Intro. to the Hebrew Bible

Study Guide for Quiz #7

Spring 2004

Reading

Bible:
Amos 1-5
Jonah
Ruth
Daniel 1-7
Song of Songs
Susanna (part of the deuterocanonicals - may not be in Protestant Bibles)
Web:
Courtship of Inanna & Dumuzi
Song of Songs interpretation samples
Dumuzi's wedding
The Old Testament Story: chs. 5, 11, 15,.16b (pp. 433-441), 17-18

Prophecy (continued)

Hosea
Gomer
Symbolic marriage
= God & Israel
Jonah
God is universal
Concept of local gods
Gentiles can repent
Response to ethnic purity movement of Ezra/Nehemiah era ??

Apocalyptic

Apocalyptic world view
Radical dualism
marginalized communities
Archaism

Apocalyptic eschatology
Messiah and Messianic expectation
Messiah = Hebrew/Aramaic for 'anointed'
Christ = Greek for 'anointed'
Title derives from practice of anointing Israelite kings
Expected return of Davidic monarchy
Originally merely political
With time became increasingly eschatological
Disappointment with Hasmonean rulers may have fueled this tendency, but it was already in place by their time
Question of whether there were claimants to be the Messiah in & around Jesus' time
Judah the Galilean leads Sepphoris in revolt after death of Herod (~4 BC)
Certainly during 2nd Jewish revolt
Simon bar Kokhba
literature
visions of the future
tours of heaven/hell
pseudepigraphy
symbolic language
vagueness prevents failed predictions
esoteric language and symbols (only the community of faith understands)
prophecy after the fact

Ruth

As women's story
Men in story are skeleon figures
Most are given story names
Mahlon & Chilion = sickness & wasting away
Peloni Meloni = so and so
Only Boaz and Elimelek are named
Boaz needs to be since he is in David's geneaology
In Bible because it is part of David's family story
Marriage issues
Naomi, Boaz
Levirite marriage
Issue of inheritance
Plot issues
Social levels (foreigner, slave, concubine, wife)
Harvest festival
Related to Oktoberfest
Loosening of normal legal or moral restraints
Ruth tries to seduce Boaz
Is she hoping to become his concubine?
Boaz holds her off in order to make her a wife
The tricky problem of Ruth's vow
Boaz's tricky solution
Acceptance of foreigners theme
Compare Jonah

Song of Songs

Many hapax legomena
Canonical History
R. Akiva: holiest of all the scriptures
Traditional Interpretation in Judaism and Christianity
God as man, community or believer as woman
use in mysticism
category of Sacred Erotic in mysticism
Genre of Erotic love poetry
Dumuzi & Inanna
Category of Sacred Erotic in nature religions
Possible Sitz im Leben possible cultic setting of poem
temple of Inanna / Anat with sacred sex
literature
pornography and erotic poetry
conflict story
Solomon, Dodai and Abishag
theological
poetic / mystical
note marriage metaphor in Hosea and Ezekiel (among others)
performance at wedding celebration (possibly Solomon's)