CHAPTER SIX - The Aging Process: Late Life Questions

A: BACKGROUND

6. Summing up the biblical position – a case of double vision?

To sum up, the Biblical view offers a kind of dual vision, an unclear picture hovering between two different focal points.

On the one hand, old age is viewed as a blessed state, an age of wisdom when the rewards for virtuous living are thought to be visited upon the elderly as a direct gift from G-d.

On the other hand, it is a time of failing strength and uncertainty, of fear and insecurity, of physical frailty and weakness, with no sign of glory or G-d’s blessing.

The first is seen as desirable – Category A;
The second is seen as undesirable, but - to a large extent - possibly more realistic than the first – Category B.

The Bible presents both of these views in different places, without any real attempt to synthesise between them, unless the commandments to treat the elderly with respect are read as a plea by the lawmakers to offer more dignity to the elderly, so often stripped of their dignity and self-respect in their state of physical or mental frailty.

The two Biblical points of view need to be understood as illuminating the different faces to the experience of the elderly today, as always. Both states exist and there is a clear distinction between a meaningful older age, replete with meaning, and a sorrowful old age, full of sadness and insecurity.