EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
The Bible's Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future
Dr. Jacob L. Wright, Emory University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Biblical Project Notes taken on February 24, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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the early communities in Egypt and Babylon and in Judah itself present major problems
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they are not that literate of the laws of Moses
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they don't know Israel's history very well
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in Elephantine, we see that they don't even use the name Israel
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Nehemia tries to get the community behind a building project in Judah
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the community seems to be interested in other things
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not supporting a collective building project
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especially one that is so important to the community in Jerusalem
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the Biblical authors' response to this situation was not something radically new
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drawing on something from the past
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picking up on older histories
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carrying on the traditions of connecting disparate communities
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through their representative individuals
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Abraham
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Isaac
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Moses
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David
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Saul
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they are all connected in some way, so that the community can say, we are not different from this other group
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once Judah has been destroyed, we don't go back to being from our own separate towns
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they belong to a larger group, a larger nation, a larger family
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they are going to pick up the work which that had originated during the time when Judah and Israel were kingdoms
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draw this out and make it more elaborate and robust
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as a way of story telling that will hold a community together
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in creating these stories, they did not need to separate themselves and go their separate ways
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history of Israel and Judah
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1209 BCE: first record of the name Israel occurs in the Merneptah stele, erected for Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah
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930 BCE: the kingdom split into a southern Kingdom of Judah and a northern Kingdom of Israel
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800 BCE: came into increasing conflict with the expanding neo-Assyrian empire
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722 BCE: Tiglath-Pileser III it first split Israel's territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital, Samaria
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722 BCE: Israelite revolt was crushed after the siege and capture of Samaria by the Assyrian king Sargon II, Sargon's son, Sennacherib, tried and failed to conquer Judah
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586 BCE: King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Judah, destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon
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538 BCE: Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and took over its empire, issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations (including the people of Judah) religious freedom