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Ira Chernus PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER |
RLST 3100: Intro to Judaism
Notes for Friday, Sept 10th
Questions from students:
Q.
Is there any historical evidence suggesting that the Israelites were ever in
Egypt as slaves?
A.
Some scholars suggest that there is evidence, but there's nothing convincing.
There are a lot of surviving written records from the Egyptians and no mention
of anything pertaining to Israelite slaves, which you would expect to see if
the Israelites had been there.
Q.
I was wondering about the relationship between Yahweh and Ashirah.
I have never heard of this before and am intrigued by it. Are there old
un-edited texts that speak about this and where does this information come from.
A.
There are not any un-edited texts, but there are at least two stone
inscriptions found that explicitly reference “Yahweh and his Asherah”. There are also many mentions of Asherah in the Bible, and although she is not referred to
as Yahweh's partner there, we must remember that the Bible is a highly edited
text with a strong and specific viewpoint, and Asherah
as Yahweh's partner may have gone against that viewpoint. Most gods in the
ancient near-east did have consorts or partners, and it would fit with that
pattern if Yahweh originally did as well.
Here
we had a question from the class: Q. What is the
difference between a scholar and a theologian, and do they ever agree?
A.
A scholar ideally has no religious commitments and no interest in proving one
theory over another; s/he only want to find out what
theory is best supported by the evidence. A theologian has a
set of religious beliefs and viewpoints, and want the Bible to conform
to that worldview and fit his/her assumptions about how the world works.
Q.
If there are so many different versions of the bible and different writings of
the Bible and different interpretations, why are there so many vehemently
contrasting opinions and beliefs of why a particular version is the only right
one to live by its guidelines or believe in. What do
some scholars say is the reason for this occurrence? How did this ever happen?
For example on pg. 28 (Neusner), it talks about
different versions of stories of Yahweh...Why are there so many different ones
and I can guess that it might have to do with people living in different places
and it being equivalent to the game of "Telephone" where oral history
gets passed on and edited by each part of the line over time however, why do
people (and such an extraordinary number of them) choose to believe in
particular versions of telephone? I'm trying to understand the origins of
Judaism and also why there are simply so many versions and everyone seems to
believe theirs is the correct one. Am I wrong with this observation?
A.
The idea of playing Telephone with oral history is a good one, and probably
applies to parts of the Bible, but several books of the Bible were originally
written down, and probably did not come out of oral history. However, what was
written down was often edited several times, and errors also may have arisen
from the book being copied by hand. Scribes with less knowledge of the text
would often “fix” what they perceived as spelling or grammar errors, which
often leads to errors in the text. Also, it is very possible that some people
intentionally changed parts of the text while copying to reflect their own viewpoint
or ideas, or to make a particular point. Since the Bible is accepted by most
Jews as Christians as a holy, sacred source of truth and a guide for living
their lives, then you can understand why the interpretation matters so much and
why people feel so strongly about it.
Q.
During this period we are discussing, Yahweh is highly regarded as the
"main" god especially by those of Israel. Is Israel the only place
that views Yahweh this way? What about the other surrounding areas or even
Egypt? Also, have Ba'al and El fallen out of the
scene of important gods?
A.
There is no evidence that Yahweh was ever worshipped outside of Israel and
Judah – we would expect to see records of it from the Egyptians especially.
However, at this time period, Ba'al and El are still
very important and were probably widely worshipped in Israel and Judah. We have
evidence of this from the Bible, where there are many, many admonitions against
worshiping both Ba'al and El, which would be
unnecessary if they were not widely recognized and worshipped.
Q.
Greenstein’s discussion of the interaction between God and Moses was
interesting to me for he says, “According to Deuteronomy, Moses could ply God
into forgiving Israel their transgressions by reminding him that they’re only
human…Moses went on to play to God’s strikingly human ego”. While Greenstein’s
interpretation of selections from Deuteronomy show a human’s capacity to
influence the opinion of God but almost bruising his ego I am wondering if
exchanges between man and God (showing man successfully shaping God’s judgment
or view) are found throughout the texts of the Old Testament. . . Are there
many accounts in the Old Testament of man having influence in shaping the
decisions of God through methods employed by Moses in this selected text from
Deuteronomy?
A. There are a few similar exchanges between God and a
person in the Bible, but not many. There is a tradition among Jewish thinkers
that people can change God's mind by praying and arguing with him. However, in
the Bible, God occasionally seems very egotistical, for example, when He commands
Israel to destroy other peoples to show the power of God.
Lecture
Notes:
DEUTERONOMY AND THE DEUTERONOMIC MOVEMENT
C. JOSIAH’S REFORM
1. POLITICAL SITUATION – around 623 BCE, Josiah is king of Judah, both Egypt and Assyria are weak, and Josiah wants to reconquer Israel in the north. He approves the book of Deuteronomy as an official document to help create a nationalistic feeling in both Judah and Israel.
2. CENTRALIZATION OF WORSHIP – Josiah decrees, per Deuteronomy, that Yahweh must be worshiped only in the temple of Jerusalem, and he has other temples of Yahweh in the state destroyed. This allied Yahweh with Jerusalem and made him the national god of Judah.
3. INDIVIDUAL AND NATION - We have no way of knowing how much of the population supported Josiah, or how much power he had, so it's likely that his decrees did not change the way that most of the population worshipped. Ba'al, El and other gods were probably still worshipped in Judah, and their temples were probably not affected. Only worship of Yahweh moved into Jerusalem.
4. ATTACK ON CANAANITES – Deuteronomy claims that a slew of people who did not worship Yahweh were massacred on Josiah's orders in order to cement Yahweh's worship, but there is no historical evidence that this actually took place. The stories are there to reinforce Deuteronomy’s idea that Yahweh is the only God the Judeans may worship, and all other gods are therefore wrong or evil for the people of Judah.
5. THE ROLE OF THE KING – Deuteronomy applies its laws to all people, so the king must follow them as well. Although he loses some autonomy, he gains power ultimately by instituting the laws of Deuteronomy.
6. STASIS AND CHANGE - We skipped this today, and will go back to it on Monday.
D. THE DEUTERONOMIC HISTORY (the biblical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings)
1. HISTORICAL CONTEXT - Doorly explains the history in the Bible as being mostly written by the Deuteronomists for political reasons.
2. THE PATTERN OF HISTORY – The four books that from the Deuteronomic History tell the story of Israel and Judah from a theological viewpoint based in Deuteronomy, shaping the story to convey a specific religious message. So it gives the impression that the same basic pattern of events happened over and over again.
a. YAHWEH’S COVENANT – In the first part of the pattern, Israelites promise to worship only Yahweh and obey His commandments
b. DISOBEDIENCE – At some point, the Israelites break the promise, usually by worshiping other gods
c. PROPHET’S WARNING – Yahweh then sends a prophet to warn the Israelites that they are breaking their promise and angering Yahweh
d. REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS – The Israelites repent and return to worshiping only Yahweh
2. THE IMAGE OF YAHWEH
a. JEALOUS – Yahweh is often egotistical, wants Israelites to worship ONLY him
b. JUST & PREDICTABLE – However, once they repent he always forgives them, and his forgiveness is predictable
3. AMBIGUOUS ENDING – Deuteronomy was first written in the time of Josiah, but it was reedited sometime after the Babylonians, who took over Assyria, conquered Judah in 586 BCE. When they conquered Judah, they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple of Yahweh and kidnapped the king (a descendant of Josiah). The end ----- the last chapter of Kings II -- was edited to reflect the sadness and despair of the destruction of the temple, but also the hope that it would be rebuilt while the king was still alive and being treated decently by the Babylonians.
Here Deuteronomy establishes a new view of history/ future by saying that future events are based on the Israelites own choices – if they worship Yahweh, things will get better. This is distinct from the old king's ideas of everything going from good to bad to good again, or the prophets' ideas of eras ending with unavoidable punishment because of Yahweh's anger.