Genesis, Exodus, Job

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Genesis, Exodus, Job

• Honors 2101, Fall 2006
• Unit 1 Mesopotamia and Ancient Near East

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Old Testament

• Hebrew Torah
• Pentateuch (5 Books)
• Tanak Law, Prophets, Writings
• Authorship?
• 4 narrations J, E, D, P
• J (Yahweh) is 900 BCE
• P is 500 BCE
• Official organization 400 BCE (School of Ezra)

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What is the Torah?

• Literary Collection of a People
• Hebrew myth, folktales, history, poetry,
  biography, philosophy, prophecy, history, etc.
• 1st Monotheism Yaweh, an all-powerful,
  dual-natured god.
• A god of violence, vengeance, and destruction
• A god of covenants, blessings, protection
• A nationalist or founding story (of Israel)
• From a loose tribal collection of people
• To a national identity of a chosen people

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The Hebrew Bible read as living literature is a
tragic epic with a single long plot the tale of
the fall of a hero through his weaknesses. The
hero is Israel, a people given a destiny almost
too high for human beings, the charge of Gods
law Unlike all other epic tragedies, it does not
end in death. The hero has eternal life, and the
prospect of ages of pain, in which to rise at
long last to the destiny which he cannot
escape. Herman Wouk This is My God
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Genesis Exodus

• Genesis
• Story of creation, rebellion, universal flood,
  razing of the unrighteous (1-11) and a story of
  tribal fathers, conflicts between sons and
  fathers, and convenants with Yaweh (11-22).
• Exodus
• Story of the search for the promised land, the
  escape from Egypt, and the formation of a nation
  under Gods laws.

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Influences

• Canaan/Palestine between Egypt and Mesopotamia.
  (e.g., flood, eternal life, laws)
• Stories of Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
  Joseph) represent migration of Semitic tribes
  from Arabian peninsula into Fertile Crescent
  between 1900-1300 BCE.
• Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees 1900
• Canaanite/Amorite tribes move to Egypt 1700
• Come out of slavery in 13th cent. BCE, during
  rules of Seti and Ramses II.

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Break into groups

• Using the texts as sources, answer the questions
  given to your group.
• You will have 30 minutes.
• You will then have to report to the class your
  answers.

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Question A

• Gilgamesh ( Enkidu), as well as Abraham, Moses
  and others in the Old Testament (assignment) are
  all considered heroes. Pick one hero from
  each text and then, using specific textual
  references, answer the following questions
• What is a hero?
• In what way are the figures in each literature
  similar?
• In what ways are they different?
• What contemporary figures parallel these Epic and
  Old Testament heroes?

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Question B

• Both the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis contain a
  Flood Story. Using specific textual references,
  answer the following questions regarding these
  stories
• In what way are the stories similar?
• In what way are they unique/different?
• What role does the Flood Story play in each text?
  (Is it the same, different?)
• Are there any modern versions of the Flood Story
  that suggest interesting parallels?

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Question C

• In both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Old
  Testament (assignment) the relationship between
  humans and god(s) play a prominent role. Using
  specific textual references, answer the following
  questions
• In what way is the human-god(s) relationship in
  each text similar?
• In what way is the relationship different?
• How do the god(s) communicate with humans in each
  text?
• What do the god(s) represent in each text?

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Job

• A dialogue on the nature of God, divine justice,
  human suffering and obedience.
• Considered a masterpiece of literature.

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Influences

• Dated from the 6th cent. BCE
• Unique among wisdom literature because of its
  questioning of conventional wisdom.
• Babylonian captivity 586 BCE
• Nebuchadrezzar II, King of Babylon destroys
  Jerusalem, takes 40,000 Jews.
• Compare Psalm 137
• Written after Babylonian captivity, c. 400-100
  BCE.

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Psalm 137 (KJV)

• By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea,
  we wept when we remembered Zion.
• We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
  thereof.
• For there they that carried us away captive
  required of us a song and they that wasted us
  required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the
  songs of Zion.
• How shall we sing the LORDs song in a strange
  land?
• If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
• let my right hand forget its her cunning.
• If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave
  to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not
  Jerusalem above my chief joy.

• Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the
  day of Jerusalem who said, Rase it, rase it,
  even to the foundation thereof
• O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed
  happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou
  hast served us.
• Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth they
  little ones against the stones.
• (539 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia destroys
  Babylon end of last Mesopotamian empire)

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Psalm 137

• Expresses the suffering, and injustice of the
  Hebrews while captive in Babylon.
• Also, the prophecy and hope for retribution
• O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed
  happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou
  hast served us.
• Represents conventional wisdom about a just God

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Justice in Job

• Conventional wisdom
• Goodness, piety, is rewarded with prosperity
• Evil, blasphemy, is punished
• But, experience tells us differently
• Goodness is not always rewarded
• Evil often prospers

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Justice in Job

• What does this mean for a just God?
• And, what does this mean for human suffering?
• Job explores these questions

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Plot

• Job introduced pious, blameless man.
• God and Satan wager on Jobs piety.
• Job is deprived of prosperity, family, and
  health. (1-2)
• Job complains, cursing the day he was born. (3)
• His three companions (Eliphaz, Bildad, and
  Zophar) console him

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Several Solutions Offered

• Job suffers because he had done something wrong.
  (4-5)
• Job suffers because he has some inward fault not
  readily observable.
• Job suffers because we are all sinners (original
  sin)
• Job suffers because God has some purpose for his
  suffering (Elihu)

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God speaks for Himself

• Job demands an answer from God (31)
• God replies(38-42)
• What is Gods answer to Job?
• How does Job reply to God?
• What happens in the end?

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Questions

• What does the book of Job recommend to the
  faithful? To the suffering?
• If God (and his law) is transcendent (beyond
  human understanding), how can humans be expected
  to follow?
• If God is indeed just, what kind of justice is
  this? What kind of piety is recommended?
• Is justice power? Is justice fairness?
• Is piety reasonable?Is it nothing but Fear? Is it
  irrational?

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Points to Consider

• Consider Jobs answer to his wife (2.10) shall
  we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we
  not receive evil? What does this mean for
  conventional wisdom?
• Consider Chapter 9 but how should man be just
  with God? What is Job talking about here?

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And More

• Consider Gods reply Will you ever put me in the
  wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be
  justified? (40.8) Explain.
• God rewards Job and reprimands his friends
  because, you have not spoken of me what is
  right, as my servant Job has. (42.7ff.) Does
  this mean God prefers questioning His justice? If
  so, how does this jive with Gods answer to Job?

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Some Paper Topics

• Compare the Biblical and Gilgamesh versions of
  the flood story. What are the most striking
  similarities and differences? Explain using
  specific examples from both stories. What
  contemporary parallel sheds light on your
  comparison?
• Human suffering is a central theme in both the
  Hebrew Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Compare
  Job and Gilgamesh as suffering heroes, as they
  search for understanding, and come to accept the
  limits of their human condition. Use specific
  examples from both stories to support and
  illustrate your ideas.
• Compare the story of The Fall in the Hebrew
  Bible with the episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh
  in which Enkidu becomes fully human. In both
  stories a woman is instrumental in the process of
  becoming fully human, endowing reason or
  knowledge in the process. What is the fate of
  those who have become fully human? Discuss the
  similarities and differences that reveal insights
  into the human condition. Use specific examples
  from both stories to support your ideas.
• Compare the nature of the gods/God as they are
  expressed in the Epic of Gilggamesh and the
  Hebrew Bible. If we assume, Mesopotamian gods
  predate the monotheism expressed in the Hebrew
  Bible, does this comparison show a type of
  progress in ideas about the divine? What about
  the degree of concern the gods/God have toward
  humans (all or a select few)? Use specific
  examples from both texts to support and
  illustrate your ideas.
• Discuss the fall of Babel, Sodom, and/or Babylon
  as examples of Gods justice. How does Jobs
  acquiescence to God provide an answer? It might
  be interesting to compare Jobs response with
  Jonahs.
• Discuss the role of dreams or the role of women
  in the asigned texts from Genesis, Exodus or Job.
  How does it compare with other texts, including
  The Epic of Gilgamesh and the liad or Odyssey.