Course: Old Testament
Lecture #2: Higher Criticism & Documentary Theory
The Hebrew Bible is divided up into the Law, the Prophets and the Writings
Law is the first five books – Genesis (Gen), Exodus (Ex), Leviticus (Lev), Numbers (Num), Deuteronomy (Deut) and are narrative. This is what is called the Torah.
Prophets are Joshua, Judges, I II Sam, I II Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial and the 12 minor prophets.
The Writings are Ruth, Esther, all the wisdom literature, Psalms, Song of Songs, etc.
The Hebrew bible ends with I II Chronicles because it ends with the return of the exiles to Israel.
The first writing we have is from around the death of Solomon (~930 BCE).
What one discovers is that the Hebrew scriptures were put together for a purpose, not their original purpose, and have been redacted or edited by other than the original authors.
The first time any part of scripture was considered sacred was 622 BCE when the book of what is believed to be Deuteronomy was found in the temple while cleaning.
II Kings 23:21-23 records that it was found when Josiah was king and that he instituted reforms because of it.
It was purported to be written by Moses so for the first time in many years the Passover was kept.
When was it written? Probably within 100 years of when it was "found". It reflects the situation at the time of the monarchy and the reform attempts. We will cover this later.
- The Canon, which means the authoritative listing of books in the Hebrew scriptures, was actually not decided until the council of Jamnia around 93 CE.
- The canon was considered "closed" as of around 400 BCE with Ezra and his reforms.
- Anything after that was not considered inspired since in Jewish understanding the Holy Spirit no longer would inspire anyone until the coming of the messiah.
- Thus the Apocrypha of 14 books is not included in the Jewish canon but the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) and from there the Roman Catholic Bibles do include these books.
- The protestant churches go with the more conservative Jewish canon and do not include them. they are usually bound at the end of the protestant bible, if included at all.
Types of Biblical Study Emphasis
Textual Criticism
- Purpose, to determine the best possible and most accurate reading of the ancient text. This had some development in the ancient world and is pursued by all branches of Christianity as the accuracy of the written text is very important in both Christian and Jewish traditions.
Historical Criticism
- This relates the biblical test to surrounding history and acknowledges the different levels of accuracy in the different materials, i.e. the Samuel/Kings information is to be preferred under most circumstances as it is more accurate than Chronicles. The Documentary Theory of the Old Testament is a development of this study.
Religionsgeschichte (History of Religion)
- This was a scholarly development of the general study of religion which was later applied to the bible in light of other living world's religions. It sees the Bible as one of the world's religious documents with the same religious concerns met by similar religious stories.
Form Criticism
- This development separated the text into literary forms and their oral antecedents with comparison with other ancient near eastern writings. This is an attempt to get behind the present text to the reading of the text in the past. It asks the questions of the situation in life at the time of the beginning of the incident or story.
Redaction Criticism
- Deals with seeing the editorial additions and comments of the later editors of the various books of both testaments. This is used to see first what the redactor has added then the other strands can be discerned from content.
Documentary Theory – Summary
Introduction: Some things to keep in mind.
When judging what tradition you are reading you must consider: 1. structure, 2. themes, 3. religious values, 4.literary styles.
The relationship between actual history and what's in the Bible is redacted (edited) by writers over a period of about 500 years for their own theological purposes.
The Israelites up until the exile and following were henotheistic, ie. they believed each nation had its own god including them. Each god had its own area of territory and one proved their god was the strongest by beating the people of an area and their god.
The cult of the Ark of the Covenant was tied up with this idea. When they went to war, it was carried with them so YHWH would be with them.
There were three authority figures in the Hebrew scriptures which were each given priority depending on the writer. These were the prophet, priest and king.
“J” Writer
- Jahwist account--called J, written between 1000 and 980 B.C.E. At the time of David and Solomon, written by a court scribe sees history as being from chaos (the creation) to order.
Adam> Noah> Abraham> Moses> David
- YHWH's name was known from the beginning of creation- -concerned with the question of authority.
- The king's authority is paramount.
- Sister/wife anecdote Gen. 12:10-20 (Read)
- Exodus motif Abraham and Sarah go to Egypt and then leave.
- Lord intervenes directly to get Sarah out of the pharaoh's household.
- Abraham gets rich
- No concern for Sarah's chastity while in Pharaoh's household. -not important.
- Covenant Gen. 15:1-18 (Read)
- Promise of land, occasional ritual though not real important.
- Prehistory (only J and P are history) concerned with primal
- Doesn't see the world in terms of unfolding of God, begins with natural unfolding of creation--begins for the sake of men and women.
- Gen. 2:5-4:14 (read) – main point is bondage of human life. Men involved in hard labor, women in painful labor.
- J says our problems are because of a falling away from the law of God (rebellion in eating from the forbidden tree)
- Men and women are in competition, but the real problem is the internal waywardness of human life.
- 1. Humans dislike being under a law.
- 2. world filled with temptation
- 3. Humans are cured by being sent out into the world of human bondage.
- Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:2-16) – takes over a Babylonian myth of the Goddess (Ishtar) choosing a farmer over a shepherd.
- J wants to say that humans can't handle their internal problems
- Noah-Gen. 8:20-22-J's flood story theology is that both man and nature are perverse. [=> have J's version read from handout]
- J sees human conflict as inevitable; he is anti-urbanization; ritual is a compromise so royal law is necessary.
- ritual comes about because humans want to control God and nature-is a compromise between God and man.
Royal Theology
- Read: 1 Sam 10:1 – King need ed - 10:10-12 – King also prophet
- II Sam 8-David's sons are priests-David is a warrior, lawgiver, law executor, priest, prophet as well as king.
- II Sam 23:1-7- Special covenant made with David and his family
- I Kings 2:1-12--David speaks to Solomon about being the most ruthless king because of the covenant.
- I Kings 3:4-15--God speaks wisdom thru the king.
“E Writer”
- Eloist known as E. written after the kingdom divided at Solomon's death between 900 and 750 B.C.E. Northern prophetic theology.
- Sees history in terms of development of prophecy.
- Abraham> Moses> Joshua> Samuel> David> prophets.
- Ephram and Manasas (The Joseph tribes) used the name 'Elohim" for God until the Exodus. This strand emphasizes prophecy, names and etiology (also spelled Aetiology meaning “the study of causation or origination; beginnings of things.”)
- Sister/wife anecdote Gen. 20:1-18 (have read)
- Wandering motif, God comes in a vision, Abraham doesn't get rich as in J., Morality is important. Sarah's chastity is pure.
- Abram was not even lying in this--Sarah was a half-sister (se v.12)
- Gen 26 – Isaac is inheriting the same blessings of his father Abraham by repeating the sister/ wife anecdote and applying it to Isaac. The whole point is that Isaac takes over from his father.
- E says a leader becomes a leader only if a prophet chooses him.
- Moses is seen as a prophetic leader.
- J and E are thoroughly mixed by about 700 B.C.E. so J doesn't have an independent view of Moses.
- Exodus 3:13-18- J, E
- God has new name (new for E) YHWH--means new activities
- God is acting in a new way. New activity is that he is constantly with people.
- Promised land, national greatness. name used as a cultic name "ya hu", "he is here"
- Exodus 12:21-24, 37-39--cult seen as family ritual--no feast of unleavened bread.
Prophetic view of kings (leaders)
- Read: Judges 6:7-8; 12-14; 7:9-25 – Gideon chosen by God
- Read: I Sam 8:1-22 – Anti-kingship speech by Samuel.
- I Sam 15-16 – David shows prophetic virtues.
- Read: II Sam 12:1-15 – Nathan and David--Prophet is above king.
- Read II Kings 9:1-10 – Elisha foments revolution of Jehu to kill Ahab and Jezebel.
- Read: I Sam 15:15-16 – Saul keeps booty
- Ves. 22-23 – Samuel chews him out--point is a king should listen to what the prophet tells him.