Who are the righteous in Habakkuk? The chapter will continue to offer a fuller description of its opposite, the arrogant who is no other than the wicked in the words of the oppressed nations. But the righteous are characterised negatively only – they are the oppressed innocent ones (1:4, 13) whom the law proves unable to declare innocent. The wicked are the Babylonians in the first instance. But given that the Babylonian oppression made internal injustice only worse, it would be a mistake to identify the righteous with the whole of Judah. The righteous are those who have become victims of injustice and of the inability of Torah to set things right. They are characterised by weakness. The only other thing that must mark them out is that they cling steadfastly to God. While the text in Habakkuk does not tell us explicitly how righteousness and faith are related, taking faithfulness (steadfastness in faith, see previous post) with “live” rather than with “righteous,” it is clear that those who abandon their trust in God would no longer be counted among the righteous.
The ultimate outcome of the Babylonian domination is not yet spelled out in the book of Habakkuk. But we know of course that the breakdown of Torah as governing instrument for the people of God prefigured the end of the Davidic monarchy and the destruction of the temple. In other words, the revelation given here had to be able to address a spiritual crisis even deeper than the one reflected in the text itself. With the temple in ruins and much of Torah legislation in abeyance in so far as it related to and depended on a central sanctuary, the exiles had to face the question whether it was still possible to live faithfully in relation to God, to be righteous. Habakkuk would have given grounds for believing that even those who live in a society not governed by Torah and unable to access the provisions made in the Torah, e.g. for expressing repentance and receiving forgiveness, can still remain loyal to God.
This, along with the theme of Torah’s inability to declare the innocent righteous in chap. 1, makes the verse attractive to the apostle Paul and others. As in Habakkuk, the Spirit-receiving faith of which Paul speaks belongs to a persistent habit of trusting in God. It is not a one-off posture in which assent is given to a truth which can then be compromised by subsequent attitudes without loss. “Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). It is faith from the beginning and throughout one’s life (cf. Gal. 2:20, also implied in Rom. 14:23). But Paul expands the argument beyond Habakkuk by drawing explicitly on Deut. 27:26 rather than Hab. 1:4 in his letter to the Galatians. The phrase ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν in Rom. 1:17 could be understood to stress the centrality of faith: righteousness from God is a matter of faith from beginning to end (cf. “from strength to strength” in Ps. 84:8 [Greek 83:8]; “from evil to evil” in Jer. 9:2 [ET 3]). But the phrase could also imply a movement of faith from one person or group to another (cf. “from town to town” in Sir. 36:26 [ET 35] and “from your [sg] generation to your [pl] generations” in Lev. 21:17) and there are still other interpretations on offer.[2] See further below.
In Habakkuk continuing trust in God is surely thought to be expressed by continuing to cling to God’s commandments in spite of the apparent uselessness of such obedience in the face of Torah’s numbness. This means arguably that the obedience flows out of trust in God’s promise rather than faith in Torah’s rewards. Even in Habakkuk the call is not for Judeans to find their identity anew in Torah but to keep faith in spite of the inability of Torah to reward such faith. Paul goes beyond this in arguing that Torah was not merely ineffective in bringing about righteousness but even brought a curse on God’s people due to their disobedience. Paul’s premise is that Israel as a whole is not “in the right” with God but that God has done something about this. God has demonstrated his righteousness in another event, part of which from one angle can be described as unspeakable wickedness.[3] If Torah as such is used as the defining factor of the community, it defines a community under the curse of the law. It must be faith in God that defines the community and this God has in Christ done another deed one would hardly believe but which commands a response of faith for salvation (Rom. 1:17).
Given that the martyrdom and resurrection of Christ are decisive here, another reading of the phrase ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν in Rom. 1:17 is worth considering. Some have proposed that Paul sees the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel “by means of faithfulness (namely, of Christ), with the goal of faith or faithfulness (in the Christian)”.[4] God’s righteousness, and indeed his faithfulness although this is maybe not stressed here, is demonstrated in the faithfulness and vindication of Christ. This in turn evokes a response in us.[5] Christ’s fidelity is the source, the Christian’s fidelity the goal. This suggests a Christological re-reading of Hab. 2:4. Christ is “the righteous one” (so also in Acts 7:52; 22:14; cf. Acts 3:14; 1 Pet. 3:18; 1 John 2:1)[6] who lives by faithfulness, namely the one whose fidelity brought him (and those who are “in him”) resurrection life.[7] While ἐκ πίστεως in the citation of Hab. 2:4 in Rom. 1:17 has often been read as adjectival (belonging with δίκαιος) rather than adverbial (belonging with ζήσεται), there are compelling arguments for allowing the phrase to modify the verb just as in Habakkuk.[8]
Jesus’ act of righteousness, undergoing suffering and death in faithfulness to God, effects righteousness leading to life for all (cf. Rom. 5:18-19). Those who are “in Christ” are vindicated not through Torah, which proved unable to prevent the death of Christ, but by his resurrection into the new creation. This new creation is characterised by life in the Spirit rather than by adherence to the Mosaic law. Those who today insist on defining God’s people with reference to the Torah are still arguing from within the old creation and thus implicitly deny the new work God has done. In so far as they come first to the law and then with appeal to their obedience, presumed to be meritorious, present themselves to God, they adopt a way which is not commended in Habakkuk where the righteous live in their loyalty to YHWH and so, as those who keep faith with God, seek to do his will. It is not that obedience leads to a right relationship with God but being right with God leads to obedience. Such faithfulness and obedience was expressed in Habakkuk’s days in obedience to the Torah and is today expressed in Christian discipleship. Habakkuk did of course not yet reckon with God’s supremely new work which effected a change in the law. This is why the apostle has to do more than simply repeat Habakkuk. And so do we. With more revelation comes a responsibility to say more.
Habakkuk may have inspired Paul also in seeing a double antithesis to true loyalty to God. One is obviously to stop trusting God, the lack of faithfulness against which Hab. 2:4 implicitly warns (and which is picked up in Hebrews). Another is the contrast drawn in Hab. 2:4 between pride and faith which may have inspired Paul’s references to false boasting (Rom. 2:17, 23; 4:2). And while the idea that God’s wrath is not an alternative to salvation but its vehicle can be found elsewhere, it is certainly found in Habakkuk and may have prompted Paul to link the revelation of the Gospel with the revelation of God’s wrath.[9] Without speculating about what went on in the apostle’s mind, it is certainly possible to draw numerous links between his letters and Habakkuk and to read them together as harmonious and mutually enriching one another. Both allow for the possibility of being “righteous” without (yet) being publicly vindicated as such and so encourage faithfulness, even if Habakkuk is only concerned with how the righteous are to live (and implicitly how to remain righteous), while Paul explores the question how we become righteous.
Like Habakkuk we live “in the midst of the years” (Hab. 3:2) between an astonishing act of God, which in Habakkuk’s days numbed Torah in its effect (cf. Rom. 8:3) and in our days has set it aside as law with the establishment of a new priesthood (Heb. 7:12), and a further act of God which will judge the proud, wicked oppressor and prove the righteousness of those who in loyalty to God find life. (In Habakkuk, too, the designation “righteous” would not be worth much, if there was no difference of outcome between the righteous and the proud.) Both these acts of God can be read as judgement and an expression of God’s wrath, the conquests of the Babylonians as well as their downfall, the cross of Christ as well as the final judgement. God vindicates the righteous when he reveals that injustice and wickedness will not have the last word. He has done so supremely in the cross and resurrection of Christ but will confirm this in the final judgement. Therefore our faith, like Habakkuk’s, is forward looking (“wait for it,” v. 3). It will be fully vindicated only in the future when it will be evident that its end is life rather than death.
In the meantime the good news are proclaimed in a context in which God’s wrath is revealed on human society and God’s people suffer (cf. Rom. 1:18-25 and Heb. 10:32-34 with Hab. 1). There is therefore still need for the encouragement “not to abandon that confidence of yours” (Heb. 10:35), trusting the promise that such confidence has a great reward when “the coming one” will come (Heb. 10:37, citing Hab. 2:3 in a modified version of the Greek Bible, see the reflection on 2:2-3 above). Faithfulness is still expressed in doing the will of God (Heb. 10:36). This is, however, no longer understood in terms of obedience to the Mosaic Torah (cf. Heb. 7:12 mentioned above). Using a verb found in the Old Greek tradition (ὑποστέλλω, “to draw back”), the alternative to keeping faith is to shrink back. By reversing the two clauses the letter to the Hebrews makes it easier to see not so much a contrast between two groups of people but two actions open to “my righteous one.”[10] Of these only the former is appropriate for the Christian community: “But we are not people of hesitancy towards destruction but of faithfulness towards the preservation of our lives.” This contrast is in fact a fundamental pastoral concern in the letter to the Hebrews.[11]
Life has to be received from God. It cannot be sustained by greed, nor even by obedience to God’s Torah.
Notes
[1] Wellhausen, Skizzen, p. 163. So also Lindström: “But is this really revelation, ‘vision’ (2.2-3)? Is it not rather experience?” (“‘I am Rousing the Chaldeans’ – Regrettably?” p. 51).
[2] For details and discussion see commentaries on Romans, e.g. Colin Kruse, Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), pp. 71, 74-78. The literature concerning the use of Hab. 2:4 in the NT is vast and complex. See, e.g., Desta Heliso, Pistis and the Righteous One: A Study of Romans 1:17 against the Background of Scripture and Second Temple Jewish Literature (WUNT II/235; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007).
[3] The Gospel event is the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. On the cross we see the death of an innocent victim at the hand of an oppressor, aided and indeed promoted by internal enemies, with Torah unable to provide vindication.
[4] Building on important contributions by Richard B. Hays and Glenn N. Davies among others, see, e.g., Douglas A. Campbell, “The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians (with special reference to Romans 1:17 & 3:22),” a paper offered at the SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego on 16th Nov 2007, cf. The Righteousness of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), esp. 601-38, 1091-98, cf. pp. 323-26, 350-53, 377-80, 1033-34.
[5] One of the arguments against taking the first πίστις as faith in Christ is that such faith is better considered a response to God’s righteousness rather than something that reveals God’s righteousness. The same would be true for Habakkuk where God’s justice is not revealed in human faith but in God’s word and deed, expect that in the NT the decisive acts involve the one who is both human and divine, i.e., God acts in and through the faithfulness of Christ. For a recent defence of reading “faith in Christ” here see Francis Watson, Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith (London: T. & T. Clark, 2004), pp. 50-53.
[6] Cf. Richard B. Hays’ 1988 essay reprinted as “Apocalyptic Hermeneutics: Habakkuk Proclaims ‘The Righteous One’,” in The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as an Interpreter of Israel's Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 2005), pp. 119-42; see his The Faith of Jesus Christ: An Investigation of the Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1-4:11 (SBLDS 56; Chico: Scholars Press, 1983), pp. 151-57, for the question in relation to Galatians. It is of course not necessary to accept “The Righteous One” as a known title for Jesus in order to allow that “the righteous one” in Rom. 1:17 refers to Jesus, “the paradigm for the life of faith” (Hays, “Apocalyptic,” p. 134 on one of the roles of Jesus in Hebrews, see Heb. 12:2). N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (London: SPCK, 2013), pp. 1466-71, thinks that identifying the righteous one with Christ “is probably a bridge too far” (p. 1470) but argues against Watson (see above) for a reference to divine faithfulness.
[7] Cf. Walter Zorn, “The Messianic Use of Habakkuk 2:4a in Romans,” Stone-Campbell Journal 1 (1998): 213-30. On the tradition of reading Hab. 2:4 as a messianic prophecy see also Strobel, Untersuchungen, and Dietrich-Alex Koch, “Der Text von Hab 2.4b in der Septuaginta und im Neuen Testament,” ZNW 76 (1985): 68-85, p. 73, n. 25. Already C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures: The Sub-Structure of New Testament Theology (London: Nisbet & Co., 1952), pp. 49-51, argued that Hab. 2:3-4 belonged to the key OT passages considered to testify to Christ “from the earliest period” and was therefore agreed ground between Paul and others.
[8] See D. Moody Smith, “ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται,” in Studies in the History and Text of the New Testament in Honor of Kenneth Willis Clark (ed. Boyd L. Daniels and M. Jack Suggs; Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1967), pp. 13-25, for a detailed argument, summarised in Campbell, Deliverance, pp. 1094-95. The phrase is sometimes taken by commentators on Romans to apply both ways.
[9] This is explored in Mark A. Seifrid, “Paul’s Use of Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:17: Reflections on Israel’s Exile in Romans,” in History and Exegesis: New Testament Essays in Honor of Dr. E. Earle Ellis (ed. Sang-Won Son; London: T & T Clark, 2006), pp. 133-49.
[10] Unlike MSS A and C which read the same text as Heb. 10:38, most LXX manuscripts have the pronoun not with “righteous” but with “faith.” The genitival relationship could be understood as objective (“faithfulness towards me”) or subjective (“my faithfulness”) with the former maybe the more natural reading here. 8ḤevXIIgr, Aquila and Symmachus are closer to the MT, reading the third person pronoun. There are manuscript differences in the text of Heb. 10:38 as well, assimilating the text either to MT by omitting the pronoun or to the majority LXX tradition by shifting the place of the pronoun.
[11] So, e.g., Cockerill, Hebrews, p. 510.
