The Vital Villain - PREFACE
A Vital Nemesis
Welcome to: THE VITAL VILLAIN
by Jonathan E Thomas
PREFACE
Nemesis and Apocalypse
Among the gods of the ancient Greeks, Nemesis was the goddess of divine retribution. It was she who brought balance to imbalance—justice to injustice. She was the one who brought recompense to those who had committed evil deeds and to those with undeserved good fortune. It was she who leveled the playing field.
And by so doing, this goddess returned humility to those who had become excessively arrogant. Yes, for those sons of men foolish enough to consider themselves to have ascended to the high place of honor among the pantheon (because of their good fortune or stature), she would be the one who would—quite forcefully—return them to the humility of earth. And it is the name of this retributive goddess that is at the root of our modern word, nemesis, which has come to signify one’s ultimate enemy or contrarian. Similarly with the Roman goddess Ividia, if the egos of men would rise too high, she too would balance the scales.
And for the ancient Israelites (a people now known as “the Jews”), even though they only acknowledged one God, Yahweh (i.e. Jehovah, Elohim) this God was famously known throughout the world to share some of these qualities of the Greek and Roman goddesses. Yes, despite there being major differences in the values and worldviews of the monotheistic Israelites and other polytheistic nations around them, there was an acknowledgment among most ancient societies that sometimes the hubris of humans could exceed all reasonable boundaries and thus be in need of correction.
Although Roman and Greek civilization in principle aspired to the glory of divinity (while in contrast the Jews did not), rarely did they ever presume to have attained it. To do so (however temporarily compelling the evidence may seem) was, to say the least, indecent. And of course, on this point of indecency, the Jews would have whole-heartedly agreed.
But famously, Yahweh of the Israelites, unlike all the other gods of other nations (like Nemesis and Ividia), was known to actually love and care about his own people. And so, although this Yahweh would indeed also bring retribution to the arrogance of men, He was known to do so from a place of desiring their sincere devotion. Author Arthur Evans summed up well how the other gods were not at all like this:
“The gods live in the sky above, where Father Zeus maintains his patriarchal sway among the clouds. At times these gods intervene in human affairs, even taking sides on the battlefield, but they never involve themselves in the inner emotional life of human beings. They are prayed to or avoided because they are powerful and can influence the outcome of a battle or the course of the weather. They are never loved.” (The God of Ecstasy, Arthur Evans, page 39)
Yahweh was strange indeed. But this remarkable passion for the heart-felt devotion of his people came with an exclusive quality. Unlike other gods, Yahweh forbade His people from worshipping or sacrificing to any others. He overtly described himself as a jealous god, going so far as to give himself the name, “Jealous” (Exodus 34:14). And so, in light of this burning exclusive passion, if His chosen people did not keep the covenant that they made with Him, he was clear that he would bring lasting and corrective retribution:
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
Unlike one god representing one aspect of the actions of the Divine (as most nations conceived it), Yahweh himself would be the ultimate leveler of the playing field. But also unlike the others, this God took delight in precisely how He would go about this retribution. While other gods would often seem to strike with indifferent petulance, Yahweh was different. Out of jealous passion for His people, He seemed to often enjoy incorporating the schemes of men into the very judgment that they thought they were escaping by those schemes. Yes, if men thought they were clever by acting in a certain way to avoid the recompense wrought upon them, Yahweh made sure that they would be humbled by the very schemes that they thought would have left them exalted.
Much more than all other gods, it seems, Yahweh delighted in transforming His own nemesis—that is, the haughty schemes of men—into the means for His own glory. Yes, even to the point of apocalyptic conflagration, this God seems to have made provision ahead of time for the establishing of His glory and the glory of the Story of His chosen people, of whom it was claimed that he deeply loved. For the glory of the story then, it seems that for Yahweh (and thus, for His people in covenant with Him), His own nemesis was vital.
Proceed to Part 1 of the Vital Villain:
