The Tanakh’s Books of Genesis and Exodus both serve as the foundation for Friedrich Nietzsche's ideology of “clerical castes”. However, this idea becomes more profound when one puts these books side by side with The Book of J by J, our Yahwist narrator; this then suggests joint authorship between the Yahwist and Priestly Source in the Torah supporting the documentary hypothesis. Within the Tanakh, we are able to see this mash up and the priests that Nietzsche calls out are seen through literary structural analysis, detail, and the certain choices made by the different authors in order to achieve literary purposes.
Clerical castes are precisely what they sound like: a priestly class system that inherits exclusive privilege in their respective
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J’s human being creation story in the Book of J. One can suggest that the Priestly Source writing the Book of Genesis added the story of the cosmos in order to provide meaning for the creation of man and woman and in order for their God to have a plan, whereas J isn’t interested in the cosmos because she is merely telling the story of her Yahweh in regards to human interaction. This interweaves with Nietzsche’s entire ideology on master morality because the priests writing Genesis make literary choices where they include details such as, “And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10-25) at the end of every one of his creations in order to formulate a general idea of “good”. In doing this the Priestly Source pursues their purpose in redaction: it is a didactic attempt to teach tradition and mold the people’s perception of good by psychologically relating it to their God, they've created a pre-conceived morality for the plebeians to associate “good”, God, and the actual priests …show more content…
The different Gods present in the Tanakh are a result of this hypothesis, evidence of the different purposes present between the different authors such as orthodoxy of rituals in the priests and mere portrayal of tradition in J. In these juxtapositions, we are able to see Nietzsche’s point in the discourse of slave morality and master morality; that the priests express their “quantum of force” l through the “seduction of language” (GM, I, §13), and not only is this inevitable but that the common people must separate the idea that their merely strong from how they actually manifest that strength. The Book of J, and the Books of Genesis and Exodus all correlate with Nietzsche’s ideology that the Torah was created under joint authorship but also that this authorship exposes the substance of master morality, how it is pursued, and the Ethos of the clerical caste in relations to their
Prophecy, poetry, songs, and genealogy lists are just a few of the many genres found in the Pentateuch. However, the two dominant genres include biblical law and biblical narrative. In fact, 40 percent of the Old Testament is narrative (“Lecture 1,” 2015). Key to interpreting different texts within the Bible, it is critical to understand the genres themselves. Each genre possesses unique features that, when understood, assist in the interpretation of the text. Understanding the key features of biblical law and biblical narrative genres will affect how an individual interprets Scripture in the Old Testament.
The purpose of the creation story is not central to the Bible but serves as a prologue to the historical drama, which are the central concerns of the Bible. The narrative focus in the Bible is on the story that begins with Noah and is centered on the exodus from Egypt. The central event in the Bible is the creation of the covenant and the giving of laws and commandments. Although the creation of the world in Genesis I and the pronouncement of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 are two completely different accounts in the Bible, there lies a similar theme between them: God creates an orderly and hierarchical universe, both natural and moral.
The Bible is divided into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. This paper mainly focuses on the Old Testament. The Old Testament has 39 books in total which is also subdivided into four categories namely; Pentateuch books (5 books), the historical books (12 books), the poetic books (5 books) and the prophetic books (17 books). The Old Testament books were written back in 1400 B.C. The Pentateuch books were written by Moses during his time in Canaan, while the other 34 books were also written by different authors at different stated time. The aim of this paper is therefore, to analyze the authorship, dating, content, outline, themes, and unique features of one book of the Old Testament, and the book chosen is the book of Leviticus.
A person both is and is not identical with God and in this way must be both possessed of a capacity to know Him and equally must be beholden to the laws that He lays down for behaviour and worship. The simultaneous closeness and distance is present in the idea of that people are made in the image of God. This paper will consider the breadth of the Hebrew Bible in order to show the consequences of this seeming contradiction that a person is an incomplete replication and possesses a separated, although potentially bridgeable relationship to Divine. To begin with it will argue that, while prior
The first five chapters of Genesis provide not only historical information about Creation, the Fall, and the first generations of mankind, but they also describe God’s attitude toward His creation and towards sin. These chapters also provide insights into the nature of man. For example, we learn from Genesis 1 and 2 that we have been made in the image of God. This means that humans have authority, value, and purpose because God possesses these traits. The first four chapters of Genesis give us insight into how each of these traits specifically apply to human life and society.
Robert states in chapter one that “Genesis 1-2, the first two chapters of the bible show us God’s original, perfect creation” (27). In this chapter he goes into depth about the creation of the world. Roberts gives us four truths about creation.
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 first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis describe many significant events that happened. Warren W. Wiersbe describes these chapters as the one that “deal the humanity in general” (Wiersbe, 2007, p.12). Genesis starts with the creation, the fall, the great flood and when the languages were confused at Babel. These are the four most important parts found within the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
The Bible contains sixty-six books, written by approximately forty authors, over the course of two thousand years. God created and loves humans despite their rebellious attitude towards Him, and God wants to reunite humans to Himself (Poythress, 2008). The Bible is a record of the sinful rebellion of humans and it still declares God’s love for humanity through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. This foundation prepares the way for Jesus Christ to fulfill God’s entire promised covenants.
What are the four major castes? What implications does the caste system have for everyday life? How does the caste system relate to Hindu ideas of spiritual life? “The four major castes of Hindu society are; seers ( brahmins ), administrators ( kshatriyas ), artisans or farmers ( vaishyas ), and followers or servants ( shudras)”( Smith 56). Smith writes, religious leaders, teachers, artists, and philosophers are members of the first caste, brahmins, khatriyas, the second caste, first known as warriors are now managers. The tillers of the land, the makers of bricks, and the builders are part of the third caste, vaishyas. The fourth caste is made up of servants, those who will take care of the other castes’ needs (56)”. While I was working in India, summer of 2001 and there at the invitation of the richest family in India and staying at one of their compounds, some of my co-workers and I were playing snooker. A young boy walked into the room where we were playing. He stopped and talked to us for a few minutes before continuing to bed. Accompanied by a man of about twenty years old, the boy’s shudra, who had been the boy’s personal servant for ten or more years. The shudra’s purpose was to protect and serve his charge’s every need. Although there is inequality between castes, Smith denotes.“ within each caste, there is equality, opportunity, and social insurance ( 57)”. Although the text
The book of Genesis is often referred to as the book of beginnings. Genesis is the first book that begins the Old Testament, it is also the first book of the entire Bible. The Lord also began the world in the book of Genesis, He made the heavens and the earth, man and woman. In Genesis chapters one through eleven, the Bible teaches us stories that most of us have grown up hearing in Sunday School such as the creation account, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood and the tower of Babel. In this book of beginnings, we are shown some of Gods characteristics; we see that God is love and He showed His love by creating us and the world, on the other extreme, we also see the wrath of God. Through these teachings, we are able to see that God ultimately in control and holds everything in His balance. The stories of Genesis aren’t just stories; they are real life accounts that can help build and shape a worldview on things regarding the natural world, human identity, human relationships and civilization.
“Israel’s Bible begins with an extended look at the world prior to Israel instead of assuming that the world began when it came to be.” “Gen 2-9 is introduced by Gen 1 and carried forward by Gen 10-11. Gen 1-11 then is a single story, an unusually sustained “philosophical” and “theological” explanation,” explaining our relationship with God, our flaws and destiny and religious institutions.
To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It
Deuteronomy 32:8 and Genesis 49:10 are two examples of textual critical problems in the Old Testament. The phrase “sons of God” will be examined in Deuteronomy 32:8, and the word “Shiloh” in Genesis 49:10. These issues have caused much debate as to how one should interpret these verses in light of the textual critical problems. This paper will examine both passages and provide solutions to each of the textual critical issues.
Many argue that the Bible especially the Old Testament is not the inspired word of God because of the command to destroy the Canaanites. Many use this as a basis of their argument that the scriptures are not inspired by God because they wonder how could God, a God of non-violence, mercy and goodness command such a thing. The focus of this paper will be “how is one to respond to this accusation that the Old Testament is not inspired because of commands to destroy people such as the Canaanites? This paper will attempt to answer this question by offering contrary evidence, will argue that when God’s nature is properly understood, the command for destruction of the Canaanites is not against God’s nature and that God had justified reasons in this command. This paper will provide proof of the goodness, mercy and moral nature of God, as well as the accountability that God demands from all people. It will then show the justified reason for such commands not only for the Canaanites but other nations as well. This paper will show that in spite of the commands of destruction from God that Scripture is indeed inspired by God.