biblit.week1.docx

Day 3 9/10/09 3:46 PM Deteronomy (Masoretic text) Traditional?and Moses went and spoke NRSV: When Moses had finished speaking Wylk vs. wykl: just one mistake?completely changes to context; Textual producism?messes things up The new revised standard version offers the advantage? It?s easy for scribes to make that kind of mistake This is one of the things that a biblical scholar needs to look at If we look at a text in the historical sense, what happened? Anal details?what do these tell us about what the bible says? Terminology Ancient Near East?the section of the world on ?the fertile crescent? Saudi Arabia?barren; nations that are fertile encircle around it Hittite Empire, Assyria, Babylonia, Egyptian Empire Assyria and Babylonia bring an end to Israel?s life Name for Israel?s God Common word?not a personal name YHWH??tetragrammaton? represent the personal name of Israel?s god Pronunciation has been lost because it was so holy that it could not be named (Voldomort) Sh rd th bk?she rode the bike/she read the book Adonai=?Lord? instead of the name for god Most translations usually say LORD, if the common word comes along, then they say Lord GOD Personal name does not get pronounced Israel?s god is ?lord??distinctive feature of the text Bib Lit Week 1 9/3/09 2:32 PM Bible Study in Community of Faith Tend to read the bible as if it were a seamless cloth, with a single author (God) Religious communities do not deny that humans read this This whole cloth comes from God ultimately Questions raised: What does this tell us about who God is and who we are? What does this tell us about what we are to believe and how are we to live? The goal of Bible study: spiritual direction People preserve the bible because it addresses question like these Bible Study within Biblical Scholarship Read the Bible as a set of documents written by different authors, over a long span of time This allows diversity The assumption and permission given means you may find things that do not always cohere Poses historical questions: When was this literature written, by whom, where and why? What does this literature tell us about the lives and concerns of those who wrote it and read it What do we know about the environment in which the bible was written The goal of Bible study: understanding the origins, ideas and artistry of the biblical writers How is this constructed as literature? The Practice of biblical Scholarship Tools Textual criticism The approach to looking at the manuscripts; Source criticism Within the Torah in particular, these seem to come from different settings?they are passed down orally What are the sources Form Criticism Like an editorial Staking out a position Stories and documents are handed down in forms that tell us how a story functions ?once upon a time? vs. ?yesterday I was walking home?? redaction criticism if various pieces have been brought together, what can we say about the editor? The person who stitched it together? How did the individual take the pieces and put it together literary criticism what sort of sophistocation is involved; how are their parenthetical statements to clue the reader going on sociohistorical criticism how society is structured?both theorhetically and through case studies to do some comparison of social situations in the models and shine some light onto the functions feminist criticism have raised the question about women and what roles they play sometimes more prominent and dominant ideological criticism what kinds of assumptions are made and what kind of assumptions are out there what am I reading and does this comport with our society today? What is the Bible Evidence of Lost Literature: Numbers 21: 13-14 Wadis?dry riverbeds flooded in the rainy season Talk about ?The Book of the Wars of the Lord? Cross reference People are familiar of what they are talking about with the crossreference Joshua 10:12-13 Book of Jashar 1 Kings 11:41 Book of the Acts of Solomon Impediments to the preservation of written documents Climate The climate of Israel fluctuates too much (humidity too high) to preserve papayrus scrolls The sands of Egypt have successfully preserved this Inscriptional material can survive Tel Dan Inscription (9th century BCE) Important find: these kinds of finds are scarce Major exception: Qumran This community lived from 130 BCE-67CE Biblical and other scrolls were brought here and stored in caves This community preserved scrolls in caves so in 1947 Bedowan shepherds stumbled upon these caves and found several scrolls Caves kept these scrolls at an even temperature away from the elements Most scrolls typically don?t survive Ravages of War Israel was under attack many times 722 BCE?Assyrians capture the north the northern group was destroyed in 722 the southern group was captured by the Babylonians in 586 literacy rates were really low and only the scribes knew how to read and write much literature was lost due to the ravages of war many of the scribes lived in the palaces and places of honor why did these 39 books survive The organization of the texts of the bible The ?Law? (Torah) The Prophets Incorporates Christian prophets and another set of new books?prophetic authors Former prophets and the latter prophets The Writings Deuteronomistic History The whole history of Israel is looked at in relation to the book of Deuteronomy TaNaK? Torah, Nebi?im, Kethubim= Bible Bible Derives from the greek word biblion; ta biblia; the books The books?sacred scrolls Ta biblia ta hagia The holy books Kitbey haqqodesh The holy writers The 39 scrolls are the guide of how someone should look at the law Canon?the standard and compilation of scrolls that serve as a standard for a religious community Whose Literature Survived Most from the south (Judah) Book of 12 Bears traces in the north and has been edited in the south Hosea?a northerner who, on the face of it, comes from the north; dates the book by kings Gives both northern kings and southern kings Southern kings are named first Why would the introduction date him by the southern kings first if he was a northern king? That introduction was created by the scribes in the south Even though we?re dealing with northern literature, in its final revisions, it bears the marks of the south Amos?a book constructed and edited in the south Reports things that happened in the north Deuteronomy tells the story of Israel?s life and shows signs of its literature as coming from the north but also talks from the perspective from the south The fall of Jerusalem (586) There are books that are given over to the Obadiah?very much concerned with Jerus? fall Lamentations?many laments over the fall of Jerusalem Prophetic books come from after the fall of the south The fall has an incredible impact The entire writings section seems to have been brought into its final form after jerusalem?s fall; after Jerusalem ceases to exist The effects of this process How does this shape us? Much of the bible has been written The bible is majorly a ?minority report? The traditions are cast in the light of what has happened in the fall of Jerusalem Much of it is so colored by how we understand Israel It must be understood as coming as a minority report Written with a question of how you understand these stations in the light of what happen It is less concerned with ?what happened? than what it means How do we understand the meaning of what happened The intent of the author is to accent what it means than how it occurred Does not offer a dispassionate presentation Offers a or several particular perspectives Provides an exclamation that gains ascent. Not a historical report This is not the kind of literature that a modern historian would write. It is not meant to tell or analyze what happened but to give a certain worldview of what happens A naïve understanding of history There is no such thing as ?raw history? Historians look for evidences that happen; but the bible goes beyond the data?why events happen; you need to adopt a model that identifies what is important History is never without a point of view foxy troxyyyy RAWR Genesis written from perspective of monarchy The kingdom established by david?etc. The author knows of those conditions Genesis 36:31 The author is familiar with the kings ruling over Gen 12:5-6 At the time that the Day 2 9/10/09 3:46 PM All the kings are evaluated as with what they did to high places Everyone from the time of David and Solomon on knew the requirement but thumbed their nose Other option: the book of Deuteronomy has gone through many revisions; the book incorporates this demand to localize the worship in Jerusalem and close down the high places The stories do so in light of the book of Deuteronomy Writing in the standpoint of post-Jerusalem?s fall Failure to fall in line with that requirement They did not shit down the high places MUCH OF THE BIBLE IS REVISED AFTER THE FALL Its authors are focused on historiography Draw lessons from the fall of Jerusalem It?s very much bound up with Moses? standards They do not write about what happened but what brough about their day Why would they do this localizing the worship thing? Hezekiah works after the fall of the northern kingdom By eliminating the outer shrines, there is only one place where it can take place Don?t understand?Hezekiah and Josiah Biblical Minimalists The bible is useless for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel? You have to rely solely on acrcheological, climate, and developmental data NOT the bible This is an issue so strong that they regard the bible as a sham?Israel did not exist until the 8th century BCE P. 50 Palestinians are readily identifiable with palestinians today This has political ramifications to it Merneptah Stele (1207 BCE) Stele?propaganda speech Talks about Israel The language is complex (Egyptian)?it uses markers to tell about the noun in place Israel?this is an ethnic group; not talking about it as a political body or a nation The minimalists have a problem dealing with this Tel Dan Inscription Comes from the 9th centurny in Dan, northernmost site in Israel House of David is significant?we don?t have particular evidence that talks about David?s rule Maybe it?s a forgery? Maybe it?s talking about the uncle? MINIMALIST MAXIMUST DEBATE?! An Archaeology Primer How did these digs come out in the first place? Cities were built on top of the other cities?ruins would build on top of each other Ruins would live under the base of the city Remains would be left?this process can go on repeatedly They keep building up until you create a mound-or a TELL If you approach a kind of a tell, the question becomes: what people lived here? You can dig a trench and assess the various layers that exist from previous layers You can see the different layers of occupations Strata?the layers Pottery, etc. you can decide who lived here when? You can have problems if there was a dumping ground Archaeology tries to understand these different intricacies Field survey Archaeologists will move through the land and look meticulously on the surface for artifacts about who has lived where and at what time Shows the sites Drawing conclusions can be a perilous system?sometimes dates come into question and one problem that faces what is assessing what you have found Biblical scholarship cannot just take the finds of archaeology and plug it into the system Both need each other There is a blending in the results; The environment of the bible The near eastern context (collins pp25-45) Ebla?3rd millennium BCE Blocks found inside from the Mediterranean Clay Tablet?very much like names of the bible Ugarit?parallel to Ebla on the coast of the Mediterranean Canaanites is illustrated by the tablets from the Ugarites These texts show a use of a type of a poetry that is similar to that of the psalms?just like Israel?s psalm poetry These tablets shed light on the culture that inspired the biblical language With the developments of city, there becomes a Organized religion, Kings Gods and goddesses Beginning of development in social hierarchies?develops around 3000 BCE Major developments: Writing Starts out as pictographs A picture (a bowl ie) represents a certain sound Over time they become stylized The signs would be consonant sounds?a very large alphabet An advance over pictographs, but still didn?t make any sense with the large alphabet Evolved into a Phoenician alphabet At first the Israelites used this alphabet The greek alphabet which is the relation to our alphabet evolved from this too Greeks and phonecians were trading partners so it makes sense By the time Israel comes along, it is not a primitive area Ancient Near East Babylon?.Hammurabi Known for his codification of legal codes A case law study essentially Mesopotamia Has strong similarities to Hebrew literature Israel is reliant on the literary traditions Enuma Elish?Genesis 1 Appointing the moon as ruler of the night These lights signify the days and mark off time Flood Stories Epic of Gilgamesh tablet XI?Genesis 6:14&19 Israel did not create everything it knew Canaan Includes the territories where Israel is found They are a particular group within this land; they don?t just pervade the land Eventually becomes ?the land??designates any of the native people of the land; applied to anyone who before Israel lives in this land Canaanite Religion Nature religion? Has to do with the land?s fertility These are primarily agrarian society Very much concerned with nature in a different sense than how we think of nature Nature is not just their environment, it is what determines their life They are pantheistic A poloytheistic religion God responsible for fire, one for thunderstorms?etc. Fertility religion Promoted fertility Reinforce the powers of the world around them The Canaanite pantheon El The chief god, creator Begetter of the 70 gods ?the sons of el? presides over the divine council modeled very much on human council cult symbol: bull it is not equivilant of el, but represents the power of the diety the bull represents his power athirat/asherah the consort of el the mother of the gods donc, she is a fertility image has a timberal (?) is anatomically correct cult symbol: a wooden pole these stylized poles represent the female fertility gods it can be cut down Judges 6:25-26 1 Kings 15:13 el is a benign character baal the thunderstorm deity epithet: ?rider of the clouds? arm up in the air?ready to smite the earth anat and Astarte consorts of baal powers of fertility also his sisters?not clear that this is necessarily incestuous embody the fertility?voluptuous hips, pelvic area emphasized these are major players in the religion Canaanite and Israelite Religion Baal??rider of the clouds?; shows up in the bible Psalm 68:4 Its way of referring to God has been lifted from the Canaanite relgion Psalm77:18 El Exodus 6;3 Adoption of the name El Elsewhere there are strong polemics against Baal, but there are not strong polemics against El Exodus 20:2-3 Gods before me?in the cultic place or above me; cannot be pushed to the point of ?no other god exists? Not a statement, just a command?you shall worship only me Duteronomy 6:4 The only options are not polytheism vs monotheism?but monolatry: worship of one deity (out of many) without refusing that others exist It?s not until later that you get the full blown there are no other gods