Now that ... Keep Moving On With The TaNaK!

Wow, it’s just been  over three months since the first day of class. Now that I have finished this course, I will be able to do my biblical interpretation better in the future; and of course, I will be more confident to sleep early and get up a bit late from tomorrow on without dreaming critically. I have learned a lot from this class. It has cleared many of my concerns and questions I had before. I hope I am now able to read and study the Hebrew Bible with historical criticism as well as I will be able to think, write and even dream critically regarding this sphere. 

The class was very interesting but sometimes too much to absorb so it might become stressful for me (for English is not my mother tongue). But thank God that I made it with the help of the Professor and his Teaching Assistant. I am also thankful to have great classmates who have posted a lot of good stuff on their blogs regarding the course works and assignments. They have been very helpful and inspirational. 

I hope to keep contact with my classmates via twitter or email in order to exchange questions, thoughts or insights concerning anything in or about the Tanak.  My plan for this Summer is to review some of the sections that I think I need to dig deep into; for instance, the Torah or the Pentateuch. I view it as the backbone of the Hebrew Bible as Bandstra writes, “The Torah is the foundation document of Judaism and the heart of the Hebrew Bible.” (Bandstra, 16). I will spend some time to reread the course textbooks and re-watch Dr. Lester’s lecture videos. They are all great and very much worth reading and listening again and again. I also will try to ask one or two pastor friends of mine to meet once a month to discuss different sections of the Hebrew Bible. Let me admit to you the truth that the theory of the Deteuronomistic History (DH) has kept bugging me and he has sometimes gotten on my nerves when I read from Deuteronomy to Kings (except for Ruth). I will be spending more time to do some extra research about this Deuteronomic Historian and his plot elements. It seems that he emerged during King Josiah’s reign in Judah. Josiah was known in the Bible as the best king of Judah. “Did this best king produce the best historian or vice versa?” I hope to get an answer to this question for myself after I will have discovered that all the tales and characters in these books of the Tanak are myths and legends (including King David). It’s very knowledgeably interesting and challenging to me. I think I will develop a plan to help my traditionalist friends out with what I have learned from this course. 

Finally, I am so blessed and happy to have all of you classmates in this online class. Though I do not know each you by face but at least by name, I pray that God will bless you richly and reveal himself to you in a personal encounter with him as he did with Moses, and all the faith/faithful heroes in the Tanak. Have a great Summer and keep moving on. Amen.

How Come Abraham Became A Model of Faith for Many!

In Genesis 12-50, the ancestral stories tell about the first four generations in the history of Israel from Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the ancient ancestors, called the patriarchs, of the people of Israel as well as Judah. Their female counterparts are Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel respectively, whom we call the matriarchs. The stories begin with Abraham the first patriarch of Israel, then continue with Isaac, Jacob, and end with Joseph (Stanley, 218-219).

We may impressively remember the story of Abram (God later changed his name to Abraham) and Sarai (God later changed her name to Sarah). Abraham is regarded as the father of faith in the Bible (Gen. 12-24). How could it be attributed to him as such? Now let’s look at the first story of this kind in the Hebrew Bible about Abraham and his faith in summary. Abraham migrated with his father Terah from Ur in southern Mesopotamia to Haran. After his father died, he became the head of the household. While there, he was called by God to leave his family to go to the promised land of Canaan in Palestine.  God promised to “make him of a great nation” and would “bless him” (Gen. 12:1-2). This was the moment when he first responded to God by faith. He trusted in God for his future. He just went after God without questioning at all. Here we see faith is the opposite of doubt and it is without questions. 

When coming out of Haran, Abraham (75) and his wife Sarah (65) had no children. They were too old to have children. But God made a covenant with Abraham promising that he would give him a homeland, offspring, and that he would be a blessing to many. It seems to put God at risk with this covenant. It required God to do a lot on his part; it just required Abraham of faith and faithfulness to acquire this promise. Abraham proved this by simply obeying God. However, it did not simply happen automatically right away as we may think. After a long time, they did not have a son yet. Sarah was anxious about the future of the family line, she arranged for Abraham to lay with her servant Hagar. Then, a son was born but he was not recognized as the heir. God reassured Abraham of the covenant through the ritual of circumcision. When Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 years old, God fulfilled his promise of offspring. Finally, Sarah gave birth to a son named Isaac. As we see, twenty five years walking with God by faith, this couple might have been through many ups and downs. At times, they had to struggle to trust in God for his promise.

Another episode of faith issue is that when Abraham was going to offer his only son Isaac as human sacrifice to God as in Genesis 22 we read that God tests Abraham’s faith in the story of the near sacrifice of Isaac. It actually came to the highest point of the test of his faith. This speaks so much about Abraham’s faith. If he listened to God and killed his son, what good would it be for him? He would have nothing left after this: no son, no offspring, no heir, and he was dying of old age. How would he become the father of a great nation? It was impossible. But by faith he did it anyway. As the people of morality and conscience, we would wonder how a virtuous father would be willing to kill his child, and how a good God could demand Abraham to kill his son (Davis, The Binding of Isaac). The answer lies between the issue of faith and faith itself. Abraham had already shown his radical faith to God by obeying him in this matter. He passed God’s test for faith and faithfulness. He now deserved the promise of God and became a great father of nations. 

I could see there are two scenarios in which the faith of Abraham and Sarah was challenged and they showed their lack trust in the Lord their God. One is when Sarah arranged for Abraham to have Ishmael, a surrogate son by Hagar. The other is when this ancestral couple went down to Egypt, they both lied to King Abimelech of Gerar to save their life (Gen. 20-21). In both episodes, we can see that they wanted to help God save his covenant plan with them or they attempted to make it in their own human way but failed. 

As we know there are many stories/tales in the Hebrew Bible were told from tribal memories that were a blend of history, legend, and myth. Hendel states that Abraham might not have actually existed in history (Hendel, Abraham). According to the Documentary Hypothesis lectured by Dr. Lester, Genesis is derived from at least four different sources: J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), D (Deutoronomist) and P (Priestly Writer). They came from different backgrounds and contexts. The Yahwist came from Judah, the Elohist from Israel, the Deutoronomist from Jerusalem, and the Priest Writer from exile in Babylon. I wonder why Abraham had a very good connection with the related places of the sources (J, E, D, P) such as Judah, Assyria, and Babylonia. If we connect what they implied in the text, we will see that Abraham had been present and involved in three places relatively to the three locations mentioned in this ancestral story. The Israelites were deported to Assyria north of Samaria, which is Syria now (Haran in Abraham’s time); then, the people of Judah were exiled in Babylon, which is Iraq now (Ur, southern Mesopotamia in Abraham’s time). Were there any plot elements from the writers that tried to put things all together to make this figure (Abraham) and place (Canaan) of great significance to people in this huge region (Mesopotamia). Or it was just a coincidence, or just happened to be like that.

Many stories of the Elohist deal with faith and faithfulness (Bandstra, 91) as it was written during a time of foreign invasion in which Israel was severely tested. It shows God’s divine faithfulness to the promises of his covenant is repeated in these texts. Through the episodes of Abraham’s faith, I could see that Abraham showed his faith and faithfulness toward God, though he might act in a very human way at times. By faith, Abraham believed in a one true God, and trusted him for his life and for the lives of his descendents (the future generations). That is why he has become the father of a great nation (Israel) and has impacted multitudes of people in history in terms of faith. He is the role model of faith for great many even up to now.

* Bibliography

 Bandstra, Barry. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2008.

Stanley, Christopher. The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009.

Hendel, Ronald. Abraham. http://bibleodyssey.org/people/main-articles/abraham.aspx

Davis,Ellen. The Binding of Isaac. http://bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/main-articles/binding-and-sacrifice-of-isaac.aspx

God's Establishment of Order During Creation

Genesis 1-11 gives the accounts of God’s creation and recreation. It sounds very familiar to most of us, for we grew up hearing about it all the time. We have thought that it is a single creation story. However, the Hebrew Bible contains a few accounts of God’s creation. We will be looking further into the details of God’s creation story based on the given biblical texts: Isaiah 51:9, Job 9:4-14, Job 26:7-14, Job 38:1-11, Psalms 8:1-9, Psalms 74:12-17, Psalms 89:8-10, Psalms 104:1-9, Psalms 136:1-9, Proverbs 8:22-31.
 
Bandstra calls this pericope (Gen. 1-11) the Primeval Story, which consists of two parts: creation and recreation. The Primeval Story or Stories of Origins contain two narratives that are unrelated and different in their setting, characters, and plot. (Stanley, p. 205). According to the documentary hypothesis, one is called the Yahweh Elohim collection and the other the Elohim collection. (Bandstra, p. 75).  

 In reference to the two creation stories in Gen. 1:1—2:3 and 2:4-25, Bandstra states, “The first half of the Primeval Story contained two different versions of creation.  The first version was comprehensive in scope, giving account of the big moments of world creation yet also treating the creation of humans in God’s image. The second version makes only passing reference to the grand environment and dwells on human origination.” (Bandstra, p. 63). Therefore, we need to read the story behind the story in order to understand God’s creation of the universe.

Scrutinizing the given passages and Genesis 1-2 in comparison, I found more similarities than differences as listed below.

The similarities:

• God’s use of commanding and spoken words to create 
• Creation of heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars
• Setting boundaries of the earth; separating waters from the lands—water above and water beneath, stretching the vacuum to make the sky
• Humanity created in God's image and likeness to have dominion over all creation
• Creation of living creatures: animals, beasts of the field, wild beasts, fowls of the air, fish of the sea

The differences:

• The creation of Wisdom first and foremost
• The subjugation of mythical creatures (Rahab, Leviathan, dragon, flying serpent) 
• God putting chaos, disorder and darkness in control, and establishing order in the cosmos
• Humanity made slightly lesser than heavenly beings

 Here is my short alternate story of creation, using the differences found in the passages:

In the very beginning, God created Wisdom first (Prov. 8:22-31). Next, God encountered Rahab (Pride or Arrogance), Leviathan, dragon – the sea monsters, and the mythical beasts – causing chaos and disorder throughout the universe; armed with Wisdom, God defeated them all, struck them down, crushed and pierced them (Isa. 51:9; Job 9:13; Psa. 74:13; 89:10). He gathered clouds, sent wind and rain, and made lightning thunders to carry his message throughout the earth (Job 26:7-10; Prov. 8:27-29). God made humans slightly lesser than divine / heavenly beings (Psa. 8:4-7). God’s angels sang praise to him in unison, proclaiming the great wonders of his creation works when he established the order (Job 38:4-11). All was very good then.

This alternate story tells us about what happened during God’s creation. God armed with Wisdom (the first and foremost of God's creation) put the chaos and disorder under control and established the order of the universe. It also gives us information about some superpowers above and before the material world (the physical cosmos) was created. They are angels and other non-created beings such as Rahab, Leviathan, dragon, sea monsters, mythical beasts, who caused chaos and disorder during God’s creation. 

Therefore, I have quite a few questions concerning this story: How did these superpowers come into being? Had they coexisted with God before time? Or were they created some time in between? What about God’s angels? Was Yahweh Elohim of Israel finite or infinite for creation of all? I may not find all the answer to these, but I know that the creation stories in the Hebrew Bible are very interesting for us to read and tell people about our God the Creator of the heavens and the earth.


* Bibliography

Bandstra, Barry. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2008.

Stanley, Christopher. The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009.

Online Bible. Common English Bible (CEB) https://www.biblegateway.com

A Dramatic Tragedy in Israel’s Most Renowned Royal Family

This is a tragic story of the house of David. Israel has always been proud of David, its greatest king ever.  But how come a highly regarded royal family had a lot of messes and upside-downs within itself? David was a young hero, who killed Goliath of the Philistine. He became king over all Israel after Saul. He united all the tribes of Israel under his kingship. His nation was seeing stability, peace and prosperity. He had a lot of children from different wives and concubines. Perhaps, he did not have enough time for his many children, and could not unite them together, so they became selfish, stubborn, and rebellious. They neither really respected their father nor love and care for one another the way they should have done. They had their own lust, selfishness, wickedness and depravity. One day it showed up openly and publicly and exploded in David’s royal house.

The tragic story from 2 Samuel 13:1-33 below tells us something wrong about this renowned royal family. Here is a brief summary of it, “Amnon humiliated his half sister Tamar to gratify his sexual lust by raping her. Though David was very angry but did not chastised or punish him for this offense. Absalom organized a murder banquet to kill Amnon in retaliation for Tamar.” I am going to interlace more with it hereinafter as it goes.

Amnon rapes Tamar

13 Some time later, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar the beautiful sister of Absalom, who was also David’s son. ² Amnon was so upset over his half sister that he made himself sick. She was a virgin, and it seemed impossible in Amnon’s view to do anything to her.

Amnon  fell in love with his half sister, Tamar, a beautiful virgin. He became sick because of her. Amnon was helped by Jonadab his cousin and friend to trap Tamar by pretending to be sick on bed. Tamar came to serve him food and was raped by Amnon, her half brother.

Amnon had a perverted sexual desire inside of him. He was selfish, lustful and emotionally uncontrollable. It seems that he followed David’s example or at least carried on this type of hereditary gene from his father (maybe too much estrogenic hormones).

³ But Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, Shimeah’s son, David’s brother, who was a very clever man.⁴ “Prince,” Jonadab said to him, “why are you so down, morning after morning? Tell me about it.” So Amnon told him, “I’m in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom.”
⁵ “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick,” Jonadab said to him. “When your father comes to see you, tell him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me some food to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I can watch and eat from her own hand.’” 

Jonadab was a friend of Amnon, but a real bad cousin of David’s children. I wonder why this clever guy rendered Amnon such an evil device. Were they really good friends? Did he take advantage of Amnon’s sick and depraved mind in this matter to cause chaos and animosity among the royal family members for his unknown purpose or just his mischief?

⁶ So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. The king came to see him, and Amnon told the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of heart-shaped cakes in front of me so I can eat from her hand.” ⁷ David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Please go to your brother Amnon’s house and prepare some food for him.”

⁸ So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house where he was lying down. She took dough, kneaded it, made heart-shaped cakes in front of him, and then cooked them. ⁹ She took the pan and served Amnon, but he refused to eat. “Everyone leave me,” Amnon said. So everyone left him. ¹⁰ Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the bedroom so I can eat from your hand.” So Tamar took the heart-shaped cakes she had made and brought them to her brother Amnon in the bedroom. ¹¹ When she served him the food, he grabbed her and said, “Come have sex with me, my sister.” ¹² But she said to him, “No, my brother! Don’t rape me. Such a thing shouldn’t be done in Israel. Don’t do this horrible thing. ¹³ Think about me—where could I hide my shame? And you—you would become like some fool in Israel! Please, just talk to the king! He won’t keep me from marrying you.” ¹⁴ But Amnon refused to listen to her. He was stronger than she was, and so he raped her.

Tamar tried very hard but failed to prevent Amnon from doing such an evil thing to her by explaining and begging him. It is clear that women were treated with contempt and normally as sexual object no matter it is outside or inside the home. Men violently dominated the weaker sex for their own lustful desire. Finally, Amnon raped his sister.

¹⁵ But then Amnon felt intense hatred for her. In fact, his hatred for her was greater than the love he had felt for her. So Amnon told her, “Get out of here!”

After gratifying his sexual lust, Amnon told Tamar to get out of his place. This indicates that Amnon did not care about the consequence. Perhaps, he thought it would be okay afterwards.

¹⁶ “No, my brother!” she said. “Sending me away would be worse than the wrong you’ve already done.”

But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her. ¹⁷ He summoned his young servant and said, “Get this woman out of my presence and lock the door after her.” (¹⁸ She was wearing a long-sleeved robe because that was what the virgin princesses wore as garments.) So Amnon’s servant put her out and locked the door after her.

¹⁹ Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long-sleeved robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and walked away, crying as she went.

²⁰ Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Keep quiet about it for now, sister; he’s your brother. Don’t let it bother you.” So Tamar, a broken woman, lived in her brother Absalom’s house.

²¹ When King David heard about all this he got very angry, but he refused to punish his son Amnon because he loved him as his oldest child.

David did not do anything about this horrible offense because his love for Amnon his oldest son. Love sometimes overlooks the wrongdoings of others. It is no fair or just at all.

²² Absalom never spoke to Amnon, good word or bad, because he hated him for raping his sister Tamar.

Absalom kills Amnon

²³ Two years later, Absalom was shearing sheep at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, and he invited all the king’s sons. ²⁴ Absalom approached the king and said, “Your servant is shearing sheep. Would the king and his advisors please join me?”

²⁵ But the king said to Absalom, “No, my son. We shouldn’t all go, or we would be a burden on you.” Although Absalom urged him, the king wasn’t willing to go, although he gave Absalom a blessing.

²⁶ Then Absalom said, “If you won’t come, then let my brother Amnon go with us.”

“Why should he go with you?” they asked him. ²⁷ But Absalom urged him until he sent Amnon and all the other princes. Then Absalom made a banquet fit for a king.

 Why didn’t David sense something wrong from the invitation of Absalom, especially when he insisted on David sending Amnon and all other princes instead? Or he might not expect it to happen yet, at least in his lifetime as he thought he was still in control of his household and keep it in order.

²⁸ Absalom commanded his servants, “Be on the lookout! When Amnon is happy with wine and I tell you to strike Amnon down, then kill him! Don’t be afraid, because I myself am giving you the order. Be brave and strong men.” ²⁹ So Absalom’s servants did to Amnon just what he had commanded. Then all the princes got up, jumped onto their mules, and fled.

Absalom was an undercover murderer. He had harbored the plan of revenge for two years. It was good time for him to put his hand on Amnon, who raped and humiliated his sister Tamar. Absalom was as wicked as his enemy Amnon. He deceived his father and brothers all into his trap for the purpose of killing just one man. From here, I could see how wicked the men of the house of David were. How evil and perverted and brutal this royal family was!

³⁰ While they were on the way, the report came to David: “Absalom has killed all of the princes! Not one remains.” ³¹ The king got up, tore his garments, and lay on the ground. All his servants stood near him, their garments torn as well. ³² But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, “My master shouldn’t think that all the young princes have been killed—only Amnon is dead. This has been Absalom’s plan ever since the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar. ³³ So don’t let this bother you, my master; don’t think that all the princes are dead, because only Amnon is dead.

It is interesting that King David got a wrong report about his princes. We do not know who gave David the report. I guess some of the servants of the princes might have shaken loose and ran sooner and faster than their masters or someone might have known about this murder spree went back to David and reported to him incorrectly. It appears that Jonadab, David’s nephew, knew the tragic result of David’s family because he was giving Amnon a wicked advice earlier, and that David did not know anything about this.

Of course, David was cut to heart because of this happening, and he mourned deeply for the death of his son Amnon, whom he loved so much. After such a tragedy in his family, David might become more precautious in the way of dealing with his children. I still wonder why David, the most honored King in Israel, could not rule his family well enough while successfully ruling his nation.

YHWH had favor on David and promised to build a perpetual dynasty for David and to enduringly support his line (Bandstra, 255). It is the Davidic covenant YHWH made with David. It seems that David neglected his military duty, but focused on his selfish enjoyment of life, building cities and palaces instead.

All the male characters of this story such as David, Absalom, Amnon and Jonadab portrayed the level of moral corruption and depravity in Israel. Tamar, the only female character, presented the wretched and lowly position of women in society, even in the royal family of David. Is it just another story telling the unfair treatment toward women in Israelite society before the eye of YHWH, the God of Israel? Or does this story narrative contain a plot element for something to happen in Israel as the Deuteronomistic historian or editor intends it?