AUTHORITY AND [I]LEGITIMATE POWER IN THE EXODAL NARRATIVE

a literary-theological approach to the antagonism between YHWH and Pharaoh mediated by the philosophical-conceptual perspective of Hannah Arendt

Abstract

A brief essay is proposed here on the topic relating to the issue of authority and [il]legitimacy of power in the exodus narrative, the focus of which will be through a literary-theological approach, methodologically adjusted by selected tools of narrative analysis. It is necessary to investigate, therefore, through the contrast of their respective narrative arcs, within the constitutive plot of the world narrated in the first part of the book of Exodus, the antagonism between the characters YHWH and Pharaoh, having as mediation the philosophical-conceptual perspective by Hannah Arendt. This dissertation path, therefore, is based on the text “What is authority?”, belonging to the book entitled “Between the past and the future”, in which Hannah Arendt conceives authority as a form of power that is based on acceptance and recognition of a hierarchy or tradition, being obeyed without the need for coercion or persuasion, but by recognizing the moral legitimacy of the character of those who exercise sovereignty. In this sense, the present study proposes to analyze, based on Hannah Arendt's tripartite concept of power, strength and authority, the philosophical meanings of the theological antagonism between YHWH and the Egyptian pharaoh, as narrated in the book of Exodus. Thus, it must be demonstrated that within the scope of the preamble speech to the promulgation of the legislation of Ancient Israel, when the LORD elects his people as a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19,4-6), the legislator-protagonist establishes a contrast between the character of YHWH and Pharaoh as a rhetorical foundation for the establishment of the covenant. This contrast, therefore, serves as a tool to attest to the legitimacy of the LORD's power in the face of Egypt's discretionary and oppressive slave system. It is concluded, therefore, that the actions of justice or injustice of sovereigns, reflected in their attitudes towards the oppressed people, determine the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the power exercised by them, thus substantiating their own authority.