Terms (-A. Mazar) Flashcards
Hagar
Sarah’s maidservant who becomes Abraham’s second wife and father of his first son Ishmael
“sister/wives”
There are three narratives in Genesis,where a patriarch poses his wife as his sister, and the ruler attemps to marry her. Two of the three are very similar (different traditions, same story??), even King Abimelech is used in both.
Judah
4th son of Jacob and Leah, “founder” of Israelite Tribe of Judah - suggested Joseph to be sold into slavery, not killed. Won the birthright due to his elder brothers’ actions.
Ra’ameses (Per-Ramses)
a city and district of lower Egypt. The city was one of the two store-cities built for the Pharaoh who first oppressed the children of Israel.
John van Seters
He wrote “A Prologue to history: The Yahwist as Historian in genesis….” J is the author and historian writing in exile. J uses the DTRH as a model and creates an early pre DRTH account of Israels history. He uses Greek hisoriography- or supplementary model.The Oppression in Egypt is use next to the Oprression Judges motif. He adopts von Rads view of J as historian but moves the dates to the exilic period. J is work of historography- Greek are the models. The doublets are versions of stories told at different points.
Redactor vs. author
Redactor: uses existing matieral and combines into one peice. Author: creates based on experience or something new
J, E, D, P, R
JEDP are the 4 sources attributed to the writing of the Pentatuch.
J: Jaweist - anthropomorphising of God (Southern) - uses God’s name (very debatable source) human-like God, and is especially concerned with the kingdom of Judah (~950 BC)
E: Elohist - calls God Elohim - (Northern) Concerned with the Kingdom of Israel (~850 BC)
D: Duetaronamistic history - associated to the monarchy and sermon like style mostly concerned with law (~721-621 BC)
P: Preists - formal style of writing, God is untangible (bigger than thou) and deals with preistly matters (~550 BC)
R: Redactor - those that took the stories and put them together (like an editor)
Bethel
Bethel is mentioned several times throughout the bible. Here, Jacob fell asleep on a stone in escape from his brother Easu and dreamt of a ladder going up to heaven, surrounded by angeles. In the morning, he annoited the stone with oil and named the place Bethel (House of El/God). Later, this is also the place where God changes Jacob’s name to Israel. Archaeolgically speaking, Bethel raises a lot of questions, since it seems to have been in use during the time of the Temple, when no one other than the Priests were to be practicing sacrifice in Jerusalem. Also, after the division of the monarchy, Jereabom makes this the epicenter of the Golden Calf cult.
Ham, Shem, Japhet
Children of Noah. All human descendants traced to these three individuals.
Laben
Uncle of Jacob. Tricks Jacob into serving him for a total of 14 years in order to wed his younger daughter Rachel. Aramean.
The Akedah (The Binding of Isaac):
Story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac. Abraham brings him to altar, God intervines, Issac lives and a ram is offered in his place.
Miriam
Sister of Moses. Sing’s a song of victory after Pharoah’s army is drowned in the Red Sea.
On the Emergence of Ancient Israel:Conquest/ Settlement
Traditional account of Israelites entering the Land is through conquest- Joshua leads the people in lightning invasion that conquers the whole of the land. Not necessarily supported by archaeological evidence.
Herman Gunkle
Founder of Form Criticism. J and E not sources, but schools collecting Israel’s oral traditions.
Joel Baden
J E and P are representative of segments of Israelite society (monarchic, prophetic, priestly), not any unified view at a given time. D is the only source that consider’s its writing authoritative, and knew of J and E when writing.
Source (Literary) Criticism:
School of Biblical criticism that analyizes text based on sources, meaning the origins or traditions that gave rise to the particular portion text. Early sources were J,E,P,D, the first two sources identified by the name used to identify God, or the content or book the source is most prominent in. Later criticism of this school adds other sources (Redactor), or combines other sources to better address concerns with the method of analysis (J/E).
YHWH
Tetragramaton. Name of God associated with the J source. Appears to be the personal name of the God of Israel.
The Table of Nations
A list of the decendants of Noah which appears in Genesis 10
Rachel
Matriarch. Favorite wife of Jacob. Mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Daughter of Laban and younger sister of Jacob’s first wife, Leah.
Moriah
Traditionally considered as the mountain range where the sacrifice of Isaac story played out. Modern scholars believe it to mean “land of the amorites.” The Mountain of God.
Jethro
Father-in-law of Moses. Midian Priest. In Exodus 2:18 Jethro is also referred to as Reuel[2] and referred to as Hobab in the Book of Numbers. J sources call Moses’ Father in Law Jethro, E sources call him Ru’el.
On the Emergence of Ancient Israel:Peaceful infiltration
the infiltration theory relegates clashes with the Canaanites to a later stage in the process of Israel’s formation. In the view of A. Alt, who originated the theory in 1925, the first phase was totally peaceful. It involved semi-nomadic pastoralists, who spent their winters in the desert fringes beyond Canaan, gradually making the transition to a settled agricultural existence in the hills where they were accustomed to graze their flocks each summer. The central highlands of Canaan were thinly populated, so their settlement involved little or no conflict with the existing inhabitants of Canaan. Only when these settlers had become somewhat established, united and more numerous, did they attempt to wrest territory from the Canannites.
Gerhard Von Rad
German Scholar. He identified traditions in the pentateuch that were separate (Sinai vs Exodus etc.). For Von Rad, J combined them together working as an author to create J during the monarchal period. The theme of “salvation history” is the overarching message (that God saves his people) he attribtues this as the theological message that J puts forth. The Creeds about the Exodus experience tie the pentateuch together.
R. E. Friedman
Traditonal source criticism. E was representative of the Northern Kingdom. J was Judah in the South. E/J are combined to create a national literature. J reflects the Davidic monarchy and E reflects the Priesthood in Shiloh.
Form Criticism
Hermann Gunkel originally developed form criticism to analyze the Hebrew Bible. It is a method of biblical criticism that classifies units of scripture by literary pattern and attempts to trace each type to its period of oral transmission. Form criticism seeks to determine a unit’s original form and the historical context of the literary tradition.
Ba’al
1st Millenium Canaanite god of storm. Rival of El
The Patriarchs
Abrahham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thought by some scholars to be heads of distinct groups with distinct deities. Later, the patriarchal accounts combined to unite people to one group or family. Jacob considered by some as the real patriarch, as God’s name is in his name, Yisra-el, and his descendants are the 12 tribes. Abraham often associated with Hevron, Isaac with Beersheva, and Jacob with the North.
“Doublets:”
Doublets are pairs of parallel narratives or stories of the same event, which source critics believe
is one story told by two different authors. They believe
that this explains the differences and contradictions of each account. For example, in Genesis, the 2 accounts of creation or the 2 flood accounts.
Joseph
One of Jacob’s sons from Rachel. Thrown in a pit by his jealous brothers and later taken to Egypt as a slave in Pharaoh’s court. Distinguishes himself and moves his way up to high position. Is responsible for Jacob and his sons, b’nei Yisrael, coming to Egypt. Joseph forms a bridge between the end of Genesis to the beginning of Exodus.
Ramses II
Referred to as Ramses the Great, was the 3rd Egyptian Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC). He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. He led several military expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan.
Israel Finkelstein
He is an Israeli archaeologist and academic and a professor of the archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University. He is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel. He is critical of scholars who read the results of their excavations as confirming the biblical narratives of conquest. One of his most controversial theories is his description of 10th century BCE Jerusalem, the period associated with the biblical kings David and Solomon, as a mere ‘village’ or tribal center. He argues that much of the Bible was written from the seventh through the 5th century BCE.
Erhard Blum
A Protestant theologian and Old Testament scholar.
