Exodus and American Citizenship-The Wall Street Journal

What makes a nation a nation? What forms their common identity, unites them and guides their lives? What are they looking at? What should they fight for?

These controversies have surfaced in turbulent times, as the controversy over the kindness of nation-states and the meaning of “people” continues to revolve. To celebrate globalization, the cosmopolitan elites gradually took action and regarded themselves as “global citizens.” Many citizens who reaffirm their old identities cherish the way they value their country, believing that they are threatened by foreign ideologies and non-assimilated immigration. Even in the United States of America with a long history, how to define and unify the country has become an urgent issue.

To help you think about these questions, I turn to Exodus. Why are you leaving Egypt? This Bible book not only describes the political foundation of one of the oldest and most important peoples in the world. It also invites us to consider the moral significance of public life, the requirements of political self-rule, and the criteria for judging the quality of social order.

Many great thinkers (both religious and non-religious scholars) have studied the political wisdom of Exodus. In the 1

7th century, political thinkers found the guidance of reform in the ancient “Hebrew Republic”, while jurists saw the basis of universal justice principles in the “Hebrew Bible.” The idea of ​​the best government based on the biblical covenant concept entered the American colonies with the Mayflower Contract, and the American civil republican tradition is largely due to the Puritans’ love of the Hebrew Bible.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) was the most eloquent and succinct reason for investigating the political doctrine of Exodus at the end of the 18th century: “The Jews provide us with an amazing view: [Greek and Roman lawgivers] Is dead; the very old law of Moses still exists. Anyone, no matter who he is, must admit that this is a unique miracle, and the reason, whether it is sacred or man-made, is worthy of study and appreciation by sages.