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Any duplication, reproduction, or modification of this material without express written consent from Asbury Theological Seminary and/or the original publisher is prohibited. Contact B.L. Fisher Library Asbury Theological Seminary 204 N. Lexington Ave. Wilmore, KY 40390 B.L. Fisher Library’s Digital Content place.asburyseminary.edu Asbury Theological Seminary 205 North Lexington Avenue 800.2ASBURY Wilmore, Kentucky 40390 asburyseminary.edu ABSTRACT PROPHETIC CONFLICT AND YAHWISTIC TRADITION: A SYNTHETIC STUDY OF TRUE AND FALSE PROPHECY (JEREMIAH 26-29) The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate that ancient Israel had an adequate rubric in its Yahwistic tradition to distinguish between true and false prophecy. Generally, in Old Testament (OT) scholarship, it has been argued that ancient Israel simply did not have the capacity to discern between true and false prophecy. In fact, there is a tendency to reduce prophecy in the OT as mere vaticinium ex eventu. This notion has persisted partly because of an inadequate understanding and poorly conceived epistemology of divine revelation and history. Thus, in order to better construe divine revelation and its relation to tradition as fidei depositum, the hermeneutic of critical realism is utilized. Critical realism espouses that knowledge is not about transmission of facts or information alone but, most importantly; it is about the transmission of authentic subjectivism. In other words, a critical analysis of subject matter such as revelation can lead to authentic knowledge. I argue that this revelation, in the case of ancient Israel, becomes the deposit of faith or tradition, and tradition in turn becomes the means of preserving revelation. The study next explores the development of Yahwistic tradition and identifies some of its features. I argue that Yahwistic tradition did not oppose Israel's monarchy; instead, it insisted only that its monarchy should be a limited one. In other words, Israel's monarch should function within the ideals of the Yahwistic tradition. It is within this framework of Yahwistic tradition that ancient Israel prophecy should be studied. I then analyze the society of ancient Israel (Iron Age II) utilizing Gerhard Lenski and Patrick Nolan's macro-sociology of agrarian societies. This analysis was necessary for two reasons: first, prophecy, at its core, is sociological in nature; second, this analysis helps to paint the possible context within which the prophetic conflict existed. The study shows that the resources for survival were limited, and yet they were drained by the royal administration for its maintenance and self-aggrandizement. Interestingly, the prophets found themselves in the upper echelon of social stratification. Some of them were swayed by their greed for comfortable living and aided in institutionalizing the Yahwistic tradition. The institutionalized Yahwistic tradition paralyzed the minds of many Israelite kings and their supporters, causing them to be unreceptive to Yahweh's further revelation. All was not lost, however. I argue that there was a vestige in the flKH-av ("people of the land"), who aspired to see that the Yahwistic tradition was restored in the land. It is this fixrrny that supported the Yahwistic prophets and eventually became the key factor in identifying true prophecy. This analysis is then used to understand the prophetic conflict as found in Jeremiah 26- as well as 29. 1 argue that Jeremiah prophesied when he received revelation from Yahweh by critically and imaginatively reading the received tradition. In other words, it was the covenant relationship between Israel and Yahweh that impacted the content of Jeremiah's prophecy. In contradistinction to Jeremiah, Hananiah prophesied in relation to the institutionalized understanding of Yahwistic tradition and according to the influx of international politics, hi an true false as found in excursus, I also explore the criteria of adjudicating and prophecy Deuteronomy 13:2-6 [Eng 13:1-5] and 18: 21-22. The former articulates that a prophet or to dreamer who gives a "wonder or sign" that comes to pass and uses that sign to lead the people follow other gods is a false prophet (13: 2-3). Such a prophet deserves capital punishment (v. 6). The latter asserts that a prophecy given in Yahweh's name must be fulfilled to be considered true (18: 22). Both criteria are utilized by Jeremiah mutatis mutandis in his confrontation with the so- called false prophets. I argue that these criteria are not without meaning and value. However, they should not be interpreted as a fixed and final set of principles; rather, they should be in such a evaluated in light of an evolving ancient Yahwistic tradition. It is only synthetic study that one can relatively apprehend "a" scope whereby he or she can suggest that ancient Israel had a rubric for distinguishing between true and false prophecy in its Yahwistic tradition. Prophetic Conflict and Yahwistic Tradition: A Synthetic Study of True and False Prophecy (Jeremiah 26-29) A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary Wilmore, Kentucky In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Studies Dissertation Committee: Dr. Bill T. Arnold, Mentor Dr. John A. Cook, Reader By M. Sashi Jamir December 2015 Copyright 2015 M. Sashi Jamir All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Prophetic Conflict 1. hitroduction 1 2. Literature Review 6 2.L Broad history of bibHcal interpretation 7 2.2. Critical framework of biblical interpretation 9 2.3. Recent developments in the research 24 3. Thesis Statement 28 4. Organization of the Dissertation 30 Chapter 2: In Quest of a Hermeneutical Method 1. Methodological Trajectory 32 1.1.Proposing an Epistemology of Critical Realism 33 1.1.1. En Route to Critical Realism 34 1.1.2. Epistemology of Critical Realism 38 1 . 1 .2. 1 . Bernard Lonergan 40 1.1.2.2. Ben F. Meyer 45 1.1.2.3. N. T. Wright 48 1.1.3. Summary 56 2. Revelation as the Essence of the OT prophecy 57 iii 3. Understanding Revelation and Tradition by Means of Critical Realism 59 3.1. Revelation as a Threshold Concept 62 3.2. Authentic Subjectivity Leads to Objective Knowledge 63 3.3. Tradition as a Means of Preserving and Transmitting Revelation 65 4. Revelation and Inspiration 68 5. Conclusion 70 Chapter 3: Yahwistic Tradition and its Developments: A Critical Realist View 1. Introduction 71 2. Yahwistic Tradition: Its Origin and Features 75 2.1. Israelites' Response to Yahweh's Saving Grace 80 2.2. Yahweh's Further Revelation 82 2.3. The Land as Israel's ri^m (Inheritance) 87 2.4. Conclusion 89 3. Yahwism, Monarchy, and Prophecy 90 3.1. Davidic Covenant 95 3.2. Conclusion 103 iv Chapter 4: The Socio-Economic and Political Context of the Ancient Israelite Prophet in an Agrarian society 1. Introduction 104 2. Ancient Israel's Agrarian Society: A Sociological Analysis 104 2.1. Ancient Israelite Society and Agrarian System 108 2.1.1. Adaptation of the Traditional System 112 2.1.2. An Oppressive Economy 113 2.1.3. The Corrosion of Faith in Yahweh 116 2.2. Israel's Prophets in their Agrarian Context 118 2.2. 1 . Institutionalizing the Yahwistic Tradition 121 2.2.2. The Blurred Spirituality of the Vox Populi 125 2.3. Conclusion 128 3. f"IXn-ny: The Support Group of the Yahwistic Prophets 130 4. Conclusion 135 Chapter 5: Prophetic Conflict in Jeremiah 26-29 1. Introduction 136 2. Mapping the Context of the Prophet Jeremiah 137 2.1. Judah's Internal Politics in Relation to Egypt and Babylon 144 2.2. Conclusion 151 3. Locating the Text 152 3.1. Jeremiah 26-29 155 4. Interpreting the Text 156 4.1. Chapter 26: Prophet versus Prophet 156 4.2. Chapters 27-28: Jeremiah versus Hananiah 165 4.3. Excursus: Deut 13: 2-6 [Eng 13: 1-5] and 18: 21-22 177 4.4. Chapter 29: The Spillover of Prophetic Conflict to the Exilic Community 181 4.5. Summary of the Prophetic Conflict 184 5. Conclusion 186 Chapter 6: Conclusions 188 vi ABBREVIATIONS AASOR: Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research AB: Anchor Bible ABD: Anchor Bible Dictionary ANET: Ancient Near East Text AO: DerAlte Orient AOTC: Apollos Old Testament Commentary ARM: Archives royales de Mari AThANT: Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alien und Neuen Testaments BA: Biblical Archaeology BASOR: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BFCT: Beitrdge zur Forderung christlicher Theologie BLS: Bible and Literature Series BZAW: Beihefte zur Zeitschriftfilr die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CBC: Cambridge Bible Commentary CBQ: Catholic Biblical Quarterly CTA: Corpus des tablettes