Old Testament Exam Iii

Front 1

Purpose of Joshua

Back 1

The book of Deut. doesn’t really have a good ending. So Joshua narrate the conquest and settlement of the promised land. It describes the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise of land to Abraham. Joshua is the literary bridge between Israel’s wilderness experience and the narrative of struggles in the early years of occupying the land (Judges).

Front 2

Structure of Joshua

Back 2

– a. God conquers the land.(1-12) b. God distributes land to tribes(13-24). (important: it is God who is doing this)

Front 3

Genre of Joshua

Back 3

Prophetic, theological, covenant history Divine History

Front 4

Amarna tablets

Back 4

– found in 1887 in Egyptian town of Amarna. They provide a background (historical and sociological). Written just before the conquest in Akkadian (the language of international politics) from the Canaanites to the Egyptian pharaoh. They reveal that Canaan was run by kings in different cities and that Egypt was suppose to be in charge (Canaanites as vassals). The kings were rivals and there was trouble with the Apiru (people in the countryside casted out), a lawless people in the area not controlled by the cities. The kings were writing for help from Egypt and the tablets/letters span over two pharaohs: Amenemopet III and Amenemopet IV (also Akhenaton). A IV promoted the worship of one God (Amon-Re/sun God). The tablets may come from a period after the conquest because Joshua didn’t defeat the majority of the city-states.

Front 5

What do the Amarna Tablets tell us?

Back 5

– on the eve of the conquest, Canaan is in political disarray, divided by kings (kings not unified) and troubled by the Apiru.

Front 6

Purpose of Joshua

Back 6

The book of Deut. doesn’t really have a good ending. So Joshua narrate the conquest and settlement of the promised land. It describes the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise of land to Abraham. Joshua is the literary bridge between Israel’s wilderness experience and the narrative of struggles in the early years of occupying the land (Judges).

Front 7

Structure of Joshua

Back 7

– a. God conquers the land.(1-12) b. God distributes land to tribes(13-24). (important: it is God who is doing this)

Front 8

Genre of Joshua

Back 8

Prophetic, theological, covenant history Divine History

Front 9

Amarna tablets

Back 9

– found in 1887 in Egyptian town of Amarna. They provide a background (historical and sociological). Written just before the conquest in Akkadian (the language of international politics) from the Canaanites to the Egyptian pharaoh. They reveal that Canaan was run by kings in different cities and that Egypt was suppose to be in charge (Canaanites as vassals). The kings were rivals and there was trouble with the Apiru (people in the countryside casted out), a lawless people in the area not controlled by the cities. The kings were writing for help from Egypt and the tablets/letters span over two pharaohs: Amenemopet III and Amenemopet IV (also Akhenaton). A IV promoted the worship of one God (Amon-Re/sun God). The tablets may come from a period after the conquest because Joshua didn’t defeat the majority of the city-states.

Front 10

What do the Amarna Tablets tell us?

Back 10

– on the eve of the conquest, Canaan is in political disarray, divided by kings (kings not unified) and troubled by the Apiru.

Front 11

Conquest of Isreal

Back 11

– Israel begins with an invasion right through the middle, Jericho, Ai, Gibeonites. Ambassadors from Gibeonites deceive Joshua by saying they are from far away. Joshua believes them and enters into a treaty with them without praying to God. Then the Southern coalition comes against them (they defeat them) and finally the Northern is defeated. So, the 3 phases: 1. Cut Israel in half. 2. Southern. 3. Northern.

Front 12

3 models of conquest

Back 12

Immigration – associated with archeology. Israelites moved to the surrounding land and eventually infiltrated in (Alt and Noth). States that various records and legends were only later integrated into an account of common origin and joint conquest. This view is characterized by great skepticism regarding the historical validity of the biblical account and basically eliminates any notion of a conquest.
1. Revolt – the under classes of Canaan revolted against the oppressive rulers of the city-states who had become “egyptionized” (Mendenhall and Gottwald). This approach appeals primarily to the social sciences. This revolt is said to be triggered in part by a small # of slave-labor captives (Israel) who escaped Egypt in the 13th century. These captives allied with other oppressed minorities and adopted the Yahwistic faith as a religious expression of egalitarian hopes for freedom. This model is highly speculative and is perhaps formed by preconceived ideas read into the text.
Conquest- there was a conquest. View given by the Bible itself.

Front 13

Date of the conquest

Back 13

– Depends upon the date of the Exodus: 15th century or 13th.

Front 14

Holy war and Herem warfare

Back 14

- Conceptual background to theme of divine warrior. Deut. 7 & 20 give the laws of warfare.
a. Before the battle – 1. Discern God’s will, because these battles preview Gods coming and final Judgement (Use of Urim & Thummin)(1 Samuel 23. 2. Be spiritually prepared to go into battle: expectations of Israel (ritually clean). 3. Sacrifices: warfare is worship. By entering into battle, you are entering into God’s presence, so in turn you are worshiping.
b. During battle – 1. Ark represents Gods presence in battle. 2. # of weapons does not matter, but you can’t have too many people or too good weapons (in Judges from 32,000 to 300). (Joshua 43-47: description of holy war). David & Goliath: weird for Hebrew text to describe. (ex: abstinence and mass circumcisions).
c. After battle – 1. Praise God. 2. Herem – things are devoted to God since he wins the battle. Everything gained in war belongs to Him (plunder). Execute things not devoted to the Lord (pagans are unholy in a holy realm).
The structure of the report of the conquest is such that you get extensive descriptions of defeat of Jerihco and Ai. J and A are especially selected for emphasis in order to make the point that if one is obedient to the holy war of God then you will rewarded with victory but if you are disobedient, as in the case of Ai (an infringement of herem), then you will be punished with defeat. So, Jericho illustrates that obedience brings victory, and Ai (“dump”) illustrates that disobedience brings defeat

Front 15

Biblical theology of the holy war

Back 15

– the OT theme comes into the NT. There are five phases. They show God as the Divine Warrior.
1. God fights the flesh and blood enemies of Israel (Egyptians, Jerhico).
2. God fights Israel (if they disobey him).
3. God will come as warrior.
4. Jesus fights spiritual enemies on the cross: includes praying for conversion and fighting evil in our hearts. We live in phase 4. John the Baptist.
5. God wins the final battle. 2nd coming.
The early phases look forward to and are models for the final phase.

Front 16

The theology of settlement

Back 16

– The settlement is the “concretization” of the Abrahamic promise of the land. As the Israelites heard the list of lands, they thought “God is fulfilling his promise”. Today, we’re in a similar situation as the wilderness Israelites. We are wandering in the “wilderness”, awaiting the entry into Heaven. Latter part of Joshua is like a hymn celebrating the fact that they now have a concrete “down payment” on the promise of land.

Front 17

The author of Joshua

Back 17

Anon

Front 18

Connection between Joshua and the covenant

Back 18

– As Deut. presents itself as “the book of the law”, Joshua is concerned to show life under this “book of the Law”. It stresses the authority of the Law by showing ways in which it served as a standard of conduct. Joshua leads the nation in covenant renewal at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal in accordance with the specific command of Moses.

Front 19

History transforms history in Joshua

Back 19

– Biblical stories help us understand our own lives. Through past stories, we can recognize the sin in our own hearts. We are then prodded by God to turn to Him for forgiveness and transformation. God informs us about the past for a present purpose. He wants us to know how he saved his people in the past so that we, in the present, might put our confidence in Him. Our lives are stories and the Bible is a story. The Bible gives us a grand narrative. This does not deny the historicity. We associate our lives, read our lives, in the light of the Bibles grand narrative. And as a result, our perspectives of things are changed.

Front 20

History in Bible is Theology (joshua)

Back 20

– No one can write history from a purely objective point of view. All historians write from a definite perspective with certain biases. Historical writers of the Bible choose what to include and also interpret those events. The purpose of the Bible is to give glory to God so it reports events showing how God works in the world so that its readers can bring honor to his name. History books reveal more to us than God’s existence; they are a testimony to God’s patient love for His people down through the ages. Our experience and memory of history, then, is our most foundational bond of unity. Jesus Christ is the One who is at the center of all history.

Front 21

Urim and Thummin

Back 21

– things used to discern Gods will (dice?). Literally: “light and truth”.

Front 22

Purpose of judges

Back 22

– narrates the time between the death of Joshua and the rise of the (Davidic) monarchy

Front 23

Time period of judges

Back 23

– 1300-1000 BC. There are indications that it was written during the time of David. It implies that Kingship is good and that David is better than Saul (anticipating David). So they want a descendant of David, not Saul. (refrain: “there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.) After the exile (ch.18)

Front 24

did Judges overlapped in time?

Back 24

– The Judges overlapped with one another. Judges gives a vague chronology so we don’t know when they overlap. This shows that Israel was not in unity (tribes not under single leader).

Front 25

Structure of Judges

Back 25

– three parts
a. Prologue – indication of incomplete conquest. The explanation from God; since the Israelites made covenants with other people, God won’t drive them out. (1:1 – 2:5) God has won a great victory bot the work is not complete, even after Joshua dies. Joshua first tells us that the conquest is incomplete.
b. Cycle of Judges – a circle of repentance that spirals downward (2:6-16:31): 1. Sin: of people (3:12a), 2. Oppression: God turns them over to foreign oppressors (3:12b-14), 3. Cry to the Lord (3:15a), 4. God provides a “Judge”: answer to prayers (3:15b-29), 5. Period of peace (3:30). Cycle repeats. There is a deterioration in the quality of the judges and the effects of their leadership. Repeated language is intended to set up a pattern.
c. Theology of the Appendix – (17:1-21:25) 2 lengthy stories that do not follow the pattern of the cycle of Judges. They have similar structure and make similar points. Tribe of Benjamin (bad/Saul), and Judah (good/David) play narrative roles in stories. The two stories begin as family problems and develop into national problems.
1. (17-18) Micha confesses to his mother that he is a thief and gives her her silver back. With it she makes a shrine. Micha finds a Levite priest and has him become his personal priest (the priest is abandoning his duty to work in one household). The tribe of Dan sends spies out and finds the land of Laish. They go to conquer these peaceful people, and on the way they take Micha’s Levite priest telling him to come be a priest of a tribe of Israel. Because of this move, the tribe of Dan is always the first to be conquered.
2. (19-21) Levite and his new concubine will not stay in Canaanite city for the night (en route to Judah) so they go to Gibean. There, She is raped to death by some Gibeans (a tribe of Benjamin). All of Israel is pissed, so they war with the Benjamins. Parallel to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Front 26

What is a Judge

Back 26

– the Judges are not rulers but charismatic deliverers (the gift of the spirit). They are imperfect delivers. Temporary. They are sinful and make people long for a better deliverer. They anticipate a King but even they are still sinful. They ultimately anticipate Christ, the perfect deliverer.

Front 27

Ehud

Back 27

– (3:12-3:30) He is left handed (a trait found among many in Benjamin) even though Benjamin means “son of my right hand”. He delivers Israel through deceit and treachery, and the text is silent about Yahweh’s will and relationship to him. He strapped a dagger to his right thigh and stabbed King Eglan (meaning fatted calf) on the shitter.

Front 28

Samson

Back 28

– he is the last of the major judges. He is a shadow of what a judge is supposed to be. He’s full of self indulgence and refuses to control his sexual appetite. The story is somewhat humorous. Samson was dedicated to be a Nazirite (a non-Levite to be dedicated to the lord). This means that he is especially vowed not to drink (oh no!) or even eat grapes. Also he could touch nothing dead. Dahliala cuts his hair. Even in his final moment, Samson’s final prayer is self-centered.

Front 29

Spiritual state throughout the book of judges

Back 29

– bad and getting worse.

Front 30

Jephtha

Back 30

– Sacrifices his daughter, thinking that’s what God wanted. An example of being spiritually confused.

Front 31

Deborah

Back 31

– only woman judge. Leads the army because Barak decides not to. Most humble person in Judges.

Front 32

Gideon

Back 32

– Once he completes his tasks, he collects golden earrings from enemies and makes an ephod which the people treat as an idol.

Front 33

Date and author, time period of samuel/kings

Back 33

– unnamed author of S/K is the deuteronomic historian……during the exile from 586 to 539.

Front 34

Genre of samuel/kings

Back 34

– prophetic and theological, deuteronomic history.

Front 35

Significance of samuel/kings

Back 35

– it tells about the transition from theocracy to monarchy. Under the theocracy, God had provided the periodic leadership needed by the people; now leadership would be institutionalized and hereditary.

Front 36

Questions in the minds of the audience during samuel/kings?

Back 36

– “why are we in exile?”

Front 37

Theological concerns in the minds of the authors of samuel/kings

Back 37

– the authors give four reasons for the exile: 1. For breaking the law of centralization (Deut. 12). 2. Role of the kings; they have mislead us (Deut. 17 is the law). 3. Fulfillment of the prophetic word; failing to listen to true prophets, while listening to false ones. 4. Curses of the covenant (coming into effect for rebelling against the covenant).

Front 38

what does the Deuteronomic historian emphasize?

Back 38

– emphasizes delayed retribution. Looking at history of Israel through the prism of the book of Deuteronomy.

Front 39

Immediate and delayed retribution –

Back 39

a. Immediate – punishment immediately following the crime. “sin know, suffer tomorrow”. Emphasis of the Chronicler, trying to encourage obedient behavior right now, in the post exilic period.
b. Delayed – long period of time between crime and punishment. (3-4, examples of delayed). Being stored up and finally released at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. The emphasis of the deuteronomic historian.

Front 40

Abijam v. Abijah

Back 40

Abijah – “my father is Yahweh” (peace). Positive.
Abijam – Abijah in Chronicles. “my father is the Sea” (chaos). negative.
Theirs was the parentage of Maacah. Deutoronomist says Abishab was her father while the Chronicler says Uriel was. Uriel produces no emotional response to the original readers. Absalom (?) has a negative connotation because he was the rebellious son of David.
The text is historically accurate, but can also be theologically driven. This would explain the small difference in order to address the different audiences.

Front 41

Hezekiah

Back 41

– one of the two good kings from the south (did observe the laws of centralization).

Front 42

Josiah

Back 42

– one of the two good kings from the south (did observe the laws of centralization).

Front 43

Zimiri

Back 43

– although only King of the north for 6 days, he was judged in the sin of Jerheboam, breaking the law of centralization (golden calves).

Front 44

Omeri

Back 44

– besieged Zimiri.

Front 45

Jeroboam

Back 45

– King of the north after the split. He built two golden shrines at the northmost (Dan) and southmost (Bethal) parts of the northern kingdom. These shrines were rivals to Jerusalem because he feared his people would swing towards the south to worship God. Even if the calves represented the true God, it’s still breaking the law of centralization. Every king of the north will be judged as to whether they follow in the sin of Jerheboam.

Front 46

Rehoboam

Back 46

– King of the south after the split. Son of Solomon. “my little finger is thicker than my fathers waist”, so people left for the north and made Jeroboam their king.

Front 47

Solomon

Back 47

– during his reign, the law of centralization came into effect in the Temple because they had rest from their enemies. He dies in 931 BC.

Front 48

David

Back 48

– “a man after God’s own heart”. Seen as the good king, although he still has faults and anticipates Christ.

Front 49

Eli

Back 49

– Judge/priest at the opening of Samuel.

Front 50

Transition from judges to kings

Back 50

– the rise of the king through people approaching Samuel out of fear and lack of trust in God the warrior. (refrain: “there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.) Judgeship was an inadequate type of leadership that lead to the establishment of the monarchy. 1 Samuel 8-12 narrates the transition from Judge to King, Samuel to Saul. How God overruled the evil intentions of the people who ask for a King cause they didn’t think that God could deliver them from their enemies. Judges and Kings are inadequate leaders that leave people asking for something more and the NT presents the solution in Christ.

Front 51

9 eras of the OT period

Back 51

Macro-outline of the History of Israel.
I. The primeval History (Gen. 1-11)
II. The Patriarchal Period (Gen. 12-50)
III. The Exodus and Wilderness Wanderings (Exodus 1- Deut. 34)
IV. The Conquest (Joshua)
V. The Period of the Judges (Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel 1-12)
VI. The United Monarchy (1 Samuel 13-1 Kings 11; 1 Chronicles 10-2 Chronicles 9)
VII. The Divided Monarchy (1 Kings 12-2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 10-2 Chronicles 36)
VIII. The Exile (Lamentations; Daniel)
IX. The Restoration and Diaspora (Ezra-Nehemiah; Esther)

Front 52

Genealogies of Chronicles

Back 52

– connect and give the Israelites and identity from the past. It also serves as a way to prove identity.

Front 53

Author of Chronicles

Back 53

anon

Front 54

Questions in minds of audience in Chronicles?

Back 54

– “what do we do now?” “What’s our connection with the past?” “How do we act?”

Front 55

Outline of Ezra

Back 55

– follows a 3 part structure:
1. Goal initiated (focusing on Cyrus Decree) (E1:1-4).
2. Rebuilds the house of God (temple immediately but, in the end, all of Jerusalem) (E1:5-N7:72).
3. Goal reached – reaffirmation of covenant of N12 (N7:73-13:31) “the community celebrates the completion of the house of God according to the Torah”.

Front 56

The Cyrus edict

Back 56

– E-N opens with the edict of Cyrus of Persia, who allows the exiles to return home. Some evidence shows that this decree could have been to win favor for the Persians by those who were exiled and would view the Persians as liberators. So it was Persian foreign policy to free, not enslave the Israelites. Loyal subjects served as good “buffers” to the vast empire.

Front 57

Relationships between E-N & their relationship to Chronicles

Back 57

– until recently, scholars believed that E-N was written by the Chronicler. This is most obviously due to the overlap between the end of Chronicles and the beginning of Ezra, but also to linguistic and theological similarities between the 2. Also, a noncanonical book, 1 Esdra, retells the same story as the end of 2 Chronicles and Ezra without showing a break between them. Tremper doesn’t believe they’re connected.

Front 58

Sheshbazzar & Zarubbabel

Back 58

– Those who choose to return to the homeland to rebuild the city and the temple follow the leadership of Zerubbabel (a descendent of David) and Sheshbazzar (both leaders of Israel at the time). Zerubbabel was a governor in Palestine and he brought much messianic expectation as he was leading the people back to rebuild the temple and was in the line of David.

Front 59

what were the two main issues of ezra-nehemiah?

Back 59

– 2 major issues were the rebuilding of the wall and intermarriage (men leaving their Jewish wives for young pagan women).

Front 60

Theological themes of Ezra-nehemiah

Back 60

– E-N helped those Jews enter a period of prophetic silence at the end of the OT by undergoing three transformations from a time of:
1. Elite leaders to community – the OT is full of charismatic individuals like Abraham, Moses, and David. Now, these types are absorbed (E willingly and N reluctantly) into the community. It is the community that finishes rebuilding the temple and wall and in the end it is the people who turn in corporate allegiance to the Lord.
2. Narrow holiness to spreading holiness – Holiness is no longer restricted to special places. Even after the temple is finished, the book continues and more of Jerusalem is rebuilt, and then the wall. Hi Ashley. All of this is consecrated to the Lord and symbolizes the opening up/spreading of holiness. So now all of Jerusalem is holy and in the end, Christ makes it so any place is holy.
3. Oral authority to written documents – written documents play an important role in the book (letters to kings start and stop actions) but the most important written document is the Torah. In the end, the people rededicate themselves to this book at the great covenant renewal ceremony.
The building of the walls separate God’s people from gentiles physically (symbolizes the strengthening of the Jews) as well as spiritually (intermarriage). Christ ultimately breaks down these walls.

Front 61

Author of Lamentations

Back 61

– Lamentations is an anonymous work. Tradition has ascribed the name of the missing author for this book, Jeremiah. The authorship of Lamentations is not worth argument, since the text does not insist on it and its interpretation does not depend on it

Front 62

Date of Lamentations

Back 62

– soon after the destruction of the temple.

Front 63

Composition of Lamentations

Back 63

– The composition of Lamentations was not a make up of any previous sources. It is clear that the book’s composition was evoked by the defeat in battle (the devastation of the Jerusalem temple in 586 BC). The setting of Lamentations is wartime defeat. . It is to be classified as a communal lament, similar to those found within the Psalter. There are about twenty examples in the Psalms, but especially relevant are the five which give expression to the despair of the people after defeat in battle (Pss. 44, 60, 74, 79, 80).
A communal lament is defined as a composition that was composed to be used by and/or on behalf of a community to express both complaint and sorrow and grief over some perceived calamity as well as to appeal to God for deliverance

Front 64

Purpose of Lamentations

Back 64

– the theological purpose of Lamentations is to acknowledge God’s judgment against Jerusalem and move him to intercede for and restore his people.

Front 65

Literary Style of lamentations

Back 65

The literary style of Lamentations is poetical. There are three representative characteristics mentioned: qinah, persona, and “the ministry of language.” Acrostic poem: first letters of the lines follow a pattern. Each of the chapters is acrostic

Front 66

Outline of Lamentations

Back 66

I. Jerusalem’s lament (1:1-22)
II. Jerusalem’s Angry God (2:1-22)
III. Judah’s Lament (3:1-66)
IV. Judah’s utter ruin (4:1-22)
V. Judah’s plea (5:1-22)

Front 67

Significance & content of Lamentations over:Destruction of Ur

Back 67

(2000 BC) example of the ancient near eastern background of the genre of L, which is seen as a corporate city lament, something which was written to express ones sadness (at their devastation of the destruction of their city/temples). Written in Sumerian (Kassites take over Sumerians in Ur). Abraham leaves right before destruction.

Front 68

Significance & content of Lamentations over:Cyrus Cylinder

Back 68

– written by Cyrus himself. Lets all subjugated people (by Babylon) go back to their homelands and rebuild their temples. gives Near Eastern background to the Cyrus edict, which says “You Jews can go back to Jerusalem and rebuild your temple”

Front 69

Significance & content of Lamentations over:Elephantine

Back 69

– connection with E-N concerning when to date N. The Governor at the time of the Elephantine papyrus was Bagoas (400 BC). So N must has been Governor during the reign of Artexerxes I.

Front 70

How does Lamentations communicates judgement and hope?

Back 70

– message of hope found in the middle (3:19). Awareness that there is hope for the future. God has not completely abandoned his people.