CyberGroup Discussion - The Hebrew Bible - Reading the Pentateuch Again

In this chapter we encounter the Tribe of Isreal, The Legends of Isreal, The History of Israel, The Idea of Israel. For this is an unusual history. Borg tells us it is metaphorical and to some extent historical. Well that's something to say all right, but it doesn't ring out loud. What does ring out at every turn is that everything means something!

It would be as if in Canada today we first asked "How does our history speak to us today?". We do practice this sort of metaphorization a little in Canada. For example, the building of the railroad turned into more than history because it was heroic and helped define us. But at EVERY TURN? But the people of the Bible did, and the "people of the Book" still do.

Borg then introduces us to the history/meaning the foundational/ceremonial/legal aspects of this history. It has been said that Israel is a nation that wrote up its own history. They are so old, that they could and to some extent did just that. And it is of great interest that in doing so, they understood the guidance of their God YHWH at every turn.

The Pentetuch says basically that after God created the world, he created Israel. This starts with Abraham and Sarah and leads in only 3 generations to the 12 fathers of the tribes of Isreal. But the real birth of the nation is when Moses takes them captive from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan. It is an ancient history with fragments of magic and various eastern religions. It is a story of male society. It is a story of intrigue. But each twist and turn of the story was a part of Israel's history and an element in the ordering of their society. Borg cites 613 laws in the Pentateuch altogether. The story was written as far away as 900 and as close as 400 BCE. The real questions of this "history" Borg says are 1-WHY did Israel tell these stories? and 2-Why did she tell this THIS WAY?

PROMISE AND FULFILLMENT. This is the over-arching sturcture and theme. A wonderful promised land. Formidable obstacles and promise fulfilled. A "sacred melodrama".
BARRENESS OF THE MATRIARCHS. That the key women in this story Sarah, Rebeckah and Rachel are barren. So when then get pregnant, it is clearly God's doing. That of course is the lesson. You can trust God's promises.
JOSEPH AND BROTHERS. In this most familiar story Joseph is sold by his brothers (the progenitors of Israel!) to Egypt and everything works out fine later. Joseph says to his brothers you see it was necessary for this to happen. Lesson: no matter how terrible things are, God has a hand in everything and if you trust him things will work out. This was pretty radical theology at a time when God's were to be placated and feared and whose success was measured by the tribes welfare. Here was the idea that God was looking after things just fine no matter how terrible, and that Israel's job was to trust. God's status and authority did not depend on his "doing a good job" as was the general idea with the neighbours.
THE EXODUS - ISRAELS PRIMAL NARRATIVE. In this phrase we have it. This was and is the centre of the Jewish idea of their becoming a people - it is a constantly true process. Borg points out that debating the details of historicity is not particularly helpful, Cecil B DeMille's movie notwithstanding. Rather the questions of WHY?
EGYPT AND BONDAGE and MOSES. Each year at passover, Jewish families recite the brief and beautiful capsule history of Deuternomy 26 that Borg quotes at the chapter start. It is a catechism. And each thing fits life still today as through all the years between.
LAW. Part of the story is the 613 rules of Jewish Law. Here they are given a holy origin although they are the development of many centuries. In most respects they are not a lot different than other cultures. But in some respects they are remarkably unique. Here are rules of justice, charity, land and money that enables Israel to avoid the concentration of power into the hands of the few as always seems to happen in human history. And later, prophets would arise to remind them of this traditional concern for justice and charity. The genius and unique aspects of the Pentateuch were that some of these rules were intended to control the natural forces of human oppresion and economic exploitation. Rules for widows and the poor. Like you couldn't harvest the corners of the fields - they were for the poor. Rules like 7 year forgiveness of debt. Rules like Jubilee return of land to original family.
INFIDELITY. A part of the exodus story, a part of each person's life.
MIRACLES. Borg makes an interesting observation respecting the seas parting and other traditional miracles on the grand scale in these stories. A weakness in thinking that these things were literally true is that that would mean it was in the character of God to do this sort of thing - to intervene spectacularly for his chosen ones. And the show-stopper question then is why not since, and why not in the following years unto our own terrible time. This was the sort of wrestling of course that led many moderns on account of Holocaust to become atheists of one sort or another.
BOTTOM LINE - You can count on YHWH and his promises.
jmct

REFERENCES

	Gates to Jewish Heritage, an evermore comprehensive Jewish learning website with something of interest for everyone. Rabbi David E. Lipman serves as rabbi of Temple Sinai in Cranston, Rhode Island. He loves teaching and created this website to make Jewish heritage more accessible and meaningful for all.
At the above site, a good essay on the historicity of the conquest. Click HERE.	As a result, we must rely a great deal upon the biblical texts. Some parts of the text correspond to archaeological finds. Whether the Hebrews were actually associated with those finds is not clear. The biblical texts themselves are frequently contradictory. This has led scholars to theorize about what was actually going on. Are their theories correct? Who knows? Given our paucity of actually-known data, it is astonishing how much has been written about the Hebrews' conquest and settlement of the Land of Canaan. All theories are based on two biblical books:
Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia	Here is a limited study guide with the briefest of summary comment on the whole bible in perhaps a hundred little sections. A bit helpful in sorting out some of the "Law".
Chapter 25	John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible The Book of Genesis Rather remarkable and clear. Here is the story of Jacob expounded.

Click on the 3 sections below for materials according.
SUMMARY	REFERENCES	COMMENTS