The Primary History

AuthorshipRabbinic Tradition: Great figures from the past each

contributed their own books to the history. Moses was the author of the Torah; Joshua wrote Joshua; Samuel

wrote Judges & Samuel, Jeremiah wrote Kings.

The Documentary Theory: Every book in the Primary History was composed by a number of authors. The originally separate works of these authors were combined in a series of editorial steps into a continuous, united work.

Key TermsDocumentary Theory

The Primary History (cont’d)

Primary Evidence for Multiple AuthorshipLinguistic ClassificationDoubletsTerminology Inconsistent ContentNarrative FlowMarks of Editorial Work

The Primary History (cont’d) Editorial History

The Torah was created by combining two important works: the Deuteronomic History and the Priestly History.

Dtr (Deuteronomic History), a history of Israel and Judah from the perspective of the Deuteronomic movement and Josiah’s reforms. It ran from creation to the date of publication. It was composed during Josiah’s reign (c. 622 BCE) then updated during the exile (c. 560 BCE).

P (Priestly History), a history of Israel from creation to the death of Moses. Written by and for Aaronid priests. The majority of scholarly opinion has held that P was composed in the exilic or postexilic period, but several discoveries in recent

scholarship call for the preexilic provenance.

The Former Prophets contains the Deuteronomic History alone.

Key TermsDtrP

The Primary History (cont’d) The Deuteronomic History had a long editorial history.

Based on an old law code, called the Deuteronomic Code (D). The first edition is an expansion of an older history, commonly called

the Yahwistic History (J). J (Yahwistic History), favors the name Yahweh and asserts the name was

used long before Moses. Runs from creation to Solomon. Composed in the time of Solomon or shortly thereafter. Written in Judah.

The first edition also added stories that came from the northern kingdom of Israel.

E (Elohistic material), a group of passages that identify the deity only as God (Hebrew ’elohim) until the time of Moses, at which time the name Yahweh is revealed (Exod 3:13–15). Written in Israel during the period of the Divided Kingdom.

Key Terms

JE

Documentary Theory

Yahwistic History (J)

Northern tales (E)

Priestly History (P)

Deuteronomic Code (D)

Deuteronomic History (Dtr1)

Deuteronomic History, 2nd ed. (Dtr2)

Primary History Torah Former Prophets

 

Genesis Questions for Discussion

There are two creation accounts at the beginning of Genesis, one from P (Gen 1:1-2:3) and one from J (Gen 2:4-24). For each make a list of all the things God creates in order.

Do you see think P’s conception of the world, as seen in Gen 1:6-8 and 7:11-12, as similar to the Mesopotamian conception of the world?

Many readers of the Garden of Eden story (2:25-3:24) have seen a problem in that God’s words of 2:16-17 don’t seem to come true when the man and woman disobey the command. Come up with a few possible explanations for the discrepancy.

Why is God mad at the people in 11:1-9? (By the way, Shinar = Sumer, and Babel = Babylon.)

The Flood StoryJ P

1 Then the LORD said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.’ 5 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

13 And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.’ 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

The Flood StoryJ P

7 And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. and the LORD shut him in. 17 The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, 14 they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 24 And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.

The Flood StoryJ P

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more. and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’

1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 2 the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated;

4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. 13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 ‘Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ 18 So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.

Genesis Questions for Discussion (cont’d)

In Gen 12:1-3, God makes a three-part promise to Abraham. What does he promise concerning each of the following: (a) descendants; (b) land; (c) relationship to other people?

Read Gen 19:30-38. Why do you think this story is in here? Read Gen 27:1-41. Which character or characters, if any, do you

think are being portrayed in a negative light? What is the moral of the story in Gen 34? Name stories in your readings in Genesis in which one person

deceives another.

Exodus

Compare Exod 6:2-3 (from P) with Gen 4:25-26 (from J). What does this tell you about a difference between the two histories?

Number the Ten Commandments in Exod 20:2-17. Specify which of the commandments are ethical (they concern the way one should treat other people) and which are ritual (they concern the way one should worship God).

Laws from Ancient Judah "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. "You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth

beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the

fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

"Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do

any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

"Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

"You shall not kill. "Neither shall you commit adultery. "Neither shall you steal. "Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor. "Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or

his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's."

Laws from Ancient Judah A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any

offense that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained. (Deut 19:15)

There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (Deut 18:10-11)

When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded; that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices which they have done in the service of their gods, and so to sin against the LORD your God. (Deut 20:10-18)

Laws from Ancient Judah "If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and then spurns her, and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings an evil name

upon her, saying, `I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her the tokens of virginity,' then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the tokens of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate; and the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, `I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he spurns her; and lo, he has made shameful charges against her, saying, "I did not find in your daughter the tokens of virginity." And yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity.' And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him; and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. But if the thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has wrought folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you. (Deut 22:13-21)

If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife; so you shall purge the evil from the midst of you. But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But to the young woman you shall do nothing; in the young woman there is no offense punishable by death, for this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor; because he came upon her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her. (Deut 22:23-27)

If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her; he may not put her away all his days. (Deut 22:28-29)

When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring guilt upon the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance. (Deut 24:1-4)

Laws from Ancient Judah If any man's wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him, if a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes

of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act; and if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself; then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a cereal offering of jealousy, a cereal offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD; and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and unbind the hair of the woman's head, and place in her hands the cereal offering of remembrance, which is the cereal offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, `If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness, while you were under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you, then' (let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman) `the LORD make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh fall away and your body swell; may this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your body swell and your thigh fall away.' And the woman shall say, `Amen, Amen.‘ Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and wash them off into the water of bitterness; and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. And the priest shall take the cereal offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the cereal offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar; and the priest shall take a handful of the cereal offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has acted unfaithfully against her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become an execration among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children. This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity. (Num 5:13-31)

Highlights from Samuel and Kings Questions for Discussion (cont’d)

What is the view of the Deuteronomic Historian concerning the monarchy (1 Sam 8:4-22)?

Contrast Saul’s sin (1 Sam 15:1-33) with David’s (11:2-12:14). How is each handled by the prophet?

How do Samuel’s words at 15:22-23 serve as a message to the readers of this book?

What are the reasons given for the fall of Israel (2 Kings 17:7-23) and of Judah (2 Kings 24:3-4)?

The Covenants of the Bible Definition and Types

Covenant of Divine Commitment: Promissory, Unconditional Ancient Near Eastern Parallel: Treaties of Grant

Covenant of Human Obligation: Obligatory, Conditional Ancient Near Eastern Parallel: Suzerainty Treaties

The Noahic Covenant (Gen 9:8-17) The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 15 and 17) The Sinai Covenant (Deuteronomy) The Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7; Psalm 132)

Key TermscovenantAbrahamic CovenantSinai CovenantDavidic Covenant

How the Covenants Work Together

Abrahamic

Sinai

Davidic

Prophets Role of the Prophet Experience of the Prophet Partner Prophets and Prophetic Guilds Change in the Focus of Prophecy in the Exile Tests of True Prophecy