1.) Author - ex.) israels who wrote original bible, Grecians who wrote Septiagiht (think of their reasons for writing what they did)

2.) Text - the actual text itself

3.) Reader 

-reader response criticism:how you analyze the text

-dates are helpful but in ancient israel dates arent always available or reliable

-ask historical questions to write history

-no data (internet) for ancient israel, so texts must be read deeper and closer to garner context 

source criticism: self-contradiction; sources may not be accurate or constant

form criticism: some forms of literature(mainly oral) are less reliable than text

editor who combines texts

-redaction criticism: criticizing a redactor (1st person can msilead, 3rd person attached to person can clarify or further obfuscate)

archaelogical evidence/corporeal evidence, besides textual 

-potential roadblocks: bias(ideological) and a disagreement w/ interpretations

full urbanization had developed by end of 4th millenium in egypt and mesopotamia

-irragtory methods enabled production of regular food supplies, introduced regional hegemonies

increase in food supply -> increase in population, and competition for resources

 - led to developemt of writing, for notational purposes

THIS KNOWLEDGE IS FACT

Israel placed its beginnings in 1st millenium BCE

-genesis: family of abraham & sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and leah/rachel, bilhah & zilpah and offspring

-no people in bible are found in historical record

root cause of much of this not adding up 

-exodus must have occured before 13th century BCE

--most place it at 480 years prior to the construction of Solomonic temple in the mid-tenth century

-upon exodus, group formed the 12-tribe confederation of Israel

majority of scholars believe Israel developed into a fairly stable dynastic monarchy

-all of biblical events dont occur in historical narrative

-book of joshua says canaan conquered by end of late bronze age

--archaelogical evidence says otherwise

beginning of iron age (1200 BCE), philistines arrived in Canaan

-unification of Israel into nation-state form was necessary to combat philistinian forces

-saul was first ruler (military commander)

-succeeded by David, who united Israel and half of Jerusalem

-david, his son and successor Solomon expanded Israel to include surrounding vassal states

-david initiated transformation of monarchy into dynastic kingship

--this created an elite, wealthy class

union of north and south disentegrated

-pressure from egypt, assyria didnt help

-begins with abraham

-israeli family based ethnic unity guaranteed ethnic unity from start

--enters into covenant with god who will direct them on path

-david was good, uniting monarch

--not many good monarchs

--divides into 2 kingdoms, north and south (both eventually fall)

construct of historians

-no original family or original covenant

-plotline moves from shadowy groups that coalesce into larger groups

-eventually the coalescene results in a group w/ national and cultural identity

first record of "israel" at pharaoh merneptah stele invasion of palestine/israel

-located in central highlands of canaan

exogamy - marry woman out of family, but multiple, closely allied families

households made up clans, clans formed alliances that were known as tribes

contained several tribes

-southernmost was Benjamin "son of the South"

-story of joshua almost entirely in greater ephraim

technological changes caused conflict b/w ephraim tribes and philitines over fertile land

-little kingdoms emerge

saul takes power as army chief

david takes over after saul through clever politics and strategy

david establishes own capital at jerusalem

-co-opts Ark, brings it to jerusalem: tried to create sense of identity

Solomon, his son, built temple to YHWH in jerusalem

-expanded power/kingdom

kingdom devolves into 2: - Israel in north (not THE israel) and Judah in the south)

more powerful than south; never developed dynastic power

-had no geographic boundaries, eventually faded away

Omride dynasty fights Qarqar, battle Ahab, son of Omi

often a vassal state, weaker than north

-Ahaz, leader, rejected alliance and made them a vassal state to assyrians

-hezekiah, son of ahaz, revolted against assyrian in  a  destructive show of force

Josiah, South, initiates reform program

-deuteronomy resurgence program

-he was successful but was killed by egyptians

Judah falls, picking egypt over babylon

elite exiled (golah): do they remain Judean or give up?

-response: establish/refurbish/preserve national traditions (torah)

-golah builds new temple (w/ help from persians)

-identity focused on torah, temple, YHWH

bible presents an idealized view of "family", not reliable or unbiased

-no word for family in israel

"house of the father"

extended family

daughters in bet av until married out

senior man is in charge of keeping order

patrilineal - focused on the fathers line

patrilocal - father moves, family follows

patriarchal - male has the power, male-dominated society

familial knowledge regarding soil and techniques to survive passed down amongst man and woman(woman played crucial role)

diet - protein from replenishible sources (milk, eggs, olives)

eldest son inherits land (as younger children need more land, they expand)

mishpahah - clan

go'el - redeemer, use their resources to figure out how to keep you on your land

debt remission - every 7th year, debts remit

jobel - every 50th year, slaves set free and given back land that was taken from them

"to take a woman

connecting local families to survive and also producing children (divorce was quite uncommon)

marriage is a place of lots of social tension

--families exchange brides for gifts, anxiety in picking the "right" woman

produce as many kids as possible with certainty as to the father (system strictly controls women's sexual behavior)

polygyny - have multiple wives

(was expensive and complicated, may not have been popular)

men had free sexual rights

-except adultery (frowned upon), messed up inheritance and family lines

--levirate marriage - marrying your brother-in-law

Popular and State religion

israeli symbols initially rote from family, not state

popular meant what?

bible was elite text, attached to urban center of israel(they wrote it)

no personal religion, god passed down through fathers (god of my father)

-prevalent at meals (celebrations)

if occurred on a regular basis, confirmed solidarity of membership of clan (reinforced sense of order)

-marked key agriculutral moments: Massot - feast of unleavened bread

Pesach(Passover) - celebration of lambing (local celebration in exodus, temple celebration in deuteronomy until destruction of temple)

who oversaw?: ish elohim - man held in honor, man of god

ro'eh - "seer"

both local figures that hold wisdom and mediated b/w divine and man

men of god held a vital social role

Micah makes an idol of deity

- represents deity's physicalness, not deity itself

levites: tribe that became tribe of traveling religious fundamentalists

levite shows up

Micah, along with idol, had ephod - clothing used for divination

urim & thummim - dice rolled to divine god's will

household: shrines to local deities

-teraphins - shrines of various size and shape and picture; linked to family's continued existence

Asherah - fertility deity, in charge of fertility, worshipped mostly by women (w/ smaller teraphins)

BAMAH: place where clans worshipped

-raised platform w/ altar

-where feasts took place

-had divination equipment unless carried by levite

-developed notion of sacred space

gathered to fathers - skeletal remains tossed in pile of familial remains

-not buried with family is bad

huge tragedy to not be buried at all

El(god)

(el) Elyan(most high)

(el)shaddai(almighty)

Baal(master)

Zaphan (of zaphan)

Berit(of the covenant)

Shaymaym(of the heavens)

creator of earth and humanity, master of other gods, father of years

wise or kind w/ goodwill but capable of violence

Divine Council - el is in charge, other gods take part

"gods work the way kings work, kings work the way gods work"

el rules from Zaphon, the high mountains of the North

main consorts of Asherah and Astarte

el's son/grandson, rider of clouds

divine warrior - comes forth from Zaphon to make war

Yamm - god of the sea(CHAOS)

enemy of Ba'al

Lotan(leviathan) - agent of chaos in sea

Ba'al defeats the sea and makes it submit to overarching order

death

opposed by Ba'al

represents seasons: dry when eating ba'al, wet when ba'al escapes

in order to have power, gotta have a palace(kings)

divine warrior from the south

El divvyed up territory and people, YHWH got Israel

(hence YHWH's protectiveness for Israel)(deuteronomy)

in exodus, YHWH and El are same deity

saul's sons worshipped both ba'al and yhwh

elijah developed monolatry: recognize many gods, worship one

theophoric - worship through naming (michaEl - El)

Boshef - for shame, denouncing Ba'al

Kuntillet 'Ajrud - place where Asherah worshipped with YHWH, where yhwh makes leap from head of gods to only god - anounced in Isaiah

altar/courtyard - relation to palace

three chamber area, each increasingly selective in who can enter

holy of holies - YHWH's throne

"sacred space" different

paradise: "sacred time" different

a place where order is established/defended

Enuma Elish - recital of creation performed at Akitu festival (new years, secured world and power of king)

theogony - account of the generations of the gods

Abzu - freshwater; Tiamat - saltwater

gods revolt against Tiamat, led by Marduk

= cosmogonic battle - battle b/w gods where cosmos is generated, creates world, humans show up as afterthought, temply of Marduk is built at end, secures order

Psalm 37 - Marduk crushes head of Leviathan

Psalm 104 - water/chaos is strictly controlled, leviathan is a creation of yhwh specifically for fun

Isaiah 51 - Rahub, another name for Chaos Dragon (NOT FROM JOSHUA)

Isaiah 27 - YHWH will punish and "will" kill Leviathan, end of the age when chaos will be destroyed

repetition - Tove (and it was good), god called for x and it was y, naming of things

ORDER ORDER ORDER - by god

tehom - deep related to Tiamat (saltwater)

its there, Gods spirit is over it and there is order

something about polemic and babylonian god of chaos

only after order do humans appear, the peak of creation

 primeval history:

Sabbath - 7th day of rest, cultural marker of Israelites

bring offerings to God, abel is accepted, cain is not - things and God is arbitrary

cains wasnt the best he had

begat violence over difference

deluge - the flood messes w/ boundaries of god and man, creates the Nephilim, race of giants

wickedness on earth, yhwh decides to bring chaos to earth to cleanse land, except for Ark

Genesis 9: god separates humans from animals, god disallows retributional killing

end of flood, noah lands ark, gets seen naked (bet av exposed) invents solution to instability in culture: slavery

torah - law or subject

manufacture and maintenance of Israelite social identity was most important after exile

foundational text - makes cultural identity, recites founding events of people

ex.) bet av is part of ordered universe derived from adam and eve

patriarchs and matriarchs - development of these people led to development of ethnic identity, collective ancestry

-created the notion of the "others", outsiders, not-related

Abraham + Sarah => Isaac + Rebekah => jacob/israel + leah/rachel => jacob and esau

create set of common ancestors who create tradition of israel

-NOT BACKED UP BY OTHER SOURCES, but does tell us how Israel makes its own identity

generally cutures/peoples trace their lineage back to an eponymous ancestor

-israelites, however, trace themselves back to Abraham

abraham was probably from southern israel, along with isaac. jacob moves to eastern israel(bethel), up the north in the highlands

-really center in northern region, area where israel starts(greater ephraim)

perpetual threat to nationhood through barren women 

- stories are of trickster tradition

--concession to israels actual political position in world: tiny and unimposing, had to survive by wits

hagar & ishmael - son forced to go off into wild when isaac born by sarah, ishmaelites as a result have a tendency for violence and wild behavior

Lot - cuts deal with abraham, goes to Sodom, gets his wife salted, gets no cut of israel

Laban - cousin of abraham, acts just like jacob except for marriage custom, marries back into mesopotamia(turns out Laban speaks different language the entire time)

Esau - progenitor of edomites; stupid, traded fathers blessing for stew, violent, marries poorly, completely different from jacob but should be the same

has dream, tells bros, they hate him. he is the favorite child of jacob. dream means he will rule over his brothers

- has second dream, tells jacob, jacob knows but doesnt tell meaning (narrative recipe for disaster)

joseph's dreams continually come true, brothers fall to knee and say "we are your slaves"

runs away from home, joseph ends up in egypt for 17 years, brothers ask for forgiveness

reflection of status quo of israel and judah

-is firstborn heir? - no

simon and leah - trouble? yep

12 tribes arent equal!

Judah doesnt go back to mesopotamia, has sons w/ canaanite, named Tamar(girl)

yhwh kills kid for wicked deeds, widow is childless, turns to levirate marriage, which judah rejects

tamar tricks judah into getting her pregnant

bet av in potential danger

god stops communicating directly in genesis 37

appeals to joseph indirectly, through dreams(yhwh was with him)

deus absconditus - absent god

1.) god controls events

2.)gods controls interpretations

3.)God not described in terms of covenant

Egyptians                                     Israelites

pharaoh                                       Yahweh

magicians                                      Moses/Aaron 

land of Egypt                                Wilderness

death                                            life

at end of exodus, egyptians embody death and israel embodies life

new pharaoh, tells midwives to kill all newborn israelite males (girls are fine)

uses animal imagery, citing ethnic differences

Egypt becomes Other to Israel's self

theopony - burning bush

marriage - midian and daughter Gershom

god has to get moses to choose to be an israelite

performs magic, moses goes to father and asks if he can go back to "his kindred" in egypt 

he is now an israelite

bridegroom of the blood - circumcision

set in triads: Act 1 - Blood, Frogs Gnats

Act 2 - Flies, Pestilence, Boils

Act 3 - Hail, Locusts, Darkness

Act 4 - the Firstborn(passover)

yhwh informs moses of first 2 in triad, not 3rd

pharaohs magicians can do first two in each, not 3rd(evidence of divine power)

3rd triad - worst plagues of all, pace of plagues slows down a lot

10th plague - concentrated divine power, life vs. death

--pharaohs heart hardens: god wants to prove him incompetent, not just beat him

moves water for Israelites, not egyptians

israelites see egyptians dead on sea shore

Divine Warrior imagery "Yahweh is a warrior"

Sinai, Horeb = same thing;

mountain, not sure how real

while relationship b/w yahweh and moses coalesced over Mt. Sinai, in real history this took quite a long time

text throws covenant timeline theology back in time

retrojection of theologies all mapped back into the Sinai predicament

covenant - sum of ideas of sinai passage; agreemnt, pledge alliance

berit - a treaty. treaty theology rather than covenant theology

suzerain  - controls area, people answer to him

THE type of treaty in era

Elements

1.)Preamble

describes suzerain

2.)Historical Prologue

suzerain says king should be loyal to him

3.)Stipulations of Treaty

duh

4.)Deposit Arrangements

5.)Curses & Blessings

effects of violating or upholding stipulations

israeli thought takes these elements and applies them to the deity(yhwh = suzerain)

Exodus says that Israel is not free to be free: transfer of suzerains - pharaoh to yhwh

1.)divine offer to people - first conditional statement from yahweh

2.)people agree to terms(a lot, over and over)

3.)consecration: people cleanse themselves for yahwehs presence, dont touch mountain or women

first evidence that Yahweh is holy

4.)theophany - he appears, flames, earthquakes, smoke, trumpets

5.) giving of decalogue

6.)people get scared, make moses mediator with YHWH

1.)Divine offer to Select Group - moses, priests, elders

2.)Peoples response - "all words of YHWH we will do"

3.)Covenant accepted by blood - sacrificing animals, throws blood on people

4.)theophany for select group - see God's throne, meal

5.) Moses to God

Ten Commandments - must be followed, no ifs and or buts

not universal law, only for israel

constituted israels identity

1.)monolatry - have no other gods but yhwh

2.)aniconic requirement - no graven images or likenesses

3.)do not take lords name in vain - frivolent blessing or cursing

4th and on where community oriented, necessary maintaining a strong society/bet av

adultery is BAD

case law, text takes trivial concerns and makes them national identity

dealing w/ neighbors, community

golden idol made in violation of commandment 2.

Yahweh gets angry, want to kill all the israelites and start anew

Moses says stop Yahweh, assigns accolades to him

-changes yahweh's mind

cult mediates relationship b/w people and deity

cannot separate cult and covenant in early judaism

separation b/w mundane wold of us and divine worl do deity, maintaining the sense of order

Kashrut - the state of being cultured

aspect of kashrut: Kosher

(meat has to chew cud, cant see kids in mothers milk, no fish w/o scales or fins)

why kosher: sense of order, animals must be attached to culturally

uncleanliness: not orderly, encompassing cleanliness

things in disorder should not be brought anywhere near deity

sin is not a moral category, it is a ritual category

essentially, everything you do in life(sex, dead, birth) makes you unclean, dont bring these issues before deity, boundaries must hold!

day of atonement, high priest goes to holy of holies

wears holy stuff, even undergarments for maintenance of order

1st sacrifice is for priesthood

2nd sacrifice is for sanctuary, altar

evicts any trace of disorder from temple(seat of yahweh)

cult fixes disorder

1.) served as propaganda for nationalistic revival as Syria died (Josiah's revival)

2.) frames it as things said by Moses

if you go along with his reform program(keeping the covenant) you will benefit from lord

-deuteronomy also speaks to exile(punishment for violating covenant) and those returning from exile

Coming back from exile is 2nd chance

people in deuteronomy are on verge of getting it right

deuteronomy repeats everything.

deuteronomists do not create israeli identity, they rebuild it

preamble ->historical prologue ->stipulations ->deposit arrangements -> witnesses ->curses & blessings

experience with YHWH is to be separate from other gods

shema - YHWH is the olny god you're going to worship

education - constantly teach and preach commandments

centralized worship - ban worship outside of jerusalem; true israelites worship, not other "stuff"

law enforcement - creates boundaries between followers and nonfollowers, says to kill anyone that mentions worshipping another god

the herem: utterly destroyed

what israelites supposed to do when entering another land(ethnic cleansing)

represents a wish of deuteronomist, not what actually happened

defense of the divine against charges of injustice

prosecution - why are we exiled?

defense(theodicy) - your state is a result of your shortcomings

blow off suzerain and get cursed

prophets - sometimes wrong, when they are, ignore it as they are allowed to be wrong

kings - must read law everyday in order to properly rule(being a king, ideally, sucked)

moses - just be you man, just be you