#467: Safeguards Against the Drive for Power

“Where God alone ought to be the ruler no man could, theoretically at least, claim more than a limited authority. In actuality, however, the drive for power and the readiness to submit to its glory knew no bounds. What were the safeguards that kept alive that attitude and prevented the king from ever assuming the mysterious nimbus that goes with the power of sovereignty?

“The answer may lie in the separation of powers and authority within the religious and social order: the separation of kingship, prophecy, and priesthood,* a fact of the highest importance for the understanding of the religion of Israel.”

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Heschel, Abraham Joshua. The Prophets (p. 610). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition (Bold emphasis added).

Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was a leader in the civil rights movement. |  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel