The Old Testament

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible has provided me with a critical analysis of the Hebrew Bible and introduced a wide variety of interpretive strategies, including African American, anthropological, feminist, historical-critical, Jewish, and literary perspectives. These approaches were presented by our author’s, L. Juliana M. Claassens, Peter Enns, Walter Brueggemann, and John L. Collins. Each author provides a unique interpretation to help us comprehend how the text is an expression of one’s interpretive understanding. Having said that, the biggest influence has been how I will seek to present Old Testament scriptures more effectively while remembering the context and the audience in which I am presenting. For example, I believe the greatest lessons that I have been reminded of are, the Old Testaments Scriptures from my childhood, which have become a big part of my relationship with God and are based on a childlike faith, which must now grow in the richness of the different interpretations, it is this message that I can apply to life.

Before the question of forgiveness can be answered something to consider is what does it mean to forgive. The act of forgiveness can be seen as many things, for example it can be seen as the pardoning of an action done by one person by another. It can also be seen as the letting go of feelings of resentment and vengeance against another person. According to Hans Habe in The Sunflower, “Forgiveness is the imitation of God” (163). This

The Old Testament is the largest part of the bible nestled behind the leather binding in the front of the book. Unlike most books, told from one-person or even two this is comprised of multiple, some stories even having two different versions in another point of view; over time it has become a large collection of ancient texts written and re-written by different authors and editors over the many years. The stories show the ancient Israelites, they show the laws, and rituals, which make up their religion and the small embers, which will one day, turn to a flame that is Christianity. The Jewish people view these stories as collected in what they call the Torah, is the collection for what makes up their history and the promise that God gave to them, as well as their laws and what they worship today. For the Christians the Old Testament is still seen as sacred, but most place a stronger importance to the New Testament.

The book “Deuteronomy”, of the Hebrew Bible, describes the reiteration of laws that the people of Israel are to follow upon entrance to the Promised Land. Upon reviewing Deuteronomy, the people of Israel versus Moses and why Moses was refused entry to the land raises interesting questions. By predominantly focusing on the behavior of the people of Israel, the behavior of Moses, their interactions with the God, and the language used by the author(s) it provides some insight into how and why events unfolded as they did. Moses is considered to be one of the most iconic prophets of the Hebrew Bible, yet he is forbidden from entering the Promised Land whereas the consistently sinning people of Israel can enter the Promised Land.

In the beginning of Genesis, God expects humans to be subordinate to him, and refuses to tolerate defiance.  He sees no excuse for disobedience, and punishes Adam and Eve.  God expects everyone to be perfect and castigates for every mistake.

As an individual who finds great personal value in the Scriptures, Brettler provides permission to look at passages from different angles and perspectives. Consequently, a conclusion must be made that one can not put ancient literature into a neat and tidy “this is what the Bible is saying so it must be true” box. There are many parts of the Hebrew Bible that are strange to read. If many were lived out today, it would ostracize people, and to be blunt, land someone in prison. However, all of these passages are included in this great book, the Hebrew Bible, for a reason. They were important to the Jewish culture whom they were written for. Why were they important to the Jewish culture in the Ancient Near East World? Can they bring value to us today? Is it possible to accurately declare that everything in the Hebrew Bible can be exegetically “figured out”, with no unanswered questions, or unresolved mysteries? Of course not. By asking questions, challenging preconceived notions, and examining whether passages in the Hebrew Bible are mythological or fact, one is not agreeing to a predetermined diminishment of personal spiritual and faith principles derived from the Scriptures.

Due to the relationship of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament, there is some significant overlap in beliefs and examples of God’s redemption. One great example of redemption is from Exodus when God liberated his people from Israel and released them from Pharaoh’s slavery and punishment. When you approach the Old Testament God as one who saw the people of his creation and saw how they were disobeying him and how they had strayed away from God, it is common to refer to him as a God who brought down punishment. Let’s associate salvation with mercy in the example Noah’s Ark. The world was full of violence and corruption and God needed to hit the reset button. The Torah and Old Testament state “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’” (Genesis 6:5-7). God chose to show Noah his mercy because “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:9).

God does this with us, as well, and so this is a picture of how God restores us when we are unfaithful. It also gives us a picture of God and that He is never unfaithful to us. This reveals more about Christ’s character, as well, because He understands that we are merely humans and we do very human things. We make mistakes, we lose faith, we do not always trust God, and yet He still loves us and wants us to live the lives He created us to live.

God is the one who declares an unrighteous person righteous – rooted in one’s faith in Him, His mercy, and forgiveness, and not a result of the works of man. This is specifically what is seen in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve’s coverings were not sufficient to restore them to God, but it was a God-provided sacrifice that secured forgiveness and thus restoration. The picture being presented throughout the whole of Scripture cannot be missed. Yet, what one finds in the Second Temple Period differs or moves away from the picture of forgiveness documented throughout the Old

Are the copies in existence today an accurate representation of the original copies of the New Testament? There are many facts and studies that prove this claim to be true contrary to popular belief by non-Christians and other religions alike. There are at least three reasons that it can be know with certainty that the New Testament in existence today is an accurate representation of the originals. Including the amount of copies, age, and determining that the variants within the Bible do not make a difference.

The example that I chose, that shows the Israelites unfaithfulness and how God responded is in Judges 2:10-16 NIV. In this chapter we can see a generation that grew up that did not know God or the things He had done to their ancestors (Judges 2:10,NIV). This new generation, "did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served Baal(v.11). In Exodus 34:14, God is described as a jealous God and in Judges 2:14, He is angered with their action of worshipping and following other gods. First we see God responding by giving them into the hands of their enemies, whom they were nolonger able to resist. In verse (14), we are seeing God repeating the same thing He did with the Israelites as His instruments to judge the people of

The names “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are inherently theological in nature. Because there is a difference distinctly built into giving them different notations, it implies that there are differences between each the Old Testament and the New Testament, whether it is subtle in nature or obvious in nature. To Christians, the difference means that the Old Testament contains dealings between God and the world and even some of the rules made are made irrelevant by the interactions of Christ Jesus with the world. One of the differences between the New Testament and the Old Testament is the way each of the Testaments describe God and God’s nature. The Old Testament describes an angry God, one who only created the world and was obsessed with laws and rules. The New Testament describes a loving God who redeemed the world. The different ways the Old Testament and New Testament describe God and his nature are very much influenced by their perspective of God. By the rules, actions, and laws God made, the early writers of the Old Testament made their judgements about God and wrote those perspectives into the books of the Old Testament. The writers of the Old Testament did the best they could with the information they had and got some things about God right, but also got things wrong. The writers of the New Testament and therefore, Christian believers understand God better.

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

The Israelites, like Gomer, had turned their backs on God. They, similar to Gomer, proved themselves unfaithful to their commitment to God. Both Gomer and the Israelites resumed their old lifestyle which did not honor God or obey his laws. Hosea mirrors the infallibility of God’s love. He says in Hosea 14:4: “I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely.” Gomer did not deserve that kind of forgiveness. Neither did the Israelites. God’s love extends beyond the limits of humanity’s sinful humanity. He longs to bring us into a state of restoration with