Notes on “The Story of the Bible” Class No. 2

• class date: Tuesday, September 26, 2017
• presenter: Toby Hodes, email: tkhodes@comcast.net
• notes provided by Jesse Heines, email: Jesse_Heines@uml.edu
• this document is available with live links at: https://jesseheines.com/lira
• updated October 2, 2017

Links to Other Classes

Previous Class: No. 1   —   Next Class: No. 3   —   Index

Preliminaries

Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University, lecturer

• Candler School of Theology
• web profile: http://candler.emory.edu/faculty/emeriti-profiles/johnson-luke-timothy.html
• email: luke.johnson@emory.edu

Nancy Grove informed me that the New Revised Standard Version of The Bible is now the one in widest use

• she said that this is a more respected translation than the King James version
• the NRSV Bible can be downloaded as a PDF from http://www.allsaintstupelo.com/Bible_NRSV.pdf
  

Introductory Discussion: The meaning of Haftorah

Lecture 3: Forms of Jewish Literature

Time frame discussed: 1st cent BCE and 2nd cent CE

Judaism is both distinctly unified and internally divided

• from the outside, Judaism appears distinctly unified, a separate race
• the Torah unified Jews throughout the Mediterranean world
• the Torah signified at least 5 things
  1. a set of shared texts that were read in worship and studied
  2. a shared story found within those texts that provides all Jews with a sense of identity
  3. a set of fundamental convictions
     • G-d is one, i.e., monotheism — both the source and goal of all that is created
     • one G-d has chosen one people as his own, specifically, the people of Israel
     • this one G-d and his one people were locked into a relationship that was a covenant (berith)
       • G-d pledged to be faithful and loving
       • the people pledged to faithful, obedient, and loving
  4. a spelling out of all the commandments (the mitzvot), for example,
     • the observance of circumcision of male children
     • the observance of the Sabbath rest
     • and other moral and ritual obligations
  5. a basis wisdom of life = the right way to live in the world
     • corollary #1: the study of Torah was almost as important as the practice of Torah, i.e., the following of its teachings
     • corollary #2: Jews were able to argue that they represented the oldest and best of philosophies

On the other side of the coin, Jews were also diverse

1. geography
   • more lived in Diaspora (any other place than Palestine) than in eretz Israel
   • perhaps 2 million lived in Palestine and 5 million in the Diaspora
2. linguistically
   • to the west = Greek
   • to the east = Hebrew and Aramaic
   • Palestine = all 3 languages
3. culturally, Jews in the Diaspora were a tiny minority among pagan neighbors
   • they were in the minority, but were free to practice
   • in Palestine, Jews were a majority, but they were persecuted
4. (most important) ideology = how best to respond to cultural challenge of Roman culture and rule
   • numerous conflicting cultural norms such as
   • people should not only marry within their tribe, they should be able to marry anybody in the world
   • people should not speak their own language, they should all speak Greek
   • people should not have only one G-d, they should embrace the whole pantheon of G-ds
   • after Emperor Pompeii conquered Palestine in 63 BCE, Jews very divided on how to respond to these factors

Groups

1. Sadducees = group around aristocracy, the upper classes
   • focused on synagogue
2. Pharisees = committed to keeping law
3. Essenes = strict & tried to separate themselves
   • lived in Qumran in the Judean desert
4. Zealots
   • committed to war with Rome to restore sovereignty

This combination generated a huge amount of literature

The Torah is a symbol of unity, but also of contention

1. Jews didn’t firmly agree on what constituted the Torah, i.e., Holy Scripture
2. Sumaritans recognized only the initial 5 books
   • Sumaritans were viewed as only partially Jewish, but they considered themselves the most Jewish
   • they called themselves ha shomrim = the conservatives
3. The Sadducees also recognized only 5 books
   • they had the most conservative theological views
   • did not believe in resurrection of the dead, a messiah, or angels, because none of these were in Bible
4. Philo of Alexandria focused on the 5 books of Moses
5. In contrast, in Qumran, the Essenes focused on 5 books, but wrote their own, too
6. The Pharisees were the most inclusive
   • oral Torah = history through oral tradition
   • committed to application to everyday life

The Letter of Aristeas

• recounts how Jews of Alexandria needed a translation from the original Hebrew
• the Torah was translated to Greek by 250 BCE
• this is the Septuagint (word is from 70, i.e., LXX), because the legend is that 70 scholars came to Alexandria to do the translation
• this version was used exclusively in the western Diaspora

Three lessons from the Septuagint

1. Hebrew and Greek already coexisted
2. how badly a Greek translation was needed since Jews could no longer read Hebrew
3. the Greek version says very different things from the Hebrew version in some places
   1. sometimes it’s so literal it doesn’t seem like Greek
   2. other times it’s completely different

Aramaic translations (Targums) may go all the way back to the 5th cent. BCE

• Ezra the scribe translated or interpreted the law for people into Aramaic
• Aramaic is a more recent dialect than Hebrew

Jews in the 1st cent. interpreted the Bible for themselves

• sought moral instruction from these texts
• used allegorical interpretation

midrash (from darash) = to seek - used by Pharisees

• example: commandment to leave a corner of one’s field unharvested for charity
• the applied this philosophy to justify urban community charity, as well

pesher = interpretation - used by the Essenes, who lived in Qumran

• philosophy: apply all of Scripture to everyday life
• Qumran = site of Dead Sea Scrolls
  • they quoted Moses - Prophets - Psalms - Deuteronomy - Isaiah

These notions suggest that the Bible was malleable

Findings at Qumran

1. tell us of diversity in Jewish community
2. tell us of another sectarian Jewish community

Discussion: What is the cost of a Torah?

• http://www.soferstam.co.il/content.aspx?PageId=109&lang=en
  • a Torah scroll is not mass produced
  • its manufacture requires many skills and talents
  • there are sofrim who take a whole year to write a Sefer Torah and others who manage to complete the job in 8-9 months
  • we consider that a superior Torah scroll will cost close to 150 thousand NIS (New Israeli Shekels)
  • 150,000 NIS = $42,536.64
• http://www.torahscroll.com/show.asp?PID=5
  • prices of pre-owned Torah scrolls vary from as little as $5,000, and up to $12,000.

Lecture 4: The Birth of the Christian Bible

The New Testament as early Christian literature produced in different context

• mostly produced in 70-year period, maybe shorter
• in contrast to the formation of the Old Testament out of a nation, the New Testament arose out of a tiny Jewish sect
  • no nation, no homeland, no people
• in contrast to Hebrew, the New Testament was written entirely in Greek and used the Septuagint as its scripture
  • it is important to reemphasize this point
  • one needs to remember the differences that translations make
  • translations lose some meaning and gain some
  • example #1:
    • kavod Adonai [Hebrew] = weight and presence
    • doxa Kuriaou [Greek] = radiance, glory, honor
  • example #2: in Isaiah 7:14, concerning the prophecy of birth of child
    • almah [Hebrew] = young maiden
    • parthenos [Greek] = young virgin
• new text reflects inclusion of the Gentiles
  • can participate without circumcision

points of similarity

1. writings emerged from community experience
   • Christianity has even less archeological artifacts than early Judaism
   • thus, the entire evidence is literary
2. both oral and scribal activities were involved, and it is difficult to distinguish between them
• there is evidence that Paul’s letters were dictated to a scribe
3. dating of compositions and relationships are a matter of scholarly guesswork
   • very little external evidence to provide certainty
4. rapid development suggests highly literate Jewish and Gentile world
   • thus, reading & writing were extremely important

Four factors that contributed to shape of the New Testament

1. the fundamental conviction is that Jesus is Lord
   • he was not only resurrected, he was divine
   • exultation of the human Jesus at his death to the power of G-d
   • thus, Jesus is indeed divine
2. Jesus is life-giving spirit, but this requires an explanation of the manner of his death
   • crucifixion was reserved for criminals
   • cognitive dissonance: how could he be divine yet be crucified
   • his manner of death demonstrates that he is cursed by G-d
   • Deuteronomy NRSV:

     22 When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree,
     23 his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you for possession.

3. positive experiences needed to be interpreted as well as negative ones
   • If we are the holy people given the Holy Spirit, why is there still sin among us?
   • If G-d’s peace has descended upon us, why are there still conflicts in our community?
   • If we have been given the gift of resurrected life, why are people dying?
   • If we are the people of G-d, why are we experiencing persecution?
4. framework was Septuagint, the Greek translation of Torah
   1. in Qumran, the Essenes they were reading the Hebrew Bible in light of their experiences under the teacher of righteousness and their alienation from other Jews
   2. Christians were reading in light of a crucified and raised Messiah, but they were reading the Septuagint, and thus came out with very different interpretations

The Writings

They attempted to interpret the life of Jesus

• The earliest forms were letters

ekklesia = assembly, congregation, or church

• 13 letters are attributed to the apostle Paul, who was originally a Pharisee
  • he started out against the Christian movement, but became turned to Christianity
• 7 are regarded as genuine, i.e., written by Paul
  • written in the 5th decade CE = "the 50s"
• 3 are disputed
• 3 are rejected as pseudonymous, i.e., written by faithful followers of Paul
• these are widely-held scholarly views
• these are the earliest Christian compositions
• 8 other letters were written by others
• one other was anonymous

The letters were written to communities, intended to be read out loud

• they focus on Jesus in the present
• they also focus on intense engagement with ancient scriptures
• doing midrash (interpreting) on Scripture, but on the Septuagint, not the Hebrew Bible

The memory of Jesus was also be handed on by oral tradition

• anecdotes told stories of Jesus in the past, shaped by the present
• around the year 70 CE, they began to be shaped into the Gospel
• euangelian = good news
• Mark brought oral stories together into the Gospel
  • these stories were then used by Matthew and Luke independently about 15 years later
• the Synoptic Gospels consisted of these three
  • they were printed in a book rather than a scroll
• Acts of the Apostles = the Gospel of Luke = a second volume
• the fourth Gospel is the Gospel According to John

Book of Revelation

• the first three chapters are letters written to seven communities, or churches, in Asia Minor
• chapters 4-21 describe visions of heaven given to John the Seer

The Apostolic Fathers were written in the 2nd cent. CE

The New Testament Apocrypha seems to continue or complete the earlier compositions

Technological Changes

• these writings appear in the form of a codex, not a scroll
• a codex is a book with stitched pages probably made of papyrus
• such books appeared for the first time in the 1st & 2nd centuries CE

Discussion: Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder?