Reading the Old Testament An Introduction by Lawrence Boadt

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Reading the Old TestamentAn IntroductionbyLawre
nce Boadt
Ch. 24 Faith Confronting New Challenges
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A.) Judaism In The World of The Greeks

• - Persia tried to conquer Greece in 490 B.C.
  under Darius, and again in 480 under Xerxes, but
  fell short both times.
• - Persia learned that the best way to conquer
  Greece was to bribe the Greek City States with
  money
• - IN 459 to 404 B.C Athens and Sparta were locked
  in a deadly civil war due to Persia bribing the
  cities.

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Alexander the Great

• 356 B.C. Alexander Born in Macedon
• 338 B.C. His father, Philip defeats the Greeks
  and takes rule over Greece
• 336 B.C. Philip is assassinated and Alexander
  becomes King at age twenty
• 334 B.C. Wins Granicus and rules western Turkey
• 333 B.C. He wins Syria, and all of the near east
  up to the Euphrates
• 331 B.C. at the battle of Gaugamela he defeats
  Darius III and rules all of Persia
• 326 B.C. looses a battle in India and is forced
  to retreat
• 323 B.C. Alexander dies in Babylon of fever.

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The Book of Esther

• Is a tale of thrilling escape from mortal danger
  for the Jews
• It is set Persia under King Xerxes in 486-465
  B.C.
• It is about a Jewish maiden named Esther, who is
  chosen to be the queen of Xerxes.
• Haman the Persian prime minister is enraged by
  Mordecai (Esthers Jewish cousin) and wants
  Xerxes to slaughter all the Jews.
• Xerxes realizes Hamans evil intensions and has
  Haman executed

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The Book of Esther

• A main purpose for the Book of Esther si to give
  the reason for the beast of Purim
• Another reason is remind the Jewish people to
  always keep themselves serarated from the danger
  of a pagan government

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The Book of Judith

• Tells a story of a heroic widow in the town of
  Judah who saved the nation from the invasion King
  Nebuchadnezzar.
• Nebuchadnezzar is angry at all the Western Asia
  for refusing to support him and defeats state
  after state.
• Judith fools General Holofernes into thinking she
  will sleep with him. Judith gets him and drunk
  and cuts his head off.
• This seems to be historically impossible and a
  fantastic combination of the imagination.

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The Book of Ruth

• Is a fairy tale story, begins with Once upon a
  time there were judges
• The book has a simple message about the true
  faith in Yahweh. It not blood or marriage that
  matters, but faith.
• Because though Ruth is a Moabitess she decides to
  follow Namoni far away from home to serve her.
  Ruth has full faith and respect for Naomi. Ruths
  faith leads to her fortunate marriage to Boaz, a
  wealthy citizen in Bethlehem.

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The Book of Tobit

• A romance about how God gave merciful care upon
  two of his faithful adherents. One is Tobit who
  is an exile from northern Israel and Sarah.
• Both characters have complete trust in Yahweh and
  fidelity to his law.
• Both characters are cursed by an evil demon,
  Tobit is blinded by bird droppings and Sarah has
  been engaged seven times to see her husbands
  killed on the day of the wedding.
• Both pray to Yahweh for help. In the end Tobias
  and Sarah are the ideal Jewish couple and Tobit
  is healed from his blindness.

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The Book of Baruch and Letter of Jeremiah

• Made up of four parts
• Ch. 11-39 the celebration of a penitential rite
  among the exiles in Babylon that emphasize
  promises of God
• Ch. 39-45 observance of the law of Moses as
  hope of Israel.
• Ch. 45-59 series of prophetic oracles of hope
  to exiles and call to trust in the Lord
• Ch. 6 letter of Jeremiah to the exiles. Sometimes
  put separate in the bible.

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The Jewish Struggle for Freedom (175-160 B.C.)

• Life in Judah was generally quiet and uneventful
• During the time period around 175-160 B.C. the
  Jewish community was upset with how the upper
  class people were trying to be like the Greeks in
  all their practices.
• The two books of Maccabees were written in Greek
  and make up part of the deuterocanonical books in
  the Catholic Bible. These two books describe the
  fight for freedom for the Jewish community.

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The First Book of Maccabees

• Describes the battle for freedom through the eyes
  of Mattathias and his two sons.
• Judas took over after his father Mattathias died
  and lead a strong revolt with a mobile guerrilla
  arm that was victorious over the Syrian Armies
  sent by Antiochus IV.
• By 164 B.C. Judas had enough control of the
  country to purify and rededicate it to Yahweh
  after the three years of pagan worship that went
  with it.

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The Second Book of Maccabees

• A book of persuasion rather than a plain report
  of what happened. Has three Parts
• 11-218 contains two letters giving direction to
  the Jews about he celebration of the feasts of
  Booths and Hanukkah.
• 219-109 summarizes the account by Jason up to
  the dedication of the temple by Judas in 164
• 1010-1539 is the remainder of Judas life up
  the his great victory over the Syrian general
  Nicanor in 160.

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B.) The book of Daniel and Apocalyptic thought

• The Book of Daniel
• Is Filled with dreams and visions that reveal
  coming events.
• Hebrew Bible places Daniel among the end of the
  Bible and does not consider it be prophecy like
  the English translation.
• Can be identified as examples of trust in God
  similar to Esther, Judith, and Tobit.
• Some scholars consider it to be prophecy, other
  wisdom, and others apocalyptic, because it speaks
  about the overthrow of the whole world.

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Daniel continued

• Book of Daniel can be divided into to two parts
  for the Hebrew and three in the Greek and Modern
  Catholic Bible.
• 1st part has six romantic stories intended to
  edify and teach proper religious attitudes.
• 2nd part has four visions in which Daniel learns
  about coming occurrences either in a dream or
  through an angel. Explains the past and future
  events that will culminate in the destruction of
  Israels enemies.

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Daniel Continued

• Part 3 contain three stories about Daniel but are
  only found in the Septuagint. The 1st show Daniel
  uncovering the lies of two elders against
  Susanna. The second the third describe how Daniel
  was refuses to worship a great statue of Baal and
  a dragon. Daniel is thrown in a lions pit, but
  God saves him from death and the lions rip apart
  his accusers instead.
• The entire book claims to take place in the 6th
  century B.C.

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The Special Purpose of Daniel

• Purpose of Daniels visions is to predict the
  fashioned end of the kingdom of Antiochus
  Epiphanes and his persecution.
• Making it highly probable that the author of
  Ch.s 7-12 was living thought the terrible times
  wrote the visions to give strength to the
  suffering Jews.
• Though, this was not how the king died so we must
  assume that this part was written in 164 B.C.,
  the year before the King actually died.

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The Lasting Significance of Daniel

• 1) Daniel and his friends frequently pray and
  fast, they are ideal examples of good piety for
  the post-exilic period.
• 2) Contains first teaching about a divine promise
  that the just person will rise after death to a
  life of happiness with God.
• 3) The book also projects a coming kingdom of God
  that will be brought about by a heavenly yet
  human figure, known as the Son of God
• 4) Since prophets had ceased centuries earlier,
  apocalyptic continues the work of prophecy in a
  new form. It accents God as the master of all
  events revealed through special agents such as
  angels, special visions, or dreams.

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More On Apocalyptic

• The Greek word apokalypsis means uncovering or
  revelation.
• Labeling Daniel as apocalyptic suggests that its
  chief characteristic is the revelation of the
  some secret about the future.
• Though there are more occurrences of apocalyptic
  in the Bible the book of Enoch which tells the
  coming and of the messiah
• 4 Ezra which tells the woes and miseries ahead of
  Israel until the Messiah comes as the Son of Man.
  And many other books in the bible have signs of
  apocalyptic significance.

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The Values of Apocalyptic Thinking

• 1) God is never indifferent to his world, nor is
  he powerless to intervene for the sake of his
  name and to achieve justice.
• 2) We can expect God to act in new ways and not
  in the same old ways.
• 3) Belief rejects the power of evil to control
  our lives, and says death is not final end for
  those who are faithful to Yahweh.
• 4) Must show a strong trust in Yahweh and reject
  human war and violence to accept pacifism.
• 5) Apocalyptic literature brought the imagery of
  last judgment, heaven and hell into Judaism and
  Christianity.

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The Values of Apocalyptic Thinking Continued

• 6) It is it apocalyptic that we can attribute
  much of our present hope in the resurrection of
  Jesus as a source of life.
• Also, apocalyptic literature did not survive in
  Judaism and represents only a small portion of
  the Old and New Testament.