Old Testament

Chapter 1

Bronze Age

Around 3,300 BC, bronze technology spread throughout the ancient Near East

Iron Age

Around 1200 BV people discovered the greater benefits of the use of iron

Early Bronze Age

This period witnessed the invention of writing and the beginnings of human history (3,300 to 2,000 BC)

Middle Bronze Age

This period of ancient Near Eastern history is marked by the movement of ethnic groups and new empires replacing the older powers of the Early Bronze Age (2,000 to 1,550 BC)

Late Bronze Age

One of the international trade and balance of world powers with Syria-Palestine caught in the middle

New Kingdom

The Egyptians successfully ended their subjugation to the Hyksos and entered the period of their greatest political strength

Amarna Letters

Hundreds of clay tablets written in Babylonian. These letters from Egyptian vassal-kings in Syria-Palestine reflect the politics of the mid-fourteenth century BC

Pentateuch

The first five books of the Bible

Torah

The first five books of the Bible contain the instructions for life

Creatio ex nihilo

Creation out of nothing

Fiat

Creation by divine decree

Myth

Important event that took place beyond time and space

Shalom

Means more than the absence; it refers to a life where wholeness and well-being are present (peace)

Five major themes in the Pentateuch

Sovereignty of God

History

Fallen condition of humanity

Salvation

Holiness

Talmud

The books of Moses

Source Criticism

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a new paradigm emerged, concluding that the Pentateuch had been compiled from four separate sources

Documentary Hypothesis

A theory explaining how four originally independent documents were combined to form the Pentateuch

Anthropomorphic

Humanlike qualities

Redaction Criticism

Attempts to explain scientifically how these four separate sources were edited together

Form Criticism

Analyzes the various literary types found in the Bible and isolates these into smaller units

JEDP

The four separate sources of the Pentateuch

Tradition Criticism

Believed that writing came late in the development of Old Testament literary sources. The literary types reflect a long history of oral transmission, so the Pentateuchal sources evolved over many centuries before people wrote them down

Canonical Criticism

Studies the received form of the Old Testament and exposes its theological message

Literary Criticism

Addresses the larger literary issues, but its proponents are often antagonistic to the older source and form critical approaches to the Pentateuch. A further difference is in the emphasis on text-centered, or sometimes reader-centered, analysis rather than the traditional author-centered approaches of earlier scholars

Cosmogony

A description of how the world was made