National loyalty (religion)

With federal loyalty is called in Judaism and Christianity both God's faithfulness to the covenant with Israel and any behavior of those people which meets the laws and directives of the federal government, as in the Torah are listed.

Old testament

In the Old Testament , more precisely: in the second book of Moses, the book of Exodus , the God YHWH makes a covenant (berit) with his people Israel. Both YHWH and the people can show their loyalty (emuna) to this covenant, in that the latter group behaves according to the instructions and commandments and the former God keeps the promises made by him. In the book of Job, he behaves faithfully, but is not rewarded by YHWH, but punished. At the end of the book, however, Job receives double his possessions.

New Testament

That fidelity also plays a role in the New Testament . However, the associated Greek words pistos (loyal), pistis (loyalty) and pisteuein (to be loyal) are translated rather as believing, faith, believe in most translations. One of the few exceptions is the Bible in righteous language (cf. there, among other things, Brigitte Kahl's translation of the letter to the Galatians).

Today's relevance of the word

Since the concept of the covenant has lost more and more of its meaning in theology (this shows, among other things, the decreasing number of articles on the subject in the current specialist encyclopedias), only a few considerations are now made on loyalty to the federal government. Unlike a few decades ago, the term actually no longer has any meaning in theology today.

literature

• Giorgio Agamben : The time that remains. A comment on Romans. Reference points from Pauline texts . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2006 ISBN 3518124536 .
• Alfons Pluta: God's loyalty to the covenant. A key concept in Rom 3:25 a. Stuttgart: Catholic Biblical Works, 1969.
• Scott Hahn: God's Loyalty to the Covenant: A Father Who Keeps His Promises . Stein am Rhein: Christiana-Verlag, 2004 ISBN 3717110985