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CHAPTER 4 Pentateuch: Creation, Covenant & the Exodus

CHAPTER 4 Pentateuch: Creation, Covenant & the Exodus. Read the Ten Commandments on pg. 74-75. What does obedience mean to you? How is it important in our relationship to God?. Lord, I know you are with me and love me. Give me peace of mind as I prepare for this time of study.

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CHAPTER 4 Pentateuch: Creation, Covenant & the Exodus

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  1. CHAPTER 4 Pentateuch: Creation, Covenant & the Exodus

  2. Read the Ten Commandments on pg. 74-75. What does obedience mean to you? How is it important in our relationship to God?

  3. Lord, I know you are with me and love me. Give me peace of mind as I prepare for this time of study. Help me to focus on my books and notes, keep me from all distractions so that I will make the best use of this time that is available to me. Amen

  4. Chapter Objectives: 1. Pentateuch 2. 2 Creation Stories 3. JDEP sources 4. Original Sin 5. Abraham>Isaac>Jacob>Joseph 6. Promise Land>Exodus>Promise Land 7. Ambrahmic, Exodus and Sinai Covenants 8. Sinai 9. Death of Moses

  5. Today’s Objectives: • “Hebrew Bible” or “Old Testament”? Canon. Structure of Tanakh and Old Testament. • Pentateuch. Sources. Plot. Date of final publication. Aim. • Genesis 1-11. Genre: Creation-Flood Story. Nearest parallel: Atrahasis, Akkadian, 1635 B.C., 1245 lines. • Genesis 1:1-2:3, P account of creation of “heaven and earth”. • Genesis 2-3, J account of creation of humans.

  6. CANON. For OT/HB, 46 books in “Jewish diaspora”/early church” canon versus 39 in “Jewish Palestinian.” In 4C, Jerome (“hebraica veritas”) versus Augustine. In 16C, Reformers distrusted Catholic count and went back to narrow canon, whereas Council of Trent (1546-63) affirmed wider canon. Early church resolved canon only in 4C! • Old Testament or Hebrew Bible? (“OT” as a title for the OT books only given in late 2C; previously “Scriptures” or “Law and the Prophets.” • Jews prefer acronym TaNaKh, which has 3 parts: Torah; Nebi’im (= Prophets, “Former” = Joshua-Kings, and “Latter” = 3 major prophets and 12 minor prophets; Ketubim (= Writings, all other books). Orientation to Torah, regarded as a gift. Nebi’im illustrate or expound. Three concentric circles. “Hebrew Bible” or “Old Testament”?

  7. Christian OT inherited 4-part Bible of diaspora Judaism (Pentateuch, Historical Books, Wisdom Literature, and Prophets (4 major and 12 minor), interpreting it as a single narrative, i.e., Genesis the beginning , the Historical Books continuing it, and the Prophets foretelling the Final Age. In Tanakh, prophets “forthtell” the Torah’s demands, whereas in OT prophets “foretell” the New Age. “Tanakh” and “OT” thus imply profoundly different understandings of the Bible. Catholics and many Protestant churches reject “supersessionism,” i.e., Christian Church as New Israel has replaced and displaced Israel. Pope JPII spoke of “the covenant never revoked” in Mainz in the 1980s. In 2001, PBC wrote The Jewish People and their Scripture in the Christian Bible:“Christians can and ought to admit that the Jewish reading of the Bible is a possible one, in continuity with the Jewish Sacred Scriptures from the Second Temple period, a reading analogous to the Christian reading which developed in parallel fashion. Both readings are bound up with the vision of their respective faiths, of which the readings are the result and expression. Consequently, both are irreducible.” (# 22)” Christian understanding of Hebrew Scriptures. Supersessionism

  8. Pentateuch: Greek for “five books,” Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Sources: usually four sources: J (after word for God [Yahweh] in its German spelling Jahweh), E (after the designation Elohim for God); P (Priestly, archival, liturgical, and narrative material); and D (Deuteronomy). Dates and mutual relationships are currently debated, the following is accepted by many: pre-exilic traditions J-E (pre-exilic, pre-6C) and P were edited and published in the 5th century for an exilic population to explain the exile and offer hope of return and restoration. Plot: Creation, fault, flood, new creation, migration of the nations to their assigned lands (Gen 1-11), call of Abraham’s family and its three generations (Gen 12-50), enslavement in Egypt and liberation (Exod 1-15), journey to Sinai, covenant with Yhwh and Torah (Exod 19-Numbers 10), resumption of journey to Promised Land (Num 10-36), four speeches of Moses to Israel poised for conquest (Deuteronomy). Pentateuch

  9. Genre of Genesis 1-11: Creation, Flood, New Creation as a narrative template. Atrahasis No humans; lesser gods did menial work for higher gods. Lesser gods refuse to serve. Ea, god of wisdom, CREATES human substitutes from clay and the blood of the chief rebel god. After 1200 years, land “bellowed like a bull,” noise from over-population (FAULT), provoking angry gods to send an annihilating FLOOD. Ea tips off his favorite Atrahasis, who builds a boat for his family and survives. Without servants, the gods languish, and regret their hasty action. Recognizing they cannot live without their human servants, they allow Ea and the mother goddess to NEWLY CREATE a revised race, this time with population-limiting features such as celibate women, childhood diseases, and death, in the sense of life span. (Previously, even a god might be killed, but humans were not mortal, i.e., did not have a life span. Genesis 1-11 God CREATES “heaven and earth” = our universe, including human race. Reason not given. man and the woman disobey God’s command not to eat of Tree of Knowledge and are expelled from Garden of Eden. FAULT. Further instances of human rebellion (ch. 4; 6:1-13). God commands Noah to build an ark for his family and for animal species. FLOOD (Gen 6:5-8:19). NEW CREATION God re-affirms to Noah the original charge of Gen 1 to increase and multiply. Compare the revision of human capacities in Atrahasis). [No real parallels in Atrahasis for Gen 10-11, the Table of Nations and their migrating to their assigned territories, and the City with a tower in it (11:1-9)].

  10. Creation in Bible & ANE versus modern concept: • Process: ancient: model is human making or natural process; absolutely no sense of evolution (things go from simple to complex); modern: impersonal interaction of physical forces over eons and assumption of evolution. • Product: ancient: human society organized for service of the gods; modern: physical universe, treats life only in its most primitive sense; culture and community do not come into consideration. Creation in ANE and Bible

  11. Outline of Genesis 1:1-2:3

  12. Vestiges of ancient motifs (immortality and wisdom separate gods from humans) and images, e.g., Gilgamesh, naked hero sees life-enhancing plant stolen by snake (Gilgamesh, Tablet XI) • Two before and after scenarios. • (1) agricultural: Before the sin, agriculture consisted in tending a vast garden irrigated by stream from the Deep and branching out in four great rivers to fertilize the earth. After the sin, couple expelled into a new system–tilling the soil dependent on uncertain rain. The soil had been there from the beginning, of course, but it was dormant, for “there was no man to till the soil” (Gen 2:5). • (2) “anthropological: Before the sin, the man and the woman enjoyed full life and knowledge by being in the presence of the living and wise God. Though not inherently immortal or pre-eminently wise like heavenly, such “limits” did not matter as long as they were in God’s garden. God’s prohibition against eating of the tree of knowledge was meant to warn the couple not to attempt to acquire wisdom and life from any other source. After the sin, “death” in the sense of a limited life span was imposed on humans; as soon as a human was born, the clock of mortality would begin to tick. • Questions: Meaning of garden and its four rivers? Two trees or one, Lord God or Lord? Why did God forbid them to eat of the tree? Why did the snake speak to the woman rather than the man? Why did they not die? Was the woman a temptress? Why were they naked and not ashamed? Why those particular punishments? Genesis 2-3 J Account of Creation of The Man and the Woman

  13. Gen 1. Day 6: “Man” as sexed (male and female) and grouped (family, clan, nation), not a monad. Hence, two defining imperatives, “increase and multiply” (sexed) and “fill the earth and subdue it” (referring to groups taking their territory. “Subdue” a proleptic reference to Israel’s violent taking of land (cf. “subdue” in Josh 18:1). Keep in mind exiles’ questions: “Will we survive as a people?”“Will we ever return to our land?” • Gen 1:26, 28; 5:1: “image” and “likeness” of heavenly beings/God is royal language: humans represent God in their ruling over domains of sky, earth, sea. Heb. radah, “to rule, have dominion”) vv. 26, 28, used of kings. • Church Fathers: in NT, only Paul cites “image” (apart from James 3:9) in Col 3:10; 2 Cor 3:18, Rom 8:29. In OT, only in WisSol 2:23 and Sir 17:3. Fathers located “image” in the soul rather than the body. They frequently distinguished “image” and “likeness,”“image” referring to natural gifts that cannot be lost, and “likeness” to supernatural gifts lost in Adam and restored through Christ. For many Fathers, “image” was identified with reason (logos) or mind (nous). Christian debate especially during Reformation about how seriously damaged was the “image” and “likeness” in humans. Further Reflections on Gen 1 and 2-3, Part 1

  14. For many post-Reformation interpreters, e.g., J. Richard Middleton, “image” refers to humans’function rather than their essence. Humans represent God’s rule on earth in the same way that a statute or stele represented a king’s rule on earth. • Gen 2-3. Best entry to this complex text: assume two “before and after” scenarios, agricultural and anthropological, i.e., what God intended for humans and “how we live now.” Attend to “voice,” i.e., who speaks? What does he/she know? The great distinction between humans and gods was super-knowledge (with the capacity to act) and eternal life. Were the actors punished or were their fates simply decreed? Why does the man name his wife twice (2:23 and 3:20)? • Interpretation. Important in Christianity, but not in Judaism, where the sin of the angels in Gen 6:1-4 played a major role. Paul probably the first interpreter to focus on Adam (Rom 5 and I Cor 15). Type and anti-type. Further Reflections on Gen 1 and 2-3, Part 1

  15. Genealogies. J: 4:17-26; P: 5:1-32; 11:10-26. • Marriage of divine and human beings 6:1-4 • The Flood (6:5-9:17). ANE parallels. J and P versions integrated. • Noah and his sons (9:18-28) • Table of Nations and migration (or not) of the nations to their lands (10:1-11:9) • Introduction of Abraham’s family. 12:1-9. V. 3: “All the families of the earth will be blessed” or “”all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you”? Further Reflections on Gen 1 and 2-3, Part 1

  16. For HW: Page 77, 1-6

  17. References: Clifford, R. S.J. (2013). Old Testament Narrative Introduction [PowerPoint presentation]. Chestnut Hill, MA.

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