ABSTRACT
The Old Testament does not offer a single, unified picture of Jehovah, but on the whole it represents him as a partisan who favours the Jews against other nations and as a prey to human emotions like anger and jealousy. The Roman Empire was nearer to a monarchy than to a modern republic, and attached a high value to justice, order and the rule of law. A modern Christian needs a new ethico-political model for Jehovah. Christ was not a human king or a Jewish priest, rather he was a member of the rural artisan class in an unimportant country subject to the Roman Empire; and hence he is no help in conceiving God as a kind of super-king ruling in super-splendour. The doctrine of redemption by suffering which most people find so deeply mysterious is absolutely central to the Christian conception of God and the universe. Christ claims for himself the roles of ruler, legislator and judge.
