Pentateuch--Class Strategies n Initial survey on blackboard.com n Geocities. n Study groups n Deadlines for quizzes, book reports, mid-term, and final n Appointments; call ( ; ); or

Strategies continued n Class participation--how class begins; how you take charge of your own education. n Extra Credit u Oriental Institute u Worthwhile web sites

The OT Canon (TeNaK) n Pentateuch canonical by ca. 400 (Torah) n Prophets canonical by ca. 200 (Nebi’im) n Writings canonical by end of 1st century CE (Kethubim) u Are all canonical books inspired? u Are all inspired books canonical?

Pre-Critical: Moses as author. Based on: n later parts of OT; NT n Philo (20-15 BCE--50 CE) and Josephus ( CE)--Moses wrote about his own death! n Ibn Ezra 12c. aware of chronological and geographical difficulties n Carlstadt: 16c. Death account of Moses by someone else, but it is written in same style as the rest

Materials in Pentateuch are post- Mosaic n Gen 12:6 Canaanites were in the land in ancestral times--but not now at time of composition n Deut 34:6, 10 Grave of Moses unknown to this day; no subsequent prophet as great as Moses n Gen 36:31 kings of Edom before there were any kings in Israel

Some Materials in Pentateuch are from more than one person n Doublets u Genesis 12, 20, 26--wife/sister u Decalogue--Exod 20, 34, Deut 5 u Jacob names Bethel in Genesis 28 and 35 u Yahweh’s name revealed in Exodus 3 and 6

Multiple authorship (continued) n Genesis 1 = plants, animals, man-woman; Genesis 2 = man, plants, animals, woman n Flood: Did it last 40 days or 1 year? Did they bring in seven pairs of clean and 1 pair of unclean animals, or 1 pair of all animals? n Exod 20:24 an altar wherever God reveals Godself; Deut 12--only one altar n “Yahweh” known from beginning; from Exod 3; from Exod 6 (Elohim; El Shadday)

Multiple authorship (continued) u Sinai or Horeb; Canaanites or Amorites; Jethro, Hobab, or Reuel u Angel of Yahweh on earth; Angel of God in heaven u Gen 28:12 ladder as bond between earth and heaven; 28:13 Yahweh stands on earth u Sacrifices performed from beginning; or only after Leviticus 9 u Chronology: Sarah beautiful at 65; at 90! Isaac spends 80 years on deathbed.

The Source Hypothesis n Witter; Astruc n DeWette--the importance of Deuteronomy n Wellhausen n Martin Noth 5 themes: patriarchs, Exodus, Sinai, wilderness, entry n Martin Noth 5 themes: patriarchs, Exodus, Sinai, wilderness, entry into land n Gerhard von Rad--historical creeds from Deut 6 and 26; Joshua 24

Wellhausen’s proposal (modified) n J 10th c; E 9th C; JE 8th c n Deuteronomy 7th c n Priestly writing (source or redaction?) 6th c n Tribes-nation-theocracy; polytheism- henotheism-monotheism; many sanctuaries- reform to one sanctuary-there was only one sanctuary from the beginning.

Approaches to the text in the last century n Historical focus u Wellhausen: developmental view of history u Albright: opposite results; archaeology; uniqueness of Israel in ANE F Difficulties in writing biblical history: theological emphasis of textstheological emphasis of texts no eyewitness accountsno eyewitness accounts lack of corroborating evidencelack of corroborating evidence

Approaches to the text (continued) n Is interpretation a science or an art? u Wellhausen: analytical discipline; text an “it” u Gunkel: Text a “thou”; text has a prehistory and earliest stage was oral (form criticism) n Theological approach u Gerhard von Rad--Confessing Church; brackets out historical questions u Brueggemann

Recent Developments n Canonical criticism (Brevard Childs) n Other holistic approaches (synchronical vs diachronical approaches) n Radical approaches to the question of history (patriarchs, Exodus, conquest) n Feminist, womanist, two thirds world perspectives n No consensus