THE  OLD   TESTAMENT  

 

                                                 PART I   INTRODUCTION

                                                            January 19, 2005

                                                         Charles P. Poole, Jr.

 

 

1. Prefatory Remark

2. Inspiration,  Inerrancy and Canonicity  of  the Scriptures

3. Closing the Canon of theTanak

4. Sources of the Pentateuch

5. Authorship of the Book called Isaiah

6. Abraham Travels Through Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt 

7. The Story of Creation

8. Manuscripts

9. The Twelve Tribes that Settled the Promised Land

10. Two Versions of the Old Testament

11. Aids for Learning About the Scriptures

12. Classification of Old Testament Books

13. History of the Northern Kingdom Israel (Ten Tribes)

14. History of the Southern Kingdom Judah (Two Tribes)

 

                                                     1. Prefatory Remark  

 

          The object of this short course is to review the history of the Jewish People with an emphasis on what we learn from the various Old Testament books themselves.  We will discuss the content of the historical books,, and then show where the various prophets make their  appearances, and how their messages relate to their individual historical eras. After this the Wisdom books will be discussed.  Before embarking on this program we will say a few words about inspiration, and some other miscellaneous topics. 

 

                     2. Inspiration,  Inerrancy  and Canonicity  of  the Scriptures

 

          The Bible is the inspired word of God written under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit; God is the real author.  The Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation of the Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, Section 11, made clear that the writers of the sacred books were true authors making use of their abilities and literary skills while they served as instruments of God, the primary and divine author, who directed them and inspired them as they composed their works.  Hence the scriptures teach “firmly and faithfully, and without error, that truth which  God wanted to be put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation.“  God furnishes the message itself which is inspired and unerring, while the writers provide the style.  There are some grammar, geography, and history errors which do not compromise the message. 

                  

          Some books of the bible were initially an oral tradition written down later.  Others were assembled and compiled by disciples or students of the original writer, and many of them underwent redaction or editing by members of the faith community before reaching their final form that we have in our bibles today.  The Lord was guiding all of these individuals who participated in fashioning the final product, the bible that Christians have read and meditated on down through the centuries.  Surely the Holy Spirit was also present at the fourth century North African councils convened at Hippo (393 aD) and Carthage (397 AD) that accepted deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament as belonging in what is called the canon or the collection of books that constitute authentic scriptures.  Since the Church ascribes inerrancy to the final product the process of inspiration involves many in the faith community, in addition to the initial human writer. 

         

                                        3. Closing  the  Canon  of  the Tanak

 

          What we call the Old Testament, and what the Jewish people call the Tanak, was not composed at one time, but underwent a gradual development.  The contents of the first five books called the Torah, the Law, or the Pentateuch, became officially established at about 400 BC, the official canon of the books of the Prophets was determined about 200 BC, but the canon of the Writings was not closed until about 100 AD.  At the latter time a convocation of rabbis held at Jamnia chose the Hebrew Masoretic version of the Old Testament as official instead of the Greek Septuagint. 

 

                                              4. Sources of the Pentateuch

 

          Many scholars believe that the Pentateuch is an assembly of material from four sources, the Yahwistic or J source, the Elohisitc or E source, the Deuteronomic or D source, and the Priestly Code  P.  Evidence for this is the first account of creation in Chap. 1 of Genesis in which the word for God is Elohim in Hebrew, translated simply God in English.  The second account of creation in Chap. 2 has Yahweh in the Hebrew with the rendering as Yahweh, Lord God or Yahweh God in different English translations. An erroneous translation is Jehovah.  Some scholars prefer YHWH since the language Hebrew is written without including vowels in the words.  Another reason for writing it this way is that an orthodox Jew is not allowed to pronounce the word YHWH, and English language Jewish bibles write G_d for God. 

 

                                      5. Authorship of the Book called Isaiah

 

          The book of Isaiah is a joining together of three prophetic books written over a 200 year period.   Isaiah himself wrote most of the first part, Chap. 1-39, when he was entreating the inhabitants of Judah to repent before fall of the Southern Kingdom to the Babylonians, chapters 40-55 called deutero-Isaiah were composed during the Exile in Babylon, and the final chapters 56-66 called trito-Isaiah came after the time of exile. The entire work, of course, is inspired. 

 

             6. Abraham Travels through Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt 

 

          In his initial; journey (Genesis 11 & 12) Abraham set out from Ur of the Chaldaeans at the Euphrates river between the present day cities of Basra and Baghdad. He was accompanied by his father Terah, his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, and other family members.   He traveled northwest past Babylon along the river Euphrates through present day Iraq and Syria to a place called Haran near the Syria-Turkey border where he settled. Then at the bidding of Yahweh he set out for the Land of Canaan to the south, accompanied by his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, and others.  He traveled past Damascus to a holy place in central Palestine called Shechem, and then pitched tent at a location between Bethel and Ai, before proceeding further south to the Negeb. When famine came he spent some time in Egypt, and afterwards settled in Canaan. 

 

                                                  7. The Story of Creation

 

          Chapter 1 of Genesis provides us with the first account of the creation of the world in six days. This account with the subsequent flood has some similarities with the ancient Gilgamesh Epic with Sumerian roots in ancient history, which includes a Babylonian “Noah” and a flood episode.  The Genesis story relates to the modern scientific account as follows: 

                  

Day                       Genesis account                                 Scientific counterpart

 

  1                                   Light                                Photons, i. e. particles of light

 

  4                                   Stars                                           Galaxies, stars

                                                                                                                  

  2               Dome in sky to separate waters           Light elements, very small molecules,

                                                                                         H2O (water)

 

  3                 Water in single basin, dry land,            Planets, Earth, land and continents,

                        i.e. oceans and continents,                       vegetable kingdom

                           vegetation, plants and trees 

 

  5                   Sea creatures, fish, birds                 Animal kingdom, marine life, vertebrates

                                                         

  6               Living creatures, creeping things,         More vertebrates, most recently man

                   cattle and wild animals, lastly man

 

          What is most important is that the Genesis account describes a creation in six stages starting with inanimate matter, proceeding through plants and sea creatures, and ending with land animals and finally man, while modern scientific accounts have many stages, also beginning with inanimate matter, proceeding through plants and sea creatures, ending with animals, and finally man.  Genesis is certainly not scientifically correct in every detail of the order, and much of the apparent agreement between the scenarios could be coincidental. However when  the fourth day of the Genesis story is moved to second  place then the overall similarities of the two accounts become much more striking than their discrepancies.

         

          The view that the world was created in six days of 24-hour duration  was held by some but not by all believers in the early Church.  During the first centuries some  theologians from the West favored literal interpretations of the days of creation, while others from the East such as Origen (185-254), Clement of Alexandria, and other Alexandrians, accepted allegorical type interpretations.  St Augustine (354-430) in particular, the greatest of the Western fathers, did  not accept the six days as periods of time 24 hours long, but preferred to postulate a more gradual natural development, however he could never have imagined a billion year timescale.  

 

                                                         8. Manuscripts

 

          The earliest manuscripts of the bible were written on papyrus, the ordinary stationery of antiquity.  It was made from stems of a tall, reed like plant found along the Nile river. Sheets were formed by pressing together layers of papyrus which were dried and then glued to each other to form a scroll typically twelve yards long. Usually these were stored rolled around a stick.  Another technique was to sew sheets together to form a book called a codex.  A later technology used parchment or vellum made by scraping and then drying skins of sheep or goats.  Papyrus was less expensive, but became brittle with age, whereas vellum was more expensive and much more durable. 

 

          The earliest manuscripts were written using large, block-like capital letters called uncials, and the manuscripts themselves are also known as uncials.  In the ninth century minuscule manuscripts came into wide use in which cursive script equivalent to handwriting was used instead of printed capital letters.  These manuscripts were much faster to transcribe, but the resulting minuscule was more difficult to read.  It is interesting to note that the most ancient OT manuscripts were about 1000 years old until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of which date as far back as 250 BC. 

 

          The first English language bible, called the Great Bible, appeared in print in 1539.  The Douay bible, translated by English Catholics exiled in northern France, appeared in 1606, and the King James Bible was published in 1611. 

 

                           9. The Twelve Tribes that Settled the Promised Land

 

          The land of Israel was divided among twelve tribes formed by the descendants of ten sons of Jacob: AsherZ, BenjaminR, DanB, GadZ, IssacharL, JudahL, NaphtaliB, ReubenL, SimeonL,and ZebulumL, and two grandsons Ephraim and Manesses  through JosephR , where the mothers were Rachel (R ), Bilhah (B), Leah (L) and Zilpah(Z).   The descendants of the son LeviL were dispersed among the other twelve tribes as the priestly class.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph trace their lineage back to Judah through David.  Moses and Aaron were Levites, and St, Paul was a Benjaminite. 

 

                                      10. Two Versions of the Old Testament

 

          At the time of Jesus there were two versions of the bible in use among the Jewish.people.   First there was the original version written in Hebrew which dated from antiquity.  Due to the conquests of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the subsequent period of exile in Babylon, many of the Jewish people never returned to the Promised Land, but were dispersed around the world in many countries.  After several generations many of them could no longer read Hebrew, so the bible was translated into Greek, a version called the Septuagint, abbreviated LXX, which could be understood by the Jewish people in the Diaspora.  Legend tells us that the LXX was translated in Alexandria by 72 scholars, six from each of the twelve tribes, hence the name Septuagint, which means 70 in Latin. The LXX version contains several books and parts of books which are not in the Hebrew canon or Masoretic text, and the early Church accepted these books as authentic revelation.  In about the year 100 AD rabbis at Jamnia decided to accept the shorter Masoretic text as the true canon, and the Protestant Reformation went along with this choice.  They call the extra books Apocrypha (of doubtful authorship), and Catholics call them Deuterocanonical.  St. Paul cites the Old Testament almost 90 times, usually according to the LXX.

 

          After the missionary journeys of St. Paul that are described in the Acts of the Apostles the majority of Christians were Gentile converts who knew Greek but not Hebrew, so the Septuagint became the Old Testament most widely read and referred to by members of the Christian community.  Most of the well over 1600 quotations of the OT in the New Testament are from the LXX.  This can be easily checked because such quotations would be word for word identical with the LXX, and quotations derived from the Heberw Masoretic version of the OT would have been translated by the scripture author himself from the Hebrew.

 

          The Deuterocanon or extra books are Tobit,  Sirach,  Judith,  Baruch, Wisdom, first and second Maccabees, and parts of  Esther and Daniel.  It is worth observing that the Jewish feast of Hanukkah originates from the account in chapter 4 of 1 Macc.  The book of Sirach is quoted or alluded to 109 times in the New Testament, Wisdom over 100 times. the two books of the Maccabees  58 times,  Baruch 8 times, Judith 14 times, and Tobit 19 times.  These data are taken from Appendix 3 of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament.  This indicates that the New Testament writers certainly held the Deuterocanonical books in high esteem. 

 

                                   11. Aids for Learning about the Scriptures

 

Concordance; an index for looking up words in the scriptures

Dictionary of scripture terms

Commentary: explains meaning of scripture verses

Bible discussion and study guides

Who's Who in the Bible:  Brief biographies of the personalities

Lectionary:  Scripture readings for all the Masses, Used by the Lector at Mass

Parallel gospels, together in parallel columns 

Atlas of scripture geography with many maps

Treatises on background of the scriptures

 

                                   12. Classification of Old Testament Books

 

          The Jewish people classify the books of the Old Testament differently from the Christian way. The Jewish bible or Tanak has a tripartite classification into the Torah or the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.  In greater detail the division is the following:

 

TORAH  Genesis, Exodus,  Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

FORMER PROPHETS: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (2 books), Kings (2 books)   

LATTER PROPHETS:  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,

BOOK OF 12: with the Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,  Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,  Haggai,  Zechariah, and  Malachi.  The Book of Twelve had about the same size scroll (roll of papyrus) as those  for  Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

WRITINGS: Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth),  Lamentations 

          Esther (1/2), Daniel (1/2), Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles (2 books)

 

The Christian classification is as follows: 

 

PENTATEUCH Genesis, Exodus,  Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

HISTORICAL  Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel (2 books),  Kings (2 books), Chronicles (2 books), Ezra, Nehemiah,, Tobit*, Judith*, Esther (1/2*), Maccabees* (2 books).      

POETRY - WISDOM Job, Psalms,  Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Wisdom*, Sirach* (Ecclesiasticus).  

PROPHETS :  Isaiah, Daniel (1/2*), Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch*. Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,  Haggai,  Zechariah, and  Malachi.

 

*Denotes deuterocanonical (apocryphal) book

 

The prophets fit into the history of Israel in the following way:

 

                        13. History of the Northern Kingdom Israel (Ten Tribes)

    (Asher, Bashan, Dan, Ephraim, Gilead, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Zebulon)

 

                             KINGS                        YEARS (BC)               PROPHETS

 

Jeroboam I, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri        922-876                                    -

Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram (Joram)         876-842                          Elijah

Jehu, Jehohaz (Joahaz), Jehoash (Joash)        842-786                          Elisha

Jeroboam II                                                 786-746                 Amos, Hosea, Jonah      

Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem,

          Pekiahiah, Pekah                                 746-732                          Hosea

Hoshea                                                        732-724

Siege of Samaria                                          724-721                              

Exile to Nineveh                                             721                                                                          

                                                                                                                                               

                        14. History of the Southern Kingdom Judah (Two  Tribes)

                                                      (Benjamin and Judah)

 

Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa                               922-873      

Jehoshaphat                                                 873-849

Jehoram (Joram), Ahaziah, Queen Athaliah    849-837

Jehoash, Amaziah, Uzziah (Azariah)              837-742

Josham, Ahaz, Hezekiah                               742-687           Isaiah (part 1), Micah

Manasseh, Amon                                         687-640

Josiah                                                          640-609       Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah

Jehoahaz II                                                     609                           Jeremiah

Jehoiakim                                                     609-598             Jeremiah, Habakkuk

Jehoiachin                                                    597                              Jeremiah

Zedekiah                                                      597-587                   Jeremiah, Ezekiel

First deportations                                               598                 Jeremiah, Ezekiel

Siege of Jerusalem                                        589-587

Exile in Babylon                                           587-539       Ezekiel, Deutero-Isaiah, Daniel,

                                                                                               Baruch, Lamantations

Return from Exile                                               539      Haggai, Joel, Obadiah, Malachai,   

                                                                                         Zechariah, Trito-Isaiah