"So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28)
What significance do you attach to the symbolism underlying Jesus' choice of Twelve Apostles, and how does this apparent leadership circle square with his denunciations against the formation of hierarchical privileges, expectations of social deference & domination (see Mark 10.42-44; Matthew 20.20-28, Luke 22.24-27; Matthew 18.1-5, Mark 9.33-37, Luke 9.46-48; Matthew 22.16, Mark 12.14, Luke 20.21; Matthew 7.21, Luke 6.46)?
I agree with Professors Richard Horsley, Ched Myers, Dennis Hamm and Jonathan Reed (among others), that this is a case of Jesus "glancing nostalgically back to pre-monarchic times" when "no specific tribe or locale had primacy" (Reed, J. L. Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: A Re-examination of the Evidence p.58) but a series of twelve tribal judges governed Israel as "a loose confederation [with] no central government [except] in times of crisis, [when] the people would have been led by ad hoc chieftains, known as judges (shoftim)"(Kitchen, K. A. (2003)) and in this way, "recalling a time before the people of Israel decided to be like other nations and have a king, rejecting God's direct rule" (Meggitt (2015) p.24).
This explains why the "kingdom" is described solely as the kingdom of "God" by Jesus in the gospel accounts, rather than the kingdom of 'Jesus', or 'David' or any other human being. From the era when Israel transitioned from 'tribal-republican' Judges to the rule of monarchs, 1 Samuel 8.7. 1 Samuel 8.10-18 preserve a stinging critique of the exploitation that results from monarchy, from the lips of the prophet Samuel:
4Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king"...But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king"...
And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them...Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Samuel's Warning Against Kings
10So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them...Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Samuel's Warning Against Kings
10So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
In contrast, the pre-monarchical judges had refused to allow themselves to be made into kings over their countrymen, because God alone was "king":
22 Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also; for you have delivered us out of the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” (Judges 8:22-23)
In a parallel from Jesus's life, after the feeding of the multitude Jesus' evades an attempt by a crowd “take him by force to make him king” (John 6:15):
"Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself."
In the Synoptics and in the Fourth Gospel, Jesus often responds to acclamations of royal identity with correction and reproof (Matt 26:64; Mark 8:30–31; 10:47; 15:5; John 6:15, 18:34, 37). As Peter Marshall rightly observes, Jesus consistently “held political authority up to derision [by] demystifying and mocking the power it claimed." To quote Professor Brian pounds in a recent 2019 thesis:
"Jesus does seem to subvert Roman power structures by declaring that his followers are not to “lord over” others as Gentile rulers do but rather that the one who desires to be great should become servant or slave of all (Mark 10:42-44).
Even more politically pointed is Jesus' contrast of John the Baptist's ascetic lifestyle with those who live in palaces (Matthew 11:7-10; Luke 7:24-27). The singular reference to a man clothed “in soft robes” is likely Antipas himself and the subsequent plural reference to those who live in royal palaces may well refer to his extended family and entourage." (Pounds, B. p.122)
Even more politically pointed is Jesus' contrast of John the Baptist's ascetic lifestyle with those who live in palaces (Matthew 11:7-10; Luke 7:24-27). The singular reference to a man clothed “in soft robes” is likely Antipas himself and the subsequent plural reference to those who live in royal palaces may well refer to his extended family and entourage." (Pounds, B. p.122)
Another example of Jesus' condemnation of the ruling élite is his denial of the validity of the half-shekel temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27).The gospel story begins with collectors asking Peter if Jesus pays the tax. Peter responds affirmatively, but later Jesus asks him in private, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?” Peter responds “from others”, to which Jesus replies “Then the sons are free.” As Pounds notes: "Jesus' verbal response to Peter indicates that he considers the temple tax to be illegitimate.698 The implicit analogy in Jesus' rhetorical question is between “kings of the earth” and God on the one hand and “children” and the Jewish people on the other. If earthly political rulers do not tax their own households then neither does God tax his own children, the people of Israel.699 “The sons are free”– that is, free from the compulsion to pay it." Again this feeds into the idea that in accepting the kingdom of God as Jesus presents it, the Judean people will be "free" again as they were in the time of the judges, liberated from burdensome taxation by an exploitative ruling class, because they will be children of God alone under his 'reign'.
This is important since, in the beginning, God in Genesis apparently intended humankind to exercise stewardship only over animals and the environment but not to have dominance over our fellow human beings. As the Jesuit theologian Francisco Suarez stated in 1613: "men are by nature free and subject to no one" (DL 3.1.1).
The urge to have exploitative power over and higher status than other individuals, is associated in the church's tradition with the devil and the first sin:
"Who does not know that kings and dukes had their rulership from those who, not knowing God, strove from blind greed and intolerable presumption to dominate their equals, namely mankind, by pride, rapine, perfidy, murder, and crimes of all sorts, urged on by the ruler of the world, i.e., the devil?…
Therefore all Christians who desire to reign with Christ should be warned not to strive to rule through ambition of worldly power…"
(Pope Gregory VII in 1081: 552; see also Poole 1920: 201, fn. 5)
Therefore all Christians who desire to reign with Christ should be warned not to strive to rule through ambition of worldly power…"
(Pope Gregory VII in 1081: 552; see also Poole 1920: 201, fn. 5)
I think this is how Jesus's description of the Twelve disciples acting as "judges" of the reconstituted Twelve tribes of pre-monarchical Israel - when God alone reigned over his kingdom - is to be understood i.e.
25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that among the nations, those who appear to be their kings lord it over them, and their 'great' men are tyrants over them. 26 But it shall not be this way among you, rather whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, 27and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)
Instead of 'tyrant kings' lording it over their subjects and demanding 'service', Jesus' preaches God's Reign - a restored 'twelve tribes' as in the days of the judges when "the twelve tribes of Israel lived in village communities on their land for many generations in justice and equality directly under the covenantal rule (kingdom) of God, with no Pharaoh or other human king demanding tribute or forced labor" (Horsley, R.A. Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark's Gospel p.31).
It is for this reason that Professor Crispin Fletcher-Louis argues that a "biblical and Jewish “republicanism” helps explains aspects of the earliest beliefs about Jesus". As he writes in volume 1 of his study, Jesus Monotheism: "There was, in effect, a strongly republican spirit in second temple Judaism that was firmly grounded in a distinctively biblical theological anthropology. So it is not at all surprising to find a statement in 1 Maccabees 8:14-15 praising the Roman model of governance that rejected the need for a king" (Fletcher-Louis (2015), p.239).
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