The Old Testament in Its Context: 5 Judah, Exile and Return K a Kitchen

The Old Testament in its Context: 5 Judah, Exile and Return K A Kitchen

We present a further instalment of Mr Kitchen's out nezzar eventually attacked Egypt in 568/7 BC,8 as line-appreciation of the Old Testament. The series will predicted there by Jeremiah (46: 13ff.) and Ezekiel be concluded with a general survey of I profiles and in Babylonia (29: 17ff.), among the exiles. Cyrus n perspectives' in our next issue. took ov:er Media (550) then Babyllon (539).

JUDAH ALONE AND BABYLONIAN EXILE, 2. Literary prophets, 7th-6th centuries BC c. 640-539 BC a. Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Obadiah. As the 1. Historical outlines and background Assyrians had sacked Egyptian Thebes (c.663 8. Josiah, c. 640-609 BC. This king is most famed BC),9 so would Nineveh crash (as it did, c.612)10 and for his attempts at religious reform (2 Ki. 22-23; 2 Ch. his people be free of her, proclaimed Nahum (1: 34-35), when a ' book of the law' was found.1 The new 12-15). Zephaniah upbraided the sins of Judah and XXVIth Dynasty in Egypt began as an Assyrian her neighbours in Josiah's time. With the Babylonian vassal, but became Assyria's ally (out of self-interest) triumph (605 BC and after), Habakkuk was concerned against Babylon and Media. In 609 BC, Necho 11 thus over the judgment of his people and the wickedness marched to Assyria's aid. Josiah saw his chance to of the oppressor. Edom treacherously rose against bring down Assyria by hindering the pharaoh, but paid ludah c.586 BC when struck down by Babylon; Obad for his effort with his life (2 Ki. 23: 28-29; 2 Ch. 35: iah's brief utterance may date from this episode (or 20-24). And in 609/8, the shrunken Assyrian realm perhaps later). There is 00 cause to deny authorship vanished forever,2 leaving Babylon master. of any of these books to the men named.

b. DecUoe and fall of Judah, 609-581 BC. In 605 b. Jeremiah. Active .from c.627 BC (Je. 1: 2; 25: 3) BC, the Babylonians decisively defeated Necho 11 of until at least 582 when he was carried into Egypt Egypt, claiming Syria-Palestine (cf. 2 Ki. 24: 1, 7), (le. 40-43; 52: 30); his book shows real personal taking hostages (On. 1: 1-7); at this time, Nebuchad qualities. Its composition may be threefold: (i) In nezzar II became king of Babylon.3 Babylon was less dividual prophecies could be written down as given successful against Egypt in 601, and Jehoiakim foolish (e.g.by Baruch), and at one stage everything from ly rebelled against Babylon (2 Ki. 24: 1). Mter siege, 627 BC (' the beginning .• .') down to 604 BC (cf. Je. Jerusalem capitulated in March 597 BC; young Jehoi 36, 604). (ii) Once in Egypt, Jeremiah and Baruch achin and many Judaeans were carried off to Babylon probably ended by putting together all that is in le. (2 Ki. 24: 10-17; 2 Ch. 36: 5-10; Je. 24: 1), as the 1-51 (1-36+37-51), ending with the colophon, 'Thus Babylonian chronicle also records .• Zedekiah learned far are the words of leremiah' (51: 64 end). (ill) Je. nothing from his predecessors' errors, and in turn reb 52 is substantiallyll the same as 2 Ki. 25, ending with elled (2 Ki. 24: 20) with the connivance of the pharaoh EviI-Merodach favouring lehoiachin in Babylon in Hophra (Je.44: 30; cf. 37: 5). This time the Baby- 562 BC, some twenty years (and many hundred miles) 10Dians utterly swept away city, temple and state from phase (ii). Thus, when copies reached Babylon, in 587/6 BC,5 and more people· after the trouble in its account of the kingdom's end (Je. 39) was supple 582 BC.6 mented with chapter 52. This ' appendix' apart, there is no reason to deny the authenticity of the book as c. The Babylonian exUe. At court, lehoiachin a whole. The book has no marked structure, but one and family were on regular allowances; ration-tablets may see12 (a) a series of oracles, 1~25 from the time for 595-570 BC were found at Babylon.7 Nebuchad- of losiah to Zedekiah and (b) narratives, 26-52 (in corporating oracles, e.g. 30, 31. 46-51, from the time 1 See D. W. B. Robinson, loslah', Reform and the Book of lehoiakim and afterwards). 01 the Law (Tyndale Press, 1951). 2 CCK, p. 19; ANET, p. 305 (17th year). 3 CCK, pp. 23-26, 67/69. 4 C:;CK, pp. 32-35, 73; ANET3 (and Supplt), p. 564, ' 7th 8 ANET, p. 308 end; CCK, pp. 94-95. year'. 9 Assyrian accounts, cf. ANET, pp. 295b, 291a; back- 52 Ki. 25: 2-21; le. 39; 52: 3-27,29. ground, ThlP. . 6 2 !G. 25: 22~26; le. 52: 30, cf. le. 40-41. 10 eCK, pp. 13-17. 7 ANET, p. 308; W. 1. Martin in D. W. Thomas (ed.), 11 In 2 Ki. 25 and le. 52 (cf. 39-41), the differing sections Dpcuments /rom ()T Times, 1958, pp. 84-86. Cf. Albright. are complementary. BA 5 (1942), pp. 49~55. Later, 2 !G. 2S: 27-30•.. 12 With F. Cawley and A. R. ~d. N~ lJjbl(Com- 2

c. Ezekiel. like his elder colleague Jeremiah, both (ll) Psalms. To the Exile belongs at least the an prophet and priest. He too had to proclaim the down guish of Psalm 137. fall of Judah and Jerusalem (1-24) as well as against the sinful nations around (25-32). Thereafter, once b. The prophetic history - KIngs. This hook downfall came, he was then commissioned to proclaim takes the story of the Hebrews from. the death of restoration in .given conditions (33-35) of the people David to the fall of his dynasty and its fortunes in (36-37, despite future threats, 38-39), and of the exile, c.561 BC (2 Ki. 25: 31-34). Like the book of temple as focus of restored worship in a renewed na Samuel which it follows,19 it is an anonymous narra tion and land (40-48). False confidence had to be tive. Its standpoint is that of the prophets, and it destroyed, and a thereafter dispirited people given sets forth the failure of kings and people on the central new and true hope. matters of apostasy in terms of the law and covenant, and the dissolution of Israel and exile of Judah as d. Daniel. A work of six chapters mainly narra the consequential punishment from God. The term tive, and six of complementary visions; its datelines , Deuteronomic history' is understandable, but is too run from' the thi

IT was concerned with the cult of Jews at Aswan in dealingS with the banking firm of Murashu and Egypt (' passover papyrus ').29 Sheshbazzar as govern Sons c.450-400 BC.37 Thus, by the dawn of the Hellen or with Zerubbabel (adjutant?) began a new temple istic age, fews were to be found in both Palestine in Jerusalem, but Samaritan interference delayed its and far beyond, a situation intensified by Roman completion till 515 BC. times and the period of the New Testament. b. Time of Xerxes I. The nauative of Esther is set in this reign. otherwise alluded to only in Ezra 5; Literary prophets, late 6th century BC 4: 6. •• Haggai prophesied in the second year of Darius c. Ezra and Nehemiah. In the seventh year of Ar I, to encourage the people to resume the rebuilding taxerxes I of Persia (458 BC),JO Ezra the scribe came of the temple. (with further miwants) to regulate spIritual ijfe in b. Zecbariah followed up Haggai in his exhorta Judea, including temple matters (Ezr. 7-8). A crisis tions, with eight visions that year (Zc. 1-6); in the arose over paganizing marriages, resolved by separa . fourth year, he proolaimed obedience beltter than tions rather than face possible absorption of the fasting (7-8). The rest of the hook contains just two .Hebrew community and its ,role for the future (9-10). sections, each headed' oracle' (9-11; 12-14). There is Thereafter, Ezra disappears from Palestinian affairs hardly anything that can 'feally be labelled as incon for a decade; being responsible to the Persian admin sistent with Zechariah's time. However, scholars are istration, he had probably returned to his office in not lacking who would date these either long after Babylon.31 Later, the cupbearer Nehemiah heard of Zechariah,38 or (remarkably) earlier than he.39 But the sad state of unwruled Jerusalem; in Artaxerxes' it is possible that they are oracles given by Zechariah twentieth year (445 BC), he got permission to go and later in his career, and included with 1-8 in the one rebuild the walls as governor (Ne. 111.; 10: 1). In book. this task, plus a covenant and dedication of the walls, he was seconded by Ezra (8; 10; 12: 36). Abuses c. Malachi is, strictly, undated. But as the Jews that had arisen in Ezra's absence, including more halVe a governor (1: 8) and a temple and cult (1-2), paganizing liaisons, were corrected (Ne. 5; 13), some the Persian age is .generally agreed. Probably some on a second spell as governor from 433 BC (13: 6-7). time after Hapi and Zechariah, he seeks to stir up As builder, Nehemiah faced three foes. First was God's people who have ,relapsed into slackness. Sanballat, governor of Samaria;32 second, Tobiah, governor in Ammon,33 third and most dangerous was 6. Post-exilic bistoriograpby Geshem (or Gashmu), known now to have been local a. Ezra. This has two parts: events before Bzra king of Qedar in north Arabia,a realm linked with (1-6), activities of Ezra (7-10). The former includes the Persian court.34 (i) the return in 538 BC, (ii) temple-building under d. Epilogue. After 433 BC, little is known of Darius I (4: 1-5, 24; 5-6), and (iii) various opposi Hebrew history for some time. The cecently-dis tion to the Jews under Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I (4: covered Samaria papyri3S indicate that Sanballat n, 6-23).40 The latter covers essentially Bzra's activities Hananiah and Sanballat ITI were governors in in 458 BC; there is no reason to date the extant book Samaria in the fourth century BC down to the com much later or assume any author other than Bzra.41 ing of Alexander the Great. A Jewish cotmnunity at b. Estber. Its local colour as a narrative is clearly Aswan· in Bgypt of the fifth century BC is long Persian and no later. As history, it is often dismissed, known,36 while back in Babylonia various Jews had but usually on rather subjective and flimsy grounds.42 29 A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of Fifth Century BC, Mordecai may be known from contempocary Persian (OUP, 1923), no. 21, pp. 60ft.; ANET, p. 491; cf. B. Porten, Archives /rom Elephantine, 1968, pp. 128-131,311-314, and pI. 9. 30 So the date in the text of Ezra; many emendations 37 Refs., , S. H. Horn, Biblical Research 9 (1964), pp. and alternatives have been offered, but none of these is any 9-11. better than that in the text, and the reasons offered for 38 Menti()1l of Greece (lonians, Yawan) in Zc. 9: 13 in changes are often inadequate or superficial. For discussions, no way implies the Hellenistic age as sometimes thought; see references, AD/DT, pp. 77-78, n. 72, esp. 1. Stafford Greek mercenaries and traders were active in Palestine and BC Wrightl Bright, Kitchen there cited. the Near East from seventh century onwards (cf. e.g., 31 Kitchen, TSFB 39 (1964), Supplement (review of Kitchen in Wiseman et aI., Notes on Some Problems in the Bright, History), p. vi. Book of Daniel, 1965, pp. 44-48). 32 Attested with his son Delaiah in an Aramaic papyrus 39 E.g. Tadmor, Israel Expl. lourn. 1 (1950/51), pp. 149- of 408 BC, Cowley, op. cit., nos. 30-31; ANET, 491/492. 159, on Zc. 9: 1-11. 33 Tombs and later history of family, MeCown, BA 20 40 On this passage, cf. Weight, Date 01 Ezra's Coming (1957), pp. 63-76. to lerusalem2 (1958), pp. 17-19. 34 See 1.1. Rabinowitz, JNES 15 (1956), 1-10; other refs., ,41 In Ezr. 10: 6, lcllohanan son of Eliashib may have Bright, History of Israel, p. 366, n. 20. eventually become high priest (as a priest in Ne. 13: 4, 7), 35 For which see F. M. Cross, BA 26 (1963), pp. 110-121. but this is not stated or implied for Ezra's own time. 36 From its papyri, Cowley, op. cit., and E. Kraeling, The .42 As, Jor example; by C. A. Moore, Esther (Doubleday, Brooklyn Museum Aramaic Papyri (1953), with an excellent Anchor Bible 7P, .1971), pp. xlv-xlvi; contrast Young, Introduction; Porten, op. cit. lOT, pp. 355-357, and Harrison, lOT, pp; 1090-1098. 4

documents under Xerxes I.43 The book explainS the could hardly treat the Chronicler With enough con origin of a feast tempt; but in fact, his work - like other such 'cul turally late' compilationsSO - contains a mass of c. Nehemiah is almost throughout in the first valuable data preserved to us from no other source. person and devoted to his activities as governor of And when checks are available, his data can and do JiUdah, c.445-430 BC. The book begins with a proper find coofirmation.51 title (1: 1, 'The Words of Nehemiah.•. '), and so should not be regarded as one book with Ezra, what ever later tradition may opine. It will have been 7. Other Hteratare written by Nehemiah about 420 BC or soon after."" a. Undated works. lob stands grandly alone in the d. The. priestly history - Chronicles: This work is Old Testament - dateless and undateable. His figure notable for its use of genealogies45 (esp. 1-9), and is partriarchal, and a.ppears as a righteous man of old interest in the temple and cult. Such 'religious' in Ezekiel14: 14,20. Dates offered for the book vary 52 chroriicles are by no meanS foreign to the biblical wildly, from Moses to the Persian age. The literary Near East, early or late.46 On date, the narrative form is interesting: 'A-B-A', prose prologue, high ends with the decree of Cyrus, 538 BC (2 Ch. 36: flown speeches, prose epilogue. This scheme is visible 22-23). But the genealogies continue down further, in the Eloquent Peasant in Egypt (twenty-second especially that. of David whose line runs through to century BC), again for a work embodying a dispute; grandsons of Zerubbabel in 1 Chronicles 3: 1-21, Job is rooted linguistically in North West Semitic.53 probably born c.525 BC.47 Four following genera b. Keeping the heritage. Thus, by about 400 BC tions (verses 22-24) wouldl follow with the last born (on the views propounded in this series of studies within about 440/430 BC - which puts the effective in-brief), a considerable body of varied writings had date of Chronicles in the time of Nehemiah.48 Author accumulated. These, and doubtless other . literature, ship is unknown. It is fashionable to regard Ezra as were valued by the Jewish communities, and re the Chronicler. althou8h there is no evidence for or copied and transmitted by its scribes from the fourth 49 against. On historicity, the older Alttestamentler century BC onwards. From the whole, a body of writings - 'the Law', 'the Prophets' (prophetical 43 An Amherst tablet, in Berlin; A. Ungned, Zeitschrllt books and narratives) and' (other) Writings' (psalms, fur Alttestamentliche Wissenschalt 58 (1940/1), pp. 240- 244, ibid. 59 (1942/43), p. 219; cf. also S. H. Horn, Bibli etc., etc.) - emerged with the status of God-given cal Research 9 (1964), pp. 1-12 and Moore, Esther (1971), Scripture, of eternal significance; some were doubt p. 1. and their further references. less so recognized sooner, others later. Thus came 44 The latest explicit reference is Ne. 12: 22, to records in due time the Old Testament. down to a Darius who would be Darius II (424-404 BC). Eliasbib was already high priest by 445 lic, perhaps of ad vanced years. Joiada may have succeeded him before c. so As those of Ptolemaic Egypt, for example (third cen 430, and in turn Jonathan (Johanan) about 420, the latter's tury BC fI.) in the great temples - texts that are invaluable son Jaddua (see Ne. 12: 10, 11, 22) being possibly already • late' repository of data valid many centuries (even millen 30 or 40 years old in 420 BC. This would not be a Jaddua nia) earlier. Large numbers in Chronicles are no more and under Alexander the Great as sometimes supposed. no less a problem there than elsewhere. 45 The use and quotation of genealogies is a particular 51 As in the case of the Sukkiim (2 Ch. 12: 3), cf. AO1 feature in the biblical Near East in the first millenium BC; OT. p. 159, refs. they were used in Egypt (esp. the XXnd-XXVIth Dynasties) 52 The Ezekiel mention sets a bottom date for the man, to back up priestly claims to office and more generally (ex not needfully for the book, either earlier or later. amples, ThIP). In Mesopotamia, one finds scribaI 'families' 53 For the Eloquent Peasant, cf. translation in ANET. and even lists of 'scholars' in succession (latter, J. J. pp. 407-412; on N.W. Semitic aspect, cf. A. Blommerde, van Dijk, XVIII Vorliiufiger Bericht, Uruk 1962, pp. 45fI.). Northwest Semitic Grammar and lob (Rome 1969); Al 46 One and the same king Tuthmosis III has 'annals' of bright, Yahweh and the Gods 01 Canaan (1968), pp. 226-7, his campaigns, and dedicatory texts for the feasts of his favours a seventh-century date and preferred a north-west god Amun (former ANET, pp. 238fI.; latter, Gardiner, Semitic viewpoint to the supposed Arabic or Edomite affili 10urn. Eg. Archaeol. 38 (1952), 6fI.). In Mesopotamia are ations of the work. found what are termed 'religious chronicles' by A. K. Grayson, in La divination en MesopotlNTlie anclenne, 196f1, p. 74, etc. In Sumer, for a 'temple-history' cf. that of the Tummal-sanctuary, S. N. Kramer, The Sumerians (Chicago AbbreYiations UP, 1963), pp. 47-49. ANET J. B. PFitchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern 47 All the names of 1 01. 3: 21 should probably be Texts rei. to the Old Testament (Princeton UP), taken as sons of Hananiah (cf. RSV and LXX). The calcu 11950, 21954, 31969 (its extra texts being avail lation, at twenty-plus years per generation, is based on able in a Supplement •. ,1969, same paging). Jehoiachin being eighteen in 597 BC (2 Ki. 25: 18). AOIOT K. A. Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testa 48 For sim'ilar calculations, cf. latterly J. M. Myers, 1 ment (Tyndale Press, 1966). Chronicles (Anchor Bible, 1965), pp. 20-22, and cf. pp. BA Biblical Archaeologist. lxxxvi-Ixxxix. BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools 01 Oriental 49 2 Ch. 36: 22-23 is based on the fuller Ezr. 1 :1-4 Research. and so is (i) later and (ii) makes Chronicles link up with CCK D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings Ezra. This could have been done equally by Ezra or any (British Museum, 1956). one else. A date for Chronicles about 420 BC or so is likely HHAHT K. A. Kitchen; Hittite Hieroglyphs. Aramaeans enough (I see no reason for augmented 'editions '), but and Hebrew Traditions (forthcoming; delayed would be too mtefor Ezra to be its author. by external factors). 5

lOT Introduction to the Old Testament (a) by E. J. NBD J. D. Douglas et al., (eds.), New Bible Diction Young, 3rd ed., 1964; (b) by R. K. Harrison, ary (IVP, 1962). 1970 (both Tyndale Press). NPOT J. B. Payne (ed.), New Perspectives on the OT JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies. (Word Books, 1970). LAR D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria, ThlP K. A. Kitchen, Third Intermediate Period in 1-11 (Chicago UP, 1926-27). Egypt (ready for press). MN E. R. Thiele, Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew T(H)B Tyndale (House) Bulletin. Kings, 11951, 21965. TSFB Theological Students' Fellowship Bulletin.

The Third Arm: Pentecostal Christianity 1 Greg S Forster

'It appears to me that the some Spirit Who once the ministry of two brothers and a collea8Ue.3 A inspired the authors of the Book of Common Prayer third group is the Apostolic Church, which arose is back in business:1 The Pentecostalist movement is from the 1904 Welsh Revival, and is organized in one of the most noteworthy features of the con charismatic hierarchy. There are other groups, par temporary religious scene. Mr Forster here gives a ticularly of late among West Indian immigrants.4 survey and critique of aome aspects of Pentecostalism. The distinctive Pentecostal message is a high doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit, particularly • speaking in tongues " which is taken to be the sign of • baptism This paper is an attempt to examine some facets of in the Spirit'. This is regarded as a distinct stage in the theology and practice of Pentecostal Christianity. Christian experience, and as being nearly indispens No attempt is made to cover the whole doctrine of able. the person and work of the Holy Spirit; only part 2. The term • Pentecostal ' can refer to those in the of this is at issue in the debate between • Pentecostal' historic denominations who share this theology. and and • historic' Christianity. experience, while not having left their original denom When • historic' Christianity, or denominations, are ination. Thus they do not lay so much stress on the referred to, this means all the non-Pentecostal de exercise of spiritUal gifts in the public worship of nominations, that is Anglican, Roman Catholic, and the church. other nonconformist churches of all types, except 3. The term can refer to those who share the ex those which are • Pentecostal '. The tenn • Pentecost perience of the gifts of the Spirit, but do not share al ' is harder to define, if only because it can have the high doctrine of them; they would hold that they several denotations. do not necessarily signify any higher stage of rela 1. It refers to the older Pentecostal groups, which tionship between the believer and the Spirit. The have grown into denominations which approximate two latter m.eaniDg,'§ often receive the title 'Neo to the standard type. There are two such groups of Pentecostal'. The terms • Anglicostal' and • Bapti major importance in Britain: the Elim Four-Square costal' are also used, in informal contexts, to refer Gospel Alliance, which has roots in the Welsh reviv to Anglicans or Baptists of this persuasion. als at the turn of the century, and in N.1reland, and • Baptism in the Holy Spirit' is a term which ex which was orgalllzed in the years following 1915; cites deep emotion and rivalry. For a Pentecostal and the Assemblies of God, which were constituted • baptism in the Holy Spirit is a second encounter as an association in 1924. There was at first a hesitan with God, in which the Christian begins to receive cy in forming any organization, partly because of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit into his the high value placed upon • spontaneity in the life ... This second experience ... is given for the Spirit '2 and partly because of hopes of uniting the purpose of equipping the Christian with God's power historic churches behind the revivaL The Assemblies of God are congregational in church order (there having been Baptist infi·uence in their origins), though there is a tendency to centralize. The Elim alliance is centrally controlled, having started with 3 B. R. Wilson, Religious Sects (1970) pp. 80ff. Sects and Society, pp. 2lf. 4 D. Martin and M. Hill, A Sociological Yearbook of 1 This epigram derives from Charisma in Hong Kong (a Religion in Great Britain III (SCM, 1970). The relevant collection of testimonies published by the Society of Stephen, papers are C. Hill • Some Aspects of Race and Religion Hong Kong). in Britain " and R. H. Ward, • Some Aspects of Religious 2 F. L. Cross (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Life in an Immigrant Area in Manchester'. Also C. Hill in Church (1957), p. 1043 s.v.• Pentecostal