HUMA 1850A THE BIBLE IN MODERN CONTEXTS
January 9, 2006
THE NEW TESTAMENT: JEWISH BACKGROUND
I
THE NEW TESTAMENT
A Twenty-seven books composed in Greek between 50-150 C.E.
B Three different types or genres of literature
1. Narrative (4 Gospels and 1 Acts of the Apostles)
2. Letters or epistles (21); some written earlier than the gospels
3. Revelation or Apocalypse (1)
II METHODOLOGY: INTERTEXUALITY AND REREADING
A INTRODUCTION
1. DEFINITION:
Intertexuality occurs when: a reader of a text (or a set of texts) intersects this text (or set of texts)
with one or more other texts. It is this intersection of one text (or set of texts) with another text
(or set of texts) that interpretation emerges
B THREE KINDS OF TEXTS
1. LITERARY TEXT
a. Micro-level Intertextuality
• high degree of verbal correspondence; e.g., quotation, paraphrase
b. Macro-level Intertextuality
• low degree of verbal correspondence; i.e., intersects with a larger theme, event, story
2. SOCIAL/CULTURAL TEXTS (FOUR TYPES OF SOCIAL TEXTS)
a. Language (literary, oral, somatic, ritualistic)
b. Ideology
c. Theology/Religious Thought
d. History
Examples:
a. See Readings #1 and #2 below
b. See Reading #3 below
3. INTERPRETIVE TEXTS
The reader as a text (self-texts)
C CONCLUSION
1. People exist in the context of a social text
2. People live in the web of intersecting features of culture
(language, ideology, theology, history)
3. People have their own distinctive sets of values, worldviews, ideologies, histories
–2–
III JEWISH BACKGROUND
A INTRODUCTION
1. Jesus was a Jew and spoke Aramaic
2. Earliest Christians saw themselves as part of Judaism
3. Jesus and his disciples represented something new within Judaism
4. This newness consisted not in original or unique ideas but reinterpreted ancient traditions
B FIRST CENTURY JUDAISM
1. A religion of revelation, history and a book
a. God has been revealed in history
b. Tanach/OT a literary product of nearly 1000 years records how Israel identifies itself
c. Exodus 20:2-3 states what God has done; people are obligated to respond in worship
2. Obedience to law and worship
a. Centre of worship was the temple in Jerusalem (the sacrificial altar was its heart)
b. After return from captivity, rebuilt temple under leadership of Zadokite High Priest
c. The synagogue eventually served the practical centre of Jewish religious life
(a community place)
3. The land of Palestine (Israel)
a. Regarded as the promise and gift of God to his people since the time of the patriarchs
b. Except for a century of Hasmonean independence, always under foreign domination
(Babylonia, Persia, Seleucids and Ptolemies and finally the Romans)
4. The Maccabean Period
a. Atrocities of Seleucid king Antichus IV (“Epiphanes”) [reported in 1 Maccabees]
b. Judas Maccabeus reclaimed the temple for Judaism [Hanukkah celebrates annually]
c. As kings they were not sons of David and as priests they were not descendants of Zadok
5. The Roman Period
a. Antipater of Idumea had Rome declare his son, Herod, king of the Jews (37- 4 B.C.E.)
i. Herod hellenized the culture and rebuilt the temple magnificently
ii. Kingdom divided among his three sons (Philip, Antipas and Archelaus)
iii. Roman procurator replaced Archelaus in 6 C.E. (Pontius Pilate the fifth procurator)
b. Jerusalem was controlled by Sanhedrin
(70 distinguished Jewish elders, priests, scribes, laymen)
c. Gradually tension between Roman and Jew heightened
i. 66 C.E. war ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 C.E.
6. “Competing viewpoints in classical Judaism” (Hauer and Young) See table below
a. The Pharisees (most influential and significant)
i. Custodians of the oral law (Mishnah) traditionally revealed to Moses
ii. Gospel portrayal of them is coloured by the fact they appear as opponents of Jesus
iii. Important note: historically they were opponents of the Christian form of Judaism
iv. After the destruction of the temple and sacrifices they created Modern Judaism
b. The Sadducees (the priestly aristocracy)
i. More conservative than the Pharisees; adhered only to the written tradition
c. The Essenes or Covenanters [Hauer and Young] (a monastic community)
i. Qumran movement that rejected temple worship in Jerusalem
ii. ‘Teacher of Righteousness’ was the founder?
d. The Christians or Nazarean
–3–
THREE MAJOR RELIGIOUS GROUPS OF FIRST-CENTURY JUDAISM
CATEGORY
SADDUCEES
PHARISEES
ESSENES
1. New Testament
Jesus' Jerusalem
opponents
2. Place of activity
Temple
3. Priest or lay
Priests
Jesus' main Galilean
opponents
House-synagogue, then
synagogues
Lay
4. Relation to temple
Control temple and
Sanhedrin
Foster temple purity in
everyday life
5. Focus of activity
Sacrifice; purity
Teaching; purity
6. View of written
sacred texts
Torah only
Torah, prophets, and
writings
Do not accept oral
Torah; strict and literal
Develop oral Torah to
apply Temple purity to
everyday life: Sabbath
and purity
8. Group type
Maintain society;
strong purity
boundaries
Reform within society;
perhaps increasingly
focused on piety; strong
purity boundaries
(“reformist”)
9. Organization
Priestly hierarchy; 24
“courses” (families) to
serve at Temple
Possibly
“brotherhoods”
10. Support
11. Relation to Rome
Taxes; sacrifices
Cooperative
Work; trades
Mixed
12. Social status
High; wealthy elite
Retainers of elites
13. Beliefs
Reject fate and
determinism,
immortality of soul,
angels and demons,
resurrection of dead;
less apocalyptic
14. Literature
Do not survive
Accept fate and
determinism,
immortality of soul,
angels and demons,
resurrection of dead;
some apocalyptic
Reworked in Mishnah
and Talmud
7. Interpretation of
sacred writings
Not mentioned
Khirbet Qumran
Priests
Do not sacrifice at
Jerusalem temple;
community is temple
Communal life;
interpretation; purity
Torah, prophets,
writings, and
pseudepigrapha
Strict "sectarian"
interpretations; some
Pharisaic, some
Sadducaic; Sabbath,
purity, much else
Reform by leaving
society’s strong purity
boundaries
(“introversionist”)
Priestly hierarchy;
Teacher of
Righteousness, Three,
Twelve
Communal farming
Antagonistic
Relatively low;
“marginal”
Accept angels and
demons, resurrection of
the dead; highly
apocalyptic
Dead Sea Scrolls
(probably), 1947
–4–
READING #1
HOSEA 11:1-11
1
READING #2
MATTHEW 2:13-15
¶ When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.
3
¶ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.
5
¶ They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
6 The sword rages in their cities,
it consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their schemes.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.
8
¶ How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
10 ¶ They shall go after the LORD,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.
11 They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will return them to their homes, says the LORD.
13
14
15
¶ Now after they had left, an angel of
the Lord appeared to Joseph in a
dream and said, “Get up, take the child
and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and
remain there until I tell you; for Herod is
about to search for the child, to destroy
him.”
Then Joseph got up, took the child and
his mother by night, and went to Egypt,
and remained there until the death of
Herod. This was to fulfill what had been
spoken by the Lord through the
prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called
my son.”
READING #3
1 Corinthians 10:1-6
1 ¶ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud,
and all passed through the sea,
2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and
the rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6 ¶ Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.
–5–
TONIGHT’S TUTORIAL ASSIGNMENT:
Readings for today:
Hauer-Young, ch. 10 “Jewish Life and Literature” (pp. 199-221)
1 Maccabees 1-7 (from the Apocrypha)
The Community Rule (See weblink)
Letter of Aristeas (See weblink)
Pirke or Tractate Aboth 1-3 (See weblink)
LETTER OF ARISTEAS
This letter is an example of Hellenistic Jewish pseudepigrapha. It narrates the Greek translation of the Torah by seventy-two
Jews sent to Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria, resulting in the Septuagint translation.
Questions
1. Who is Demetrius of Phalerum, what are his duties and what is his request to the king, Ptolemy, of Egypt? (Verses
9-11)
2.
What is the condition of many Jews in Egypt and what does the author of this letter propose to the king, Ptolemy?
(Verses 12-20)
3.
What was the purpose of Ptolemy’s decree? (Verses 22-25)
4.
What does Ptolemy suggest ought to be done in a letter to the High Priest of Jerusalem, Eleazar and how does
Eleazar respond? (Verses 35-46)
5.
When the author journeyed to Jerusalem and meets Eliazar performing his High Priest duties how does he describe
him? (Verses 96-99)
6.
How does the author describe the seventy-two men assigned to work on the translation? (Verses 120-122)
7.
What does the author learn concerning the Lawgiver (Moses) and these men’s lives as Jews? (Verses 139-142; 152159)
8.
How does Ptolemy receive these Jews when they arrive in Alexandria, Egypt? (Verses 172-175)
9.
At a banquet the king asks a series of questions (Verses 187-199) and then concludes what about his guests? (Verse
200)
10. After several more banquets each with a series of questions (Verses 203-292), how does the king finally praise and
reward them? (Verse 293-294)
11. What does the author add in support of these remarkable question-and-answer sessions? (Verses 295-300)
12. How long did it take for to translate the Torah from Hebrew into Greek? (Verses 301-307)
13. What did the public acceptance of this translation involve and what precautions were made to ensure the
preservation of it? (Verses 308-311)
14. Who thinks any of this is historical? Why not?
TUTORIAL PREPARATION FOR NEXT WEEK:
Read Mark 8:27-33.
a. Read Mk 3:5, 6:5, 10:16, 21, 40, 13:32, chs. 14-15. What general impression do you get about Jesus from these
texts?
b. Read Mk 1:1, 11, 21-28, 2:5-12, 9:7, 15:39. What general impression do you get about Jesus from these texts?
c. Compare Mk 1:2-3 with Old Testament books Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. What remains the same in Mark's
citation of the Old Testament? What differences are there in wording or in the meaning of words?
d. Read Mk 4:10-12, 41, 5:43. What common theme do you find in these texts?
e. Over all, then, how does Mark present Jesus? How does he present him as powerful? As limited and human? In what
does Mark leave Jesus as a great mystery?