The Documentary Hypothesis
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1) Meeting Your Bible 2) Discussing the Bible (Breakout Rooms for 10
Wednesday Wellspring: A Bible Study for UU’s (part 1) Bible Study 101: Valuable Information for Serious Students taught by Keith Atwater, American River College worksheet / discussion topics / study guide 1) Meeting Your Bible What is your Bible’s full title, publisher, & publication date? Where did you get your Bible? (source, price, etc.) What’s your Bible like? (leather cover, paperback, old, new, etc.) Any Gospels words in red? What translation is it? (King James, New American Standard, Living Bible, New International, etc.) Does your Bible include Apocrypha?( Ezra, Tobit, Maccabees, Baruch) Preface? Study Aids? What are most common names for God used in your edition? (Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, God) The Bible in your hands, in book form, with book titles, chapter and verse numbers, page numbers, in a language you can read, at a reasonably affordable price, is a relatively recent development (starting @ 1600’s). A Bible with cross-references, study aids, footnotes, commentary, maps, etc. is probably less than 50 years old! Early Hebrew (Jewish) Bible ‘books’ (what Christians call the Old Testament) were on 20 - 30 foot long scrolls and lacked not only page numbers & chapter indications but also had no punctuation, vowels, and spaces between words! The most popular Hebrew (Jewish) Bible @ the time of Jesus was the “Septuagint” – a Greek translation. Remember Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East and elsewhere an “Hellenized’ the ‘Western world.’ 2) Discussing the Bible (breakout rooms for 10 minutes. Choose among these questions; each person shares 1. Okay one bullet point to be discussed, but please let everyone say something!) • What are your past experiences with the Bible? (e.g. -
“As Those Who Are Taught” Symposium Series
“AS THOSE WHO ARE TAUGHT” Symposium Series Christopher R. Matthews, Editor Number 27 “AS THOSE WHO ARE TAUGHT” The Interpretation of Isaiah from the LXX to the SBL “AS THOSE WHO ARE TAUGHT” The Interpretation of Isaiah from the LXX to the SBL Edited by Claire Mathews McGinnis and Patricia K. Tull Society of Biblical Literature Atlanta “AS THOSE WHO ARE TAUGHT” Copyright © 2006 by the Society of Biblical Literature All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data “As those who are taught” : the interpretation of Isaiah from the LXX to the SBL / edited by Claire Mathews McGinnis and Patricia K. Tull. p. cm. — (Society of biblical literature symposium series ; no. 27) Includes indexes. ISBN-13: 978-1-58983-103-2 (paper binding : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-58983-103-9 (paper binding : alk. paper) 1. Bible. O.T. Isaiah—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—History. 2. Bible. O.T. Isaiah— Versions. 3. Bible. N.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. McGinnis, Claire Mathews. II. Tull, Patricia K. III. Series: Symposium series (Society of Biblical Literature) ; no. 27. BS1515.52.A82 2006 224'.10609—dc22 2005037099 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, recycled paper conforming to ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994 standards for paper permanence. -
Cotton Mather's Relationship to Science
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English 4-16-2008 Cotton Mather's Relationship to Science James Daniel Hudson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hudson, James Daniel, "Cotton Mather's Relationship to Science." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/33 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COTTON MATHER’S RELATIONSHIP TO SCIENCE by JAMES DANIEL HUDSON Under the Direction of Dr. Reiner Smolinski ABSTRACT The subject of this project is Cotton Mather’s relationship to science. As a minister, Mather’s desire to harmonize science with religion is an excellent medium for understanding the effects of the early Enlightenment upon traditional views of Scripture. Through “Biblia Americana” and The Christian Philosopher, I evaluate Mather’s effort to relate Newtonian science to the six creative days as recorded in Genesis 1. Chapter One evaluates Mather’s support for the scientific theories of Isaac Newton and his reception to natural philosophers who advocate Newton’s theories. Chapter Two highlights Mather’s treatment of the dominant cosmogonies preceding Isaac Newton. The Conclusion returns the reader to Mather’s principal occupation as a minister and the limits of science as informed by his theological mind. Through an exploration of Cotton Mather’s views on science, a more comprehensive understanding of this significant early American and the ideological assumptions shaping his place in American history is realized. -
Canonical Reading of the Old Testament in the Context of Critical Scholarship
CANONICAL READING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP - -■11111.44.0411,■.--- ROLF RENDTORFF In the early seventies of this century a new term appeared in biblical scholarship: Canonical Criticism. It was James Sanders who explicitly introduced this term in his essay Torah and Canon (1972). The discussion on this program was from its very beginning also closely linked to work of Brevard Childs. In the meantime this term and its manifold implications are widely used and debated. Let me first of all say something about terminology. The word 'canon' has been used, of course, much earlier in Bible scholarship, but under a different aspect. We can now distinguish between two main aspects of canon studies. I quote the categorization by one well-known expert in this field: Sid Leiman in the foreword to the second edi- tion of his book, The Canonization of Hebrew Scripture (1991), speaks about two related but distinct categories, not to be confused with each other. The one category may be termed 'canonization studies.' Its focus is on the history of the formation of the biblical canon from its inception to its closing. The other category has been termed 'canonical criticism.' Its focus is primarily on the function of the biblical canon throughout the reli- gious history of a particular faith community. For the latter Leiman mentions explicitly Childs and Sanders, "among the founders and major proponents." In my eyes the first category is very important, not only from a historical point of view but also to understand under what circumstances and religious conditions the canon of the Bible, as we now have it, came into being. -
HOPES-AND FEARS ROLF RENDTORFF University Of
THE PARADIGM IS CHANGING: HOPES-AND FEARS ROLF RENDTORFF Universityof Heidelberg This has been a great century in Old Testament scholarship. At its dawn we find a number of names that have left their stamp on the whole century, and the ideas of these scholars still serve as guide- lines in many areas of Old Testament studies. I name three of them: Julius Wellhausen, Bernhard Duhm, and Hermann Gunkel. Wellhausen, in a sense, represented the conclusion of one epoch of research and, at the same time, the opening of a new one. The question how to interpret the history of the origins of the Pentateuch was discussed throughout the whole of the nineteenth century, and different models were proposed and applied. Now one model gained the upper hand: the "newer documentary hypothesis". It was not invented by Wellhausen. His own contemporaries, for example, Heinrich Holzinger in his famous Einleitung in den Hexateuch (1893), called it the "Graf Hypothesis", because Karl Heinrich Graf was the first to publish the new hypothesis. But Wellhausen was so fas- cinated by it, and his impact on Old Testament scholarship of his time was so overwhelming, that during the following decades it be- came more and more the Wellhausen hypothesis, as it is to this day. Let us consider for a moment what happened when, after a short while, this new theory became commonly accepted. In a more tech- nical sense, it was the victory of the "documentary hypothesis" over the earlier "fragment hypothesis", and in particular over the "sup- plementary hypothesis" that had been widely accepted in the de- cades before Wellhausen. -
Catholic Or Catholic? Biblical Scholarship at the Center
JBL 125, no. 1 (2006): 5–22 Catholic or catholic? Biblical Scholarship at the Center carolyn osiek [email protected] Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129 Sometime in the first decade of the second century, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in Syria, was condemned to death ad bestias, that is, by wild animals in the amphitheater. He was sent under guard with other prisoners to Rome for the games there, probably in the Flavian Amphitheater, what today we call the Colos- seum. As his party made its way up the western coast of Asia Minor, he wrote to a string of Christian communities there after he had received visits from their envoys. When writing to the Christians of Smyrna, he remarks that the Eucharist should be celebrated only by the bishop or someone he delegates, for “wherever the bishop appears, let the whole community be gathered, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is hJ kaqolikhv ejkklhsiva (Smyrn. 8.2). A generation later, in the same city, old bishop Polycarp was about to be martyred in the amphitheater. But the narrator of his martyrdom reports that when the police came to arrest him in a country house where he had taken refuge, since it was dinnertime, he ordered food and drink to be set out for them, while he went aside and prayed aloud for two hours. In his prayer, he remembered everyone he had ever encountered and hJ kaqolikhv ejkklhsiva throughout the world. The narrator finished the report of Polycarp’s martyrdom by concluding that now Polycarp is enjoying the glory of God and Jesus Christ, shepherd of hJ kaqolikhv ejkklhsiva throughout the world (Mart. -
How to Live with Messiness: Joshua Berman on Biblical Criticism
How to Live with Messiness: Joshua Berman on Biblical Criticism 18forty.org/reader/how-to-live-with-messiness-joshua-berman-on-biblical-criticism August 6 | Weekend Reader By: Yehuda Fogel How can an Orthodox rabbi be a scholar of Biblical criticism? Can Biblical scholars determine the ‘true Bible’? Enter Professor Joshua Berman. Prolific author and scholar Rabbi Dr. Berman is no apologetic. He engages with Biblical criticism with honesty and erudition, and is a passionate critic of the excesses of scholarship. In this week’s Weekend Reader, we will consider one key critique of his thought: The ability to live with messiness. The Bible is a complicated work, and learning to live in humility with its complications can elevate all that study it. We will look at a case study in messiness — the topic of Biblical reformulations — in the hope of better understanding the Bible’s complexity. Learning to Live with the Messiness In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, economists were in a state of disarray. Much like the state of pollsters after the 2016 election, economists were stunned by their failure to anticipate such a major event occurring. New York Times and economist Paul Krugman suggested in his 2009 piece “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” that economists have been mislead by the “desire for an all-encompassing, intellectually elegant approach that also gave economists a chance to show off their mathematical prowess.” Seeking the grand narrative of economics has led economists to mistake truth for beauty, and redemption of economics can come only by learning to accept the less beautiful parts of economic realities, and “learn[ing] to live with the messiness.” Rabbi Dr. -
The Documentary Hypothesis
THE PENTATEUCH in the battle for I So, thirdly, Israel must keep the covenant announced publicly to the whole nation, for the ; with a series of wholeheartedly. 'Love the LORD your God with Lord's appearance on the mountain was too ter s and how the all your heart and with all your soul and with all rifying. Instead they were made known to rng the secular your strength' (6:5) sums up the whole message Moses alone (Ex. 20: 19-21; Dt. 5:5), who then Levi (chs. 34 I of Moses. This meant keeping the Ten Com passed them on to the people. o the establish mandments given by God at Sinai (ch. 5). It Moses' role as a mediator is stressed those guilty of meant applying the Commandments to every throughout the Pentateuch. Time and again ~ I i sphere of life. The second and longest sermon laws are introduced by the statement, 'Then the land was more Ile land in which of Moses consists of a historical retrospect LORD said to Moses'. This implies a special in vas therefore, a followed by an expansion and application of the timacy with God, suggesting that if God is the Jfe: especially of commandments to every sphere of Israel's life ultimate source of the law, Moses was its chan . (ch. 35).It was, in Canaan; the laws in chs. 12 - 25 roughly nel, if not the human author of it. This impres for ever, and the follow the order of the commandments and ex sion is reinforced most strongly by the book of :signed to ensure pand and comment on them. -
Exploring the Old Testament: Pentateuch Vol 1: the Pentateuch Pdf, Epub, Ebook
EXPLORING THE OLD TESTAMENT: PENTATEUCH VOL 1: THE PENTATEUCH PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Gordon Wenham | 224 pages | 22 Aug 2003 | SPCK Publishing | 9780281054299 | English | London, United Kingdom Exploring the Old Testament: Pentateuch Vol 1: The Pentateuch PDF Book In response Jean Astruc , applying to the Pentateuch source criticism methods common in the analysis of classical secular texts, believed he could detect four different manuscript traditions, which he claimed Moses himself had redacted p. By the end of the 19th century the scholarly consensus was that the Pentateuch was the work of many authors writing from BCE the time of David to BCE the time of Ezra and redacted c. Gnostic Islamic Quranic. Some feel that the accuracy diminishes the further backwards one proceeds from this date. To navigate these biblical books, a battery of tables, diagrams, and maps engage the reader. The American Albright school asserted that the biblical narrative of conquest would be affirmed by archaeological record; and indeed for much of the 20th century archaeology appeared to support the biblical narrative, including excavations at Beitin identified as Bethel , Tel ed-Duweir, identified as Lachish , Hazor, and Jericho. Many scholars believe that the "Deuteronomistic History" preserved elements of ancient texts and oral tradition, including geo-political and socio-economic realities and certain information about historical figures and events. Jesus Monotheism. A Comparison with Graeco Roman Biography. According to some scholars, including Baden, the third major block of source material in the Torah can be divided into two different, equally coherent schools, named for the word that each uses for God: Yahweh and Elohim. -
Christian Theology Were Advanced by the French Millenarian, Isaac La Peyrère, in the Middle of the Seventeenth Century
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Some of the most revolutionary ideas in biblical criticism and in Judeo- Christian theology were advanced by the French Millenarian, Isaac La Peyrère, in the middle of the seventeenth century. His questioning of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, of the authenticity of the present text of Scripture, and of the accuracy of Scripture with regard to its ac count of the history of mankind had tremendous effects on his contem poraries as well as thinkers of later times. He was regarded as perhaps the greatest heretic of the age, even worse than Spinoza, who took over some of his most challenging ideas. He was refuted over and over again by leading Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant theologians. Nonetheless some of his ideas gradually became a basic part of biblical scholarship, greatly influenced the development of anthropology, and affected Millenarian political history. However, the man who could contend that the Bible was not ac curate, that there were men before Adam, and that the Bible was only the account of Jewish history; who could shock the philosophical- theological world of his time, is hardly known today. He is remembered, if at all, as a footnote to the biblical criticism of Spinoza, Richard Simon and Jean Astruc, and as a footnote in the history of anthropology. He has been reduced to a small paragraph in encyclopedias which present him as the formulator of the pre-Adamite theory. Only in the last few years has there been a revival of interest in La Peyrère and his revolu tionary ideas. In the present volume I shall present an intellectual biography of the man, and place him in the history of the religious ideas of his predecessors, and trace his influence from the mid seventeenth century onward. -
The Miracle at the Sea Remarks on the Recent Discussion About Origin and Composition of the Exodus Narrative
The Miracle at the Sea Remarks on the Recent Discussion about Origin and Composition of the Exodus Narrative Jan Christian Gertz* 1 Introduction: The Exodus Narrative and the Debate about the Formation of the Pentateuch The story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt in Exod 1–15 “constitutes the point of crystallization of the great Pentateuchal narrative in its entirety.”1 It is, therefore, hardly surprising that the Exodus narrative plays an important role and often served as a paradigm in the recent debate about the formation of the Pentateuch.2 As a result there is much controversy about these chapters in pentateuchal scholarship. The classic formulation of the New Documentary Hypothesis assumes a Yahwistic, Elohistic, and Priestly source in Exod 1–15, as well as several pre- and post-priestly additions that were joined in successive stages. If we survey the commentaries and monographs of recent years, we find copious refutations and modifications of this model.3 By name but hardly with regard to approach, * My sincere thanks to my colleague Anselm C. Hagedorn for the translation of this article. The research was done while I was part of the group “Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory” at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem and supported by the eurias Fellowship Programme. 1 Martin Noth, A History of Pentateuchal Traditions (trans. with an introduction by Bernhard W. Anderson; Chico, Calif.: Scholar Press, 1981), 51; trans. of Überlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1948), 54. 2 Cf. inter alia Marc Vervenne, “Current Tendencies and Developments in the Study of the Book of Exodus,” in The Book of Exodus (ed. -
Israel and Judah
Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02431-1 — The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible Daniel E. Fleming Excerpt More Information part i INTRODUCTION Israel and Judah © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-02431-1 — The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible Daniel E. Fleming Excerpt More Information 1 Why Israel? The Bible would make a fascinating historical source, if only we could figure out how to use it as such. It is unique as a written corpus from the ancient world, not because it is religiously sacred, though perhaps its uniqueness is a result of the process that made it so. The Bible regales us with tales from the world of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, offered from the perspective of the runaways and the defeated. It reports the reigns of kings not in the voice of royal propaganda but with distance and capacity for critique. It presents what are cast as the ruminations of men who spoke for God against both the people and the powers that led them. All this writing may date to settings long after the occasions portrayed, yet the literature is patently a patchwork of reused materials, not always well understood, certainly not a straightforward work of unified fiction.1 Often, current discussion of the Bible’s relationship to history revolves around the notion of “historicity.”2 Did it happen, or happen the way the story says? Did the individual characters exist? More broadly, does the story preserve some memory or knowledge of the time portrayed? If the answer is “no” or there is significant doubt about the matter, it can be difficult to make a case for historical investigation before the date of the latest editor’s hand, and this will in no way illuminate the object portrayed.