The Intercession. Among the means used to convince the innocent
to grant pardon, intercession plays a special part. The peculiarity of
this form of supplication lies in its being made on behalf of the guilty by
someone who is not guilty. Intercession is more effective the more it takes the
criminal’s part, shouldering the guilt and asserting total solidarity with the
person and fate of the guilty. From this point of view, an intercession means
that pardon has already been granted by one human being; in fact there could
not be a prayer of solidarity without a willingness to overcome the barrier of
guilt. The intercessor is well aware that a crime has been committed, and is in
no way conniving at it; it is worth remembering in this context that the great
intercessors of biblical tradition were indeed representatives for the
prosecution: from Moses—both in his confrontations with Pharaoh (Exod. 8.4;
9.28-29; 10.17-18) and with the people of Israel (Exod. 32.11-14; 30-32; Num.
14.13-19; 21.7; Deut. 9.25-29)—to Samuel (1 Sam 12.23; Jer. 15.1) and the
prophets (Jer. 7.16; 11.14; 14.11; Amos 7.2, 5), who were sent to denounce sin
and threaten appropriate retribution. But if the guilty manages by his request,
sometimes only implicit, to bring about a change of function by the accuser in
the dynamic of the rîb so that the accuser no longer speaks against but
on behalf of the guilty, putting across the defence, then it is a
reasonable assumption that nobody will speak up to accuse the guilty who will
thus be able to experience the joy of pardon.
The twofold function of the same
character (the intercessor) should not be a cause of surprise, since the change
is in accordance with that of the accused as well, and carries the logic
exhibited in the course of the juridical procedure of the controversy. The fact
that this twofold juridical form (accusation = speech against; and intercession
= speech on behalf of) is embodied in the same person makes this person the mediator
of the reconciliation and the covenant that succeeds it. More precisely
still, it may be stated that this single person is already the sign of a
communion between guilty and innocent, a sign of that impossible unity which we
call reconciliation. The intercessor is in fact a concrete demonstration of the
fact that the just can truly make out of justice a principle of salvation and
justification for every human being, bringing about a life-giving relationship
that has overcome the logic of death. (Pietro Bovati, Re-Establishing
Justice: Legal Terms, Concepts and Procedures in the Hebrew Bible [Journal
for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 105; Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1994], 132-33)
