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105 Cards in this Set

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Tale of Two Brothers

an Egyptian folktale that has a ton of similarities to one of the stories of Joseph in slavery in Egypt. In Tale of 2 Brothers, there are two brothers, an older and a younger, and the older basically runs the farm while the younger is a kind of servant to him. The older's wife tries to seduce the younger, but he refuses, and in retaliation she accuses him of attacking her. He's thrown in prison.

Gilgamesh

A folk tale from Near East that is similar to the flood narrative (Noah) and the Garden of Eden narrative. Gilgamesh is the ruler of Mesopotamian city Uruk and not a nice guy. The citizens ask for help, and a goddess creates Enkidu, a friend for Gilgamesh. Enkidu is killed (see Enkidu flashcard) and Gilgamesh has a crisis with realizing he's going to die, so he seeks immortality. On his search, he meets the hero Utnapishtim, who tells him similar story to Noah. Gilgamesh can never become immortal because only Utnapishtim can be immortal, but U. gives him a plant to restore his use. A serpent steals the plant, so Gilgamesh has nothing and returns a sadder but wiser and kinder ruler. Both this tale and the Garden narrative contain a snake, a plant that gives immortality, the inevitability of death, and a conflict between man's natural harmony with nature (Enkidu) and his obtaining knowledge but losing that harmony (sleeping w/prostitute). See Enkidu card for more info.

Enkidu

From the tale of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is a kind of wild caveman created by the goddess to teach Gilgamesh a lesson. Enkidu goes around freeing animals from hunter's traps, and they complain to Gilgamesh, so he sends Enkidu a prostitute. After sleeping with the prostitute, she takes Enkidu to Gilgamesh. They fight, but then become friends until the goddess tries to seduce Gilgamesh and he rejects her, so she kills Enkidu, leading to Gilgamesh's realization of mortality and his subsequent search.

Utnapishtim

Utnapishtim was the Gilgamesh tale's Noah. Like Noah, he was chosen by the gods to build a ship and put animals on it during a flood that killed off everyone else. He is the only immortal human and no one else can be immortal except him.

Atrahasis

An epic that is pretty much exactly the same as Utnapishtim's story about the flood in Gilgamesh, but the hero's name is Atrahasis instead. The gods choose to flood the earth because humanity was supposed to be their servants, but had been being disobedient. While Gilgamesh/Utanpishtim were Egyptian, Atrahasis is Babylonian. This shows that the myths were super widespread and basically every culture/religion in the area had a version.

Enuma Elish

Another myth that circulated with similarities to Genesis. It's seven tablets that describe how the god Marduk became king of the gods and the chief god of Babylon. This was NOT on the study guide so you probably don't need to know very much about it.

Creation Hymn

Genesis creation story numero uno. This begins the Bible even though in history it was written close to last and edited in by P so he could have his stuff framing the Bible. This is the Elohim god, so very distant and creates by speaking. An important thing to remember is the parallels: Day 1 is light, and Day 4 is sun/moon/stars, all light. Day 2 is the dome that separates the sky and sea, and Day 5 is birds and aquatic creatures. Day 3 is vegetation, and Day 5 is land animals, including humans. Day 7 is, of course, Sabbath. REMEMBER THE PARALLELS! Another good thing to know is that men and women were created at the same time, and they were created along with all the other land animals. Finally, remember that prior to this creation, the earth was a dark, watery chaos.

Elohim

This is the guy from the Creation Hymn aka Gen 1, and he's the distant god. He doesn't talk or walk with humans, he exists beyond us and we don't get to interact with him except in dreams. He's omniscient and has basically infinite power, and he's mysterious and unknowable. This is the E Source and P Source dude. Not humanlike at all. "Elohim" is also the generic title -- "el" means "god" and all. Not his real name, more like his title.

YHWH

This is our Garden of Eden guy. He's very humanlike and he walks around and talks with us. His creation is much more intimate -- he builds humans out of clay and is much more of a sculptor. He's also our jealous God, gets angry just like humans. "YHWH" is his legit name, interpreted as "Yahweh" and "Jehovah". You were NOT allowed to say his name back in the day.

Adam

First human YHWH creates in the Garden of Eden narrative.

Eve

Adam's wife, created because Adam needs a servant. This is a very sexist book because it was almost completely written by men.

Garden of Eden narrative

This is creation story numero dos, and takes place in Genesis 2. Unlike the first one, creation begins with a preexisting dry and arid climate. YHWH creates the garden in this, which is the perfect place to live where there are fruit on every tree and you don't have to do anything. He creates Adam, then all the other animals, and then Eve from Adam's rib as a servant. This is COVENANT NUMBER ONE with Adam and Eve. The rules are: you get to live in this gorgeous garden with all the food you need. In order to live here, you have to a) be fruitful and multiply (have kids), b) be vegetarians, and c) DON'T eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As we all know they fail at this.

Tree of Life

There are two trees in the Garden of Eden -- the tree of life and the other one which we'll get to on a different card. The tree of life is gives you eternal life. By having two trees, this shows the two choices Adam & Eve had -- they were choosing between immortality and ignorance, or knowledge and mortality.

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

This is the second tree and the second option for Adam & Eve. They are forbidden from eating from it, and YHWH tells them if they do, they will die. Actually, he only tells this to Adam, because Eve wasn't around yet, but I guess we're assuming Adam told Eve later. Prior to eating from this tree, Adam & Eve were on the same mental level as all the other animals. This is problematic on a few levels, and one of them is, if Adam and Eve were so dumb, how could they even chose whether or not to eat from this tree? If this tree contains knowledge of morality, they wouldn't even KNOW they were doing something wrong until AFTER they ate from it. The Bible writers did not care about this at all. The point is that humans messed up and we disobeyed God and chose knowledge over immortality.

Serpent

Back in the Garden of Eden serpents apparently had legs and walked and talked. The serpent tricks Adam & Eve into eating from the tree of knowledge, and in response, God throws them out of the Garden of Eden. He curses Adam with having soil that isn't good for farming, Eve with the pain of childbirth, and the snake by making it crawl on its belly. The snake was not Satan. It was just a snake, albeit a tricky smart one.

Cain

After Adam & Eve get thrown out, they have kids, Cain and Abel. Cain is the older brother, and he gives God fruit he grew, since he's a farmer. God likes shepherds better, and chooses Abel's gift above Cain's. Cain gets mad and kills Abel, and since he shed his brother's blood (blood is a huge deal in the Bible, along with water and fire), God curses him with the Mark of Cain to wander the earth and no one can kill him. After this, Cain somehow ends up with a wife and city, which doesn't make sense but that's okay because Bible writers weren't trying to make sense, they were trying to show a message.

Abel

The younger brother and shepherd who gave God the firstborn of his flock. God liked this better and gave Abel favor, and Cain killed him in jealousy.

C2D2

This is the cycle. C2=Creation and Covenant, D2=Disobedience and Destruction. What happens is God creates something and makes a covenant with humans, which we inevitably mess up (disobedience), and in return he returns every to chaos so that he can start anew. This is meant to show that God is the only thing keeping humanity from utter chaos and anarchy. There are 4 major covenants we're learned so far: Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Adam & Eve and Noah were for the entire world, while Abraham and Moses was only for Israelites.

Seth

Seth was Abel's replacement, kind of. After Abel died, Adam & Eve had Seth. Seth is a good guy, very faithful and obedient. He has a son named Enosh. That's basically where his significance ends.

Nephilim

There is a VERY IMPORTANT line between human and the divine. The divine (gods) are immortal and knowing. Humans can be either immortal OR knowing, but not both. At first we were immortal, but then Adam & Eve ate from the tree and now we're knowing. Animals are neither. Nephilim, aka the children of Sons of God, blur this line. God doesn't like this, and they are one of the reasons he decides to flood the world.

Sons of God

The Sons of God were these not-human divine ... things that are not given too much detail, so they could be angels? We don't know. They are most likely the "us" God was referring to when he said "Let us create them in our image" as in plural (he wasn't talking to himself), so they're definitely divine beings. They had children (Nephilim) with human women, blurring the distinction between divine/human, so God decides to flood the world.

Tower of Babel

God thinks humanity is getting too powerful. They built a tower and he thinks that's a sign that they're too strong so he scatters them and makes them speak different languages so they can't all be united. "Babel" is like "babble" -- a pun.

Ziggurat

Ziggurats are those square-ish buildings with more buildings inside. Imagine a pyramid-y type thing, like Khaleesi's palace in Game of Thrones. Anyway, the important thing about that is that the Tower of Babel was basically a ziggurat that actually existed, and was associated with Marduk (from Enuma Elish!!) in Babylon.

The Flood narrative

There are 2 versions of the flood story, J's version and P's version. It's most important to know the differences. In P's version, God tells Noah to bring one pair of each animal on board. He also creates the flood by literally undoing the heavens and pouring all the water from the dome on to the earth. The flood lasts for 150 days, and Noah knows it's finished by sending out a raven. In J's version, God tells Noah to bring seven pairs of clean animals so he can eat them, and one pair of unclean to continue the species. This wouldn't make sense in P's version, because humans are vegetarians. Also, In J, God causes the flood by making it rain a lot -- not nearly as exciting as P. It rains for 40 days and 40 nights, and Noah sends out doves, not ravens.

Abram/Abraham

Abraham was the role model because of his utter faith and obedience in God. He did whatever God told him to do and only questioned it once, during the whole Sodom and Gomorrah thing, when he was trying to get God to save people's lives. God promises Abraham the Promised Land for his ancestors, and not to him. He also promises Abraham he will have a son, but Abraham has to wait his entire life until he's almost 100 years old before he gets one. He is special, chosen, and distinct from everyone else.

Sarai/Sarah

Abraham's wife. There was the thing with her and God when God told her she was going to have a son and she laughed. I have nothing more to say about her so here's something to remember: there's a triplet with Abram/Sarai, Abraham/Sarah, and Isaac/Rebekah about lying about saying their wife was their sister to avoid being targeted. Remember that as a triplet example.

Hagar

Sarah's servant. When Sarah doesn't have a son, she tells Abraham to sleep with Hagar so that Hagar can bear a son for Sarah. Hagar has Ishmael, but after this episode she begins to have contempt for Sarah. Once Sarah has Isaac, she makes Abraham kick Hagar and Ishmael out.

Ishmael

Hagar and Abraham's kid. He's a launching point for Islam b/c God promises him a great nation when he and his mother get kicked out.

Lot

Lot was a guy who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah with his two daughters. He was Abraham's nephew and a good guy in the Bible context, though since he offered to let people rape his daughters, he's not a good guy by a basic moral standard. Also, he's the guy that after his wife dies and Sodom and Gomorrah burn, his daughters get him drunk and sleep with him to continue the family line.

Noahide Laws

God's covenant with Noah after the flood. 1) Be fruitful and multiply, 2) take care of the earth, 3) you can eat meat, but NO BLOOD! + 4) no killing people.

Sodom and Gomorrah

This was the cities that Lot lived in which was overwhelmed with sin. God wanted to destroy it, but Abraham managed to barter with him, saying it righteous men lived there, he couldn't destroy it. Messengers of God were sent there to check, and they met Lot, who protected them from being raped by a horde of people and offered his own daughters up instead. God decides to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and tells Lot to take his wife and daughters and flee. Lot does so, but his wife turns back to look and this kills her, so it's just Lot and his daughters.

Isaac/Rebekah

Isaac was Abraham's son and acted as a bridge between Jacob and Abraham more than anything else. In the stories he appears in, he is almost an object -- his father nearly sacrifices him, and his wife, Rebekah, tricks him into giving his blessing to Jacob instead of Esau, his eldest. Rebekah was more dynamic, but not much was said about her. The two completed the wife/sister triplet started by Abraham/Sarah.

Jacob & Leah/Rachel

Jacob was the third patriarch. Unlike Abraham, he wasn't a perfect model. He was very tricky and ambitious. He tricked his elder brother, Esau, into giving up his birthright for a bowl of soup, and he also tricked his father into giving him the blessing meant for Esau by putting goat hide on so his father would think his arms were hairy. After this, Jacob has to flee because Esau wants to kill him, and that's when God tells him he's chosen. Jacob puts conditions on him and tests God to make sure he'll follow through -- not obedient like Abraham. He is attractive to Israel because they are the little guy and they see that he is too, but he uses his smarts to get stuff. He also changes quite a bit. He falls in love with Rachel and works 7 years for her father for her hand in marriage, but the dad tricks him into marrying Leah first because she was older, so he had to work 7 more years to get Rachel in the end. Rachel is his favorite, and that's why Joseph is his favorite son. To make it up to her, God blesses Leah with more children.

Esau

Jacob's older brother, a bit dim, Jacob tricks him quite a bit -- out of his birthright for a bowl of soup and out of his blessing as well. He wants to kill Jacob, causing Jacob to flee. Once Jacob returns with his wives, Esau forgives him because he has changed and become better.

Laban

Laban is both Rebekah's brother and Rachel and Leah's father. When Abraham sent a servant back to Mesopotamia to find Isaac a wife, Laban was key to letting the servant take Rebekah back for Isaac. Then, when Jacob had to flee, he fell in love with Rachel and Laban made him work for fourteen years by tricking him and making him marry Leah first. Laban and Jacob had a pretty strained relationship -- first Laban tricked Jacob, and then Jacob left Laban's house with his daughters after Laban's sons started being jealous towards Jacob for his chosen-by-God status. Before leaving, Rachel took some of Laban's idols, and Laban got mad and accused Jacob. Jacob didn't know Rachel took them, and got mad at Laban for accusing him. That's pretty much the end of Laban's story.

Hyksos

When Joseph became very powerful in Egypt, it seemed odd to historians that a non-Egyptian could have such a high status. So what they think was going on was that the Joseph story is placed in a time when the Hyksos ruled Egypt. The Hyksos basically let everyone continue speaking Egyptian and practicing the same religion, and their reign was peaceful and prosperous for Egypt. While they ruled, they were friendly to outsiders, which is how Joseph could have basically been second in command.

Jacob --> Israel

Jacob's name was changed to Israel in this story where he met and wrestled this guy who was God in disguise. They wrestled and Jacob refused to let go until the guy blessed him, so God renamed his Israel, which means "a man who wrestles with God". Jacob is the father of Israel, and his 12 sons make up the 12 tribes of Israel.

Joseph and Judah/Reuben/Benjamin

Joseph was Jacob/Israel's favorite son because he was Rachel's only son, and Jacob loved Rachel more than anybody. He was a real daddy's boy and would always wear this nice cloak his dad made him that none of the other sons got. He also told his brothers that he had a dream where everyone, the stars and heavens and all of his brothers, were bowing to them. The dream story happens twice, and his brothers get pissed off and want to kill him. But Judah and/or Reuben tells them not to, so they throw him in a hole instead. Some slave traders find him and sell him into slavery in Egypt, and the brothers, covering up their crime, tell Israel he died. This is an example of one of the stories where the J/E narratives get mixed -- in one version, Judah's the one who saved Joseph, and in the other, it's Reuben. Also, there's some discrepancies about the nationalities of the slave traders and what order these events occurred in. Once Joseph is sold into slavery, he works very hard and becomes a prized slave, until the whole Tale-of-Two-Brothers thing happens and he's thrown in jail. When he's in jail the Pharoah's cupbearer and baker are also thrown in jail, and Joseph interprets their dreams for them. Based on their dreams, he tells the cupbearer that Pharoah will find him innocent and he'll be able to return to work, but the baker will be found guilty and will be executed. So then that happens, and the Pharoah starts having bad dreams that no one can interpret. The cupbearer remembers Joseph and tells the Pharoah, and the Pharoah gets Joseph, who interprets the Pharoah's two dreams. The first dream is of seven healthy cows being swallowed by seven skinny, unhealthy cows. The second is of seven healthy wheat crops being swallowed by seven diseased crops. Joseph tells the Pharoah this means there will be seven bountiful years followed by seven years of famine, so he needs to stockpile food. The Pharoah is thankful and basically makes Joseph his second in command. The famine occurs, and Joseph begins distributing food to people. His brothers show up and ask for food, but Joseph remembers how they tried to kill him and tests them. Rachel had had another son, Benjamin, and Joseph pretends to think his brothers are spies and tells them to bring Benjamin to him. Israel is terrified because he already lost Joseph and doesn't want to lose Benjamin too, and Judah swears he'll bring Benjamin home safe. They bring Benjamin to Joseph, who tricks them by placing some goblets in Benjamin's pack of food and pretending Benjamin was stealing, saying that Benjamin has to stay as a servant. Judah offers to take his brother's place and stay, saying that losing Benjamin would destroy their father. Joseph sees the goodness in his brothers and reveals himself as Joseph. They go home and tell Israel Joseph is alive, and the entire family moves to Egypt to live with Joseph, powerful and wealthy. This ends the Genesis narrative.

Potiphar

The guy who Joseph was enslaved to, whose wife tried to sleep with him and then accused him of rape.

Akhenaton

Akhenaton was a pharaoh who basically caused Egypt to start losing power. What happened was he was having a lot of disagreements with the priests, and in order to get one over on them, he started worshipping the sun disc Aton and made everyone else do the same, forcing monotheism on a polytheistic society. He was totally hated by his people mostly for that reason and also for just being a generally incompetent ruler, and this started a period of instability in Egypt. Then his son Tutankamon (king Tut!!) took the throne as a child after Akhenaton died. He was a kid, so the priests essentially manipulated him into changing everything back to polytheism, but their military power was weakened and Egypt started failing.

Amon Re

Amon Re was the god of Thebes, the capital of Egypt. Egyptians believed that there were local gods for each city, and as a city rose to prominence, so to did their god.

Aaron

This was Moses's speaker/father of priests. Moses had a bit of stutter and wasn't too eloquent, so he asked God for someone else to speak in his place. That someone was Aaron. Later, after Exodus, Aaron marries Miriam and he and Moses have some issues, such as when Aaron and Miriam don't like that Moses married an outsider and try to use it as evidence that they are as important as him. For the most part, though, Aaron and Moses were a pretty united front.

Red/Reed Sea

There are three versions of the "Moses/Israelites crossing a body of water" story. The first version is the one everyone knows -- Moses splits the sea. The second version is they go through a swamp, and the Egyptians's wheels get stuck and they can't make it through. This is probably the closest to what really happened. The third version is that they're on ships, and God drowns the Egyptians's ships. The whole Red vs Reed Sea is because historically, it was most likely the Reed Sea that the Bible writers were talking about, not the Red Sea. The translation is because in Hebrew there aren't any vowels, so you get RD and people can say "red" or "reed". Red Sea sounds a lot more epic and impressive because it's enormous, while the Reed Sea is much smaller, which is why people like the Red Sea better.

Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a bunch of laws that Babylonian leader Hammurabi wrote and put in an enormous square for everyone to see. Most of the people were illiterate, but the laws were mostly to hold types of punishment accountable. The gist of it is that a) the punishment has to fit the crime, and b) the laws were fair and consistent (not subject to whim).

Meribah

"Meribah" means "quarrel" and it is the place Moses broke a rock and water flowed out of it. There are two versions of this story, the Exodus version and the Numbers version. In the Exodus version, the Israelites are thirsty and ask Moses for water. Moses goes to God for help, and he tells Moses to hit a rock with his staff, which causes a river to flow out of it. In the Numbers version, the Israelites are super annoying and whiny, and Moses gets frustrated and hits the rock when he was NOT supposed to, causing the river. God is angry with Moses for hitting the rock and bans him from entering the Promised Land.

Miriam

This is Aaron's wife. The notable thing about her is the story about her and Aaron opposing Moses because they didn't like that he married an outsider and they thought they should be on the same level as him. In response, God curses Miriam with a skin condition (though he does nothing to Aaron), and she has to be isolated for a week after Moses prays for her to be healed.

Joshua

Joshua is our Moses 2.0. Moses can't go into the Promised Land, so we have to wait for him to die. Once he does, Joshua steps up and takes his place. Joshua leads the Conquest. He does mostly the same stuff Moses did: sends spies, leads Israelites out of the wilderness, celebrates Passover, is obedient to God, mediates between God and the people, and gives a final farewell speech. Very one dimensional character.

Jericho

Jericho was the city that the Israelites marched around during the Conquest. The Israelites didn't fight their own battles, God did it for them. They were taking the Promised Land when they got to Jericho, which had huge walls they couldn't get past. God tells them that for six days, every day they have to march around the city once. Then, on the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times while the priests blew trumpets and carried the arc of the covenant. Then everyone shouted, and the walls of Jericho fell down and they were able to take the city.

Achan/Ai

The Israelites only lost one battle in the Conquest, and it was to the smallest group of nothing people: the Ai. The Israelites should have been able to defeat them even without God, but they didn't, because of Achan. Achan was a guy who took devoted things (a few bars of gold, some money, and a robe) and that made God mad. In response, Joshua and the Israelites stoned and burned Achan, and then God was back on their side. This seems extreme, but it spoke to the idea that if one person was sinful, they would poison everyone else. This is also why Israelites were fearful of outsiders.

Judges

Joshua is a perfect picture of obedience and the glory that comes from following God. Judges shows the results of disobedience -- cut off from the Promised Land, infertile, and, eventually, dead. A "judge" is a highest authority in a tribe, often times the military leader, who interpreted the covenant and laws. They ruled because of their wisdom, skill, and strength, NOT because of their lineage.

Phillistines

"Phillistines" means "Sea People", and they were a group of people from the Greek/Asia Minor area who settled on the coast, where present-day Israel is. They were powerful, and managed to defeat Egypt, making them Israel's biggest threat, which is why they are depicted unfavorably in the Bible. Samson (Judge) fights them in Judges. Side note -- the word "Palestine" comes from "Phillistine", but those two groups of people are not connected or ancestors. It's just the name of the land.

Samson from Dan

Samson was divinely chosen at birth because his mother was infertile until a divine messenger came and told her she was pregnant and will have a son. Samson delivers Israel from the Phillistines, and he also never cuts his hair because that's part of his destiny. He's a Herculean strong man, and does a number of impressive things, such as killing a lion with his bare hands, killing 30-100 men in a fit of violence, and tying 300 foxes together by the tail with torches tied in. He also carries the Gaza city gates 40 miles uphill. His fatal flaw is his involvement with a non-Israelite woman. He marries a Phillistine and sleeps with Phillistine prostitutes. He ends up dying by bringing down a temple of the Phillistine diety Dagon on thousands of worshippers and himself. God then shatters a Dagon statue.

Gideon from Manasseh

The Israelites have been being disobedient and worshipping over gods, so the Midianites raid their territory. Gideon comes from a family who worships Baal, and Gideon's original name was actually "Jerubbaal" or "let Baal contend". "Gideon" was his nickname and meant "hacker" because he hacks people down. A divine messenger tells him he's a vessel that God will deliver Israel through. Gideon is reluctant at first, but he defeats the Midianites and punishes the Israelites who refused to help him. Gideon goes downhill when he builds idols for God, and then his son, Abimelech, kills his brothers and crowns himself king. God kills Abimelech and burns down a tower in response.

Deborah from Ephriam

Deborah is our only girl judge, and she is one of a total of three women named in Judges. She is a military leader, judge, and prophet. Her gender is not viewed as significant to the Bible writers. Jael is a part of Deborah's story -- the second woman named. She is a member of the Kenite clan, who entices, tricks, and kills the Canaanite general.

Jephthah from Gilead

Jephthah was the illegitimate son of a prostitute and a Gileadite. He was expelled from his family and became a good enough bandit that when the Ammonites attack, Gilead turns to him. Before the battle, Jephthah swears that if he wins, he will sacrifice what/whoever comes out of his house to meet him. He wins, and his daughter comes out to meet him. After hearing that he has to kill her, she agrees that it's the right thing to do. Very sad story.

The Levite

The Levite is a sickening story that concludes Judges. The Levite and his concubine and traveling through Benjamin and the Benjaminites come pounding at the door because they want to rape him. He throws his concubine out, and they rape her presumably to death. He goes out in the morning and kicks her to wake her up, and sees that she's either non responsive or dead. He cuts her into 12 pieces and sends one to each tribe to show them what happened, and the tribes decide they have to overthrow Benjamin. They destroy Benjamin, and the moral of the story is even though Israel was supposed to be united under God and they weren't supposed to have a king, apparently they need a king to rule over them and impose order.

Abimelech

The name Abimelech appears twice. First, it's the name of the Pharoah who took Sarah is one of the three wife/sister narratives. Second, it's the name of Gideon's son in Judges.

Canaan

This was the land that existed in the Promised Land before Israel. Canaanites are the people who were there before Israelites. The Israelites don't like them and are generally hostile to them, massacring them in the Conquest and being distrustful because they worship other gods, most notably Baal.

Baal

Baal is the storm god that many Canaanites worshipped and was God's real opponent. Like YHWH, he was very humanlike and jealous. He was the god of storm and fertility for Canaan, and was the one who created the world.

Anat

Anat was Baal's sister and wife (incestuous). When Baal is trapped in the underworld, it's Anat that rescues him.

Yam

Yam was the chaotic waters of the sea that Baal had to fight and defeat in order to create the world. After he beats him, El gives Baal dominion over the world.

El

El was another Canaanite god that resembled Elohim. He was the father of gods and the creator of all, but the Canaanites worshipped Baal because Baal controlled fertility and weather, which had more of an immediate threat towards people.

Asherah

El's wife, and goddess of the sea. If El and Elohim were the same person, this means Asherah was God's wife. However, Christians turned her into a pole to avoid the problem of more than one god.

Mot

Mot was the Hades equivalent who ruled the Underworld. He wants to kill Baal, but he's not strong enough, so he tricks Baal by inviting him to feast in the Underworld. Eating traps Baal, and this creates winter on earth (since Baal = fertility and storm). Anat has to go down and rescue Baal. This is a parallel to the story of Persephone, and the story of Ishtar -- stories from other religions.

The Four Covenants

1. Adam and Eve - covenant with all of humanity, a) be fruitful and multiply, b) don't eat from the tree of knowledge, c) be a vegetarian. In return, you get safety, immortality, and paradise. 2. Noahide - all of humanity, a) be fruitful and multiply, b) don't kill people, c) you have dominion over the earth, d) you can eat meat, but no blood!! In return, God will not drown the earth again. 3. Abraham - only Abraham's family. You must be circumcised, and in return, God will give you the Promised Land, a male heir, and a nation. 4. Moses - only Israelites, and this has tons of laws.

Blood

Seen as the life force and belonging only to God. This is why humans can't have blood in their meat, and why blood is used in sacrificial rituals, and why it's a sin to spill blood.

Historical Criticism

This is one of the ways we can study the Bible. We compare the ideas and traditions in the Bible to ideas and traditions from other cultures that existed nearby in the same time period. There are connections with Egyptian and Babylonian culture. The similarities we find tells us what was going on with everyone who existed in that time, and the differences show us what was unique between cultures and landscapes.

Textual Criticism

Textual criticism is another way to study the Bible. We focus completely on the Bible, and ask: why, out of thousands of stories to choose from, did we come up with these specific versions of the Bible? This means studying different stories, how they're retold, and what language is used. Scholars go through all of the different versions of the Bible and try to recreate the original.

Form Criticism

A sub category of historical criticism. Form criticism is focusing specifically on the myths and folktales from different cultures. An example of this is the parallels between Gilgamesh/Atrahasis and the Garden of Eden/Noah's flood.

Source Criticism

Another sub category of historical criticism. Source criticism is trying to figure out the written sources behind the Bible. Who came first, who came later, and what did they change vs what did they keep? The best example of this is the Documentary Hypothesis.

Bible

"Bible" comes from the Greek plural meaning "books". It's a library/collection of books written at different times. Since they were written by different authors in different places/times, they contradict each other and they don't all fit one ideal.

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is only the Old Testament. The New Testament belongs exclusively to Christians. The Hebrew Bible consists of the Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim.

TaNaK

The Hebrew name of the Hebrew Bible, it stands for T: Torah, N: Nevi'im, and K: Ketuvim, a.k.a. the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.

Septuagint/LLX

The Greek translation of the Tanak. Septuagint means "seventy" and LXX is the number. It was the first translation into a non-semitic language. There was conflict when the Greeks first wanted to translate it, because the Hebrews were afraid they wouldn't translate it right. To remedy this, they made up the story of Ptolemy. Ptolemy II was the Greek ruler who wanted to create a great library containing as much literature as possible, and he wanted the Tanak in it. As the story goes, he hired seventy Hebrew scribes and put them each on their own island and told them to translate it. Miraculously, they all translated it exactly the same, showing that a) the translation was correct and b) God was on their side and wanted it to be translated.

Historical books

While the Tanak only has three categories (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim), the Christian Bible has a fourth major category because they arranged it differently. They moved some of the prophets into historical books, saying that it was an account of history, not a story.

Apocrypha

Early Christians spoke only Greek, and they added seven extra books into the LXX. The Hebrews did not count these books as canon because they weren't written in Hebrew, and some Christian denominations don't count them for the same reason. "Apocrypha" means "hidden books", which is misleading because they weren't hidden, just rejected by some.

Deuterocanonical

Deuterocanonical means "second canon". These are books that are not part of the Jewish canon, but part of some Christian canons. The Apocrypha is an example, but there are others as well.

Genesis/Bereshit

The first book of the Torah. "Bereshit" means "in the beginning". Genesis focuses origins: specifically, the origins of the world, and the origins of God's relationship with the world and with humanity. The prologue of Genesis (Garden and Flood, 1-11) detail God attempting to have a relationship with all of humanity. Once we get into the Patriarchal history (12-50), God has given up on all of humanity and focuses on a specific family: Abraham.

Covenant/Berit

Covenants are integral to God's relationship with humanity. They are the driving force of the Bible. A covenant is a legally binding contract that people enter into. God has specific duties to humans, and humans have specific duties to God. The four major covenants are Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Humans literally always mess the covenant up.

5 Problems with Moses writing the Torah

1. Moses died in the Torah, and his death is described as saying "nobody knows where he is buried to this day". If Moses wrote it, how could he know the specifics of how and when he would die, and why would he write as if he was looking back hundreds of years in the future? 2. Doublets -- stories are repeated, such as when God called Moses and the story of Abraham and Hagar. 3. Triplets -- stories repeated three times, such as the story of the wife/sister confusion in a foreign land. 4. Two Fused Stories -- stories with contradictory details showing two stories have been mixed together, such as Noah and the flood. 5. Vocabulary -- different words are used, such as the use of the Lord's name. YHWH is used from the beginning for the J source, but the other sources don't have God reveal his name until he speaks with Moses.

Ockham's Razor

Ockham's Razor is the theory that the solution that seems the simplest is probably right. In terms of Moses writing the Torah, people wanted to believe it and tried to contort the facts to fit their beliefs. Ockham's Razor says that instead, we should look at the facts and let them lead us to the simplest solution -- in this case, that multiple people wrote the Bible.

Documentary Hypothesis

This was the first theory to not only propose that the Bible was written by different people, but to nail down four different sources: J, E, P, and D. This is widely accepted and has been used several times to determine where a story originated from. Of course, it does not provide a full explanation, because there weren't just four authors, so other methodologies have to be employed. Still, it's a good starting point and is still used.

J, E, P, and D.

J is the Yahwist Source. It's probably the oldest, and originated out of Judah, or southern Israel. It's distinctive by calling God "the Lord", and portraying him as anthropomorphic and human like. E is the Elohist Source, which probably came a little later and came out of the north. Their God is more distant, and they call him "Elohim", or "God". P is the Priestly Source, which came the latest and is credited with editing the Bible together. P is very concerned with priestly rituals and rules, and spends a lot of time on laws and genealogies, especially for priests. P edited it together in the end, so he got the last word in a way, and put his creation story first. Finally, the D source is the Deuteronomic source, which exists entirely in Deuteronomy. It emphasizes prophecy, came out of northern Israel, and uses Horeb for the name of Moses's mountain rather than Sinai.

the Patriarchs

The Patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's kids. They were nomadic shepherds. Jacob's sons represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The major themes of the patriarch's stories are 1) C2D2, 2) Mesopotamia (Abraham originated there and Isaac/Jacob find their wives there), 3) Exile and Return (Abraham and Jacob travel to Egypt and Mesopotamia and return), and 4) God's threefold promise.

The Threefold Promise

God's promise to Abraham. 1. the Promised Land, 2. lots of children and male heirs, and 3. a blessing that will come eventually, but first, Abraham has to suffer.

Matriarchs

Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel were the matriarchs. They are important, but in the background, as the stories are male-dominated. Sarah was Abraham's wife, Rebecca was Isaac's, and Leah and Rachel were Jacob's wives, as well as being sisters.

Eponyms

An eponyms is a person who represents a place, or a person whose name comes to represent a place. An example is the 12 sons of Jacob -- each of their names becomes a tribe of Israel. Also, in the Bible, if the Israelites don't like a group of people, they come up with a story about why they don't. For example, they didn't like Canaanites, so they wrote the story of Noah and Ham when Ham sees his father naked, and then Canaan (Ham's son) is cursed to be a slave to his brothers.

Exodus/Shemot

"Exodus" means "going out" or "an exit", because it is the Israelites leaving Egypt, where they have been enslaved, and begin their journey to the Promised Land. "Shemot" means "names". It begins right after Joseph -- the Israelites are in Egypt, but they're no longer prosperous. Instead, they've been enslaved. Exodus also has the Ten Commandments, which are super important.

Ten Plagues

The 10 plagues were actually a battle between gods -- God proving his might over the Egyptian gods. The plagues are: water to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence/disease, boils/sores, thunder and hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn sons.

Hardening Pharaoh's heart

God actually made it so that the Pharaoh decided not to let the Israelites go. Moses told the Pharaoh to let them go, but God hardened the Pharaoh's heart so he didn't listen. God then killed all the firstborn sons, but it wasn't because the Pharaoh wouldn't listen -- he made sure everything happened the way it did.

Leviticus/Vayikra

The third book of the Torah. "Vayikra" means "and he called" with "he" being God. This is basically a book of Laws, so we don't spend too much time in it. Leviticus is a continuation of the 10 commandments/Decalogue -- those are the main rules, and Leviticus is filled with other rules. Numbers and Deuteronomy also have lots more rules of the covenant in them.

Parity Covenant

The covenant with God was based off of a lawful practice of covenants in culture. Parity and suzerainty/vassal covenants were practiced mostly by the Hittites, who ruled many smaller states. This is probably where the Israelites got the form/structure of their covenant with God. A parity covenant is a treaty with two equals, a.k.a. two kingdoms/kings who are independent and about equal in power.

Vassal/Suzerainty Covenant

A vassal/suzerainty covenant is a Hittite treaty between a ruler and their subject, or someone who is superior to someone else. The basic structure is: 1. identify who the suzerainty (superior) is, 2. give a history of all the wonderful things the suzerainty has done for the vassals, 3. a list of rules/stipulations that the vassal has to do, 4. a provision to deposit several copies of the treaty to major temples of principal gods of the vassals, to make sure all the vassals know what they have to do, 5. a list of divine witnesses to the treaty, who will punish the ruler if they are abusive, and 6. blessings for what will happen if you do follow the treaty and curses for what will happen to you if you don't. This is also the structure of God's covenant with humanity, so this is probably where they got it from.

Berit

"Berit" means covenant, and it means "contrast/legal agreement". Israelites considered their covenants with God to be legally binding on earth.

The Ten Commandments/Decalogue

1. No other gods. 2. No making idols. 3. No worshipping idols. 4. No using the Lord's name wrongly. 5. Seventh day is Sabbath - no working. 6. No murder. 7. No adultery. 8. No stealing. 9. No bearing false witness. 10. No coveting your neighbor's belongings (house, wife, slaves, livestock, etc.)

Numbers/Bemidbar

"Bemidbar" means "In the wilderness". The theme of Numbers was rebellion. The Israelites are out of Egypt, and now they're beginning to rebel against Moses a little. The major rebellions are Aaron/Miriam, the Spies, the Priests, Meribah, the Bronze Snake, and Bael Peor.

Exodus vs Numbers

Two stories from Exodus are repeated in Numbers: the story of mana, and the story of Meribah. In Exodus, the people complain but are justified because they are hungry/thirsty. Moses goes to God, and he solves the problem. However, in Numbers, the people are whiny and awful, Moses is obnoxious and rude, and God is furious and punishes them. In Exodus, Moses hits a rock with his staff in order to summon the waters of Meribah because God told him to. In Numbers, he wasn't supposed to hit the rock, and when he does, God punishes him by not letting him into the Promised Land. Similarly, in Exodus God gives the people mana to eat, but in Numbers, he gives them so much meat they become sick, and then curses them with a plague that kills a significant number of them. Numbers did this in order to establish a theme: if God punishes us, it's our fault. However, God never gave up on them completely, which was a source of hope.

Deuteronomy/Devarim

Devarim means "words". Deuteronomy means "second law" because a second copy of the laws of Deuteronomy were written and given to the king, so that he would know them as well. Deuteronomy is concerned with giving rules about how to live. The three major rules: 1. No worshipping other gods, 2. No worshipping outside of the temple, and 3. No interacting with outsiders. Deuteronomy was originally intended to be heard as a speech (it's Moses's farewell address, part of the reason people thought Moses wrote the Torah), and it was read every 7 years so everyone knew the rules. It wants you to think that if you follow these rules, Israel will be great, and if you don't, God will punish Israel.

Deuteronomic Code

All of the laws of Deuteronomy, of which there are tons. But the three most important are: 1. No worshipping other gods, 2. No worshipping outside of the temple, 3. No interacting with outsiders. Remember this! It's important!

Deuteronomic School

This is our "D" source, and the authors of the entire Deuteronomic History: Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges. The school was a group of people who followed and bought into the Deuteronomic beliefs. The school began in the northern kingdom (like E, they call Sinai "Horeb" instead). When the northern kingdom was destroyed, the school traveled south into Judah. The school probably existed in the 100 years leading up to the exile. They were religious reformers.

Deuteronomy & the Torah

Deuteronomy is a bridge between the Torah and the Nevi'im (Prophets). Joshua and Judges are part of the Deuteronomic history, which exists in 3 parts. Deuteronomy lays out the rules, Joshua shows the glory of what will happen if you follow them, and Judges shows the horrors of what will happen if you don't. Deuteronomy concludes the Torah, ends with Moses's death, and then launches us into Joshua & Judges.

Former Prophets

The Former Prophets are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. We've only studied Joshua and Judges so far. Joshua is the path of life and obedience, which is the glory of the Conquest. Judges is the path of disobedience and death, and shows how Israel has devolved into anarchists who worship Baal and are generally corrupt, immoral, and brutish. The Judges are local heroes who protect the Israelites and set them on the path of righteousness -- in theory. Things never go quite that well. Judges concludes by admitting "even though God is supposed to be our only king, we need a human king on earth, because we need someone to keep us in line". That pushes us into Samuel and Kings.

Ban/herem

"Herem" means something that is prohibited, because the Promised Land was prohibited from being used for anything other than YHWH. The ban/herem was during the Conquest, when the Israelites committed genocide by massacring men, women, and children of all the people who were living in the Promised Land. This most likely did not happen historically, it shows the hostility towards outsiders.

Fertility and the gods

The main problems that people in this time period faced was their vulnerability to the elements. They relied on it to grow their food, and to not kill them. Therefore, fertility gods and storm gods were the main gods worshipped. Baal was popular because he was a storm god and a fertility god. YHWH, too, was worshipped for this reason.

Sex & Violence in the Torah

There are four major stories showing sex and violence. 1: Ham sees Noah naked, and Canaan (Ham's son) is cursed to be a slave to his brothers. 2: Lots/daughters, in which the Moabites and Ammonites are conceived from drunken incest. 3: Dinah, in which Levi and Simeon kill all the men in a town, plunder it, and enslave the women and children, because the leader of it raped their sister. 4: Tamar, in which Tamar tries to marry Judah's son but God kills off the first two because they are disobedient, and then, in order to stay in the family, Tamar dresses up as a prostitute and tricks Judah into sleeping with her so that she gets pregnant and is part of the family. Tamar is actually the good guy in this story, because Judah was being awful to her by not letting her marry his third son. These four stories show that the Israelites used sex as a way of demonizing people and making them into delinquents. It gives them justification for the ban/herem, because the Canaanites, Moabites, and Ammonites are below them according to these stories.