Christians in the first few centuries had varied attitudes to the Jewish Scriptures. Some Jewish Christian sects such as the Ebionites or the Nazaraeans combined belief in Jesus as the promised Messiah with observance of the Law of Moses. Non-Jewish Christ followers also continued to be attracted to Jewish customs, festivals, and synagogues even in the period of Christian ascendancy in the Roman Empire, which sparked the bitter denunciations in the anti-Jewish homilies of the fourth century theologian John Chrysostom. On the other side of the coin, the Christian followers of Marcion completely rejected the Jewish Scriptures as a testament to a rival God, not the loving heavenly Father of Jesus revealed in the Gospel and letters of Paul.

Between these two extremes, emergent Christian orthodoxy re-affirmed that Jesus’ heavenly Father was the Creator God of Genesis and that the Hebrew prophets predicted the coming of Jesus, yet the Christians had to justify why the majority of Jews did not accept the latter claim. Thus, while Christians were trying to carve out a distinctive identity for themselves and their own roots in the biblical story, it also problematically fueled anti-Jewish interpretations. Some Christians claimed that the rejection of the Jews as accursed and their replacement with the Christians as the new covenant people of God was part of the divine plan all along, while others accused Jewish translators of tampering with the biblical witness as Christians defended the Greek translation in the Septuagint that they used in the churches. In light of the history of Christian anti-Judaism and modern racial anti-Semitism, there has been some re-thinking about this tragic legacy and increasing interfaith dialogue.

I have completed a general survey of the main contents and narrative running through the Hebrew Bible. Of course, the area of my scholarly expertise is in the Jewish and Christian movements in the early centuries of the Common Era. Thus, I would be grateful for anyone who wants to email me feedback and constructive criticism of what I should add, omit, or edit. These posts are part of an introductory Bible course (both Testaments) that must be completed in one semester (!), so I cannot include too much information to overwhelm the student. Finally, I should note that I had received a huge amount of assistance in lecturing through the Hebrew Bible from my friend and Old Testament scholar Tyler Williams; he was my former OT professor and has taught this Bible course for several years (including one semester where we co-taught it). Although he does not blog anymore, his Codex website remains a very helpful site for biblical studies resources and blog posts.

Wisdom Literature: Introduction

• Wisdom (Chokmah): not just intellectual but can refer to understanding, insight, shrewdness, skill (e.g. administration or battle), prudence, or upright living (see Proverbs 1:2-7).
• Traditional Wisdom (Proverbs; Wisdom of Ben Sira or Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon) and Radical Wisdom (Job, Ecclesiastes).
• Wisdom could be passed down in the settings of households, schools, or royal courts.
• Parallels with ANE Wisdom literature. For example, see the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope (ca. 12th century BCE). Some differences include the Israelites’ focus on the source of wisdom (e.g. “Fear of Yahweh”) and this-worldly rewards.

Woman Wisdom (Hebrew: Chokmah, Greek: Sophia)

• Personifying Woman Wisdom (Proverbs 8) in contrast to Woman Folly (5:1-14).
• Origins: a remnant of a goddess cult, a metaphor due to the term’s grammatical feminine gender, or a divine hypostasis like God’s spirit or word (Wisdom of Solomon 7:25-26)?
• Later identified with the Torah (Sirach 24:23) or with Jesus (Matthew 11:29-30; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-18; Hebrews 1:3).

Proverbs

• The Hebrew Mishlei means “Proverbs.” The book is comprised of didactic sayings expressed in a pithy manner and drawn from general, practical observations.
• Authorship:the bulk of the collection is ascribed to Solomon as the fount of wisdom (10:1-22:16; 25-29) along with other collections (22:17-24:22, 23-34) and an introduction (1-9) and appendices (30-31).
• It expresses traditional retribution theology in general, but there are exceptions.
• Read the following verses about wealth (3:22; 6:6-11; 10:3; 11:24; 14:31; 28:6)

Job

• The author is anonymous and Job is the main character. The date is uncertain, though Job is a non-Israelite set in the time of the Patriarchs from the land of Uz.
• In the prose prologue, a celestial prosecutor called “the adversary” (ha satan) makes the case that Job is only pious because he has been blessed and is permitted to take away Job’s livelihood, children, and health (1-3).
• After Job’s friends visit, there is an extended poetic section (4-37) where Job protests his innocence and his friends accuse him of guilty.
• In a storm theophany, Yahweh emphasizes divine control over creation and forces of chaos (38:1-42:6), leading Job to “repent” or change his mind.
• The prose epilogue (42:7-17) vindicates Job and reprimands his friends for their simplistic retribution theology. Job receives new blessings.
• The primary question is whether there can be disinterested piety, but it is also concerned with “theodicy” or how a good deity can permit suffering.

Ecclesiastes

• The Hebrew title Qohelet is often translated “teacher” or “preacher”. Since the verbal root is “to assemble”, it could be translated as “assembler.”
• The implied author (1:1, 12-13; 2:9) is a wise Davidic ruler in Jerusalem (=Solomon?), but the book may fit the ANE genre of “Royal Fictional Autobiography.”
• Pleasure, work, wisdom, wealth, youth, law-courts, seasons, and everything else is hebel (vanity, meaningless, fleeting, absurd) and no more profitable than chasing the wind.
• Did the epilogue (12:9-13) help Ecclesiastes get into the canon and do you agree that fearing God and keeping the commandments is a satisfactory ending to the book?

Hebrew Poetry

• Half of the Hebrew Bible is poetry.
• Hebrew poetry is not rhymes or a regular metre, but parallelism. It also features terse expressions, heightened style, figures of speech, and varying word order.
• A psalm (Greek psalmos) is a translation of the Hebrew word for “song.” The Hebrew Tehillim means “praises.”
• 117 of 150 of the superscriptions containing notes about the alleged author, the genre, the liturgical use, or the situation reflected in the Psalm.

Robert Lowth’s (1732) Three Categories of Hebrew Parallelism

• Synonymous (A=B): the parallel line repeats or restates the idea of the first line (Psalm 2:1-3, 8-9)
• Antithetic (A≠B): the parallel line contrasts with the first line (Psalm 1:6; 7:9)
• Synthetic/Formal (A→B): the parallel line adds or continues the idea of the first line (Psalm 25:8)
• Further study of Hebrew poetry shows that Lowth overemphasized similarities between the lines at the expense of differences, for rarely is the  parallel line entirely synonymous with the preceding line without building on it. “Synthetic Parallelism” is too loose a category and other types of parallelism have been identified (e.g. climatic or staircase parallelism, emblematic parallelism).

Herman Gunkel and Form Criticism

• The “form” of a Psalm and the “situation in life” (Sitz im Leben) the ancient Israelites would have been in when they sang a particular type of Psalm. These are ideal types and not every Psalm includes all of these elements.
• Hymns of Praise (sub-types include enthronement Psalms and Songs of Zion): an introduction or call to praise, praise of God’s attributes or deeds, and a conclusion. They may be sung on holy days, festivals, or royal coronations. Example: Psalm 8.
• Thanksgiving Psalm: an introduction, complaint, deliverance, and conclusion or thanksgiving. They may be sung out of worship, gratitude, or feelings of groundedness. Example: Psalm 30.
• Laments (subtypes include Penitential Psalms): an address, a plea for help, a complaint, an admission of guilt or innocence, a curse of enemies, and a reassertion of God’s faithfulness. They may be sung in times of repentance, fear of natural or human threats, suffering, or social upheaval. Example: Psalms 89 and 137.

Introducing the Hebrew Prophets

• The “Prophets” (Nevi’im) in the Tanakh is divided by “Former” (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) and “Latter” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi).
• The division between Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel) and the 12 Minor Prophets in the Christian Old Testament is based on book length.
• Hebrew terms: nabi’ (prophet, speaker, herald), roeh (diviner, seer, one who sees), or hozeh (seer, one who sees).
• Prophecy, divination, and ecstatic behaviour was a wider phenomenon in the ANE and often connected to temple cults or royal courts.
• Hebrew prophets did not primarily predict the future, but acted as Yahweh’s spokespersons to call Israel and Judah back to covenant faithfulness in specific historical contexts.

Amos

• Amos of Tekoa was a shepherd and took care of sycamore trees (1:1; 7:14). He ministered during the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel and, though was from the south, directed his message to northern Israel.
• Amos condemns the mistreatment of the poor during the long reign of Jeroboam II (786-746 BCE) and calls for social justice.
• In the brilliant rhetorical introduction, Amos gets the intended audience on side by condemning other nations for crimes against humanity, only to turn around to condemn social inequality in northern Israel (1:3-2:8).

• Hosea, the son of Beeri, was from northern Israel and ministered in the time of kings Uzziah, Jothan, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah and king Jeroboam II of Israel (1:1).
• Hosea marries either a promiscuous woman or a prostitute named Gomer to symbolize Israel’s faithlessness to Yahweh in her devotion to Baal and gives his children symbolic names including Jezreel (recalls Jehu’s massacre in the Jezreel valley), Lo-ruhamah (“not loved”), and Lo-ammi (“not my people”).

Isaiah

• Traditionally attributed to the eighth century BCE prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, a royal advisor during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1).
• Chapters 1-39 urges Judah to remain steadfast against the Assyrian threat; the efforts of Israel and Syria to force Judah in a coalition against Assyria provide the context for the “Immanuel” oracle (7:14). An apocalyptic section (ch. 24-27) may be an addition.
• Second Isaiah (chapters 40-54) stresses Yahweh’s exclusive sovereignty over world affairs and comforts the exiles about a second exodus through the “anointed” Cyrus the Great.
• Third Isaiah (chapters 56-66) is a collection of post-exilic oracles that looks back on the ruins of Jerusalem (58:12; 61:4; 63:18; 64:9-10) and predicts its restoration including those traditionally excluded (e.g. eunuchs and foreigners).
• The messianic oracles (Isaiah 9:1-7; 11; 61:1-3) and Servant Songs (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 53) were influential on early Christians.

Jeremiah

• Jeremiah, son of the priest Hilkiah, had a ministry that spanned the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah of Judah (1:1-3).
• Jeremiah was set apart from birth and called as a young man to be  a prophet to the nations (1:4-10) and was not permitted to get married or have children (7:1-3). He is called the “weeping prophet” due to the extreme heartache he felt over his message and being persecuted as a traitor (e.g. imprisonments, abuse, deportations).
• He urged the people to not count on divine protection based on their election and temple if they are not obedient to the covenant (7:1-15). He eventually insists that divine punishment is inevitable and that they must surrender to Babylon.
• There is some textual variations and differences in length between the Septuagint and Masoretic versions of the text of Jeremiah.

Ezekiel

• Ezekiel was a Zadokite priest from Jerusalem exiled to Babylon in 598 BCE and called to be a prophet in the fifth year of the exile of king Jehoiachin (1:2).
• Ezekiel repudiates the idea of generational guilt, insisting that each one is punished for his or her transgressions and repentance is always available (3:16-27).
• Ezekiel performs extreme symbolic acts as pointing to judgment (e.g. laying on his side for 390 days, cooking food over manure, attacking the hairs from his shaven beard, and leaving his deceased wife unmourned).
• Ezekiel is famous for vivid imagery: the divine chariot throne, the nation’s adultery, the resurrection of dry bones, the defeat of “Gog and Magog,” and the fantastical proportions of the new temple.

Post-Exilic Prophets

• Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
• They generally deal with either the disillusionment of the returning exiles to the Persian province of Yehud, the encouragement to rebuild the Jerusalem temple, or the expectations of a yet future eschatological judgment and restoration.
• Daniel is in the Writings in the Jewish canon. Most scholars believe the book was composed in the Hellenistic period around the crisis of Antiochus IV desecrating the temple (167-164 BCE). It hopes for divine intervention to vindicate a human-like figure (i.e. saints of Israel or their angelic or messianic representative) over beasts (i.e. imperial powers).

Rehoboam I and Jeromboam I

• Rehoboam naively trusts young counselors and refuses to lift the burden Solomon placed on the people (12:6-16).
• Jeroboam I and northern Israel reject the Davidic dynasty from Judah. To consolidate his rule and prevent his subjects from attending religious services in Jerusalem, he sets up cult centres in Dan and Bethel and installs golden calves in them.
• The Deuteronomistic Historian calls this the “sin of Jeroboam” and no rulers of Northern Israel turn away from it.

Rulers of Israel and Judah: Overview

• Synchronism between north and south rulers. All rulers of Israel are deemed evil, while some rulers of Judah are deemed good.
• Israel: Jeroboam I, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Joahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, Hoshea
• Judah: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Jehoash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah

The House of Omri in Israel

• Omri (876-869 BCE) set up the capital Samaria, aligned with Judah and Phoenicia, and controlled Moab (cf. Mesha Stele). The Assyrians called Israel “Omri-land.” 1 Kings 16:25-26 briefly dismisses him as evil.
• Omri’s son Ahab (869-850 BCE) marries Abizebel (“my divine father is a prince”), better known as “Jezebel” (“not a prince”), the daughter of Ethbaal (“With him is Baal”) of Tyre.
• Ahab establishes the Baal cult in Israel. The Baal Cycle was discovered in 1929 in ancient Ugarit (=Ras Shamra in Syria). El (Ilu) was head of the Canaanite pantheon, Athirat (Asherah) his consort, and his 70 offspring include Yam (“Sea”) and Mot (“death”). The cloud-rider Baal (“fertility”) was a storm god who aided agriculture (crops, cattle, grain, wine, oil) and defeated Yam and Mot.
• The prophet Elijah (“Yahweh is God”) caused drought in the land and proves that only Yahweh can set the sacrifice ablaze on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18).
• Jehu’s (842-815 BCE) coup against Omri’s line put an end to Jezebel, 70 sons of Ahab, 42 members of the Jerusalem court, and Baal’s prophets. He continued the “sin of Jeroboam” and Hosea 1:4 condemns Jehu’s violence.

The Fall of Israel

• Jeroboam II (786-746 BCE) re-fortified Samaria and had a long, prosperous reign that created conditions for social inequality (cf. Amos, Hosea).
• Political instability from Zechariah to Hoshea.
• Tiglath-Pileser III (Pul in the Hebrew Bible) extends the Assyrian empire west to the Levant. Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria tried to force Judah in an alliance against Assyria in 732 BCE (cf. 2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:14), while Ahaz of Judah appealed to Assyria who defeated Israel and Syria and made Judah a vassal.
• Hoshea (732-721 BCE) assassinated Pekah in support of Tiglath-Pileser III, but renounced his vassalage to Assyria in the rule of Shalmaneser V.
• Shalmaneser attacked Samaria for three years. His successor, Sargon II, destroyed Samaria and deported nearly 30,000 Israelites while resettling others in the region in 721 BCE (2 Kings 17:7-24).

The Fall of Judah

• The good king Hezekiah (715-687 BCE) supported reforms (e.g. removed altars, promoted Passover) and building projects (e.g. water tunnel). He resisted vassalage to Assyria and, though Assyria’s king Sennacherib took 46 cities and shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem “like a bird in a birdcage” (ANET 288; cf. 2 Kings 18-19; Isaiah 36-37), he did not take Jerusalem in 701 BCE. 
• Manasseh (687-642 BCE) was a long reigning yet evil king. 2 Chronicles 33:11-17 adds a story of how the Assyrians imprisoned him and he repented before resuming his rule.
• The good king Josiah (641-609 BCE) promoted reforms based on a “book of the law” (Deuteronomy?). He is slain in battle with Pharaoh Neco II at Megiddo.
• Babylon defeated Assyria’s capital Nineveh in 612 BCE. Judah was caught between Egypt and Babylon who each had the upper hand at times.
• Pharaoh Neco II replaced Jehoahaz II with Jehoiakim as Judah’s king.
• Johoiakim refused the tribute to Babylon, so Jerusalem was attacked. Jehioakim died before the siege ended, but his son Jehoiachin was taken captive in 597 BCE.
• Babylon’s Nebuchadnezzer II put Zedekiah on Judah’s throne, but a year later destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and exiled its elites in 587 BCE.
  

Introduction: Samuel-Kings

• Originally one book divided in the fifteenth century CE to each fit on scrolls.
• 1, 2, 3, 4 Kingdoms in the Septuagint. 1 and 2 Samuel was named after the last judge before the monarchy (1 Samuel 1-7).
• Content: the rise of Saul (1 Samuel 8-31), David (2 Samuel 1-24), and Solomon (1 Kings 1-11) to the division of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah. 1 and 2 Kings alternates between kings in the North or South.
• Historicity: the United Kingdom is set in the first part of the Iron Age II (1000-933 BCE). The Tel Dan Inscription is a fragment of a monumental inscription discovered in an excavation of the ancient city of Dan (ca. 9th cent BCE) and the first external reference to the “House of David.”

Views of the Monarchy

• 1 Samuel 1-2:10 is like a royal birth; the king is subservient to the prophet.
• Pro-monarchy: Saul’s anointing (9:1-10:16) and victories (11:1-15).
• Anti-monarchy: rejecting Yahweh as ruler and warnings about the institution of a monarchy (8:1-22; 10:17-27; 12:12-25)
• “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations.“… the LORD said to Samuel, “Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. (1 Samuel 8:5, 7)

Saul

• Anointed for the office of “prince” and then king before all of the tribes and had an initial victory over the Ammonites (9:1-12:25)
• Cultic disobedience: rushed into battle after waiting seven days for Samuel to perform the sacrifice (13:8-9) and kept plunder from the Amalekites rather than putting it under the ban (15:3, 9, 24). He was disobedient to the prophet and his repentance not accepted (15:24-25).
• David is anointed with the Spirit (16), defeats the Philistines champion Goliath (17; but cf. 2 Samuel 21:20-22), and evokes Saul’s jealousy due to his military victories and the love that Saul’s daughter Michal and son Jonathan have for him (18-22).
• David refuses to kill Saul as the anointed king, but Saul and Jonathan die tragically in battle (1 Samuel 27-31; 2 Samuel 1).

David

• Installed as king over Judah in Hebron (2 Samuel 2:1-7) and has a seven year civil war with the north (2:8-4:12). There is a pun on the name of the northern king Ishbaal as “Ishboseth” (man of shame).
• David is installed as king over a united Israel, captures Jerusalem as his capital, and attempts to bring the Ark to Jerusalem (5-6).
• Rapes Bathsheba and causes her husband Uriah to be slain in war (2 Samuel 11-12; cf. Psalm 51). After Nathan the prophet confronts him, David faces four times the consequences including the death of Bathsheba’s firstborn, the rape of his daughter Tamar and murder of his son Amnon, the failed coup of his son Absolom, and the death of his fourth son Adonijah.

The Davidic Covenant

• David’s desire to build a “house” for Yahweh is not permitted as he is a person of war, but Yahweh builds a house or perpetual dynasty for him.
• Hittite and Assyrian Royal Grants that gifted land in exchange for service.
• The Davidic ruler and divine sonship (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:7). Most of David’s heirs failed to live up to expectations, creating the seed of the messianic idea of an ideal future ruler to restore the Davidic kingdom.

Solomon

• Despite his violent coup against Adonijah and execution of political rivals (1 Kings 1-2), Solomon asks for wisdom to rule (3-4).
• Solomon builds the temple (5-8), but builds a grander palace, amasses excessive wealth, and conscripts forced labour (9-11).
• Solomon’s idolatry precipitates the end of the united kingdom (12).
• Read Deuteronomy 17:14-20 and evaluate whether Solomon was a model ruler according to the Deuteronomistic historian.