AIM AND MOTIVATION OF THE STUDY

3.1 Aim of the study

The aim of this research as a whole is to put into perspective the experience of the suffering communities of the ancient biblical world by comparing it with the suffering of Zimbabweans during Mugabe’s rule in independent Zimbabwe, so as to elucidate how Zimbabweans can draw some motivation for emancipation in the midst of their own experience of pain perpetrated by

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their own black government. Hence, making the experience of the ancient Judeans analogous to that of Zimbabweans today is intended to learn from the experiences and errors of others (cf Scheffler 2001:13). The Judean experiences fall within the category of the political, economic, and cultural activities of the “others” from whom Zimbabweans may need to learn.

This research further aims to explore the elusiveness and ambivalence that often characterise processes towards liberation and national independence. As much as people long for security and freedom in their places of abode, total sovereignty is never guaranteed. The Judeans yearned to return to Jerusalem and Judah. Deutero-Isaiah’s oracles express concern for the suffering exiles in Babylonia where he says: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Is 40:1). However, when they finally arrived and settled in Judah, true nationhood and freedom were far from being established as notions of lack of commitment to rebuild the temple, starvation, oppression, and slavery are depicted in Nehemiah 5:1-10 and Haggai 1:3-4, respectively.

3.2 Motivation8 of the study

There are cases where the ancient biblical text is interpreted in isolation from the occurrences and experiences of today’s people. Moreover, matters of politics and economy are usually considered secular disciplines, fields of study and practice of the so-called secular, of which the

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Previous comments by Prof Willie Wessels (of BAS, UNISA) were “prophetic” and motivational to me. In his comments on my essay for an Honours Bachelor of Theology degree with UNISA (2004-2005), Prof Wessels encouraged me to consider taking further studies on the exodus motif. The present study is a follow-up to my previous studies on the exodus liberation motif. See my MA thesis. Rugwiji, T 2008. Reading the exodus tradition from a Zimbabwean perspective. MA thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria.

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believing communities do not want to address. At the same time, much of biblical scholarship centres on historical-critical debate which raises complex questions on the authenticity and authorship of the biblical text. However, not much effort has been put so far on appropriating the biblical text for the benefit of modern societies. As a result, essential themes within the biblical text that would otherwise enrich human ways of dealing with life issues in the contemporary world are ignored and remain hidden. Having critically considered the above circumstances, my quest to appropriate the Judean postexilic experience for the postcolonial experience of Zimbabweans was aroused. This motivation was accelerated by the idea of reading the biblical text for the politically-grilled,9 economically-informed10 and culturally-entrenched11 modern context.

Zimbabwe obtained independence from Rhodesia in 1980. In the last decade, I, among other citizens of Zimbabwe, witnessed a great deal of suffering due to the overbearing political dominance of the ZANU (PF) government. The political motive modeled by undemocratic philosophies, intricately buttressed by an ideology of a one-party state agenda in Zimbabwe, has

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One term or phrase can mean different things to different people. The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (=POD) defines politics as an art and science of government; it also refers to activities concerned with seeking power or status (see POD s v ‘politics’). The latter definition seems to have a close connection with the phrase used in this research. On the other hand, the term grill means to subject or be subjected to severe questioning (see POD s v ‘grill’). Therefore, the phrase politically-grilled refers to people who love politics so much that they cannot afford not to think or talk about it. In terms of the Judean-Persian story, political, economic, cultural, and other related issues should be accounted for.

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Economically-informed people have studied economics and they interpret economic activities in a society or country in terms of what really works as defined in the matrix of economic philosophy.

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Culturally-entrenched people are fond of referring to culture. The word “culture” is an inclusive term. It takes into account, linguistic, political, economic, social, psychological, religious, national, racial and still other differences.In modern society, as was the case in the past, culture plays a central role in the way people conduct their lives. For further reading, see Hesselgrave (1991).

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negatively affected the socio-economic conditions of the entire country. Although some critics have argued that economic development of Zimbabwe has not been successful since the postcolonial state elite took power in 1980 (cf Maundeni 2004:189), this notion is debated by some who hold that the postcolonial Zimbabwean government had scored remarkable socio- economic successes a few years into independence. This argumentation will be explored further in this study.

The Judean postexilic story of the biblical text does not provide a “prescription” towards a solution to political or economic conflicts affecting people in today’s world. On the contrary, we are warned “not to use the Bible as a power tool to control other people’s lives with an attitude of ‘the Bible says…’” (Scheffler 2006a:17). The biblical books were not written to address modern situations. These books were meant for people who lived in a pre-industrial and

pre-scientific world (Boshoff et al 2006:9). Therefore, having considered the views by Boshoff

and others, this study employs the comparative approach cautiously and responsibly, with the understanding that the Judean experience in ancient biblical times is unique, and so is the Zimbabwean experience. However, the former’s experience presents paradigms and themes appropriate for contemporary contexts if read in a broader perspective. This study selectively employs the postexilic paradigms and themes of ancient Judah in an attempt to explore the Zimbabwean situation.

It is also noted and understood that every Bible reader “comes to the Bible” with

baggage, whether for or against the biblical text. Such baggage influences the way one reads the

Bible (cf Scheffler 2006a:11). Issues of politics and justice permeate across cultures, and religion without justice is counterfeit or false religion (Bryne 1988:8). Thus, the narratives of the biblical

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text—which, to some extent, are described as “myths and legends”12 (cf Scheffler 2010; Oosthuizen 2002:33)—may have “answers” to questions in relation to politics, democracy, economy, poverty and justice arising from and in terms of the contemporary worldview. Van Dyk (2000:94) also observes that although allusions to creation myths are scattered throughout the Old Testament (e g, the books of Psalms and Job), creation myths are only found in Genesis 1:1-24a and Genesis 2:4b-3:24. In my view, however, such “myths and legends” have lessons to teach today’s people.

4 HYPOTHESIS

A hypothesis is a proposition that sets forth an explanation for the occurrence of a phenomenon. It is a provisional conjecture to guide further investigation which could be accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts. Research projects should always start with a hypothesis: what one assumes or concedes for the sake of argument. As rightly put into perspective by Borg and Shye (1995:95): “…assignments [projects] are made with a particular hypothesis in mind.” Comprehensively defined, a hypothesis is thus a statement that explains or makes generalisations about certain facts or principles in an effort to form a basis to make the investigation possible. This study makes the following hypotheses, expressed in three arguments:

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Peet van Dyk refers to myths as “fictitious stories and not to be believed because they do not reflect past reality and they represent a ‘primitive’ and uncritical state of the human mind.” See Van Dyk, P 1992. The truth in history and myth, in Wessels, W and Scheffler, E H (eds), Old Testament science and reality, 91-106. Pretoria: Verba Vitae.

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4.1 Argument against the “myth” of freedom in Persian-controlled Yehud

The postexilic Judean community was superimposed in between two opprossive systems: on the one hand, the Persian Empire under which Judah had become a province, and on the other the Judean governors who exacerbated the suffering of the poor of society, from whom land, vineyards and houses were taken by the government.

The Bible presents the Persians as having been kind to the Judeans in the sense that it was Cyrus who allowed the Judeans to return to Judah in order to establish a community and a nation of their own (cf Is 45:1-7). Yet, in actual fact, the political realities of the Persian period served to undermine the Judeans.13 The Persian Empire remained the administrative centre and law- enforcing authority across the province of Judea. The fact that they were required by law to pay tax to the Persian administration, depicts the notion of the Judeans having limited space of autonomy even though some of them were appointed as governors under the Persian Empire. Nehemiah 9:36-37, clearly states how the Judeans—among them Nehemiah himself—were subjected to slavery by the government. Although on the one hand, Ezra 9:8-9 praises the king of Persia for funding the rebuilding of both the temple and the wall of Jerusalem, on the other hand Ezra laments the “bondage” the Judeans were experiencing under the Persian Empire. This study argues against the “myth” of freedom in Persian-controlled Yehud. It explores that the Persians were as oppressive as the Babylonians although the levels of oppression varied.

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The Persian authorities, while allowing the re-establishment of the temple cult under the leadership of the high priest, granted only limited political autonomy to the returnees. For a detailed account on this, see Strauss (1995:38).

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4.2 Suffering and poverty were exacerbated by the Judean governors

The postexilic Judean community struggled to establish an identity for itself, even though they had anticipated that a peaceful environment would prevail in Yehud. Drought had struck the region so much that communities suffered a famine (Neh 5:3). Added to that, the Judean governors who had been appointed by Persia to administer tax began to oppress the poor of society; the leadership exacerbated the plight of poor communities by mortgaging their land, houses and vineyards as people struggled to pay tax due to economic hardship, which in the end, subjected their sons and daughters to enslavement (5:5). This study shows that while it holds true that the Judean communities were oppressed by the Persians as explained above, to a large extent the Judeans became slaves to and were oppressed by their own Jewish brothers (5:6-8).