Books on OT Ethics

1. Books on OT Ethics Brueggemann, Walter. The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge to Biblical Faith. 2d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002. Kaiser, Walter. Toward an Old Testament Ethics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983. Wright, Christopher J. H. Living as the People of God: The Relevance of Old Testament Ethics. Downers Grove: IVP, 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 • 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)   Scene 1: Elijah and Ahab (v.1)  Scene 2: God commands Elijah to hide (vv. 2-7)  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)