Old Testament Notes Kayla Reese

I. What is the Bible?

Initial observations
Bible
o Not one single book (collection of “little books”)
o Written by many authors – not just one
o Written over a 1,000 year period (900-200 BC)
o Multiple Languages
-Old Testament = Hebrew (& very little Aramaic)
-Genesis-first book of the Bible (Barasheem)
*Hebrew was originally only made of consonants (consonantal)
vowels were later added for pronunciation.
o Written in a variety of literary genre
o Diverse cultural context
o Variety of purposes
-Understanding of God, history, stories, songs, challenge people; written for the
people of their time, not for us.
o With all of the diversity  common vision
II. What is a testament?
Testament  Latin = “testamentum”… Greek = “diatheke”
Last will & testament…personal decision…no changes
Hebrew = “berith”… covenant
o Covenant came out of cultural experience of Israelites (of God’s binding)
o Anyone who shares your blood is in your covenant
o Families form tribes, tribes form clans, clans form nations
-Faithfulness, loyalty, & allegiance
o Berith = binding (God is binding himself with the people)
III. The Old Testament
About 2/3 of the bible is “Old Testament”
“Old” vs. “New” testament – Christian Expression
o New isn’t necessarily better
“The God Who Acts”
o Promise  Fulfillment
o Continuity  Discontinuity
-Same God but acts in different ways
Possible “anti-Semitic” interpretation?
o Don’t want to be compared to Jews – lesser?
o Hebrew (old) scriptures & Christian (new)
IV. Divisions of the Old Testament
Hebrew Bible –TaNaK
o Torah – the law – first 5 books

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o Nevi’im – the Prophets

o Kethuvim – the Writings
Christian Bible
o Pentateuch – the law – “penta” = 5 … “touche” = books
o Historical Books
o Prophets
o Writings
Septuag’nt – Greek-Hebrew Bible (Translation)
o 70 = LXX (L = 50) (X = 10)

I. Characteristics of the Old Testament World

A Belief in Multiple Divine Beings (more than 1 god)
o Each with his own function
o Monotheism – Belief in one god
o Polytheism – Belief in many gods
Theism – God Mono – one Poly – Many
o Nations around Israel were polytheists while Israel was full of monotheists
-Israel recognized that other places had their gods but for them there was only
their god (relative monotheism). They later decided other gods didn’t exist.
A Three – Layered Universe
o Earth is flat & held up by pillars
o Fermament – dome above earth
o Water below earth & above heavens
o Openings in dome = flood gates (rain & snow)
o Sheol – place where there is no life (not hell)
o Cosmology – study of the universe
The Concepts of Purity and Impurity
o Purity – ordinary world (where we live)
o Impurity – extraordinary
o Ritual to purify & be allowed into ordinary world
-Touching a dead body, entering a temple, having a baby, having your period…
Situations in life
Illness Caused by Sins & Demons
o Child being born different was the effect of his parents sin – Jesus disagreed; demons!
The Need to Please the Gods
o Sacrifices for good luck
o Canaanites – sacrifice for crops to grow
o Places around Israel affect them & tempt them to resort back to multiple gods
o Hard to believe in an invisible god

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o Rituals/religious ceremonies maintain good relationship with gods

-Israel borrows some rituals for different purposes
o Fertility Cults
-Astarte & Asherah
Temple Prostitutes – seeds in the ground fertilized by “seeds in woman”
The Structure of Society
o Identity based on relationship
o Nation  Tribe  Clan  Family  Person
-These people define you
o What you do affects your whole tribe
The Land
o People were identified by the land they lived on
o Significance of land…”National Identity”
-Eg: “I am of Israel”
o Israel is geographically 4 main regions
-About the size of New Jersey or New Hampshire
1. Coastal Plain
2. “Sephalaph” – Hill Country
3. Mountainous Regions
4. Jordan Valley & the Dead Sea… “The Salt Sea”
*14 hundred feet below sea level
o Fertile Crescent
-Disputes over “water rights” & “land for crops”
*Wells = Wealth
-Two great powers… Egypt & Mesopotamia
The Religion of the Canaanites
o Religion = All of life (political, social, agricultural)
-Kings rule by the power of god
-Effected everything you did everyday
-Rituals to ensure crop growth
o Ugarit Tablets
-1929 – Woman finds thousands of tablets in her field in Ugarit. Tablets were in
a new language – Ugaritic (similar to Hebrew) used to understand culture of early
Israelites
o Potshar – pottery (archaeologists find them as evidence)
o Ostraca – pottery with writing on it
o Ba’al storm god of the Canaanites
-Rides storm clouds, thunder = war cries, lightning = spears
-Israel was prohibited from worshiping Ba’al
II. Why Was the Bible Written?

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The Purpose of the Bible

o Not to convert the unbeliever but to challenge the believer to Authentic Faith
-Writing to Israelites to make them believe even more
The Bible Answers for the Believer Two Basic Questions
o Who is God & What is God Like?
o How Should One Live as a Faithful Follower of God?
How Does the Bible Answer These Questions?
o Through Oral Tradition
-Most people could not read or write
-Great story tellers
o Through Written Language
-Afraid of losing oral stories
o Through Edited Tradition
-Redaction to answer more questions
III. What are Two Ways of Reading the Old Testament?
An Uncritical or Unhistorical Way
o “Conservative”
o Starting Point  God
o Message  Salvation
-We are sinful people & god is going to judge us & save us
-Human sin & god’s love
o Human writers of the bible  Secretaries for god
-God is the actual author through the hand of human beings
o Inspiration  inerrancy (no errors)… words are literally true
-Took 7, 24 hour days to create everything
-An actual snake talks to Adam and Eve
o Accept it as it is without any real analysis
o Not just for the Hebrews – for everyone at all times
A Critical or Historical Way
o “Liberal”
o “Starting point  Human experience… Event
-Group of slaves (Hebrews) escaped Egypt & conquered Canaan
-Interpreted as an “Act of God”…Presence of God
o Transmission
-Oral transmission  written text… humans as authors
-Afraid to lose stories over time
o Message  Salvation
-God’s love & human sin
-God displays his love first then sin comes in when people reject God’s love
o Inspiration  inerrancy…truth of the message…”meaning”

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-People who live by the message will not be led to errance

Both ways of reading  biblical text = “word of God”
o What does “Word of God” mean?
-Hebrew = “davar”…”word”…event”…matter”…
o The experience of God & how you describe it in written form
IV. What Are Three Approaches to the Study of the Old Testament?
Reading: Collegeville Bible Handbook pages 24-34
The World Behind the Text
An “Authored – Centered” Approach
o A text is the product is the product of an author…authors live in a context
-Context – the “world behind” the text
-Historical - written records & archaeology
-Cultural - laws & customs of the Ancient Near East
*Mari & Nuzi – written records of the laws and customs found
*Surrogate mothers (slaves would mother children)
-Linguistic – languages & literature of the Ancient Near East
*Hebrew word “yᾱdᾱ” = “to know” but can also mean to know sexually
or experience
-Theological – faith… what did the author believe about God?
o What are some of the tools for understanding the context of the author?
-Criticism = in depth… analytical study (not negative) page336 C6
-Historical Criticism – who, what, where, when, why
-Source Criticism – in-depth analysis of the sources
*Tries to identify & isolate the sources or strands of the bible
*Pentateuch was the first analyzed by J.Welhausen = Documentary
Hypothesis
4 strands – Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly, Deuteronomic
Sources…J…E…P…D…= sources of Pentateuch
*Importance of source criticism=rethinking the authorship of the texts
Moses was supposedly the author of the Pentateuch
Diversity of scripture, contradictions, but unity of a message
-Form Criticism – identify literary forms within the writing & its function in the
world of the author
*The study of the tradition in its pre-literary stage – Oral Tradition
*Its purpose is to identify & isolate the smaller units which form
scripture as a whole
*The scripture as a whole is not one literary piece, but rather a variety
of literary forms

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*Form criticism attempts to identify these forms & to discover their

meaning & content, as it is specific to biblical thought by forms & trying
to place them in “sitz-im-leben”
Psalms
-Redaction Criticism – investigates how smaller unites from oral & written
sources were put together to form larger units
-Canocal Criticism – not primarily concerned with who, what, where, when, why
*Scriptures are foundational documents of the community of faith
*Scriptures are basis for faith vision & life of the community
*Studies scriptures – not from point of view of the author but as
witnesses to the faith of community
The World in Front of the Text
A Reader Centered Approach
o Without an author there is no text
o Without a reader the text doesn’t communicate
-an unread text has no meaning
-meaning process…the act of reading
o Author brings his/her “world view”… understanding of reality to a text
-text=read & makes sense within the “world” of the reader
-reader puts questions to the text from “their world”
-reader “dialogues” within the text…searches for answers
o The “world of the author” & the “world of the reader” come together
-produces meaning
o Various “worlds of the reader”…pre-understandings
-Feminist criticism (women)
-Marxist criticism (fairness)
-African-American criticism (equality)
-Liberationist criticism (liberation from slavery)
The World within a Text
o A literary Approach
The Book of Genesis
o Name: Hebrew- “Bereshith” (meaning “in the beginning”)
-resh = head (beginning)
-Septuagint (LXX)  Greek for Old Testament
-Greek Word for beginning = ________________ (Latin) = genesis
o Author: unknown…probably several authors over centuries
o Date: tenth-sixth centuries B.C.E.
-B.C. = Before Christ A.D. = Anno Domini (Latin for year of the lord)
-B.C.E. = Before Common Era C.E. = Common Era
o Structure & Content: (page 12) *don’t memorize

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-Genesis 1-3 Creation & Fall

-Genesis 6-7 The Flood
-Genesis 11 Tower of Babel
-Genesis 12 Call of Abraham
-Genesis 22 Binding of Isaac
-Genesis 25-43 Jacob & Esau
-Genesis 37-45 Joseph Stories
o Theological Themes:
-Creation (God)
-Sin (Rejects God)
-God’s Faithfulness & Covenant (Abraham)
o What Does the Book of Genesis Teach About God?
-God establishes & maintains order in the world
-god overcomes obstacles to fulfilling His/Her purpose
*purpose=bring people to salvation (even when they’re negative)
-God reveals Him/Herself to people
*not a god of nature; god of people
-God’s love exceeds all human reasoning
*humans tend to reject his love
o Creation in the Pentateuch
-Pentateuch…single literary unit… first five books of the Old Testament
*Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
-Exodus from Egypt to Palestine
*freedom & land
-Formation & instruction to the ways of God through Moses
*Jewish Tradition…Pentateuch = “Torah” = “Instruction”
*”The Way of God”
*How the Jews are to walk in the way of God
*Hallakah = Torah = to walk
-God’s free & gracious redemption of an enslaved people
*God came to their rescue & redeemed them (let them out of slavery)
-How God brought them into a personal relationship
*Covenant…Torah…Land
-Genesis…lays the foundation for the Pentateuch & whole of the Old Testament
-Stories of Creation
-Origins of Israel’s Ancestors  Abraham …Isaac…Jacob (patriarchs)
-Story of Creation…Genesis 1:1 – 2:3
*What does the word “create” mean?
*Bara = Hebrew word for “to create” (______________)
*Only has God as the subject…action exclusively to God

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*”bringing into existence” & “sustaining in existence (God has an

ongoing relationship with everybody created)
-God as Creator
*God created as a free & deliberate act… not an accident
*God does not create the world as an act of power & glory
*God creates the world as a home for human persons
*God creates human persons for a relationship
o Texts of Genesis 1… P. Tradition (Priestly)
-complied… 6th century BCE…preserve & consolidate traditions…Exile in
Babylon…Priests
-Characteristic of P. Tradition
*Complier & Editor
*Few independent narratives
*Emphasis on religious observance & rituals
*God’s name is “Elohim”… “El Shaddai” (Pg 336 chart #1)
*God is transcendent… removed from people
Goes beyond space & time (Trans = Beyond & Cendent = To Go)
*God never appears directly
Manifested in “glory”… “cloud”… “light”
Hebrew for Glory = ____________ (Kadob = to be heavy)
*Series of covenants with *signs*
Noah…Genesis 9:23-17… “bow in sky (rainbow)
Abraham…Genesis 12… circumcision
Israel…Exodus 31:12-17…Sabbath (1 day a week to rest)
-Literary Form  Hymn
-Structure  3 days, 3 days, rest

1st Day – Creation of Light 4th Day – Creation of Bodies of light

(sun god = Shamash, moon god =
Nanna)
2nd Day – Heavens & Water 5th Day – Creation of heaven & water
3rd Day – Land & Vegetation 6th Day – Life on Land & its vegetation
& humans
th
7 Day – rest

-Refrain  “God saw that it was good.”

-High Point  creation of the humans