Getting to the Promised Land by Kevin W. Cosby

Author:Kevin W. Cosby
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781646981977
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Chapter Seven

Hanani’s Mission to Expose

Pseudo Innocence

Most of Us Ain’t Movin’ On Up

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ehemiah, I would argue, was precisely the type of individual earlier described in chapter 3. That is, he was a privileged Jew. And after being deported to Babylon, where he achieved a prominent position in society, he was content to be in service to the empire.

This is, admittedly, an unorthodox reading of Nehemiah. Religious scholars traditionally place him alongside Daniel, Zerubbabel, and Ezra, all of whom are rightfully regarded as Jewish patriots. Yet I believe this interpretation of Nehemiah elides the critical development of consciousness in his becoming the great and committed leader of his people that we, today, universally recognize him to be. Utilizing a hermeneutics of recuperation has been indispensable to my reading of the Scripture in general, and in my formulation of an ADOS theology in particular. As I pored over Scripture in search of the nuanced or less obvious issues taking place between the lines of text, it became apparent that perhaps no book of the Bible more so than Nehemiah’s provides occasion for a rich discovery of such material. In it we encounter so many of the same dynamics of oppression that define the modern ADOS experience. And so, with an eye to that experience, I read the book of Nehemiah seeking to recover those aspects of the Scripture that would otherwise remain obscured but are important in their ability to speak powerfully to the oppressed group of which I am a part.

After all, if biblical orthodoxy in America reflects the interests and concerns of an elite and powerful group, then it seems preposterous to suppose that much effort has ever been applied to interpreting Scripture in a way that shines a light down a new pathway of emancipatory possibilities for ADOS. ADOS theology, then, proceeds from this recognition that religion has become an instrument in the maintenance of oppressive structures. It aims to tease out traces of the unseen that might help our group see ourselves most clearly; it aims to intervene and make the Word of God speak most meaningfully to our unique experience as a people.

Topmost among the relevant themes that surface throughout Nehemiah is something upon which we have already touched: the threat posed by integration when it is pursued at only the most superficial level. In other words, when integration is managed in such a way where only select representatives from the minority population are elevated, the group as a whole is left socially, politically, and economically dislocated and dependent on the dominant culture. With respect to prominent Jewish figures living in Babylon, we have—up until now—primarily focused on those who have resisted the temptation to disengage with the struggles of the remnant in Jerusalem. They achieved this through prayer and a constant affirmation of their Jewish heritage. This is not, however, Nehemiah’s story.

As part of the second generation of Jews who had been deported to Babylon, Nehemiah was a privileged member from the oppressed group who served on King Artaxerxes’s royal court.

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