¿Pueden vivificar los celos? Celos divinos en oráculos salvíficos de Isaías

Abstract

Among the characteristics with which the experience of God is understood in the Old Testament, jealousy plays an important role, to the point of defining YHWH as "a jealous God" (cf. Ex 20:5; 34:14; Deut 5:9). This understanding of the divine meets with much resistance today. To speak of a jealous divinity has resonances for us that do not do justice to the experience of faith expressed in the Old Testament texts. The cultural distance that separates us from the biblical text, as well as an understanding of jealousy that hardly implies a constructive element for the person, can prevent us from recognising the salvific element that Israel discovers when it speaks of divine jealousy. The aim of this article is to approach this question in some of the oracles of the Book of Isaiah. To this end, after a panoramic view of the phenomenology of jealousy, we will approach the biblical logic in approaching this question, noting both its cultural peculiarity and the connotations that the Hebrew term קנאה acquires. Finally, we will look at some texts from Isaiah in which a certain redemptive character of divine jealousy is evident.