1. Books on OT Ethics Brueggemann, Walter. The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge to Biblical Gift, Promise, and Challenge to Biblical Faith. 2d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002. Faith. 2d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002. Kaiser, Walter. Toward an Old Testament Ethics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983. Ethics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983. Wright, Christopher J. H. Living as the People of God: The Relevance of Old People of God: The Relevance of Old Testament Ethics. Downers Grove: IVP, Testament Ethics. Downers Grove: IVP, 1984. 1984.

2. The writing of history in the Old Testament

3. History of Historiography of the OT  Renaissance period  17th century: Bible as any other book  18th century: deist  Development in 19th century ► Increase in religious liberalism ► Increase in ANE knowledge ► Rise of Documentary Hypothesis  20th century: challenges the 19th century developments

4. Contemporary Approaches Historical-critical method ► Strauss’s argument ► Every account irreconcilable with the known and universal laws that govern events is unhistorical ► Every account in which God disturbs the natural course of events is irreconcilable with the known and universal laws that govern events ► Therefore every account in which God disturbs the natural course of events is unhistorical

5. Contemporary Approaches Historical-critical method Troeltsch’s principles Troeltsch’s principles ► Criticism: presupposed skepticism towards one’s sources ► Analogy: present human experience limits what can qualify as “historical” in the past ► Correlation: limiting potential historical causation to either natural forces or human agency

6. Contemporary Approaches Social science methods ► Multidisciplinary approaches: archaeology, sociology, anthropology ► reject biblical account altogether for its reconstruction of the history of Israel Modern literary methods ► Definition of literature: an interpretive presentation of experience in artistic form ► Synchronic rather than diachronic ► Pitfall: view OT as pure literature—art for art’s sake

7. The future of the study of the historiography of the OT ► Historians must aware of one’s own presuppositions ► Refining historical-critical methods  Criticism, analogy, correlation ► Restricting the claims of the social sciences in historical reconstruction ► Rethinking the consequences of modern literary criticism for historical reconstruction

8. Nature of Biblical Historiography ► Selectivity: Israel’s relationship with God ► Emphasis: didactic purposes ► Order: not necessarily chronological ► Application:  to mediate God’s words to his people  to apply them to the congregation of Israel

9. Kingship in ancient Israel

10. Request for a king ► Reasons  To fight against foreign domination (Alt)  Israel’s geographical and social locations needed a strong central government for long-term planning

11. Royal Ideology ► Yahweh as King: Human king ruled as Yahweh’s earthly representative ► Provide and maintain order in Israel ► Function as warrior to protect and defend the state (1 Sam 8:20) ► Act as judge to establish justice (2 Sam 14:1-24; 15:1-6; 1 Kgs 3:16-28; etc) ► The king as Priest (1 Sam 14:33-35; 2 Sam 6:13, 17; 1 Kgs 3:4; 15; 8:12-65; etc)

12. The Judgment Throne at the Gate of Dan

13. The King as Judge

14. King as Priest

15. High Place at Dan

17. Requirement for Israelite kings ► Chosen by God ► Must be one of the Israelites ► Not acquire great number of horses ► Not to make people to return to Egypt ► Not acquire many wives, nor money ► Keep and study Law all the days of his life ► Not consider himself better than his brothers ► Obey the Law

18. The Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7=1 Chron 17) ► Outline of 2 Sam 7  Occasion for the promise (vv.1-7)  God’s work in the past (vv. 8-11a)  God’s work in the future (vv. 11b-17)  David’s thanksgiving for the promise now (vv.18-21)  Praise for God’s favor in the past (vv. 22-24)  Prayer for this promise in the future (vv.25-29)

19. The importance of the Davidic covenant in NT ► Jesus is proclaimed to be the Son of David ► Jesus’ self claim ► Jesus’ self-portrayal as the true shepherd of the flock ► Paul’s sermon in Acts 13:32-37 ► Other NT writers affirm that Jesus is the true “Son of David”

20. The Theology of the Former Prophets (Joshua-Kings) ► The struggle against pagan idolatry ► The centralization of worship ► Significance of Exodus, covenant and election ► A firm belief in monotheism ► Observance of the Torah ► The land as God’s gift ► Retribution and motivation ► The fulfillment of prophecy ► The role of king

21. Appropriation of the Message of the Former Prophets ► 3 guidelines for interpreting narratives  Pay attention to the selection of the details of the narrative  Pay attention to the arrangement of the these details  Pay attention to quotation attributed to one of the key individuals in a text

22. Case Study: 1 Kgs 17:1-24 Questions to ask: ► How is Elijah introduced in the passage? ► How many scenes are there in this chapter? 5Ws-Who, when, where, what, why? ► What is the climax of this chapter? ► What conclusion can we draw? ► What timeless principles can we derive from this conclusion?

23. Outline of 1 Kgs 17:1-24 ► Introduction of Elijah (v.1) ► Introduction of Elijah (v.1) ► Scene 1: Elijah and Ahab (v.1) ► Scene 1: Elijah and Ahab (v.1) ► Scene 2: God commands Elijah to hide (vv. 2-7) ► Scene 2: God commands Elijah to hide (vv. 2-7) ► Scene 3: Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (vv. 8-16) ► Scene 3: Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (vv. 8-16) ► Scene 4: Elijah revives the Widow’s son (vv.17-24)

24. Timeless principles ► God’s word is dependable in judgment when we abandon our God (v.1; cf Deut 28:23-24) ► God’s word is dependable in provision when we do his will (vv. 2-7) ► God’s word is dependable when we come to the end of our resources (vv. 8-16) ► God’s word is dependable when all hope is gone (vv. 17-24)