OBST 800 Reading Assessment Remainder of Pentateuch 09-10-2023

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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY Remainder of Pentateuch Reading Assignment Submitted to Dr. Michael Graham, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course OBST 800-B02 Old Testament Backgrounds by Kristopher Williams 10 September 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT…………………………………...1 Archaeology of the Late Bronze Age……………………………………………… 1 Egyptian Iconography……………………………………………………………... 2 The Egyptian Sojourn and the Exodus…………………………………………….. 2 The Temple in Context…………………………………………………………….. 3 Metallurgy in the World of the Bible……………………………………………… 4 Law and Legal Systems in Ancient Israel…………………………………………. 5 AGAINST THE GODS……………………………………………………………………. 6 OLD TESTAMENT PARALLELS………………………………………………………... 8 ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN THEMES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY…………………...9 THE BIBLE AMONG THE MYTHS………………………………………………………10 ii

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT Archaeology of the Late Bronze Age 1 Joe Uziel, in his contribution to Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament, offers broad coverage of the various archaeological evidence that has been uncovered in the southern Levant and dated to the latter centuries of the 2 nd millennium B.C. A major claim Uziel puts forward is that “Following the collapse of the Middle Bronze, the rebirth of urban society in the Late Bronze follows a completely different pattern than that of its predecessor” (Uziel 48). Evidence of population decrease and a decline in overall material culture obtained through interpretation of archaeological remains is one pillar that Uziel supports his “completely different pattern” argument with. Another support interprets the appearance of many deities within the same temple complex as the coalescing of control over religious cultic practices by monarchs and their priests. Conversely, archaeological finds also have seen the recovery of clay figures typically understood to represent deities within residential communities, rather than within temple areas. This evidence may allow for the idea of “popular religion” outside of the control of, if not a theocratic system, then one in which an official religious orthodoxy supported the monarchy. In addition to recoveries of what are interpreted to be religious artifacts, Uziel notes “a sharp increase in written finds from Canaan dating to the Late Bronze Age” (Uziel 51) that are composed in three different types of script (cuneiform, alphabetic, and hieratic). Despite the appearance of three different writing forms and languages, most written samples are composed in Akkadian, with the overall conclusion reached is that “written finds from Late Bronze Age Canaan are scarce, and it seems that documents were mostly limited to administrative needs” (Uziel 51). 1 Joe Uziel, “Archaeology of the Late Bronze Age,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Context s, ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 47-53. 1

Egyptian Iconography 2 In her “Egyptian Iconography,” Laura wright presents archaeological evidence supporting the idea that Egyptian items, whether religious or just representative of their culture, secured acceptance and were recognized to possess utility and value across the southern Levant, including Israel, in large part due to the idea that a materially superior culture created and propagated them. Rather than remaining items that represented the values and worldviews of a foreign nation, many of these goods came to be seen as native to Israel rather than originating from Egypt and with the original cultural or religious significance intact. One reason for this “Israelization” of several items and motifs stems from evidence demonstrating that the items in question ceased to be exclusively imported from Egypt. Instead, local production of similar goods and items can be observed. The major takeaway, according to Wrights, is that “images once thought to be Egyptian likely became part of the southern Levantine iconography after centuries of use” (Wright 163). The Egyptian Sojourn and the Exodus 3 By claiming that the “exodus is the one event that defines the ancient Israelites more than any other, becoming an overarching theme in the nation’s literature and national identity,” David Falk seeks to apply evidence obtained from archaeological sites in unison with various literature in order to offer a plausible reconstruction of the travel route used by the generation led by Moses (Falk 194). In addition, Falk argues that the literary evidence observed in the Pentateuch have similarities with styles known to be prevalent in Egypt during the late Bronze Age while 2 Laura Wright, “Egyptian Iconography,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 159-164. 3 David A. Falk, “The Egyptian Sojourn and the Exodus,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 194-200. 2

claiming that the final form of the biblical text suggests that the author(s) possessed extensive knowledge and experience with the “area of the Nile delta and the customs as they existed in the late New Kingdom” (Falk 200). Evidence does not necessitate “proof” of an event, though utilization of material and literary remains allows for placing the exodus event into history rather than relegating it to myth. The Temple in Context 4 Having read and accepted the central claims of several of his monographs, with my first experience being The Lost World of Genesis One , John Walton essentially provides an abstract of the major claims from those larger texts. Walton situates his claim by arguing that the ancient Hebrews were actually members of the overarching ANE cultures through many centuries. Citing examples, especially those from the various Mesopotamian civilizations, Walton seeks to press the idea that Hebrew readers both understood and utilized temple imagery to understand their role in the cosmos. The major idea gleaned from ANE texts and, according to Walton, understood by these Hebrew readers, is that the temple was the home of the god and became “sacred space” due to the god’s presence as a resident. Divine-human interactions occurred in the temple complex, and while humanity performed rituals in order to receive divine gifts that were necessary for survival, the gods themselves also received part of their upkeep due to the actions of humans (Walton 350). Importantly, the placement of an image of a deity within a temple complex was not only needed as a reminder for which god resided, it was necessary in order for the temple to actually function. The gods maintained a distance and only met at the temple. 4 John H. Walton, “The Temple in Context,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 349-367. 3

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