...OBST 590 - Old Testament Introduction Book Summary II Ancient Near Eastern Thought and The Old Testament By Walton ___________________ Submitted to Dr. Ashraf Basilious 27 February 2013 CONTENTS iNTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I REVIEW 2 chapter ii review 4 CHAPTER III REVIEW 6 CHAPTER IV REVIEW 7 CHAPTER V REVIEW 9 CHAPTER VI REVIEW 11 CHAPTER VII REVIEW 13 CHAPTER VIII REVIEW 15 CHAPTER IX REVIEW 17 CHAPTER X REVIEW 18 CHAPTER XI REVIEW 20 CHAPTER XII REVIEW 22 CHAPTER XIII REVIEW 23 CHAPTER XIV REVIEW 24 CONCLUSION 26 Introduction The “Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament”, by Walton covers many issues which an individual unless wanting to seek more than what is written in the bible would want to perform endless days of research and ability to see firsthand by reading Walton’s book. These areas covered in Walton’s book cover the time from when the Old Testament had begun to be written back in BC and later re-found along with other textual artifacts earth in the 18 and mid 19th century AD. The discoveries of both biblical, and other un-biblical artifacts is covered within Walton’s book to how and why some individuals who have a different form of religious beliefs. To how in the past the individual living during early Near Eastern thought processes had been in regards to God or in many cases when not Israeli or Christian involved gods which were based off an...
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...Book Review Summary of Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John H. Walton Chapter 1 Chapter 1 is Walton’s introduction to the discussion concerning the congruence of the Old Testament with the world surrounding it. This chapter discusses the history, methodology, and reasoning behind comparative Old Testament studies. It then concludes with the principles and goals each student should possess as he or she studies the Old Testament. His synopsis of comparative Old Testament studies begins with the resurgence of Egyptian and Mesopotamian archaeological studies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[1] He then moves on to discuss the impact of Friedrich Delitzsch’s lectures concerning how the writers of the Old Testament borrowed from extrabiblical sources set the stage for many secular ideologies removing the special revelation aspect from the Bible. This allowed two things to take place. First, it brought out the comparative study of the Bible into a critical realm; and second, it made Assyriology, Egyptology, and Hittitology serious academic disciplines which have greatly enhanced modern man’s understanding of these ancient cultures. While Walton discusses several forms of Old Testament study, his opinion favors comparative studies. He starts with explaining the reasoning for sound methodological comparative study and moves on to answer the “why” it should be performed over other studies. In his view, it expands...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Book Summary of Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John H. Walton Submitted to Dr. Peter Hamilton in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course 201420 Spring 2014 OBST 510-B08 LUO by March 2, 2014 ABSTRACT There are fourteen chapters in the book Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible written by John H. Walton. It includes five main sections. Along with these sections there are historical pictures that consist of over 20 images. Each one of those images are included in a complete appendix at the beginning of the book. Walton gives acknowledgements, which are followed by a list of abbreviations. Part 1- Comparative Studies In this first section it includes the first two chapters. Chapter one is appropriately named history and methods. The resolution of this part of the book is to protect the Bible from the harm done by comparative studies which warped evidence to work against the historicity, canonicity, and divine revelation of the Bible. Chapter 1- History and Methods This chapter opens up with the rediscovery of Egypt and Mesopotamia, dating back to the 1800s and the mid 1900s. The author states that archeologists were very quickly discovering that the Bible in its entirety was completely and wholly accurate and true. It was during this time that evolution and the scientific...
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...Myth and Scripture resources for Biblical Study Susan ackerman, Old testament/hebrew Bible editor number 78 Myth and Scripture conteMporary perSpectiveS on religion, language, and iMagination Edited by dexter e. callender Jr. SBl press atlanta copyright © 2014 by SBl press all rights reserved. no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 copyright act or in writing from the publisher. requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the rights and permissions office, Society of Biblical literature, 825 houston Mill road, atlanta, ga 30329 uSa. library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Myth and scripture : contemporary perspectives on religion, language, and imagination / Dexter E. Callender, Jr., editor. p. cm. — (Society of Biblical literature resources for biblical study ; number 78) includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn 978-1-58983-961-8 (paper binding : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-1-58983-962-5 (electronic format) — iSBn 978-1-58983-963-2 (hardcover binding : alk. paper) 1. Myth in the Bible. 2. Bible. old testament—criticism, interpretation, etc. i. callender, dexter e., 1962– editor of compilation. ii. callender, dexter e., 1962– author. Myth and Scripture : dissonance and convergence.. BS520.5.M98 2014 220.6'8—dc23 2014002897...
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...partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course OBST 510-D10 Introduction to the Old Testament by Stephen Corbett November 10, 2013 Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Bible and Myth 2 The Bible in Its World The Bible and Myth: A Problem of Definition Continuity: The Basis of Mythical Thinking Transcendence: Basis of Biblical Thinking The Bible verses Myth The Bible and History 9 The Bible and History: A Problem of Definition Is the Bible Truly Historical? The Problem of History (1) Does it Matter Whether the Bible Is Historical? The Problem of History (2) Origins of the Biblical Worldview: Alternatives Conclusion 15 Introduction “The Bible Among the Myths” begins with the author, John N. Oswalt, establishing his credibility on the topic discussed. Following his studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and Brandeis University, Oswald went on to teach courses at multiple seminaries on the subject of the Old Testament. Due to his years of teaching, he followed the current thought in the scholarly world in reference to the Bible and the subject of myth. In a sixty year gap, scholarly thought went from a popular view of the Israelite thought being completely separate and unconnected to the ancient near eastern thought to currently seeing Israelite religion as simply one more of the complex West Semitic religions. Scholars shifted...
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...Israel and the Nature of Covenant in the ancient Near East A Paper Submitted to Dr. Percy D. Johnson, Jr. Of Beulah Heights University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Research Paper for the Course Interpretation of the Old Testament Bi601 Damon Richardson April 29, 2012 Introduction Exodus chapter 20 is foundational for the proper understanding of the basis of ancient Israel’s relationship with YHWH and the significance of the covenant that YHWH made with them. Therefore the focus of this paper will be to provide the basic framework for viewing this important chapter not only from an exegetical standpoint but more contextually from its ancient Near Eastern cultural matrix in order to gain some perspective and understanding as to the meaning of this familiar text. Genre of Exodus 20ff Over 50 years ago, George Mendenhall, wrote a series of articles centered on newly discovered documents from ancient Mesopotamia upon which he developed a six point formula from the examination of these fourteenth and thirteenth century Hittite treaties that shaped the way many later scholars came to understand the Biblical text in light of these ancient Hittite suzerainty-vassal covenants. Irvin A. Busenitz in his article Introduction to the Biblical Covenants wrote: The rise of the Documentary Hypothesis, fueled by the concept that religion in Israel developed along evolutionary lines, has in recent centuries suggested that ...
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...Biblical Worldview: Alternatives 10 Conclusions 11 Introduction Oswalt starts with a concise and well-written introduction that is compelling reading. He shares some very revealing personal information dating back to the 1960s, when he attended Asbury Theological Seminary. Oswalt quickly points out that one of the main points 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.” In the introduction, he provides a brief overview of scholarly thought regarding the Old Testament literature and Ancient Near East literature and how perspectives have changed over the last 50 years. Oswalt states at the time he was introduced to the subject, scholars believed the Old Testament and its theology stood alone from other Ancient Near East religions. He now contends...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Dr. Daniel Warner of the requirements for the completion of the course OBST 510 Old Testament – Introduction to Old Testament by Sheniece Wallace September , 2014 Introduction John N. Oswalt, curiosity about the study of the Bible and theological questions was influenced in the 1960s, during his graduate studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. Followed by further education in Theology, triggered a facet of questions during his time at Harvard Divinity. William F. Albright, a scholar proposed the questions the Israelites of the Old Testament and their reasoning about there beliefs. The radical Prolegomena for Oswalts, book sprung up a multitude of questions for him to consider answering his and humanity questions about the godly ideology in religion culture. His statements questions godly character whether it was wrong , right, or believable. He mentions his hypothesis of revelation: as humans we couldn’t possibly be in control of our own purpose and that we need a higher power to sustain us. Comparison is made between religions of Israelite the and ancient near east; the worship of their deity. The thought of serving one deity, then, why were so many other religions evolved? Subliminally, in my words, questions the Biblical integrity and purpose being accredited to for humans to believe as truth...
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...Gen 1:1-2:4a World Behind the text Historical and Cultural Context Genesis illustrates the way Biblical writers J (Yahwist), E (Elohist) and P (Priestly) drew upon the cultural and religious legacy of the Ancient Near East (ANE) along with its stories and imagery and transformed it to conform to a new vision of a non-mythological God and a monotheistic, superior religion. “The Pentateuch developed against the background of the Ancient Near Eastern culture first cultivated in and spread by Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian empires”. This exemplifies how Israelite religion, was “shaped by responses to and reactions against this culture due both to contacts with neighboring Canaanites and to conflicts with Assyrian and Babylonian empires”. Genesis 1:1-2:4a can therefore be said to reflect the “Babylonian account of creation, which we call Enuma Elish…known from at least 1700 BCE,” “predating the earliest text of Genesis by at least a millennium.” In both Genesis and the ancient Babylonian myth, water is divided into upper and lower waters. The Enuma Elish is recorded on seven tablets and the Genesis account is completed in seven days. The Babylonians created humans to serve as slaves yet in Genesis God creates humans in the likeness of the divine. The Priestly source penned the creation story with the intent of being a “monumental historiographic composition…with the purpose of portraying both the beginnings of mankind and Israel in the spirit of a monotheistic concept...
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...ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN THOUGHT AND THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOK SUMMARY by JOE VALENTI Old Testament Introduction OBST 590 B06 Dr. Randy Haney March 1, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 1 CHAPTER 2 2 CHAPTER 3 3 CHAPTER 4 5 CHAPTER 5 7 CHAPTER 6 9 CHAPTER 7 11 CHAPTER 8 12 CHAPTER 9 14 CHAPTER 10 15 CHAPTER 11 17 CHAPTER 12 19 CHAPTER 13 20 CHAPTER 14 22 POSTSCRIPT 23 WORKS CITED i CHAPTER 1 The opening chapter begins by orienting the reader to the idea of "comparative study," or the area of study that strives to understand things within their broader cultural context. In the case of this book, the goal is to understand the Old Testament within the context of the Ancient Near Eastern milieu. Walton explains that over the years there has been much debate on the issue of comparative study and the way in which it is to be exercised. Scholars, always biased by their presuppositions, tend to enter the argument negating the importance of the Old Testament on the one side, or defending the inerrancy of Scripture so vehemently that the cultural context is lost. Walton poses a better way, namely, accepting the study of the Ancient Near Eastern cultures as important and academic in their own right while attempting to comprehend the Old Testament in light of what modern scholarship is learning about the ancient world...
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...Bible Among the Myths Malcom College English 093 Ms. Smith 01/23/2012 Introduction The book is an analysis of the Biblical view of the world and compares it other works in the Ancient Near East of that time with the development of the Bible. This is done by an in-depth analysis of the underlying beliefs inherent in mythology and the Biblical text. Of primary significance is the author's portrayal of the Biblical insistence on monotheism and divine transcendence compared to the polytheistic underpinnings of mythology. The author compares the ethically based Biblical view of the divine/human relationship with the ritualistic and magical view of that relationship found in mythology. With these and other comparisons (and with due consideration given to the various similarities between Israel and her neighbors), the author gives an excellent overview of the subject matter of the thought. In The Bible Among the Myths,Oswalt takes the conversation further by illuminating the fact that Israel's faith couldn’t have simply evolved out of nowhere. Oswalt shows that the surrounding Ancient Near East cultures had a worldview known as Continuity. This view maintained that all things that exist are a part of each other (such as the gods, nature, and humanity), the existence of polytheism, that the gods could be manipulated through nature and natural artifacts(which was the point of idol worship), the significance of magic, the obsession with fertility which led to sexual...
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...that the female heroine viewed and described her lover as a king: as a Solomon.1 How could Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), be the same faithful lover this book presents? He could be if he became polygamous after the events in this book took place. That seems a more likely explanation than that he was polygamous when these events occurred and just omitted reference to his other loves. Probably he wrote the book before he became polygamous. We do not know how old Solomon was when he married the second time. The history recorded in Kings and Chronicles is not in strict chronological order. The Shulammite was probably not Pharaoh's daughter in view of references in the book (1 Kings 3:1; cf. Song of Sol. 4:8). One writer contended that she was Pharaoh's daughter.2 Another view is that "Shulammite" is simply the feminine form of the name "Solomon."3 So Solomon could have written this book in his youth. Perhaps he wrote most of Proverbs in mid-life and Ecclesiastes in his old age. The contents of these three writings have suggested that...
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...The Roman Period (63 BC-70 AD) 13 Herodian Dynasty 14 Bibliography 16 Introduction The Intertestament Period is the period between the books of Malachi and Matthew. This period is sometimes called the “quiet years” when in fact it was anything but quiet. This was a time of 400 years of war, destruction and dramatic change in the eastern ancient world. At this time, there were not any prophets that were sent by God. God was quiet and had not spoken to anyone to be a voice for His people. The changes during this time that faced the ancient world began with Alexander the Great. The Grecian or Hellenistic Period began with Alexander the Great. This paper’s significant event will focus on Alexander the Great and his crusades and how it affected the Jew. I will then focus on different kingdoms and their ruler ship during the Intertestamental Period. Alexander the Great and His Conquests (331-320 BC) Alexander the Great was born in 356 BCE. His father was King Phillip of Macedonia; his mother was Princess Olympia of Epirus. Alexander had always been a fearless, strong and eager to learn lad. He showed his fearlessness at seven years old while his father was away; “he cross-examined Persian envoys guests about the size and morale of the Persian army, the distance to Susa, and the condition of the roads leading there.” At nine years of age, Alexander went with his father to buy a stallion. The king’s grooms could not stable the...
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...paradigm inherent in the philosophy of Idealism were the result of the economic depression in the late 40’s. Since there was little separation from Idealism and the standard higher critical views of Old Testament that had prevailed for the past fifty years, there was cause for some rethinking about the Old Testament and the associated religion. This rethinking was led by William F. Albright, G. Ernest Wright, and others of the Harvard Divinity School. Sixty years later, it is widely accepted that Israelite religion is just one more West Semitic religion and that its characteristic features can be fully explained on through evolutionary change. Oswalt writes that no new discoveries led to this dramatic change in thinking. Because of the work of Karl Barth in 1950, the scholarly world was ready the idea of revelation in ways not found in the last couple of generations. Revelation assumes that this world is not self-explanatory and that some communication from beyond the world is necessary to explain it. Oswalt states that this idea is distasteful to humans in that humans are not in control of their own destiny. Although the biblical and Near Eastern data had not changed at all, the possible ways of explaining that data did change. Here, another feature of the Old Testament enters the discussion: the obvious similarities that exist between the literature and culture of Israel and the literatures and cultures of Israel’s neighbors....
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...which books actually belong in the Bible. In addition, over time, several different approaches to interpreting the Bible have been developed by these groups. In this volume, the Bible is examined mainly from a literary point of view. A literary approach to this unique book, however, will only be successful if we are conscious of the fact that it is not to be judged according to the rules of modern literature but rather as a document of the ancient Near Eastern and Jewish-Hellenistic cultures. One Book, Many Books: Which Texts Belong to the Bible The Bible is not a single, unified work but a compilation of individual texts commonly called books. Which books belong to the Bible? This question is answered differently by different religious communities. The Hebrew Bible is the Holy Scripture of the Jews. It contains books originally written in the ancient Hebrew and partly in the ancient Aramaic languages. The five books of Moses, also called the Pentateuch, or Torah, belong to it, as well as some books dealing with the history of ancient Israel. These are followed by the books of the prophets, some books of wisdom, and the Psalms (a complete list of the books of the Bible is given in Part IV of this volume). The first Christians were Jews, and so the Jewish...
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