"Outcry"
Its context in Biblical Theology
 
 

Ee Kon Kim
Professor of Old Testament
Hanshin University, Seoul, Korea
 
 
   

The outcry to God of every suffering people,
like that of the Hebrews in Egypt, operates
as the place where humanity meets God through
the dialogical interaction of human lament
and divine intervention.
 

ONE OF SEVERAL BREAKTHROUGHS in the task of doing theology in Asia is a Korean tradition known as minjung theology. It is strongly influenced by the biographical circumstances of the politically, economically, and socioculturally downtrodden minjung ("people") of Korea. His theology arose in the nineteen sixties out of the personal experiences Korean missionaries shared with downtrodden workers. As a result, the concept of evangelism in Korea shifted from traditional commitments to "finding the son of human being (ho huios tou anthropou) himself among he oppressed workers (minjung) themselves" (cf. Matt. 25:40, 45). A decisive impact was made on the Korean theological conscience by Tae-il Chun, a young Christian Laborer who committed suicide by burning himself to death at the beginning of the nineteen seventies. Consequently, the theological discussions in Korea concerning issues like the indigenization of th gospel, the secularization of the gospel, political theology, and the theology of revolution, among others, were replaced by the theme of minjung. Eventually, many Korean theologians expressed their Christian prophetic witness by opposing the Yushin dictatorship, which exploited the minjung. Theologians began to leave the classrooms of seminaries and universities to of into the streets, that is, into the Sitz-im Leben of minjung, where they began to learn contextual theology by reading text through context, to develop concern for the substructure of revelation rather than its superstructure, and to discover the elusive revelation of Christ in the minjung event rather than out of the church sacrament. Although many articles dealing with this issue have been published in Minjung and Korean Theology (Seoul: Korea Theological Study Institute, 1982) and in a few English and German books, minjung theology is still in an early stage of development. This article is an attempt to read the Old Testament in the context of minjung theology.
The outcry of distress (zltse'aquah)- the language of the afflicted - is an immediate and underlying motive by which Yahweh's mighty acts (magnalia Dei) are provoked in Israel's history of salvation and is said to be the keynote of Israel's theology of Heilsgeschichte. This keynote, however, is habitually unheard in the spheres of American-European theology whose main emphasis is theocentric. This state of affairs can be verified by the fact that American-European Christianity has long been reluctant to recognize zltse'aqah as an important and inevitable component of public worship. Furthermore, Christian Scripture does not support an idea commonly accepted in Western Christendom that "lamentation has no place in a healthy and good relationship with God." Quite to the contrary, the biblical reality is that "lamentation"(zltse'aqah) is and indispensable part of the human relationship to God in which the afflicted one meets the divine presence. One lamenter says: "For [Yahweh] has not scorned the downtrodden, nor shrunk in loathing from his plight, nor hidden his face from him, but gave heed to him when he cried out"(Ps. 22:24[25]). This short passage indicates that "lamentation" is a most important medium for the relationship between God and human beings in distress. Good evidence for this can also be found in a Midrashic explanatory note on Psalms 22:24[25]. The spirituality of the Old Testament has long been nourished on the faith that God has not despised nor abhorred the lowliness of the poor. In the Old Testament, the cry of distress (zltse'aqah) is and inevitable dimension of what happens between God and human being. In this present context we can ask the question: What is the theological matrix of zltse'aqah in the Old Testament?

1. "Outcry" is the initiator of the magnalia Dei in the Exodus-event

The contemporary theology of the Old Testament maintains that the Exodus-event is decisively significant in evolving the theology of the Old Testament. Remarkably, the traditions that have maintained and transmitted the Exodus-event have witnessed to the fact that "lamentation" has long played ist peculiar role at the place where the salvific work of Yahweh has been evoked. The most typical exemplar can be found in the so-called "ancient short historical creed" (Deut. 26:5b-9; Josh. 24:2b-13), a Hexateuch in miniature, which summarizes the vast Hexateuchal narratives comprising the history of the formation of Israel. It is schematically framed by the following themes:

Prehistory of distress(Deut.26:5b-6)¡æCry for help (zltse'aqah, Deut. 26:7a)¡æHearkening

(Deut.26:7b)¡æSalvation(Deut.26:8-9).

This theological framework, though it does not always appear in precisely the same way, exhibits the basic structure of "cry¡æsalvation" and is a firm component of all the Heilgechichte narratives. The Book of Exodus begins by bearing witness to the fact that "salvation" is experienced as the divine hearkening to the "cry of distress." The theological framework of the beginning of the Book of Exodus is manifested in the usage of a threefold repetition.

Pattern A: Cry for help¡æSalvation through hearkening
The Israelites were still groaning under their slavery and cried out for help (z'qw). Their cry went up to God, who heard (shm') their groaning ...(Exod. 2:23-24).

Pattern B: Cry for help¡æSalvation through hearkening
Then Yahweh said, "...I have heard (shm') their outcry (ts'q) against their slave-masters, and have come down to rescue them (Ihtsyl) from the power of Egypt...(Exod. 3:7-8).

Pattern C: Cry for help¡æSalvation through hearkening
The outcry (ts'qt) of the Israelites has now reached me; I have seen...' I will send you to Pharaoh and you shall bring (hwts') my people the Israelites out of Egypt (Exod. 3:9-10).

This threefold emphasis at the beginning of the Exodus on the pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation" reiterates the two poles of the Heilgeschichte scheme running through the whole history of Israel in the Old Testament. However, the European-American expositions of the above passages have long overlooked the theological significance of zltse'aqah by focusing upon the initiatory act of Yahweh's salvation. The Latin-American scholar Jose Severino Croatto points out the fact that there is a "word" of the oppressed that precedes Yahweh's liberation: "The word of the oppressed is the 'cry.' Is ti a mere passive lamentation? Would it not rather be to move God, signifying that they hope for salvation only from him?" According to Cratto, the theme "cry" (rigmu in Babylonian) is also illustrated in various Mesopotamian myths, the most interesting which is the Atrahasis, a social myth that recounts the rebellion of the minor gods and human beings against the three masters Anu, Enlil, and Enki. The myth culminates with human frustration, since the human desire for liberation remains unsatisfied. On the other hand, the Hebrew outcry to Yahweh, passive at first, points out that the oppressed people have begun to embark on the path of liberation. In this context, it can be argued that the rhetorical pattern "outcry¡æsalvation" at the beginning of Exodus narrative shows that the outcry is an initiator of Yahweh's salvific act in Israel's Heilgeschichte.

2. The rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation" prior to the event of Exodus

Genesis 18:20-21(A)¡æGenesis 19:29(B)
(A) Yahweh said, "There is a great 'outcry' over Sodom and Gomorrah;...
I must go down and see whether their deeds warrant the 'outcry' which has reached me..."

(B) Thus, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he thought of Abraham and rescued Lot from the disaster,....

The above passages show that the outcry (zltse'aqah) from Sodom and Gomorrah, though it did not derive from Lot himself, caused Yahweh to "remember" Abraham and to rescue Lot from the destruction. Other Old Testament passages support this argument that the speech of the afflicted acts as the agent in inducing God to a saving action:

Genesis 16:11 (cf. Gen. 21:17)
And the messenger of Yahweh said to her [Hargar], "You...will bear a son. You shall name him Ishmael [that means 'God heard'], because Yahweh has heard of your ill-treatment.

Genesis 29;32-33 (cf. Gen. 30:6, 22)
Leah conceived and bore a son; and she called him Reuben, for she said, "Yahweh has seen my humiliation..." Again she conceived and bore a son and said, "Yahweh has heard that I am not loved,..."

The above passages belong to the rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation." Other sources also bear indirect connection to the pattern:

A report that the sun rose as Jacob passed through Penuel, limping because of his dislocated waist (Gen. 32:31[32]).

A divine promise that a host of nations shall come from Jacob, and kings shall spring from Jacob's dislocated waist (Gen. 35:11).

The Language of the afflicted, or the affliction itself, can be argued to be a hope-filled conduit of the hope of salvation and a terminus a quo whence the divine work of salvation emerges. Truly, the rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation" must be seen as a formal literary matrix within which all the salvation stories converge.

3. The rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation" posterior to the event of Exodus

The wilderness traditions encompassing the great variety of material that covers the period from the exodus out of Egypt to the entrance into Canaan share the murmuring motif as the rubric under which the whole story of the wilderness wanderings has been interpreted. It is surely noteworthy that the murmuring motif is framed by the rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation."

(A) Numbers 11:4-6 (cf. Exod. 16:3)
The Israelites themselves wept once again and cried, "Will no one give us meat? Think of it!... Now our throats are parched; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna."

(B) Numbers 11:31-32 (cf. Exod. 16:4)
Then a wind from Yahweh sprang up; it drove quails in from the east, and they were flying all around the camp...

Not only the outcries of the righteous but also the murmurings are responded to by Yahweh's mighty deed. In the murmuring motif, however, the theological framework is closer to the Deuteronomistic framework of historical theology than to the simple pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation." As is well known, the Deuteronomistic framework of theology in the Book of Judges is structured as follows:

The apostasy of Israel¡æGod's oppression¡æ"outcry"¡æsalvation by sending the Judges

The comprehensive exemplars in the Book of Judges can be found in the following passages: Judges 3:7-9 (ze'aqah¡æsalvation by sending Othniel); Judges 4:1-4(tse'aqah¡æsalvation by sending Deborah); Judges 6:7-8b (ze'aqah¡æsalvation by sending Jephthah). This rhetoical framework in the Book of Judges places the pattern of "the apostasy of Israel¡æGod's oppression" before the pattern "outcry (zltse'aqah)¡æsalvation(yeshu'ah)" and seems to be infuenced by preewilic experience, which is also the basic promulgation of the Deuteronomistic history, namely, that the story of Israel is a story of apostasy. It does not mean, however, that the Deuternomistic historian is breaking the Heilgeschichte framework of "zltse'aqah¡æyeshu'ah" by adding the judgement motif that follows upon the breach of covenant law. On the contrary, as Gerhard von Rad has shown, a counter theme develops in the Deuteronomistic presentation of the history of the kingdom, that is, the theme of grace.
The Heilgeschichte framework of "zltse'aqah¡æyeshu'ah" exists not only in the Book of Judges but also in the Book of Kings and the two Books of Samuel.

I Samuel 7:8-9
They [the Israelites] said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry out (z'q) for us to Yahweh our God to save (ys') us from the power of the Philistines." There upon Samuel... cried out(z'q) to Yahweh on behalf of Israel; and Yahweh answered ('nh) his outcry.

The above passages is noteworthy because in it the Israelites do not request Samuel to pray for salvation but only to cry out(!). It bears witness to the theological theme that the outcry is the only passageway to the divine salvation.
I Samuel 7:8-9 belongs to the context of the holy war narratives, whose frequent motif is "crying" to Yahweh. Samuel in this passage is no more than a mediator of a holy war who invokes Yahweh to answer Israel's outcry with a great victory. The expression "ze'aqah" is meant to indicate the urgency of Yahweh's military intervention by Yahweh's holy war. In the context of holy war tradition, the outcry (lamentation) must have long been an initiator of holy war and a terminus a quo for Yahweh's act of salvation.
The prayers of Elijah (I Kings 17:20-22; 18:36-39) and of Hezekiah (II Kings 19:1-7; 20:3-7) also seem to be included in the rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation." The rhetorical patterns in, for example, the messages of Jeremiah and Deutero-Isaiah, although they do not use the exact pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation" directly, also show they belong to the same category as that of "outcry¡æsalvation" in the form of their thematic evolution:

Jeremiah 15:10-11 (outcry¡æconfidence in salvation)
Alas, alas, my mother, that you ever gave me birth: a man doomed to strife, with the whole world against me. Yahweh answered, "But I will greatly strengthen you; in time of distress and in time of disaster I will bring the enemy to your feet."

Isaiah 40:8 (outcry¡æconfidence in salvation)
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but (waw'-adversative) the word of our God endures for evermore.

This rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æconfidence in victory" seems to have been transmitted even to the period of Nehemiah, as in the examples Nehemiah 9:9 (cf. Exod. 3:7; 4:31) and Nehemiah 9:27 (cf. Judg. 2:15; I Kings 8:37). The penitential prayer in Nehemiah 9 reflects a deep feeling for Israel's Heilgeschichte as illustrated by the rhetorical pattern in the Deuteronomistic history. This indicates that the rhetorical pattern of Heilgeschichte, the "outcry¡æsalvation" pattern has long been repeated in the history of Israel (cf. Neh. 9:28: "many times over you heard them from heaven"). As L. W. Batten points out, "whenever Israel cried in distress God gave relief." This means that the outcry itself has the strength to provoke Yahweh to rise up against the oppressors.

4. The zltse'aqah motif in the codes of covenant and Deuteronomy

The humanistic elements in the codes of covenant and Deuteronomy illustrate that the Israelites' codes are based on their historical experiences as an oppressed people. Thus the codes are characterized by a tendency to protect the oppressed people (minjung) from their ill-treatment by using the casual particles such as ki, 'al-ken, and others.

Exodus 22:20 [21] (cf. Exod. 23:9 [C code])
Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner,
because (ki) you were foreigners in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 24:17-18 (D code)
Do not deprive foreigners and orphans of their rights; and do not take a widow's garment as security for a loan. Remember! Because (ki) you were slaves in Egypt...; that is why ('al-ken) I have given you this command.

This spirit of protection of oppressed people from ill-treatment is closely related to the "outcry(zltse'aqah)¡æsalvation(yeshu'ah)" motif in the codes of covenant and Deuteronomy.

Exodus 22:21-22 [22-23] (cf. 22:25-26 [26-27])
Do not afflict any widow or orphan. Because (ki) if you do, and if there is an outcry I will surely hear their outcry.

Deuteronomy 22:24
You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death. The girl is to die because ('al-ken) she did not cry out for help although she was in a town, where she could have been heard.

In the light of the usage of "the absolute infinitive with the verb" in Exodus 22:21-22 [22-23], the covenant code must bear witness to the fact that the outcry is and "inevitable" initiator of the divine response to the one who cries out. It is noteworthy, moreover, that the "outcry" is the "fatal" element for the salvation of the afflicted: the code of Deuteronomy promulgates that the girl should have been stoned to death because of her "non-cry." As is well known from the form-critical study of the historical prologue to the Elohistic Decalogue (Exod. 20), the reason why the Israelites have to keep the laws is exclusively rooted in the historical experience of distress in Egypt and of liberation from their slavery. The theological theme Heilsgeschichte must also be ramification of the theological reflections on such historical experience of outcry (zltse'aqah) and salvation (yeshu'ah).

5. The outcry¡æsalvation pattern in the lament psalms

Most of the psalms in the Book of Psalms that have long influenced the pietistic tradition of the Jewish and Christian religions are lament psalms. The peculiar characteristic of the psalms of lamentation is an abrupt change in mood from complaint and petition to a sudden assurance of divine intervention. The following examples reflect this phenomenon:

Psalm 6:8-9 (complaint in v.8¡æconfidence in v.9)

v.8 (complaint): My eye is dimmed with sorrow, it has grown weak because of all my foes.
v.9 (confidence): Depart from me, all evildoers, for (ki) Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping.

What is noticeable is that the zltse'aqah in the laments is almost always followed by the confidence of yeshu'ah:

Psalm 22:6a
They cried to you (z'q)

Psalm 22:6b
and were saved (mlt).

Psalm 34:17a[18]
They cried (ts'q)

Psalm 34:18b-d[18]
and Yahweh heard (sm'), and he delivered (nstl) them.

According to my analysis of the structure of the lament psalms, the zltse'aqah (outcry) here could represent the conjunction of all three component elements of the laments, that is, call to God (invocation), shouting in distress (complaint), and supplicating for help (petition), since each of these elements has the same function, namely, to draw God's intervention. Accordingly, it can be said that the basic mood of lament (zltse'aqah), which consists of "invocation, complaint, and supplication," is followed by the confidence that includes various sorts of trust in God's victory over the enemy.
Although there is no agreement among scholars on the explanation of why these laments contain such an abrupt assurance of divine intervention of what motivates the lamenter to shift from the uncertainty of complaint to a firm sense of trust in Yahweh, it has long been conjectured that the sudden shift can have three possible origins: (!) an intervention of the priestly oracle of salvation; (2) a psychological dynamic, which issues in a spontaneous surge of relief in the course of prayer; and (3) a looking back upon previous aid that has already been granted. Explanations of such a sudden transition, however, were not based on traditio-historical evidence in past scholarship but on cult-oriented and psychological inferences. I have argued elsewhere that the piety in the change of mood in the lament psalms is structured by the history-of-salvation framework of "zltse'aqah¡æyeshu'ah" whose traditio-historical root is found in the holy war tradition:

Psalm 3
complaint (vs. 2-3) O Yahweh, how many are my adversaries.... ¡æ

trust (vs. 4-7) But you, O Yahweh, are a shield...

petition (vs. 8a) Rise up,... Give me victory.... ¡æ

confidence (vs. 8b-9) Surely you smote all my enemies....

Deuteronomy 20:1a When you to forth to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, ¡æ

Deuteronomy 20:1b You shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Judges 7:20 (war-cry) The three complaints shouted..."A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!"

Judges 7:21 (victory) And the entire force [i.e., enemies] awoke with a start. They yelled and they fled.

This pattern appears almost everywhere the lament psalms are sung.

6. The krauge (zltse'aqah) motif in the New Testament

The Greek term krauge appears as a special term initiating the mighty acts of God in the passages where Jesus is expelling the evil spirit:

When he [a man with an evil spirit in the reign of the Gerascenes] saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted (kraxas) at the top of his voice (phone megale).... For(gar) Jesus was saying to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!" (Mark 5:6-8).

The krauge with phone megale here bears witness to the fact that the outcry of the afflicted (or the oppressed) playes a role as an initiator of the divine Heilsgeschichte even in the New Testament. In Matthew 14:30-31, the deliverance of Peter from the water is said to have been motivated by Peter's krauge (outcry) itself. Moreover, ti is noteworthy that the krauge with phone magale from Jesus on the cross is reported to shift rapidly to the confessional doxology of a centurion as follows: "Surely he was the Son of God!" Such a rhetorical pattern of "outcry¡æsalvation" must be closely connected to the Heilsgeschichte framework of "crucifixion¡æresurrection," which runs through Pauline theology: "In Romans 5:12-21 Paul anticipated the content of Christ's paschal work by establishing an opposition between death (beginning with Adam but revived under law) and life (through grace and the gift of righteousness, the work of Christ, (vv. 17, 18, 21)."
In conclusion, the rhetorical structure of "outcry¡æsalvation" (zltse'aqah¡æyeshu'ah) can be seen as a theological framework that explains how God work through human history of affliction. Indeed, humanity meets God in, through, and by the history of outcry. The "outcry" to God of every suffering people, like that of the Hebrews in Egypt, operates as the only place where we meet God by the dialogical interaction of human lament and divine intervention. The reason why minjung theology emphasizes the theologians' somatic participation in the pain and aspiration of minjung becomes self-evident in light of the theology of the Old Testament.
 

Interpretation 42/3 (July 1988), pp. 229-39