1. Introduction

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1. Introduction

• BOT612 Old Testament Backgrounds

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1. Introduction to Old Testament Backgrounds
Comparative Studies

• BOT612 Old Testament Backgrounds

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Introduction

• The nineteenth century rendered the service of
  rediscovering the long-forgotten world of ancient
  Egypt and the ancient empires of Mesopotamia. In
  consequence of these discoveries the Bible, once
  thought to be mankinds oldest book, has proved
  to be a relatively recent phenomenon. The bulk of
  its content is as far removed from the beginnings
  of the high cultures of the ancient Near East as
  it is from us (ca. 2,500 years). We now see the
  Bible imbedded in a broad stream of traditions of
  the most diverse kind and provenance. Only when
  this rich environment has been systematically
  included in the study of the OT do OT
  conventionalities and originalities clearly
  emerge. It then becomes evident where the
  powerful current of traditions in force for
  centuries, and where they give an intimation of a
  new energy inherently their own. Keel, Othmar,
  The Symbolism of the Bible World Ancient Near
  Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms, 7

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Introduction

• For some years now a profound transformation has
  been going on in our knowledge of the ancient
  Near East a transformation for which the history
  of European culture suggests the apt name the
  Oriental Renaissance. The transformation has been
  based fundamentally on archaeological data, but
  from archaeology it has naturally extended to
  literature, to religion, to art, and to the
  entire culture sphere. It has its beginning in
  April 1928, when a Syrian peasant, ploughing in
  his field, ran his share into the remains of an
  ancient tomb, and so discovered Ugarit . . . .
  Mascati, Sabatino, The Face of the Ancient
  Orient A Panorama of Near Eastern Civilization
  in Pre-Classical Times, (1962), 3

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Introduction

• In the Oriental Renaissance we may distinguish
  three archaeological key discoveries Ugarit,
  Mari and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In all three cases
  the discovery was made by chance at Ugarit, a
  peasant was ploughing at Mari, some natives were
  burying a dead man near the Dead Sea, a Beduin
  was looking for a stray sheep. In all three
  cases, the additions to our knowledge were
  revolutionary in their effect. . . . Mascati,
  Sabatino, The Face of the Ancient Orient A
  Panorama of Near Eastern Civilization in
  Pre-Classical Times, (1962), 3-4

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1.0.1 The OT the ANE

• 1. Important Collection of Texts
• 1.1 Byblos, Alalakh, Nuzi
• Nuzi Speiser, et. al.
• Two problems 1) Interpretation was Wrong! (role
  of house gods sistership contracts) 2) Nuzi
  custom not unique, but general Mesopotamian
  (childless wife and child bearing through slave)
• 1.2 Ugarit
• Ugartic Isrealite Religious studies
• Ugaritic language
• Poetry

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1.0.1 The OT the ANE

• 1.3 Mari (majority 1800-1760 BCE)
• Harran Abraham
• Prophetic text
• 1.4 Ebla (3rd Millennium BCE, NW Syria)
• Historical Interest
• 1.5 Amarna (Akhenaten)
• Israelite occupation conquest (apiru

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1.0.1 The OT the ANE

• 2. Areas of Research
• 2.1 Historiography
• 2.2 Religion
• 2.2.1 Hymns Prayers (Egyptian, Mesopotamian
  Canaanite)
• 2.2.2 Myth, Ritual Magic
• Babylonian creation epics, Atrahasis epic
• 2.3 Law
• 2.4 Covenant
• 2.5 Wisdom
• 2.6 Love Poetry

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1.0.1 The OT the ANE

• 3. Collections of Pictures Texts in
  Translation
• 3.1 Gressmann (1926, 1927)
• 3.2 Pritchard (1969)
• 3.3 D. Winston Thomas
• 3.4 SBL Writings from the Ancient World Series
• 3.5 William W. Hallo, The Context of Scripture
  (1997ff.)
• 3.6 Othmar Keels Studies
• See J. J. M. Roberts, The Ancient Near Eastern
  Environment, in Knight Tuckers The Hebrew
  Bible and Its Modern Interpreters, Chico
  Scholars Press, 1985, pp. 75-122

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1.0.2 Epigraphy the Bible

• 1. Ancient Inscriptions
• Inscriptional non inscriptional artifacts are
  the two major types of archaeological data for
  reconstructing ancient history.
• Important areas of concern include political,
  economic, social and intellectual aspects of an
  ancient culture.
• 2. Development of Writing
• Pictographic forms Egyptian hieroglyphics
• Syllabolgraphic forms with semantic
  determinatives Sumerian

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1.0.2 Epigraphy the Bible

• Development of the Consonantal Alphabet -
  Levantine
• Consonants Vowels Greek
• 3. Three Writing Materials
• Coloring ink on papyrus or astracon
• Gouging on wax or clay
• Carving on hard surface
• 4. Languages
• Semitic Eastern (Akkadian) and Western
  (specifically Northwestern Ugaritic,
  Phoenician/Hebrew, and Aramaic)
• Afro-Asiatic (or Hamito-Semitic)

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1.0.2 Epigraphy the Bible

• Indo-European Anatolia (principally Hittite and
  Luwian)
• Sumerian
• Lingua Franca
• By Old Akkadian Period (2400 BCE) writing in
  Sumerian to expression Mesopotamian
• By 2000 BCE Akkadian dominated
• Until Aramaic takes over completely in the
  Persian Period.
• Multilingualism Bilingualism

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1.0.2 Epigraphy the Bible

• 5. Categories of Texts Found
• Administrative texts
• Epistolary texts
• Ritual texts
• Scientific texts
• Historical texts
• Belletristic works
• Pardee, Dennis, Inscriptions Ancient
  Inscriptions, The Oxford Encyclopedia of
  Archaeology in the Near East, Volume 3, pp.
  158-162

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1.0.3 Iconography the Bible

• 1. Definition of Iconography
• "The study of artistic subject matter or content
  (as opposed to artistic techniques and styles).
  Iconography therefore strives to describe the
  appearance, development, and disappearance of
  certain motifs and compositions, or the
  substitution of one artistic form by another."

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1.0.3 Iconography the Bible

• 2. Biblical Research Iconography
• 2.1 "A biblical text can explicitly describe a
  work of art, as e.g., the descriptions of
  drawings of Chaldean warriors in Ezek 2314."
• 2.2 "Descriptions can also be implicit. There are
  sound reasons for believing that Ezekiel was
  influenced by pictorial representations when
  describing the 4 living creatures supporting the
  sky (Ezekiel 1 . . . ."
• 2.3 "A text and a picture can independently deal
  with the same subject matter, as e.g., the
  appointment of an official or his being rewarded
  (Gen 313745 and several Egyptian tomb paintings
  of New Kingdom date. . . ."

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1.0.3 Iconography the Bible

• 3. Purpose of Studying Pictures
• To see what we are reading about
• Pictures tend to relate directly to the object,
  while words are symbolic . . . .
• "Thus Josephus may claim, as for the cherubim
  themselves, no one can say or imagine what they
  looked like (Ant 8.73)."
• This is especially true when dealing with
  people-made objects like the Ark.
• Lachish Room in the Nineveh Palace
• Keel, Othmar, "Iconography and the Bible," ABD
  CD-Rom edition

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• 1. Friedrich Delitzsch, 1902ff., "Babel and
  Bible"
• Babylonian ethics superior to that in the Bible
  when dealing with Creation the Flood.
• "Sabbath" concept as coming from Babylonians
  (shapattu)
• Babylonians knew monotheism via traveling
  Canaanites

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• 2. Comparison with the Bible
• "There is no doubt that the entire literature of
  the Old Testament, regardless of the age,
  character, or original function of its component
  elements, is made to conform with its overall
  theme the one God and his purposes, especially
  as they apply to man."

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• ". . . no comparisons between Babylonian and
  Biblical traditions can be undertaken without
  constant awareness of the polarity of the
  Babylonian and Israelite cosmic views, and of the
  profound effect this contrast had in the
  religious and cultural development within each
  civilization."
• Jacob J. Finkelstein, "Bible and Babel A
  Comparative Study of the Hebrew and Babylonian
  Religious Spirit"

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• 3. The Comparative Methodology
• The Comparative Method is interdependent with the
  Historical/Literary Methodologies that developed
  in the 19th Century.
• Units of Comparison should be "geographical
  neighbors and historical contemporaries" However
  date seems to be more important than time.
• The problems with "patterns" and the "myth and
  ritual school."

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• "Comparison with extra-biblical material should
  be brought into play only when a properly
  executed inner-biblical analysis does not produce
  satisfactory results."
• ". . . when linguistic aspects provide but
  unclear and difficult hints toward the
  explanation of textual cruxes one should not
  depend on the forced testimony of assumed
  external parallels, ferreted out by the
  comparative method. Rather, the elucidation of
  difficult terms and ideas must be achieved from
  the biblical books themselves, since they are the
  only reliable first-hand evidence

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• which mirrors, albeit fragmentarily, the
  conceptual horizon of ancient Israel and the
  linguistic and literary modes in which it found
  its expression. For this reason, internal
  parallels are of greater help than external ones
  their identification can be achieved in a more
  systematic fashion than the pinpointing of
  similarities in extra-biblical sources."

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1.0.4 The Comparative Method

• "It demands an interdisciplinary and synoptic
  grasp, thus requiring the co-operation of experts
  in diverse areas philology, literature,
  folklore, theology, sociology, history, and the
  history of ideas."
• Shemaryahu Talmon, "The "Comparative Method" in
  Biblical Interpretation-Principles and
  Problems,"

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1.0.5 Problems with the History of Religions
Methodology

• Parallel Mania
• Causal Fallacies
• What kind of dependence is involved?
• Critical Scholarship and the Dating of Texts
• The Problem of Ex-eventu vaticinus

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• http//www.bowdoin.edu/prael/writing_guides/prim
  ary.htm
• Good reading is about asking questions of your
  sources. Keep the following in mind when reading
  primary sources. Even if you believe you can't
  arrive at the answers, imagining possible answers
  will aid your comprehension. Reading primary
  sources requires that you use your historical
  imagination. This process is all about your
  willingness and ability to ask questions of the
  material, imagine possible answers, and explain
  your reasoning.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 1. Evaluating primary source texts MAPER.
• Motives and goals of the author
• Argument and strategy she or he uses to achieve
  those goals
• Presuppositions and values (in the text, and our
  own)
• Epistemology (evaluating truth content)
• Relate to other texts (compare and contrast)

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 1.2 Motives
• Who is the author and what is her or his place in
  society (explain why you are justified in
  thinking so)? What could or might it be, based on
  the text, and why?
• What is at stake for the author in this text? Why
  do you think she or he wrote it? What evidence in
  the text tells you this?
• Does the author have a thesis? What -- in one
  sentence -- is that thesis?

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 1.2 Argument
• How does the text make its case? What is its
  strategy for accomplishing its goal? How does it
  carry out this strategy?
• What is the intended audience of the text? How
  might this influence its rhetorical strategy?
• What arguments or concerns does the author
  respond to that are not clearly stated? Provide
  at least one example of a point at which the
  author seems to be refuting a position never
  clearly stated. Explain what you think this
  position may be in detail, and why you think it.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• Do you think the author is credible and reliable?
  Use at least one specific example to explain why.
  Make sure to explain the principle of rhetoric or
  logic that makes this passage credible.
• 1.3 Presuppositions
• How do the ideas and values in the source differ
  from the ideas and values of our age?

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• What presumptions and preconceptions do we as
  readers bring to bear on this text? For instance,
  that portions of the text might we find
  objectionable, but which contemporaries might
  have found acceptable. State the values we hold
  on that subject, and the values expressed in the
  text.
• How might the difference between our values and
  the values of the author influence the way we
  understand the text? Explain how such a
  difference in values might lead us to
  mis-interpret the text, or understand it in a way
  contemporaries would not have.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 1.4 Epistemology
• How might this text support one of the arguments
  found in secondary sources we've read?
• What kinds of information does this text reveal
  that it does not seemed concerned with revealing?
  (In other words, what does it tell us without
  knowing it's telling us?)
• Offer one claim from the text which is the
  author's interpretation. Now offer one example of
  a historical "fact" (something that is absolutely
  indisputable) that we can learn from this text
  (this need not be the author's words).

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 1.5 Relate
• Now choose another of the readings, and compare
  the two, answering these questions.
• What patterns or ideas are repeated throughout
  the readings?
• What major differences appear in them?
• Which do you find more reliable and credible?

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 2. Additional Concepts to Assist the
  Interpretation of Primary Sources
• 2.1 Texts and documents, authors and creators
  You'll see these phrases a lot. I use the first
  two and the last two as synonyms. Texts are
  historical documents, authors their creators, and
  vice versa. "Texts" and "authors" are often used
  when discussing literature, while "documents" and
  "creators" are more familiar to historians.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 2.2 Evaluating the veracity (truthfulness) of
  texts For the rest of this discussion, consider
  the example of a soldier who committed atrocities
  against non-combatants during wartime. Later in
  his life, he writes a memoir that neglects to
  mention his role in these atrocities, and may in
  fact blame them on someone else. Knowing the
  soldier's possible motive, we would be right to
  question the veracity of his account.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 2.3 The credible vs. the reliable text
• Reliability refers to our ability to trust the
  consistency of the author's account of the truth.
  A reliable text displays a pattern of verifiable
  truth-telling that tends to render the
  unverifiable parts of the text true. For
  instance, the soldier above may prove to be
  utterly reliable in detailing the campaigns he
  participated in during the war, as evidence by
  corroborating records. The only gap in his
  reliability may be the omission of details about
  the atrocities he committed.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• Credibility refers to our ability to trust the
  author's account of the truth on the basis of her
  or his tone and reliability. An author who is
  inconsistently truthful -- such as the soldier in
  the example above -- loses credibility. There are
  many other ways authors undermine their
  credibility. Most frequently, they convey in
  their tone that they are not neutral (see below).
  For example, the soldier above may intersperse
  throughout his reliable account of campaign
  details vehement and racist attacks against his
  old enemy. Such attacks signal readers that he
  may have an interest in not portraying the past
  accurately, and hence may undermine his
  credibility, regardless of his reliability.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• An author who seems quite credible may be utterly
  unreliable. The author who takes a measured,
  reasoned tone and anticipates counter-arguments
  may seem to be very credible, when in fact he
  presents us with complete balderdash. Similarly,
  a reliable author may not always seem credible.
  It should also be clear that individual texts
  themselves may have portions that are more
  reliable and credible than others.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• 2.4 The objective vs. the neutral text We often
  wonder if the author of a text has an "ax to
  grind" which might render her or his words
  unreliable.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• Neutrality refers to the stake an author has in a
  text. In the example of the soldier who committed
  wartime atrocities, the author seems to have had
  a considerable stake in his memoir, which was the
  expunge his own guilt. In an utterly neutral
  document, the creator is not aware that she or he
  has any special stake in the construction and
  content of the document. Very few texts are ever
  completely neutral. People generally do not go to
  the trouble to record their thoughts unless they
  have a purpose or design which renders them
  invested in the process of creating the text. Some

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• historical texts, such as birth records, may
  appear to be more neutral than others, because
  their creators seem to have had less of a stake
  in creating them. (For instance, the county clerk
  who signed several thousand birth certificates
  likely had less of a stake in creating an
  individual birth certificate than did a celebrity
  recording her life in a diary for future
  publication as a memoir.)

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• Objectivity refers to an author's ability to
  convey the truth free of underlying values,
  cultural presuppositions, and biases. Many
  scholars argue that no text is or ever can be
  completely objective, for all texts are the
  products of the culture in which their authors
  lived. Many authors pretend to objectivity when
  they might better seek for neutrality. The author
  who claims to be free of bias and presupposition
  should be treated with suspicion no one is free
  of their values. The credible author acknowledges
  and expresses those values so that they may
  accounted for in the text where they appear.

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• Epistemology a fancy word for a straight-forward
  concept. "Epistemology" is the branch of
  philosophy that deals with the nature of
  knowledge. How do you know what you know? What is
  the truth, and how is it determined? For
  historians who read primary sources, the question
  becomes what can I know of the past based on
  this text, how sure can I be about it, and how do
  I know these things?

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1.0.6 How to Read Primary Sources

• This can be an extremely difficult question.
  Ultimately, we cannot know anything with complete
  assurance, because even our senses may fail us.
  Yet we can conclude, with reasonable accuracy,
  that some things are more likely to be true than
  others (for instance, it is more likely that the
  sun will rise tomorrow than that a human will
  learn to fly without wings or other support).
  Your task as a historian is to make and justify
  decisions about the relative veracity of
  historical texts, and portions of them. To do
  this, you need a solid command of the principles
  of sound reasoning.