Can something good come from the periphery? Dialoguing with Mc 6,1-6

Abstract

The prophetic tradition of Israel's religion included many elements that can be approximated to today's anarchist thought. The purpose of this article is to observe the presence of discourses that we can, nowadays, classify as anarchist and anti-monarchist throughout the Tanakh based on qualitative bibliographical research. Starting from a minimal characterization of anarchism, we will analyze its presence in the prophetic discourse in the Previous Prophets, especially in the books of Judges and 1 Samuel, completing the analysis with a reading of the “statute of the king” of Deuteronomy 17 and of some texts of the Kethuvim. The results of the study indicate that this type of anarchist thinking among the Hebrew prophets often remained in tension with the monarchy, correcting its excesses. This tension is characteristic of anarchist thought until the present time, which is not able to propose a form of government but serves as a corrective for the forms that are instituted in power.