What can we say about the "nationalism" of the Bible today? (Isaiah 66:18-21 and Luke 13:22-30; 25 August 2025)

A reflection on Isaiah 66:18-21 and Luke 13:22-30 written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA. 

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
25 August 2025
Isaiah 66:18-21 and Luke 13:22-30
“Alternative Narratives”

Welcome
It is hard not to overstate what is happening in Gaza: the destruction of the territory, the starvation and attempted genocide of the people. All this is done in the name of biblically inspired “nationalism”. As such, it has made many people very, very uncomfortable with overt nationalist passages in the readings from the Bible. This is so much the case that an Israeli Jesuit of Jewish background, David Neuhaus, has written a short article with a trenchant title: “Reading the Bible after the Destruction of Gaza.” In the words of Neuhaus: This causes the Bible to be frowned upon by those who fight for freedom, equality, and fraternity.

Topic
How can we respond? What is to be done?

Steps
1. To people perhaps not so familiar with the Bible, today’s first reading from Isaiah must come as something of a surprise. It offers a vision of all nations coming to worship the one, true God. The reading comes from the last part of Isaiah, usually called Third Isaiah, written after the return from the great Exile in Babylon. In spite of that setting, the reading breathes a broader, more universal air.

The unfamiliar names add great colour: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Moshech, Rosh, Tubal, and Javan. Tarshish is either in Spain or on the Black Sea; Put is most likely somewhere in Africa; Lud is Lydia in Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Moshech is unknown as is Rosh. Tubal is also in Asia Minor while Javan is ancient Greece. In another translation, the reading starts plainly: I am coming to gather every nation and every language.

2. This slightly exotic text is a reminder that in the Bible there are not one but two narratives of salvation. The first one, perhaps more familiar, is unapologetically nationalist, often harshly expressed. It is the story of the ancient Israelites, later the Jewish people. The second one, perhaps less apparent, offers a different story, the story of all the nations and their inclusion in God’s plan of salvation. This universalist vision represents an evolution in understanding, rooted in Genesis 1, where we read:

God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

God is the God of all human beings and all human beings are in his image and likeness. This is exactly what our reading from Isaiah is saying. 

3. It is this second narrative which is carried through in the New Testament. We can see it in today’s rather sharp Gospel: a story of transition from God’s first chosen people to all of humanity. Today, this has to handled carefully because it could sound as if Christian church has superseded, that is, taken the place of God’s first chosen people. In the past, this supersessionism has been the mother and the grandmother of anti-semitism. All of two thousand years ago, St Paul affirmed that God has not withdrawn his grace from the Jewish people. In Romans 11, we read:

So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! (Romans 11:1)

And a little further on, St Paul writes:

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)

Nevertheless, St Paul also recognises that something revolutionary happened the Christ-event and in the openness of the Gospel to all humanity. In his own words:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female —for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

It is recognised that St Paul is first person in history to state clearly that all human beings are radically equal, without distinction. In other words, he is the fulfilment of teachings scattered in the Hebrew Bible and he is the foundation of contemporary Christian universalism. Paul’s vision lies behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I hope that all this makes it clear that the Bible cannot be read simply from one point of view. We read the Bible in light of the full story — not in light of one strand of narrow nationalism but in the light of the broader vision of all of humanity as God’s beloved children, fulfilled in Christ. 

Conclusion
To conclude with the encouraging words of David Neuhaus:

In essence, the Bible read as the Word of God teaches equality, justice and peace, values that are in harmony with the God we learn to know in the Church’s reading of the Bible.