Creation: Elohim vs. Some of the Other Creation Stories

“Most of the stories in Genesis 1-11 are not mentioned anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible. This suggests that they were either not well known, or were created later than most of the other biblical materials. The Hebrew Bible also contains references to the origins of the universe that differ substantially from the Genesis stories."

The first creation narrative is Genesis 1-2:4 and uses the word "Elohim" for God. "The Yahwist narrative may have been responsible for the backbone of the event line in Genesis involving the creation of humanity, the first rebellious impulses, and the turn to Abraham. This sequence set the parameters of God’s challenge to create a people obedient to him. The Elohist source supplemented this story line, and the Priestly writers added their own episodes and created continuity to the event line by using genealogies" (Brandastra).

When compared with other passages of creation, we see some similarities and some differences. The other accounts of creation can be found in these verses:

• Isa 51:9
• Job 9:4-14
• Job 26:7-14
• Job 38:1-11
• Psalms 8:1-9
• Psalms 74:12-17
• Psalms 89:8-10
• Psalms 104:1-9
• Psalms 136:1-9
• Proverbs 8:22-31

The similarities I found were:

• The use of commanding and using spoken words to create 
• The separation of waters from the lands
• God rules the sun, the moon, and the stars
• Humanity is created in God's image to rule over Creation
• God is described at wind

The differences I found were:

• The conquering of mythological creatures (Rahab, Leviathan) 
• God as warrior conquering chaos in order to control

Being charged with writing a creation narrative using the differences, I came up with this:

The deep sea consumed everything. 

Rahab ruled all. 

God struck and tamed all things.

The waters stilled. 

They could not go farther than the Lord commanded. 

God flowed the waters out revealing the mountains. 

God commanded the sun to rise.

God commanded the moon and stars to shine.

Nothing can do anything with out God's command. 

God created humanity.

Give thanks. 

If I could write the Bible...

As an editor of children's curriculum, I get to write parts of the Bible for children. As best as I can, using the scope and sequence the editing team has crafted, I place the stories in context and use language that is easy to understand. We do not ever touch on stories like the incestual rape of Tamar with children (Though, I also wonder how many adult lessons actually talk about this?). It's violent and sad and very upsetting. You'd first have to explain what sex is to a child, and then you'd have to talk about consensual sex and how sometimes people are forced into giving their sacred bodies to someone else. I can't imagine having that conversation with a child. However, I also can't imagine sending a child out into the world without knowledge of these horrific stories. How can you protect yourself from something you do not know exists?

The ending of Tamar and Amnon's story is just as violent as the rape. Tamar's full brother (Amnon is her half-brother.), Absalom, has Amnon murdered at a dinner in front of all of the male siblings. Vigilante justice is delivered. But is this really justice? Does this "fix" what happened to Tamar? Amnon was sick over his lustful love for his sister. He was so sick over it, his cousin Jonadab noticed Amnon's torture. It wasn't until Jonadab suggests the whole plan to get Tamar into Amnon's room alone, that Amnon even allows his thoughts to become a reality. I wonder what would have happened if Jonadab had kept his mouth shut. Tamar might have never been raped, then Amnon would never had been murdered.

We were asked by Dr. Lester to reflect then add to, change, or delete from the story of Tamar's rape and Amnon's murder. (You can read it here.) I am not sure that I want to do anything to it. This story creates a space for discussion--Is this okay behavior? How might Amnon have dealt with his feelings and desires in a way that honored his body and his sister's body? How do we empower those who have been victimized by rape and rape culture? How do we rehabilitate those who have raped another? What sorts of treatment need to happen so these people can live full graceful lives? What is the role of parents in educating their children in matters of sex? How can we protect ourselves from sexual violence?

I wish that we were already in the midst of God's Kindom, but we aren't. Rape, violence, and murder go on all around us. If the stories in our Bible are meant to help us as people of faith deal with living, we have to have stories that deal with the hardest stuff. Otherwise, victims stay victimized. Things stay in the dark. If we cannot talk about them, then we can do nothing to stop it.

The Song of Deborah

This week we will continue learning about the Former Prophets, specifically looking at the books of Joshua and Judges. The book of Joshua is a book of great Israelite victories over the Canaanites. By the time of the judges, "Israel is cowering in the forests, hiding in the hills, afraid of being wiped out by Canaanites and other assorted opponents. The book of Judges finds Israel in that transitional period after the great leadership of Moses and Joshua and before the coming era of the monarchy—and things are not going well" (Bandastra).

Judges is made up of the "adventures of the judges."  During this time, a judge was someone who helped settled disputes and confounded Israel's enemies. One of the judges was Deborah. "After the stage-setting words, Deborah is introduced as a prophet who judged Israel in Ephraim. She was obviously a respected leader. In the mode of a prophet, she delivered an oracle (a message from God) to Barak commanding him to organize troops from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to fight Sisera on Mount Tabor" (Bandastra). Sisera and his army are being defeated, so Sisera seeks out Jael. Jael tricks Sisera, and kills him by driving a stake through his head.

After the defeat of Sisera, there is a song of victory called the Song of Deborah. You can read its full text here. According to Bandastra, this poem is one of the oldest texts in the Old Testament. It was most likely written very near to the time of the actual event.

Using Dr. Lester's source analysis sheet, I will seek to better understand the Israelite society from this bit of prose.

Name of Document: Song of Deborah

Origin and Purpose (Who wrote, and why?): Someone who wanted the people to know the victory God had over Sisera and his army wrote this song to teach the people about what happened, and show gratitude to YHWH.

Date of Document (Primary or Secondary source?): According to the little bit of background knowledge and the timeline found in our weekly readings, we know this poem was written somewhere around 1200 BCE. We know the Deuteronomist edited Judges because the stories in it follows the same sin>punishment>repentance>deliverance cycle.

Type/Genre of Document: Poetry

Author (or likely author) of Document: An educated leader from 1200 BCE who was a part of Deborah's tribe?

Does this source show bias? Are there other points of view? If so, how? There is a bias toward the tribes that participated in the battle with Deborah and Barak. The poem lists out where the other tribes were, and some of them are cursed.

“Curse Meroz,” says the Lord’s messenger,
    “curse its inhabitants bitterly,
    because they didn’t come to the Lord’s aid,
    to the Lord’s aid against the warriors.”

It also is biased toward the Israelites. I would like to hear this story from the perspective of Sisera's army. I would also love to hear this from the perspective of Jael. We get a second hand account of what happened with her. 

We also get a glimpse at Sisera's mother's reaction to his lateness. I thought that was very interesting.

Value of Source: It's the oldest text in the Old Testament. It's got to be pretty valuable. It also gives us clues about the relationships between the tribes, and describes the leadership of women during this time.
 
What important facts can I learn from this document? We learn that the tribes were not a unified group. Each tribe was free to make decisions about what they thought was best for their individual groups. We also learn that women were given leadership roles (at least in the tribe Deborah was a part of). We learn that the people view any victories or defeats as an act of God's love or punishment based on the actions of the people.
 
What inferences can I make from this document (in combination with other knowledge I have of historical period etc)? I can infer that music was an important way of teaching history for the Israelites. I can infer that Jael was a little violent, but that her people viewed Sisera as a real threat.

Overall, what is the main idea of this document? When we are faithful to God, God will deliver us, just as God delivered Deborah, Barak, and Jael from Sisera.

Looking at the poem from this perspective, without my New Interpreters Bible, was definitely an adventure. I like the girl power featured in it.

What does it mean to be faithful to YHWH? #politics

We have finally advanced from the Latter Prophets ("The Latter Prophets consists of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve. The Book of the Twelve consists of twelve shorter works, Hosea through Malachi, which some call the Minor Prophets" (Bandastra).) to the Former Prophets (Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, but NOT Ruth). These books chronicle the movement of God's people into the land of Canaan and setting up the monarchy.

The Former Prophets is often referred to as the Deuteronomistic History. These books have been edited by the Deuteronomist "to explain why the nation of Israel was destroyed by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE. The story, he claims, focuses on the idolatry of Israel’s kings and people and explains why Yhwh allowed judgment to come upon them. Written to the Judean refugees of the Babylonian exile, the DH justified God and at least provided the assurance to the exiles that what happened happened for a reason" (Bandastra).

Our task this week is to look through some passages from the DtrH and "[s]ummarize what each passage says or implies about the relationship between a) faithfulness to Y*WH and [the] covenant, and b) the events of social and political history." I will be looking at the following passages:

• Deuteronomy 28:1-68
• Joshua 23:1-16
• 1 Samuel 12:1-25
• 2 Kings 17:5-18
• 2 Chronicles 36:11-21

Deuteronomy 28:1-68

This passage was actually a little creepy. To be faithful to God you must follow all of the instructions given in the scroll of Deuteronomy. 

If you don’t carefully keep all the words of this Instruction that are written in this scroll, by fearing the awesome and glorious name of the Lord your God— the Lord will overwhelm you and your descendants with severe and chronic afflictions, and with terrible and untreatable sicknesses. (28:58-59)

If the people of Israel did not follow the Instruction, they would become cannibals, sick, and live in a place where the sky and earth were metallic.  If they followed every law, the people would be blessed beyond measure.

Now if you really obey the Lord your God’s voice, by carefully keeping all his commandments that I am giving you right now, then the Lord your God will set you high above all nations on earth. (28:1)

This chapter was added by the Deuteronomist during the reign of Josiah as a way of convincing the people to conform to the reform. Josiah was centralizing the religious practices of the people back to Jerusalem by closing any of the rural altars. This chapter seems to scare the people from breaking any part of the covenant with YHWH.


Joshua 23:1-16
This passage serves as a warning for the people. The beloved Joshua is dying. He reminds the people to obey the instructions of the covenant and even sets out some specific reminders:

Carefully obey everything written in the Instruction scroll from Moses. Don’t deviate a bit from it either to the right or to the left. Don’t have anything to do with these nations that remain with you. Don’t invoke the names of their gods or take oaths by them. Don’t serve them or worship them. Hold on to the Lord your God instead, exactly as you’ve done right up to today... For your own sake, be very careful to love the Lord your God.  But if you should turn away and join the rest of these nations that remain with you, intermarry with them, and associate with each other, then know for certain that the Lord your God won’t keep on removing these nations before you. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap for you. If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you to keep, and go on to serve other gods and worship them, then the Lord will be furious with you. You will quickly vanish from the fertile land that he has given you. (6-8; 11-13; 16)

Again we see the text offering rewards for proper rule following, and curses for the breaking of the commandments.

1 Samuel 12:1-25
This is Samuel's farewell speech. He warns the people about disobeying God and the king. To remain faithful people they must:

If you will fear the Lord, worship him, obey him, and not rebel against theLord’s command, and if both you and the king who rules over you follow the Lord your God—all will be well. But if you don’t obey the Lord and rebel against the Lord’s command, then the Lord’s power will go against you and your king to destroy you. (14-15)

I found it interesting that this passage specifically tells the people to listen to the king. Samuel, who was once very against the idea of a monarchy, is encouraging the people to obey the monarchy.

2 Kings 17:5-18

This passage chronicles the exile of the Israelites to Babylon. "And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God" by worshipping false gods, burning their children as offerings, and they abandoned the covenant.  They had been unfaithful, and this resulted in their exile. 

2 Chronicles 36:11-21

This passage of scripture again explains the exile. King Zedekiah ignored the prophet Jeremiah and rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, thus ignoring the messengers of God.

Time and time again, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling. But they made fun of God’s messengers, treating God’s words with contempt and ridiculing God’s prophets to such an extent that there was no hope of warding off theLord’s rising anger against his people. So God brought the Babylonian king against them. The king killed their young men with the sword in their temple’s sanctuary, and showed no pity for young men or for virgins, for the old or for the feeble. (15-17)

The monarchy had broken the covenant and that resulted in an exile. During the midst of reform, Josiah and the priests were "trying to following the covenant." If the monarchy and people do not, well, there will be another exile.

It seems there was a lot of fear mongering used throughout the political history of Israel. Mess up, break a rule, and you will be exiled (or turned into a zombie). 

Hey Dad, Let's talk about the messiahs of the Hebrew Bible.

Hey Dad,

You and I talk about history, theology, and philosophy quite a bit, so I thought I would craft this post for you. The last three weeks, my Old Testament class has been studying the Latter Prophets. The Latter Prophets is "[t]he technical name for the collection of prophetic writings composed of the books of the three “Major” Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) and those of the twelve “Minor” (or shorter) Prophets, collectively called the Book of the Twelve (Bandastra)." The Latter Prophets began prophesying during the monarchy and continued through the post-exilic period. But let go of any preconceived notions about prophecy and these prophets. "The basic function of biblical prophecy was to analyze political policies and social conditions in light of Yhwh’s demands of justice, loyalty, and faith in [Yhwh] (Bandastra)." 

This week, we moved into the post-exilic period and the restoration of Jerusalem. Prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah have writings towards the end of their books that shed hope for the Israelites who are living through the Babylonian exile. The bring messages of restoration and reconciliation. 

Second Isaiah (There are really three parts of this book! Book one is chapters 1-39 and was composed of real sayings by a real Isaiah. Chapters 40-55 are from the Second Isaiah.) also wrote during this time period. He hopes for a second exodus, like the one experienced by the Israelites with Moses from Egypt. At this time in history, Cyrus and his Persian empire are in opposition to the Babylonians. We see in Isaiah's writings that the Israelites viewed Cyrus as the "great deliverer. Second Isaiah even uses the term messiah—that is, anointed one—to refer to him in order to indicate the divine initiative behind his mission:

“I am Yhwh, who made all things, . . . who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, he shall carry out all my plans.’” Thus says Yhwh to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subjugate nations before him, . . . ‘I am Yhwh, there is no other. Except for me there is no god. I equip you, though you do not know me.’” (44:24, 28; 45:1, 5)

With eyes of faith, Second Isaiah interpreted the current events of his day as ordained and directed by Yhwh, even down to the actions of their most likely political ally at that time. Second Isaiah clearly threw his support behind Cyrus and promoted an anti-Babylonian policy. By 539 Cyrus was successful against the Babylonians (Bandastra)."

So, what's the deal here? If we know about the Davidic Covenant—that someone from the line of David would be always the be king of Israel—this doesn't make sense. What does Isaiah mean by calling Cyrus a messiah? "Second Isaiah seems to be suggesting something quite remarkable. The loving covenantal arrangement that Yhwh earlier had established with David would now be transferred to his people as a whole. The dynastic covenant would become a national covenant. The people would complete the mission begun by David. In this way, Second Isaiah is claiming that the Davidic covenant had not been annulled. Rather, it has been democratized (Bandastra)."

We talked about this some in a Google Hangout (We need to do that again soon, by the way.). First, what does it mean to be a messiah? Messiah means "anointed one." The anointed ones were the leaders of the people, usually kings. We see this in the anointing of Saul and of David by Samuel. 

Can Second Isaiah make a claim that Cyrus is a messiah? Well, Cyrus was a king. He delivered the people from oppression. He even allowed for the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. But, like Dr. Lester said in the Hangout, "Second Isaiah greets Cyrus as the anointed, because that is the way the greeted kings! Isaiah welcomed Cyrus as the Lord and Yahweh's anointed." It's a title. 

In Cyrus the Messiah by Lisbeth S. Fried, she says, "Why did the prophet Isaiah, the priests of Marduk, and the Egyptian priests bestow this honor on Cyrus? First, self-interest. These priests tied their own successes to the success of their conquerors. Second, the priests recognized that the restoration of their temples depended on the good will of the Persian leader."

Isn't this interesting? When we take away what has become the Christian understanding of "messiah", we can see the long history of titles and work of Yahweh (God) throughout history, even through an outsider of the community. Pretty cool.

Love you, 

Britt

Jeremiah, the Prophet of Hope and Doom

Jeremiah began as a prophet in Judah during the time time of Josiah's rule (640-609 BCE). During this time the state of Israel was under the control of the Assyrians, and Judah was under the radar. Because of this Josiah and the people of Judah experienced a time of renewal, and were able to renovate the Temple and work towards repairing the relationship between God and the Jewish people.

During these years, Jeremiah's prophecies resembled those of Amos and Micah. He sought to bring social consciousness to the rich and well-to-do regarding the poor and marginalized. We can see that in the first six chapters of the book of Jeremiah.

In 609 BCE, Josiah was killed in battle by the Babylonians. His son Jehoahaz took over, but only lasted three months before being deported. Josiah's other son, Jehoiakim, became king. During this time, Jeremiah's prophecies were about the doom and judgment coming for God's people. Jeremiah discouraged the positivity of the people. He told the people they would be ruled by the Babylonians for a long time.

Though known for his prophecies of doom, Jeremiah did bring hope to the people. God would not forget the people and the covenant relationship. We can see his prophecies of doom and hope in the rest of the chapters of Jeremiah.

If we look at specific verses from these periods of time, we can see the messages of doom and hope. I will outline them below.

Hope
18:1-12

23:9-32

32:1-15

Doom
1:1-19

2:1-13

4:23-28

5:1-5

7:1-34

8:18–9:3

20:7-13

Amos: A prophet for social justice

The prophet Amos is the oldest prophet to have a book named after him. According to Bandastra, Amos prophesied between the years of 760-750 BCE. The introduction of the Book of Amos tells us that Amos was a prophet "from a little town in Judea called Tekoa, and he was a shepherd (Bandastra)." This doesn't mean Amos was poor. He may have been a landowner. We also learn that Amos is an agricultural worker later in the book. Amos was not a part of the professional prophet guild, but was called by God to be a prophet. 

Amos delivers many oracles targeted at Israel and has a lot to say about social justice. The ruling class during his time exploited the poor, and Amos delivered a lot of messages from God to the Israelites about the punishments that would come if they continued to ignore the needs of the poor. "Amos took the religious concepts of justice and righteousness, which had primary application to the way God deals with his people, and applied them to human social interaction (Bandastra)." 

If we look at Amos 2:6-16; 5:10-17; 6:1-8; 8:4-9:4 we can see the judgements Amos brought to the Israelites, what God's punishments will be for these wrongdoings, and what the people can do to make it right.

What is wrong with the Israelites?

2:6-16
...they have sold the innocent for silver,
and those in need for a pair of sandals.

They crush the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way.
Father and son have intercourse with the same young woman,
degrading my holy name.

They stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken in loan;
in the house of their god they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.

5:10-17
I know how many are your crimes,
and how numerous are your sins—
afflicting the righteous,
taking money on the side,
turning away the poor who seek help.

8:4-9:4
Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy
the poor of the land,


What will happen to the people?
2:6-16
So now I will oppress you,
just like a cart is weighed down
when it is full of harvested grain.

5:10-17
In all the vineyards there will be bitter crying because
I will pass through your midst,
says the Lord.

6:1-8
Doom to those resting comfortably in Zion

The Lord God has solemnly sworn,
says the Lord, the God of heavenly forces:
I reject the pride of Jacob.
I hate his fortresses.
I will hand over the city and all that is in it.

8:4-9:4
I will fix my eyes on them
for harm and not for good.

How can they avoid these punishments?
5:10-17
Hate evil, love good,
and establish justice at the city gate.

The prophesies of Amos remind us to care for the poor and disenfranchised, for we should "hate evil, love good, and establish justice."