I came across this aphorism earlier today reading letters to the editor in a British newspaper. This irony appears in some sort of wording across ancient Greek writings, though perhaps Euripides comes closest to the sense of it and it appears as the title to this post. The sentence sounded “catchy” to me and I considered it. As a Christian, of course I only recognize one God, but that does not keep me from exploring mythology if I can adapt it to a moral lesson today. Then, I considered whether, in fact, God Almighty actually works this way. The Biblical literature does not completely support the causal relationship of divine wrath leading to madness, but there is evidence, and pretty exceptional evidence at that, at least in the case of Nebuchadnezzar II (642 BC – 562 BC). So, I’d like approach this as a case study of the famous ruler, including the sort of madness that Nebuchadnezzar seemed to have. Whether this information is applicable to one person today or to greater society as a whole, I’ll let you be the judge.
The setting
Ancient Babylon was at one time the greatest, most powerful kingdom in the world. It rose following empires such as Egypt and the Asyrian empires and preceded Alexander’s empire, that of Greece and Rome. We can fast forward to the British Empire and Pax Americana at the end of World War II as well. In its day, no other power dared challenge Babylon and even in our life times, Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) tried to emulate Babylon as a latter-day king, drawing inspiration and political and historical legitimacy from the legends.
The man
Nebuchadnezzar II came from a line of rulers and was born into wealth. He was known as a great builder who made significant architectural changes in the capital city of the empire, constructing extravagant palaces and monuments. He is even credited with creating one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. He was esteemed and had no doubt that he was the most powerful person on the planet, as he mentioned to the prophet Daniel (Daniel 4:30) on one occasion:
Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?
This knowledge simply served to fuel his pride (hubris) and he became increasingly ruthless, unpredictable, vengeful, and hateful towards his enemies, perceived or real. At this point he became hopelessly delusional and there was no reasoning with him as he trusted virtually one, pereiving all to be a threat.
Other examples
This behavior whereby people see themselves as God-like was not confined to Nebuchadnezzar. For example, in Genesis 11:1-ff we see where humans try to raise themselves to the level of the divine. Speaking of the earliest inhabitants of Iraq, the passage relates:
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; other-wise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
God brought an end to that folly and did exactly that by confusing their language.
In Isaiah 14:12-15, Satan, himself is judged for his arrogance for essentially the same prideful behavior. Addressing the devil as Lucifer (morning star), God relates:
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit
Daniel had a dream about Nebuchadnezzar and told him that God was displeased and that the king was in trouble. No doubt, Nebuchadnezzar had crossed a red line, and God saw a need—perhaps as an object lesson for future generations—that arrogance has its limits. Even King Nebuchadnezzar can’t “…stand
in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody…” and get away with it. As a result, Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind for seven years and ended up eating grass and living like an animal until he was forgiven and rehabilitated by God, at which point he was restored to sanity (Daniel 4:34-36) after repenting and acknowledging God’s sovereignty. He remained right-minded until he eventually died, most likely of natural causes, if Jewish historian Josephus is to be believed.
Madness in the Christian context
While the ancient Greeks and Romans considered their gods to be whimsical, jealous, and almost bored, the God of the Bible is not so. Rather than striking some mortal with madness to make an ordinary day more entertaining, madness in the Bible is often a consequence of sin, which darkens not only the faculties of the mind but also the spirit. This occurs not because God shoots an arrow designed to create schizophrenia in whomever it strikes, but rather because sin interferes with the restraint from darkness, irrationalism, and even hubris that grace provides us; therefore, it allows someone like Nebuchadnezzar to fall prey to it. In that sense, sin can easily lead to additional sin.
A caveat
Christians are unfortunately not immune to afflictions common to humanity. Christian mothers occasionally deliver stillborn infants, and among those live births are children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, and other diseases and disorders of the mind. Well-tempered and loving Christian men and women may suffer from Alzheimer’s or Lewy body dementia if they live long enough. Along the way, some may develop some form of schizophrenia or other neuroses, depression or phobias. Thus, we should be careful not to pronounce judgment or make disparaging remarks about someone with a mental affliction. So, I’m qualifying my comments immediately above. There are, after all, different categories of sin. There is the sin that each of us willfully commits that separates us from God, and then there is the sin we are born into by virtue of being human. This is what the Catholic and Progestant catechisms call original sin. And this is why life is sometimes called a “vale of tears” through which we go.
How is the descent into delusional thinking laid down?
A person may be genetically predisposed to mental health issues. Having immediate relatives, such as parents and grandparents who suffer dementia, may suggest a genetic link. These illnesses should not be confused with Alzheimer’s or age-related senescence, but rather with neuroses and psychoses.
Encountering trauma in childhood, stress later in life, and similar experiences may foster paranoid ideations. From this point, hypervigilance can develop, leading individuals to focus on odd coincidences or to ascribe special significance to everyday events of no earthly consequence. This can lead to irrational assumptions, even when the data does not support these conclusions. A person may come to believe they are right, regardless of the facts of a situation. At this stage, negative core feelings may emerge, and the individual may view others around them as threats. Sometimes, delusional thinking or thoughts of persecution may arise. Surrounding oneself with sycophants who parrot the conclusions of the delusional individual serves to entrench these misguided notions. For example, most of the German General Staff, except for individuals such as Guderian or Rommel, were afraid to correct or challenge Adolf Hitler when he moved imaginary divisions around. This accelerated the inevitable ruin of the Third Reich.
The impact of stress on mental health was driven home to me by the professor of a graduate course in psychopathology that I was enrolled in years ago. In class one day, she mentioned a friend who was defending a dissertation. Her friend was so stressed that when the committee prompted her to begin her defense, she adopted the persona of a small child, spoke like a child, and fidgeted as small children do. She struggled to pronounce many of the words in her dissertation and had no understanding of others. In fact, she could barely read what she had typed. As it turns out, the friend had undiagnosed Multiple Personality Disorder, now renamed as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DSM V TR 300.14). The stress had allowed one of her several personae to seize executive control over the Ph.D. candidate’s mind and the meeting came to a screeching halt.
Pride and hubris
History is full of tragic figures. King Xerxes the Great (518 BC – 463 BC) was warned about his narcissistic tendencies and his megalomaniac personality (Herodotus 7:10):
Seest thou how God strikes with the thunder animals which overtop others, and suffers them not to vaunt themselves, but the small irritate him not? And seest thou how he hurls his bolts always against the mightiest buildings and the loftiest trees? For God is wont to cut short whatever is too highly exalted.
A famous Bible passage (Proverbs 16:18) warns that pride invariably leads to destruction. In 1 Peter 5:5 in the New Testament, the apostle writes:
In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because, "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble."
The word here for “oppose” (ἀντιτάσσεται) means to “resist.” Homer uses it to describe how, when Odysseus wanted to hear the song of the Sirens—who drove sailors mad and caused them to wreck their ships—he instructed his crew to put wax in their ears to block out the sound. But Odysseus wanted to hear the song, so he instructed his crew to tie him to the main mast of the ship as they sailed through the shoals. The crew could resist the song, but Odysseus could not. Pride (ὑπερηφάνοις) is not the sort of feeling that a parent has in a child when the child scores in a junior varsity basketball game or when the child shows compassion to someone disabled or vulnerable. It refers to what we would call “hubris.”
Hubris is pride taken to an extreme. It is not constructive but instead destructive (see table below). It can be defined as follows:
In modern terms, hubris is associated with delusional pride. Individuals with excessive hubris have an inflated view of their self-worth and competence. They believe themselves above the criticism of their peers and often react negatively when presented with their own failings. Hubris is often associated with narcissism, or excessive interest in oneself.
Recall the Titanic and the motto that the ship “was so big that God Himself could not sink it.” And recall what happened to the Titanic.
When hubris = game over
Some of the most striking examples of where hubris can cause disaster involve military conflicts. Examples of hubris-fueled thinking have led to disasters such as Napoleon outside Moscow (Winter of 1812), Lee at Gettysburg (third day—July 3, 1863), Germany’s Sixth Army defeat under Hitler’s orders at Stalingrad (February 1943), and MacArthur in Korea (1951). A typical case study is LTC George Armstrong Custer at Little Bighorn (1876). Custer was known to be vain and in search of another feather in his cap, perhaps to get his name in the history books or secure a prestigious political office. George had not earned a Congressional Medal of Honor, while his brother Tom, who also died at Little Bighorn, along with a second brother, Boston, had earned two. All three died that day.
George Custer’s first mistake was underestimating the number of Native American warriors gathering for battle. For this engagement, the Lakota Sioux and the Cheyenne joined forces to defeat him. Custer expected a small, disorganized group of perhaps a hundred or more Indians, but in fact, there were several thousand warriors assembled.
Custer committed his forces to battle based on outdated information, and he did not scout the battlefield in advance. This caused him to misjudge the terrain and fail to secure the high ground, overlooking the sheer size of the number of fighters that faced him. Custer’s orders were to hold his position and wait for reinforcements from the 7th Cavalry’s main column under General Terry. Instead, Custer split his relatively meager column and charged without a concentrated force to support him. If Custer had sought the advice of his officers and conducted just a perfunctory survey of the countryside, he would have been able to either secure his forces or withdraw them to fight another day.
Popular legend suggests that Custer was the last soldier to die at Little Bighorn, but there is no evidence to support this claim. In fact, he might have died earlier in the short battle (it took less than an hour for the tribes to dispatch 268 soldiers).
What has history taught us?
History is replete with disasters to individuals, families, armies or entire civilizations because of the hubris of a single man. Today, when it is within the power of one mortal to doom three quarters of the people on earth to a certain, fiery death in less than a half an hour’s time, it should be more important than ever to consider the temperament of whom we chose to decide life and death issues for us.
