The Ancient Hebrew Bible: Modern Monotheistic Religion

Joseph M. Bolton RELS 103-02 Online Old Testament Studies Spring Semester 2011 Session E May 8, 2011 to July 2, 2011 The Old Testament TimeLine Creation & Primeval History The Creation: * God creates the Heavens and the Earth * God creates man in his image. *

The Hebrews served a monotheistic God, who they called Yahweh. He is an all-powerful and non human like being. They believed he made them in his image and gave them dominion over the earth. Their God was unlike any other gods at the time because he was friendly, compassionate, forgiving and all-powerful. God gave the Hebrews structure, a background, hope, and purpose. Every society needs rules to protect and keep the community in line. God gave Moses the ten commandments which they lived on.1 The Hebrews created the Bible a sacred book containing their lives and relationships with God. The Bible gave the Hebrews an understanding of how the world and humankind emerged. They also believed in an afterlife. Heaven for people who lived a righteous life and Hell for people who lived an unholy life in the eyes of God. So the Hebrews had a set of laws follow and hopes to believe in. This unified the Hebrews because they had the same goals, beliefs and obligation to suppress their desires for the well being of God and their society.

Author John N. Oswalt begins The Bible Among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? with a concise and well-written introduction that whets the reader’s appetite, compelling one to continue reading. He begins by informing the reader that his novel has been in the works dating all of the way back to the 1960s, when he attended the Asbury Theological Seminary. Oswalt quickly points out that one of the main points that the book will focus on is determining if “the religion of the Old Testament [is] essentially similar to, or essentially different from, the religions of its neighbors.”1 Oswalt is swift to acknowledge a major difference between the Old Testament and the religions of the Israelites Near

The Bible Among the Myths begins by stating that while the information since the 1960s has remained unaffected, the scrutiny has altered. The author, John N. Oswalt, begins his text by introducing the relative understanding of the Old Testament and Ancient Near East’s way of life and religion. Oswalt addresses the change of Israelite religion in comparison with other religions that were once believed to be unique by scholars. It is presently believed that the Old Testament is practically indistinguishable to the other religions of its time.

John H. Walton is a professor of the Old Testament at Wheaton College. He is known for his intelligence of the Bible but especially of the Old Testament. Inspired by Joseph Free, a former Wheaton professor; Walton read a book called Archaeology and Bible History. After reading this book, he decided to not become an archaeologist. He switched his focus to comparing the culture and literature of the Bible and the Ancient Near East. With passion for the Old Testament, Walton finds it important to help others understand it better. Walton has been acknowledged for stepping on people’s toes by making them question what they know to be true in their mind. He is very firm in his beliefs. When it comes to his book The Lost World of Adam and Eve, there were many people that criticized it but also those who enjoyed it. This book talks about the first three chapters of Genesis and makes many various propositions

Religion plays a critical role in the lives of many people across the world. Some of the responsibilities of following a religion include understanding its history and knowing the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. However, it isn’t always clear about how historically accurate some of these stories are. While some of the accounts may in fact be true, it is possible that some of the people and stories found in the bible were written as a symbol, with the intention that the morals of the stories would be understood.

1) The Hebrew Monotheism The Hebrew is the Jewish people who abandoned the polytheism of their own early history and all the other early civilizations of the near East and Mediterranean world by covenant with one God. Their beliefs that everyone they should treat each other equal. The create first religion of a book the Torah and Moses was their leader.

The idea of the ancient Israelites not being monotheistic is a notion particularly outside of academia, one that is almost totally incomprehensible with the general perception of this people and their culture. However, this does not necessarily mean that the more general conception of them as monotheists is correct. Ronald Hendel, a prominent scholar seems to make the case for the Israelites not being the monotheists that traditionally the ancient Israelites are assumed to be, “It is inaccurate to characterize the religion of ancient Israel as monotheistic, if what is meant by that term is the belief that only one God exists. Indeed, an enormous range of sources, both biblical and archaeological, indicate that ancient Israelites not only

The ancient religion Judaism has developed over time through the different aspects of things such as the Hebrew Bible, the ten commandments, religious practices and daily life which has developed the aspects of modern Judaism. The Judaism religion originates from the country of Israel, located in the content of Asia near its neighboring countries Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. From ancient Judaism to modern Judaism, the religion is one of the few that has stuck to its roots and beliefs based on the Hebrew Bible, especially the Torah. “Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language,

Henotheism is defined as the adherence to one God without denying the existence of other deities. Many scholars have suggested that the people of ancient Israel were henotheists. Their arguments are based off the scriptures that refer to God as more powerful than the other gods. An example of this would be found in Exodus 18:11, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” Just because other gods are mentioned throughout the Bible does not specifically mean that the Bible teaches henotheism. Henotheism was thought to be created to depict the early stages of monotheism. In 1st Corinthians 8:5-6, Paul the Apostle told the Corinthians, “There are many gods, but for us there

Christianity is a monotheistic religion that uses the holy bible to guide Christian followers of God in a positive lifestyle. Christ has many symbols that depend on the branch one follows in Christianity. Three modern day main branches are Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. In Homo Religiosus Armstrong states, sons are taken from their mothers and put in a ritual to exit childhood to enter manhood, but they would not choose to do this if they were never taught to; therefore, the repetitive rituals as a modern day child, one learns from one’s elders about the belief one has (38). They each share similar biblical values along with the desire to have an afterlife in heaven with God; however, each Christian Modern Day Main Branch differs slightly

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

The Old Testament is the largest part of the bible nestled behind the leather binding in the front of the book. Unlike most books, told from one-person or even two this is comprised of multiple, some stories even having two different versions in another point of view; over time it has become a large collection of ancient texts written and re-written by different authors and editors over the many years. The stories show the ancient Israelites, they show the laws, and rituals, which make up their religion and the small embers, which will one day, turn to a flame that is Christianity. The Jewish people view these stories as collected in what they call the Torah, is the collection for what makes up their history and the promise that God gave to them, as well as their laws and what they worship today. For the Christians the Old Testament is still seen as sacred, but most place a stronger importance to the New Testament.

The Old Testament consisted of a set of documentations of religious scriptures, which were written by different people at various times for a different audience. Most of the Old Testament contains short stories of traditional stories and those stories of distinguished ways God established mankind. These stories are often told to the people in narrative form, which are guidelines often referred to as laws, songs, genealogies, and a list from these authors that composed the Old Testaments. The pressing of set documentation is essential because it is the framework for the lives of God 's followers. The term “Old Testament” originated as a means to express spoken traditions and God 's creation of that particular era. It is an method of philosophical investigation was designed to answer the why questions within these spiritual text documentations. These religious documentations consisted of four parts. These four sections retrieved from the Old Testaments are the laws, history, wisdom and prophecy. The laws are a rule of behavior enforced within the community. The rules are sometimes called “Torah.” When analyzing this Torah, these rules viewed within the first five spiritual books of the Bible. For example, in the first Torah in Genesis, it explains the creation, Noah’s Flood, Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph’s coats of many colors. However, the laws in Exodus were in regards to the going out. The going out took about 40 plus years, until the people led to

Looking back, we can see glimpses of the lives of those who lived in the Ancient Near East, known as the ANE, through their stories and myths that have survived over centuries of time. Many of these stories contain unique elements that make each one personal to the civilization that they belong to, but there are common themes and ideas that are virtually shared between the traditional stories stemming from this region of the world. In fact, these parallels even extend into Old Testament literature; laced within the stories that we’ve come to know and love. It is not surprising that the Old Testament contains similarities found within ANE tradition, seeing that