Chapter 3-9 Flashcards
Cosmology
Accounts of creation
Anthropomorphic
As if God were human
Divine council
The assembly of gods
Elohim
God, used in the singular
Enkidu
Friend of Gligamesh. A wild man who was seduced by shamhat and brought in to civilization.
Enuma Elish
“When above”- first two words of the poem. A work in 7 tablets how the god Marduk became king of the gods and chief god in Babylon. Often called the “Babylonian creation epic”, it is actually a hymn in praise of Marduk.
Gilgamesh
A legendary ruler if the central Mesopotamian city of Uruk
Marduk
From enuma Elish
Myth
Narratives in which the principal characters are gods, to explain how the world as they understood it came to be.
Sabbath
The day of rest
Tiamat
The goddess of the salt waters. Her body was used by Marduk to make the cosmos.
Tree of life
In garden of Eden. Will give one immortality and even eternal youth. The seven branched menorah is probably a stylized presentation of it.
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Multiple interpretations: a merism- a totality is expressed by mentioning the opposite exvtremes. Would be equivalent to barring them from divine omniscience; intellectual maturity; sexual connotations “to know” and have control over fertility.
Yahweh
The sacred and personal name of god. Substitution is “the LORD”
D
Deuteronomic- found entirely in the book of Deuteronomy. Discovered during reign of Josiah, king of Judah in late 7th century bce. Like E, probably originated in northern kingdom
E
Elohist- name from Elohim (God) until revelation of Yahweh. Fragmented because joined with J. Deity is more remote- dreams & angels. Mountain is Horeb. Associated with Ephraim in the northern kingdom.
J
Yahwist- god is vivid anthropomorphisms, very human like ways. Judah area is dominant. Theme of 3fold promise. Written in 10th century. Fullest of 4 sources
P
Priestly- emphasis on matters of ritual observance and ritual. Divine rest & sabbath observance. God is Elohim until revelation. Later el shadday. Most remote and transcendent and never appearing directly. Manifest in god’s “glory”. Thematic series of covenants: rainbow, circumcision & sabbath.
Final editor. Derived from the traditions of the temple. From 6th century bce.
Documentary hypothesis
4 distinct documents. Source analysis. Hypothetical. Stemmed from different names for god. Created by Julius wellhausen in 1878
Etiology
Explanation of a phenomenon
Genealogy
A listing of a family line. Mostly attributed to P. Segmented: traces several fodder want lines from one ancestor
Linear: traces one line through several generations.
Pentateuch
First 5 books, from the Greek word for 5 works or books
Utnapishtim
A hero in the Gilgamesh epic that tells about the flood. First modern discovery of parallel to biblical traditions
Wellhausen
Creator of the document hypothesis in 1878
Circumcision
Symbolic of the covenant of god with Abraham.
Form criticism
Seeks to identify various literary genres and then to classify a passage within one of those genres.
What is said, how it is said, and in what setting it it said.
Identifying a form, or genre, and then determining it’s function in its original context. I.e. Etiological narrative. The childless woman.
Tradition history
How sources were combined into larger units
Redaction criticism
After sources were shaped into their final form
Tell
An ancient mound consisting of accumulated deposits of successive human occupations
Herman gunkel
Developed form criticism in the early 20th century
Kirta
An epic similar to the Jacob story. (Gen 12-50) found at Ugarit.
El
Common Semitic word meaning “god”. Chief god of the Canaanite pantheon.
Ugaritic
The language of Ugarit, active until 13 century bce
Endogamy
Marriage with one’s ethnic, cultural or religious community, for the survival if one’s ethnic cultural or religious community.
Sinai or Horeb
After the escape from Egypt, they arrive at this mountain where god gives them a series of laws, including the 10 commandments, and instructions about religious rituals and ritual objects
Theophany
Where God appears to someone
Tetragrammaton
Four letters yhwh. A form of the verb “to be”
Yahweh
God’s proper personal name. Ex.3:14-15
Passover
The festival of unleavened bread and sacrifice of the firstborn lamb. Exodus 12:1-27
Reed sea
Red Sea. Two northern arms of the Red Sea which were wetlands.
Baal
Found in ugaritic myth. King of the gods. Shift from El to Baal in 1550-1200.
Manna
What is this? Ex 16.4-5,35
Unfamiliar substance to the Israelites
A supernatural phenomenon, bread from heaven, divine care for the Israelites until they reached Canaan.
Midian
Horeb located here
East of the gulf of Aqaba
Could be northwestern Arabia
Suzerainty treaty
One party, the suzerain, is superior to the other, the vassal
Ten commandments
“Ten words”
Decalogue
Ex 20.2-17, deut 5.6-21, ex 34.10-26
Dated later than the exodus as for agrarian people and no monarchy
Covenant
Contract
Code of Hammurapi
One of the very first ancient law codes- around 1750 bce. 300 laws of complex societies Marriage is the longest section Divinely given Consist if criminal and civil laws
Casuistic law
Covenant code consists lately of this
Deal with the particular
If a man leaves a pit open…an an OC falls into it… (Ex 21.33-34
Apodicdic laws
More general laws
Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death (ex 21.16)
Tabernacle
Dwelling
Portable sanctuary envisioned by P for the wilderness period
Ritual Decalogue
Entirely concerned with worship
Ex 34:10-26
Suggests formation after settlement
Day if attonement
Yom kippur
Lev 16
Most solemn observance on the Jewish calendar
The ritual serves to purify the priest, the sanctuary and the people
Scapegoat
The sons if the community are symbolically transferred to this goat, which is then released in the wilderness.
Holiness code
Lev 17-26
“You shall be holy, for I Yahweh your god are holy” lev 19.2
Cherubim
Winged divine beings seated on top of the ark
Ark of the covenant
Contains: Ten Commandments, manna, Aaron’s staff
The golden calf
Ex 32 False image? Festival to Yahweh? Pedestal for god? Conflict between Moses and Aaron?
Tithe
“A tenth”
10% of all agricultural produce and livestock were to belong to Yahweh
Lev 27.30-33
Avenger of blood
Goel, translated “redeemer”
The victim’s nearest make relative who has legal responsibilities toward the deceased.
Cities of refuge
Six cities, three in each side of the Jordan valley. Provide asylum for someone who has taken another’s life, until the matter of guilt has been resolved. If found unintentional, then the killed is allowed to live in the city of refuge.
