Highland
Presbyterian
Church
Summer of 2015
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
Highland
Presbyterian
Church
THEOLOGICAL NARRATIVE AND
DEUTERONOMIC HISTORY
(IN OTHER WORDS, NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY)
“Theological Narrative and deuteronomic History”
(In other words, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.)
7/12
Session 1
Mythic Storytelling from a Hebrew Point of View:
“The Purpose of Humanity”
7/19
Session 2
Patriarch Legends and Literary Motifs:
“Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob”
7/26
Session 3
Moses, The First Savior:
“Covenants, Contracts, and Community”
8/2
Session 4
deuteronomic History: part 1
“Joshua, Judges, and Conquest”
8/9
Session 5
deuteronomic History: part 2
“We Three Kings”
8/16
Session 6
Prophets of the Divided Kingdom:
“Conscience of the King”
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
Old Testament / Hebrew Bible:
Genesis
Job
Isaiah
Hosea
Nahum
Exodus
Psalms
Jeremiah
Joel
Habakkuk
Leviticus
Proverbs
Lamentations
Amos
Zephaniah
Numbers
Ecclesiastes
Ezekiel
Obadiah
Haggai
Deuteronomy
Song of Solomon
Daniel
Jonah
Zechariah
Micah
Malachi
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 & 2 Samuel
1 & 2 Kings
1 & 2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Summer of 2015
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
Old Testament / Hebrew Bible:
Genesis
Job
Isaiah
Hosea
Nahum
Exodus
Psalms
Jeremiah
Joel
Habakkuk
Leviticus
Proverbs
Lamentations
Amos
Zephaniah
Numbers
Ecclesiastes
Ezekiel
Obadiah
Haggai
Deuteronomy
Song of Solomon
Daniel
Jonah
Zechariah
Micah
Malachi
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 & 2 Samuel
1 & 2 Kings
1 & 2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Summer of 2015
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
Session 1: Mythic Storytelling
from a Hebrew Point of View
(Genesis 1-11)
What worldview is expressed in the mythic
stories in our Bible, and what does it reveal
about the theology, psychology and values of
the ancient Hebrew people?
So, if you were challenged this morning to think
about how you would create a mythic story that
captures some of the essence of your own
theological / philosophical worldview……….
………..How would you construct such a narrative
for a contemporary audience? (such as your
children?)
Things to Consider:
1. While Biblical stories stand on their own as superb narratives,
linking narratives together can often expose a broader story-line
with meaning of its own.
2. Our Biblical stories can often be read as commentary on stories of
other dominant cultures.
Genesis 1
Creation by Elohim
Genesis 2
Creation by Yahweh
Genesis 3
Garden of Eden & Adam and Eve
Genesis 4
Cane and Able
Genesis 5
Genealogy
Genesis 6-9
Noah and the Flood
Genesis 10
Genealogy
Genesis 11
.
Tower of Babel
General Historical Timeline of Hebrew Bible (BCE)
1800-1400?
1400-1200?
1200-1050?
1050-930?
c. 922
722
586
538
334
Abraham and other Patriarchs migrate to Canaan (or develop from
within)
Possible Exodus from Egypt (if historical)
Conquest of Canaan / Period of Judges (if historical)
First Kings of a United Kingdom (Saul, David, Solomon)
Kingdom divides into Northern Kingdom (Israel/Ephraim); and
Southern Kingdom (Judah)
Assyria defeats Northern Kingdom and capture capital Samaria
Babylon defeats Southern Kingdom and capture capital Jerusalem
Hebrew exiles are returned from Babylonian captivity, when Cyrus of
Persian defeats Babylonia, and begin to restore the Temple
Alexander the Great captures Palestine and Persia and Hellenizes the
known world
General Historical Timeline of Hebrew Bible (BCE)
1800-1400?
1400-1200?
1200-1050?
1050-930?
c. 922
722
586
538
334
Abraham and other Patriarchs migrate to Canaan (or develop from
within)
Possible Exodus from Egypt (if historical)
Conquest of Canaan / Period of Judges (if historical)
First Kings of a United Kingdom (Saul, David, Solomon)
Kingdom divides into Northern Kingdom (Israel/Ephraim); and
Southern Kingdom (Judah)
Assyria defeats Northern Kingdom and capture capital Samaria
Babylon defeats Southern Kingdom and capture capital Jerusalem
Hebrew exiles are returned from Babylonian captivity, when Cyrus of
Persian defeats Babylonia, and begin to restore the Temple
Alexander the Great captures Palestine and Persia and Hellenizes the
known world
General Historical Timeline of Hebrew Bible (BCE)
1800-1400?
1400-1200?
1200-1050?
1050-930?
c. 922
722
586
538
334
Abraham and other Patriarchs migrate to Canaan (or develop from
within)
Possible Exodus from Egypt (if historical)
Conquest of Canaan / Period of Judges (if historical)
First Kings of a United Kingdom (Saul, David, Solomon)
Kingdom divides into Northern Kingdom (Israel/Ephraim); and
Southern Kingdom (Judah)
Assyria defeats Northern Kingdom and capture capital Samaria
Babylon defeats Southern Kingdom and capture capital Jerusalem
Hebrew exiles are returned from Babylonian captivity, when Cyrus of
Persian defeats Babylonia, and begin to restore the Temple
Alexander the Great captures Palestine and Persia and Hellenizes the
known world
Documentary Hypothesis (Source Criticism)
J source (Jehovah or Yahweh)
dated to 10th century BCE during Solomon’s reign
E source (Elohim/Ephraim)
dated to 9th century BCE during early divided kingdom
D source (Deuteronomy)
dated to 7th century BCE after fall of Israel prior to destruction of Judah
P source (Priests)
dated to 5th century BCE during or immediately after exile
Documentary Hypothesis (Source Criticism)
J source (Jehovah or Yahweh)
dated to 10th century BCE during Solomon’s reign
E source (Elohim)
dated to 9th century BCE during early divided kingdom
D source (Deuteronomy)
dated to 7th century BCE after fall of Israel prior to destruction of Judah
P source (Priests)
dated to 5th century BCE during or immediately after exile
Genesis 1
Creation by Elohim
Genesis 2
Creation by Yahweh
Genesis 3
Garden of Eden & Adam and Eve
Genesis 4
Cane and Able
Genesis 5
Genealogy
Genesis 6-9
Noah and the Flood
Genesis 10
Genealogy
Genesis 11
.
Tower of Babel
Genesis 1
Creation by Elohim
(P)
Genesis 2
Creation by Yahweh
(J)
Genesis 3
Garden of Eden & Adam and Eve
(J)
Genesis 4
Cane and Able
(J)
Genesis 5
Genealogy
(P)
Genesis 6-9
Noah and the Flood
(J/P)
Genesis 10
Genealogy
(P)
Genesis 11
.
Tower of Babel
(J)
Why did the Biblical editor put the
stories in the final order that we have
today?
Is there a larger story being told?
Genesis 1
Creation
God creates humanity in God’s own image in a state of perfection
Genesis 2-3 Garden of Eden – Adam and Eve and the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 4 – Cane and Able)
Original sin enters in the world because of the free will of humanity
– The Fall of Humanity
Genesis 6-9 Noah and the Flood
The world becomes so evil, that God must start over again, saving
only Noah
Genesis 11
Tower of Babel
Again, prideful humanity attempts to be like God and God must
scatter humanity as a consequence.
Traditional
Genesis 1
Creation
God creates humanity and gives one command: “go forth and
multiply” (fill the earth and become all that you are to be.)
Genesis 2-3 Garden of Eden – Adam and Eve and the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil
Humanity chooses knowledge and accepts the consequences (loss
of innocence) that comes with – The Rise of Humanity
Genesis 6-9 Noah and the Flood
God saves Noah from the flood and re-issues the original command:
“go forth and multiply”
Genesis 11
Tower of Babel
Humanity is failing to “go forth”, so God creates the diversity
needed
Alternative
Things to Consider:
1. While our Biblical stories stand on their own as superb narratives,
linking narratives together can often expose a broader story-line
with meaning of its own.
2. Our Biblical stories can often be read as commentary on stories of
other dominant cultures.
Things to Consider:
1. While our Biblical stories stand on their own as superb narratives,
linking narratives together can often expose a broader story-line
with meaning of its own.
2. Our Biblical stories can often be read as commentary on stories of
other dominant cultures.
Genesis 1
Creation
Story components similar to Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish.
Genesis 2-3 Garden of Eden – Adam and Eve and the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil
Eden has much in common with Near East legend of Dilmun.
Genesis 6-9 Noah and the Flood
Noah flood story is a re-telling of older flood stories like the one in
the Gilgamesh epic.
Genesis 11
Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel on the plane of Shinar (Babylon) sounds like an
ancient Ziggurat structure.
Babylonian Creation Story: Enuma Elish
Biblical Creation Story: Genesis 1: 1-2:4a
Enuma Elish (When on high….)
Babylonian Creation Account
Begins: “When on high…” and ends with the founding of Babylon.
• Tiamat (Goddess who represents Chaos and Evil and often depicted as a
dragon or the Sea [the deep]) becomes enraged due to murder of her
husband by one of the other Gods and goes to war. She is nearly unstoppable.
• However, Marduk (the good guy) rises up and after winning the loyalty of the
other Gods to be their leader, takes on the greatly feared Tiamat.
• The ultimate weapon at his disposal is the seven winds, which he uses during
the battle to inflate Tiamat. Incapacitated by the winds, he is able to kill her
with an arrow to the heart.
• Then, Marduk divides Tiamat’s body and uses half to create earth and the
other half to form the sky. Then, Marduk creates the Sun and the Moon.
• Finally, he establishes the city of Babylon and creates humankind to be slaves
to the Gods, which they are to accomplish by following the rules of the God’s
representative: the King.
Enuma Elish (When on high….)
Babylonian Creation Account
Babylonian Creation Story: Enuma Elish
Biblical Creation Story: Genesis 1: 1-2:4a
Comparison of our Biblical story to the
Babylonian story:
Similar components of the stories:
• The Deep - watery chaos (Tiamat),
• The Wind,
• A God creating sky and land and humans
Differences:
• The Babylonian story (When on high…) ends with
the creation of a Holy place (the great city of
Babylon) while the Biblical story (When in the
beginning…) concludes with the creation of
Holiness in time (the Sabbath)
• The Babylonian story depicts humanity as being
created to serve the Gods while the Biblical story
suggests that humanity was created to be in
God’s image (in relationship with God).
VOCABULARY
‫יְ הֹ וִ ה‬
(Yah-way / Yeh-ho-vee)
‫( אֱֹלהִ ים‬El-o-heem)
Lord (God)
God
ַ ‫֫ר‬
‫ּוח‬
‫תְַהֹום‬
(ru-ach)
(teh-home)
spirit / wind
deep / sea / abyss
‫שמֶ ש‬
ַ֫
ַ‫י ַ֫רח‬
‫ימַא‬
‫מַ֫יִ ם‬
(she-mesh)
(yaw-ray-akh)
(yam)
(mah-yim)
sun
moon
sea
seas
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the
earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God
said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the
light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God
called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was
evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, “Let
there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the
waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the
waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the
dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome sky. And there was evening
and there was morning, the second day……..
...................14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky
to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for
seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome
of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the
two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to
rule the night—and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to
give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and
to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day……
…..22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there
was evening and there was morning, the fifth day……..
…....……26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image,
according to our likeness………………
………………27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God
blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon
the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed
that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its
fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth,
and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth,
everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for
food.” And it was so…………
2 1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their
multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had
done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had
done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it
God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. 4 These are
the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
Ancient Mesopotamian Flood Myth: Gilgamesh
Biblical Flood Narrative: Genesis 6-9
Gilgamesh Flood Story
• Gilgamesh is half-man and half-God with extra-human strength
and extra human energy.
• The God’s recognize the problem this creates for his people and
create a companion for him: a red-headed, hairy wild man who
lives with the animals. Enkidu is civilized and becomes the best
friend to Gilgamesh.
• They have many adventures together. Ultimately, Gilgamesh
witnesses his friends death to illness and chooses to seeks out
Utnapishtim (the Noah of this story) to understand how to
become immortal.
• After several more adventures finding the immortal hero,
Utnapishtim tells his story of surviving the great flood.
.
Gilgamesh Flood Story
Excerpts:
“For six days and seven nights, the storm demolished
the earth. On the seventh day, the downpour stopped. The ocean
grew calm. No land could be seen, just water on all sides as flat as a
roof. There was no life at all. The human race had turned into clay.
I opened a hatch and the blessed sunlight steamed upon me. I fell
to my knees and wept. When I got up and looked around, a
coastline appeared, a half mile away. On Mount Nimush the ship
ran aground, the mountain held it and would not release it. For six
days and seven nights, the mountain would not release it. On the
seventh day, I brought out a dove and set it free.. The dove flew off,
then flew back to the ship, because there was no place to land.”
.
Gilgamesh Flood Story
Excerpts:
“I waited, then I brought out a swallow and set it
free. The swallow flew off, then flew back to the ship, because
there was no place to land. I waited, then I brought out a raven and
set it free. The raven flew off, and because the water had receded,
it found a branch, it sat there, it ate, it flew off and didn’t return.
When the waters had dried up and land appeared, I set free the
animals I had taken. I slaughtered a sheep on the mountain top and
offered it to the gods. I arranged two rows of seven ritual vases, I
burned reeds, cedar, and myrtle branches. The Gods smelled the
fragrance, they smelled the sweet fragrance and clustered around
the offering like flies.”
.
Ancient Mesopotamian Flood Myth: Gilgamesh
Biblical Flood Narrative: Genesis 6-9
Biblical Flood Story
Genesis 8:
But God remembered Noah and all the wild
animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the
ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters
subsided; 2 the fountains of the deep and the windows of the
heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3
and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of
one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; 4 and in the
seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark
came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued
to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first
day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
Biblical Flood Story
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window
Genesis 8:
of the ark that he had made 7 and sent out the raven; and it went
to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he
sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided
from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set
its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still
on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it
and brought it into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven
days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11 and the
dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was
a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had
subsided from the earth.
Biblical Flood Story
12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent out
Genesis 8:
the dove; and it did not return to him any more……
…. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean
animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD
said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of
humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from
youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have
done.
Biblical Flood Story
Genesis 9:
9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to
them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 The fear and
dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every
bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all
the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every
moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave
you the green plants, I give you everything.
Gilgamesh Flood Story vs Biblical Flood Story (Similarities)
• In both accounts, a God advises a man to build an ark
with instructions on size (that has no rudder) to survive
a great flood.
• In both accounts, the heroes bring animals onto their
boat.
• Both boats endure massive rainfall and ultimately land
on a mountain when the rain subsides.
• In both accounts, birds are sent out three times, the
animals are unloaded and animal sacrifices are offered
and the deity smells the pleasing odors.
Gilgamesh Flood Story vs Biblical Flood Story (Differences)
• In the Gilgamesh story, the Gods appear to act
somewhat arbitrarily; In the Biblical story, there is a
moral component to God’s action.
• Only the Biblical story introduces the idea of Covenant.
• The Biblical story reconnects with the creation story as
God initially unleashes chaos again and then stops the
flow of water with the Wind, starting over, even
repeating the commandment to “go forth and be
fruitful and multiply” to Noah (the new Adam)
• God makes some concessions: expands the diet and
lifts the curse on the ground.
I believe that understanding how the Hebrew
editor has taken pre-existing stories and altered
them, helps us better understand what was
important to the original Hebrew storytellers:
• What do you think this tells us about their
worldview?
• What was the Hebrew storyteller trying to say about
the dominant culture of their day?
• Is there a lesson for us today?
So, if you were challenged this morning to think
about how you would create a mythic story that
captures some of the essence of your own
theological or philosophical worldview……….
………..How would you construct such a narrative
for a contemporary audience? (such as your
children?)
Highland
Presbyterian
Church
Summer of 2015
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY