The Old Testament:

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The Old Testament

• A Very Brief Overview

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Whats in the Book?

• The Old Testament (OT)
• The Hebrew Bible (HB)
• Torah (Law)
• Nebiim (Prophets)
• Kethubim (Writings)
• Best Options First Testament or Hebrew
  Bible

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If Christians continue to use Old Testament
(and in my judgment that is preferable), they
must make clear that the term is not pejorative,
but descriptive, serving the purpose of
distinguishing the books so designated from the
New Testament. In traditional Christian thought
the Old Testament is Scripture, just as sacred
and enduringly valid as the New Testament.

• Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New
  Testament, p. xxxiv.

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Hebrew Bible
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English Bible

• The Structure of the English Old
  Testament (English 39 Books)
• Pentateuch (5)
• Historical Books (12)
• Poetry and Wisdom (5)
• Major Prophets (5)
• Minor Prophets (12)

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English Bible
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Historical ContextThe Biblical Times
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A Brief but Must-Know Timeline

• 1250 B.C. Moses and Exodus
• 1200-1000 B.C. Joshua Conquest,
  Settlement Judges
• 1000 B.C. David/United Monarchy
• 922 B.C. Division of the Kingdom
• 722 B.C. Fall of the Northern Kingdom
  (Israel)
• 586 B.C. Fall of the Southern Kingdom
  (Judah)
• 538 B.C. Edict of Persian King Cyrus
  Return from Exile

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PATRIARCHAL PERIOD
Eden
Noah
Abraham/Isaac/Jacob
Down into Egypt with Joseph the Tribes
(??)
(??)
_at_2000 BCE (_at_1850)
_at_1850 BCE (_at_1700)
Hyksos Period in Egypt- _at_1650-1550
EXODUS
CONQUEST SETTLEMENT
THE UNITED MONARCHY
Sinai
Desert Wanderings
Joshua the Conquest
Era of the Judges
Samuel
Saul/David/Solomon
40 yrs
_at_1400 (_at_1250)
_at_1020/_at_1000/_at_960
1446 BCE (_at_1290)
Merneptah Stele - _at_1220 BCE
Assyrian Destruction (Shalmaneser V)
THE DIVIDED MONARCHY
Series of assassinations 745-722
Dynasty of Jehu 843-745
The Omrides 876-843
Jeroboam I 932 BCE
722 BCE
Ahab 869 Elijah
Jereboam II 786 Hosea Amos
Syro-Ephraimite Wars 734-732
Assyria falls to Babylon-612 BCE
Egypt defeated at Carchemish-605
BCE Sennacheribs Campaign- 701 BCE
Moabite Stone - _at_840 BCE
Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin 1st
Deportation 609-597
Rehoboam I 932 BCE
Jehosaphat 873
Uzziah 783
Ahaz 735
Hezekiah 715
Manasseh 695
Josiah 640-609
Dan Stele - _at_850
Isaiah
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Nahum
Micah
THE EXILE
THE RETURN
2ND TEMPLE JUDAISM
Babylon falls to Medo-Persian Empire- 539 BCE
Zedekiah 597-586 Ezekiel Daniel
70 yrs
Edict of Cyrus 538 BCE
Alexander Hasmoneans336 BCE 152-64 BCE
Temple Rebuilt 520-515 BCE Haggai Zechariah
Ezra Nehemiah 458-398 BCE Malachi
587/6BCE
Jeremiah
Babylonian Destruction (Nebuchadrezzar)
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Historical ContextThe Biblical Places
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Where Did These Events Take Place?

• Fertile Crescent
• Mesopotamia
• Euphrates and Tigris Rivers
• Fertile yet politically unstable
• Assyria Babylon Persia Greece Rome

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Where Did These Events Take Place?

• Egypt
• Nile River
• Fertile and stable

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Where Did These Events Take Place?
Palestine Palestines geographic features made
isolation the norm
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The Zones of Israel
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Canaan in the Days of Abraham
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Cultural ContextThe Biblical Culture
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Thinking Like an Ancient

• The ancient world of which Abraham, Moses, Jesus
  and Paul were a part was in various ways very
  unlike modern western culture.

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1. HONOR and SHAME

• A primary value is honor, life is a secondary
  value in such a culture. Better to die than to
  be dishonored or shamed.
• Honor was a public and male value in this
  culture, shame a private, and often female
  value.
• Society was structured such that one got ahead by
  means of Honor challenges-- in which there were
  always winners and losers.

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2. Group vs. Individual Identity

• Ancient Mediterranean persons got their primary
  sense of identity not from their uniqueness but
  from the groups and locale of which they were a
  part-- in particular,
• their family group (OT tribe or father, Jeremiah,
  son of Hilkiah)
• ethnic group (Ruth the Moabite)
• homeland (e.g. Elijah the Tishbite 1 Kings 171)

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3. LIMITED GOOD

• In antiquity, goods, services, honor, and the
  like were all in limited supply. If one person
  had them another did not. Thus one spent much of
  one's time trying to protect what one had.
• There was not a free market economy. Bartering,
  trading, stealing, or winning were the chief
  means of obtaining what one did not have.
• One could seldom earn improvement in life, it had
  to be bestowed and one had to know the right
  people.

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4. PATRON-CLIENT Relationships

• The chief means of succeeding in antiquity was
  through patronage.
• Favors and payback were the order of the day.
• Once one entered a patron-client relationship, it
  was difficult if not impossible to get out.
• In such a culture, grace was a foreign
  concept.

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5. A PATRIARCHAL WORLD

• The ancient world was highly patriarchal and
  male-centered.
• Not only was it a male dominated world, but the
  major values of the world were set up to keep it
  that way.
• Ancient literature was almost all written from a
  male point of view.
• Higher Education was basically the provenance of
  males, and so most ancient literature was written
  by and for men.
• In this world, we should see Gods attempt to
  modify patriarchy as much more revolutionary than
  they appear today.

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Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) World ViewConcept of
Continuity
Deity
Natue
Humanity
Nature
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The Biblical World ViewConcept of Transcendence
God
Natue
Humanity
Nature
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CONTRASTING WORLDVIEWS

• ANCIENT NEAR SCRIPTURAL EASTERN
• 1. Polytheism 1. Monotheism
• 2. Continuity 2. Discontinuity
• 3. Role of history 3. History
  insignificant significant

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A Theology of Biblical History
History is not just facts. Its
interpretation History is not all the
facts. Its selective
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A Theology of Biblical History
History is linear Beginning, middle, end
(Exception Judges 26-36) History is
purposeful Something (someone) stands behind
history, pushing it to a climax
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A Theology of Biblical History
History is Relational God acts not by
determinism but in response to our relationship
to Him History is Crisis-Oriented Leads to a
decision for something or someone