious insights havefound the way for man to regain paradise — the only problem being that it is still in the unknown future. African religious insights have opted for a pragmatic acceptance that puts up as much as. possible with the reality of a lost paradise. And between paradise lost and paradise-to-be-regained we have a wide chasm which only religion can grasp and only God can bridge.
Professor John Mbiti, director of the Ecumenical Institute, Dorsey, Switzerland, was one of the organizers of the Conference of the W.C.C. Consultation on the Church and the Jewish People held in Jerusalem in 1977, with special emphasis on Africa.
Editor's note: The articles by John Mbiti, Temba Mafico, Yacob Tesfai and Meseret Sebhat-Leah first appeared in Christian-Jewish Relations in Ecumenical Perspective, edited by Franz von Hammerstein, W.C.C., Geneva, 1978. Reprinted by permission.
