Study Guide to the Old Testament

Intelligent Education

• Publisher: Influence Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781645423812
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for the Old Testament, the first and longest section of the Christian bible.

As a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings, the Old Testament contains thirty-nine books, containing stories that span thousands of years. Moreover, the Old Testament gives readers a look into the history and the beginning of the Christian religion. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of this classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work

- Character Summaries

- Plot Guides

- Section and Chapter Overviews

- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT

The aim of this book is to provide an elementary guide to the Old Testament. As anyone knows who has tried to read it without help, the Bible is not an easy book to read. It comes to us from a remote world, one very different from our own. It knows nothing of science or philosophy as we understand them. It assumes the existence of angels, demons, devils, and other supernatural beings. It assumes, as many people today do not, the existence of the living God, who cares for his chosen people, the Jews, and who enters dynamically into history to guide them and all mankind.

Another obstacle for the reader is the sheer size and variety of the Old Testament. It contains thirty-nine books, and a single book may be an elaborate composite, such as the book of Isaiah, which includes the work of many authors and periods. The Old Testament and the Apocrypha contain literary and historical material from a period of well over a thousand years. Within this great library is contained a great variety of literary forms, myths, legends, epics, law codes, hymns, love poems, battle songs, prophetic oracles, allegories and history. Each of these forms has its own problems and fascinations, and each requires - and repays - careful study.

Another seeming obstacle, which must be turned to advantage, is the quantity and complexity of recent Biblical scholarship, including archaeology.

This guide is intended to help the reader clear these obstacles. It contains articles on the historical background of the Bible, on its various literary forms, as well as on the making of the Canon and on the most important English translations. The chronology has been revised in accord with recent findings. The summaries of the books contain commentary in as much detail as the beginner should be expected to handle. When he has mastered its contents, he can go on to some of the books recommended in the bibliography.

All quotations unless otherwise indicated are from the King James Version (KJV). The Revised Standard Version (RSV), the American Translation (AT), and the New English Bible (NEB) have been used where the KJV is inaccurate. LXX stands for the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible made in the third century A.D. The other abbreviations are standard. Details about works cited in the text are given in the bibliography.

DATE CHARTS

THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL

The Age of the Patriarchs

Between 3000-2000 B.C., the first great civilizations arose in the Fertile Crescent, which runs from the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, through Syria and Canaan to the mouth of the Nile. Thus Canaan and Syria spanned the gap between the two great power centers, Mesopotamia and Egypt. About 2000 B.C., Semitic nomads, in the Bible called Amorites, began to move into the Fertile Crescent. Babylon for a time became an Amorite state, ruled about 1750 by the great King Hammurabi. There is evidence of many Semitic names in documents of the period, among them Abram, Jacob, Levi and Ishmael. According to the Bible tradition, Abraham and his family moved north from Ur to Haran, certainly a Semitic settlement. Some of his relatives bear the names of places in that area, e.g., Haran and Nahor, suggestive that they settled there and put down roots. Both Isaac and Jacob are represented as returning to this area to seek wives. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob seem to have belonged to the Aramaean subgroup of the Amorites: Jacob claims, “A wandering Aramaean was my father” (Deut 26:5). Another group constantly referred to in this period are the “Habiru.” “Habiru” seems to be a general term for “outsiders” or “wanderers,” who might include slaves, mercenaries, raiders, and other low - class people. The word could cover the “wandering Aramaeans” and was later more specifically applied to them; Abraham is called a “Hebrew” in Gen. 14.

Eventually (called by God according to Gen. 12), Abraham moved on to Canaan where he was associated with Mamre, Isaac with Beersheba, and Jacob with Bethel, Shechem, and Dothan. (There is archaeological evidence for the existence of these three towns in this period.) These sites were in all probability holy places, where sacred pillars may have been set up, as we hear of Jacob doing (Gen. 28:18ff.). In such hill sites as these, the ancestors of Israel led a pastoral life with their flocks. If the correct date for Abraham is c. 1900 B.C., there were large Canaanite settlements at Gezer, Megiddo, and in the Jordan Valley at this time. (See G. Ernest Wright, Biblical Archaeology, Abridged Edition, p. 30, for fuller details. Most of the facts in the present account come from this excellent and readable book. Details on this and other works referred to will be found in the bibliography.)

In Egypt, the other great center of power, the Twelfth Dynasty ruled in the early years of the second millennium and had some control over Canaan and Syria. It was a period of great prosperity for Egypt and her satellites, and there is evidence that nomadic bands of Amorites wandered freely from Syria to Egypt. For example, the Tale of Sinuhe, composed about 1900, describes the prosperous seminomadic life of the Amorites in Syria, which was similar to the lives of the patriarchs. An Egyptian painting of the same period shows a group, probably of Amorites, entering Egypt, wearing many - colored garments and shoes or sandals and carrying water - bottles, javelins, bows, and a lyre (see Wright page 23); we remember the visit of Abraham to Egypt and later the emigration of the Jacob tribe. (It is important to remember that several tribes remained in Canaan.) The story of Joseph, Gen. 37 - 50, the traditional account of this emigration, was certainly told by someone who had a thorough knowledge of Egyptian life. The importance of dreams and magicians, the customs of mummification, the titles of the “chief of the butlers,” and the “chief of the barbers,” and Joseph’s own title and position are all in accordance with what we know of Egypt at that time (Wright, pp. 34 - 35). Joseph and his family probably arrived in Egypt in the seventeenth century, when the Hyksos, a foreign dynasty, ruled the country. The tribe remained there for about 400 years.

What Was the Religion of the Patriarchs?

This is a very controversial subject, but it seems that they had a family deity, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” with whom they had a personal covenant, renewed in each generation. Such a covenant is described in Gen. 15. Their god was later identified with Yahweh (Ex. 3). One of his names was the Mesopotamian word “Shaddai” or “mountaineer,” which suggests his power and grandeur. The patriarchs were certainly not monotheistic, as is attested, for instance, by Abraham’s worship of El Elyon in Jerusalem, an Amorite and later a Canaanite chief deity (Wright, p. 32). It was to be some centuries before absolute monotheism was accepted.

How historically accurate are the stories of the patriarchs? We must remember that the stories about them were handed down orally for hundreds of years, that generations may have been telescoped, accounts simplified, and meanings seen (e.g., in the call of Abraham) which were not apparent to the original actors in the scenes. In the past scholars often surmised that we had only the pictures of their personalities painted by later writers; or that the patriarchs were personifications of their tribes. There may be something in these hypotheses. We may never be able to prove that Abraham or Jacob existed or that they said and did certain things. On the other hand, we know that oral tradition is often surprisingly accurate and that the personalities of these men stand out with remarkable vividness and conviction in the pages of Genesis. What we can be very certain of, what archaeology has demonstrated, is that the narratives reflect the background, the mores, the laws, not of the time in which they were written, but of the early centuries of the second millennium B.C. (See “Archaeology of the Bible.”)

Moses and the Exodus (probably 13th century B.C.)

Sometime between three and four centuries after Joseph’s death, “there arose a new King over Egypt” (Ex. 1:8) who used forced labor by the Israelites to build the store - cities of Pithom and Raamses, probably in the reign of Rameses II. It was in revolt against this exploitation that the Exodus occurred. The Exodus, the freeing of the Israelites from bondage, and their covenant with their god, Yahweh, is the dominating event in their history, still celebrated in the festival of Passover.

The account of Moses is probably not historical in every detail, but it reflects the magnitude of his personality and accomplishment. His name was Egyptian in form, and it may be that he was really educated in the Egyptian court. His flight to the land of Midian led to his contact with his father - in - law there (variously called Reuel or Jethro), who may have been important in forming his religious ideas. According to the Bible, God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the new holy name, Yahweh. Pharaoh was threatened by the plagues, which may be based on natural causes which still exist in Egypt. The actual escape was preceded by a cultic rite which was the ancestor of the celebration of Passover. In their flight, the Israelites crossed the Reed Sea (not the Red Sea). The details of the “forty years” wandering in the wilderness are somewhat obscure including the site of the mountain (Horeb or Sinai) where the commandments were given. What was of paramount importance was the belief of the people that they and their god, Yahweh, had concluded a covenant together. This covenant was the beginning of the Hebrew nation.

Conquest and Settlement of Canaan (13th - 11th centuries B.C.)

There is probably no period of Israel’s history more disputed by scholars than the centuries of the Conquest. It is clear that the “Promised Land” Canaan, was inhabited by a mixed population. The Biblical accounts mention Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, and Jebusites, as well as Canaanites. Later, the most formidable enemies were the Philistines, a sea people of Greek origin. According to one Biblical tradition, the twelve tribes invaded Canaan en masse; but closer scrutiny shows that there were many Israelites in Canaan who never went to Egypt, though they may from time to time have fought with their kin, the Joseph tribes who had been through the Egyptian and Exodus experience.

It is usual to contrast the account in Joshua of a long but successful struggle led by Joshua in which the whole of Canaan was eventually overcome, with the older account in Judges 1, which pictures a piecemeal series of efforts by different tribes. This older account has been usually regarded as more accurate, but again closer scrutiny suggests that this is an oversimplification. There are indications in the book of Joshua that many areas were not subjugated (see for example Joshua 13). Even in the time of Saul, the Israelites held only the hills and parts of Trans - Jordan. They could not expect to defeat the Canaanites with their war chariots on the plains. On the other hand, archaeological evidence shows that several hill cities, Lachish, Hazor, Bethel, Debir, Eglon, underwent violent destruction in the thirteenth century. This would seem to support the picture in Joshua of a quick, decisive conquest. (See “Archaeology and the Bible” for the negative evidence of Jericho and Ai.) After this initial attack the conquest was more gradual and was assisted by treaties and intermarriages. In time the Israelites were able to settle in Canaanite territory.

According to Joshua 24, Joshua called a great assembly at Shechem where the covenant made with Yahweh at Sinai was reaffirmed. Shechem was never attacked by Joshua, and scholars have supposed that it was in control of Israelites who had never been to Egypt; possibly an alliance of six tribes who at that time chose to serve Yahweh and associate themselves with their kinsmen who had already covenanted with Yahweh at Sinai. (See B. W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament, pp. 92 - 94.)

Period of the Judges (12th - 11th centuries)

Early in this period the political power of Egypt and Mesopotamia was weakened, but parts of Canaan were endangered by invasions by a number of smaller powers, such as Edom, Moab, Sihon, and Og. The most dangerous of these enemies were the Philistines, because they were well organized and especially because they had iron implements and weapons of war. They settled in Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath along the southwest coast of Palestine and acted in concert when there was a common danger. Israel in this period is thought to have been organized loosely into a tribal federation focused around a central shrine perhaps Shiloh, which was the center of their religious and political loyalties. Some historians think they are analogous to, even related to, the “amphictyonies (leagues of tribes, united for mutual protection) of Greece and Italy.

The “judges” of this book - we do not know for sure if they were so called in their own time - were local leaders who often acted against these enemies. In the book of Judges, their “rule” is made to appear successive, but it is much more likely that they overlapped. They usually attacked external enemies, such as the Moabites, the Midianites, or the Ammonites. The exception was the campaign by Deborah and Barak (see Judges 4 - 5), who overcame a Canaanite alliance under Sisera in about 1152. The Philistines, whose possession of the secret of iron smelting gave them a hold over the Israelites (see I Sam 13:19 - 22) made frightening inroads into the country, and about the middle of the eleventh century they defeated the Israelites at Shiloh and captured the Ark of the Covenant. Their success made a united monarchy imperative.

The United Monarchy (1020 - 931/30 B.C.)

The need for a strong central military authority found its answer in the rise of Saul the Benjaminite. He was both a warrior and a charismatic leader, that is he was (like some of the judges) divinely inspired and spoke ecstatically. He was also subject to fits of melancholy and jealousy. He was anointed by Samuel to fight the Philistines in the name of Yahweh. His first success, however, was against the Ammorites at Jabesh - gilead. For some years he defended the central hills from the Philistines, but he and several of his sons fell in the disastrous battle of Gilboa, and the Philistines once more occupied the hill country. However, Saul had succeeded in uniting the Israelite tribes under one king.

David (1009/8 - 970/69), one of Saul’s warriors, who had aroused the king’s jealousy, had retreated to the southern desert. He and his personal band of followers served the Philistine king of Gath for a time. He gained strength in Judah, where he was proclaimed king c. 1009/8. Like Saul, he was regarded as a charismatic leader. He was anointed king of Israel ...