10th century Judah

Ruins of a palace and storeroom from the 10th century were found years ago in the Shephelah. Called Elah Fortress in Khirbet Qeiyafa some identify it with either ancient Shaarayim or Neta'im. It seems Isreal will try selling this archeological site as a possible King David's palace. Link.

Besides the buildings, archeologists discovered what is now the earliest sample of Hebrew written written in a Proto-Canaanite script. It is possibly the fragment of a letter. Discovered some years ago, the text was deciphered recently. Link.

English translation of the deciphered text echoes much of the Old Testament.

1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

Isaiah 1:16-17 (NRSV)
cease to do evil,
    learn to do good;
seek justice,
    rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
    plead for the widow.

David

Hearing (NRSV) about David, it is clear that the early part of David's life consist of a collection of stories, of tales of the clever, cunning man who outwits his stronger, more powerful opponents. Hearing it makes me think of David as the Roadrunner (with a touch of Robin Hood) always ahead of Coyote.

Monotheism

Let's assume Moses was real and not legendary. (Someone did come up with monotheism - why not Moses?) My point is that he was a genius! What an advancement in human thought! Absolutely revolutionary. It's taken me some time of studying paganism to see that.

Being a pagan was very complicated. Man lived in a world where gods were everywhere: moon, sun, stars, trees, stones, etc. They all were gods and these gods were unpredictable and could make man's life miserable. So man went around worried about ritually appeasing the gods with sacrifices which meant sacrificing his children, his animals, and/or offering up part of his crops and much more. But then, he also had to worry because what he sacrificed may not make the gods happy in quality or quantity. He also had to worry because he may be overlooking some god who would then, in anger for the slight, proceed to make his life miserable with illness, crop failure, whatever.

Pagan life just seemed full of worries and very complicated in terms of number of gods, hundreds of rules for dealing with the gods and coming up with the goods to give the gods. Then there comes monotheism. There is only God to worry about and the world is simplified. The sun and moon and stars are explained as created things, part of the natural world and not to be worshiped. And the same thing is done for everything! The wind, rivers, sea, trees and all animals. All explained as part of the natural world (one can start to see a glimmer of the scholasticism that has brought us to where we are today.) Modern man is so used to seeing the world this way that, when he reads Genesis, he says "So what?!

As part of monotheism, rules are also simplified. From hundreds of rules on how to make the gods happy, Moses hands out 10 rules! So simple to learn. Considering the advantages of monotheism, I'm really not sure why it was so difficult for man to adapt to it. It may be because, with the pagan gods, man felt in control: if things turned out badly then he could ascribe it to the sacrifice not being good enough, etc.? With YHWH, it is to be humble and practice justice and charity. Maybe those are the hardest virtues for man to practice.

"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" - Micah 6:8

Genesis

I'am hearing Genesis (NRSV) for the second time around. It is evident that Genesis is a compilation of myths and legends (stories). When the story gets to Abraham, they become more stories of legendary ancestors/patriarchs of the people hearing the story.

As I hear the stories, it is obvious that these were meant to teach people in the tribe/community about who they were, where they came from, how they were related to the other people around them. In other words, the stories provide a cultural framework. Assembled in Genesis, as a group or collection, the stories provide a theological framework developing the concept of God through time and in narrative form.

I have this hypothesis that the trek of Abraham and his parents from Ur to Harran and later, Abraham's down to Palestine, may have been due to the 300 year drought that started around 2200-2100 BC and enveloped all of the Levant including Egypt. With the course of rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) drying up, the thing to do may have been to move North closer to the mountains (Harran) so that any trickle of water from snow caps would be accessible. Palestine has spring water in some areas so that may have been its attraction i.e. independence from rain. Right now, my hypothesis is that Abraham was on the move probably around 1800 BC.

Hearing Genesis, also makes it obvious that the concept of God in Genesis is very primitive, undeveloped. In the Abraham stories, it boils down mainly to circumcision as a sign of covenant with God who is not even known as YHWH.

Assumptions

"Over the years I have found that it is difficult if not impossible to bring to consciousness of another person the nature of his tacit assumptions when, by some special experiences, I have been made aware of them. This became painfully evident to me in my attempts during the 1950s to convince geneticists that the action of genes had to be and was controlled. It is now equally painful to recognize the fixity of assumptions that many persons hold on the nature of controlling elements in maize and the manners of their operation. One must await the right time for conceptual change." - Barbara McClintock

I run into this problem frequently in discussing issues. As I was telling my husband, it is difficult to discuss black holes if your discussion partner's assumption is that the earth is flat. In that case, there is so much ground to cover before you can get to black holes that it seems better to keep quiet and walk away.

Shaping each other

As we move through life, we shape each other with each gesture, action, word. Imagine each doer as steel balls moving in a plasticine world. We are each the ball and the plasticine, the shaper and the shaped. Hence, as we move through the world, we can give or imprint in others lovely shapes ... or not. To love your enemies is to avoid or evade being shaped into ugliness.

Old Testament

It seems obvious that the OT is made up of tales, legends, and historical records of mostly the people of Judah. The source of the stories is not relevant. What is important/relevant is what the stories present or convey.

According to the Assyriologist Jean Bottero, the Near East ancients were very clever, intelligent but were not able to think abstractly. To me that would explain the need for stories, for concrete examples.

Bottero also mentions how ancient NE man thought that there were many gods living in a society similar to man's; that man was a plaything of the gods that had to be constantly propitiated; that whatever evil came, came from the gods as a whim or because of failure to please with the right sacrifices. When you read the OT, you can see how this view is being shoehorned into a monotheistic view hence you read about God sending evil. Once the Judeans are exposed to Zoroastrianism during the Babylonian captivity, then evil has a difference source modeled on the antagonist of AhuraMazda.

Poem of Atrahasis

It turns out that the Biblical Flood story is based on the Epic of Gilgamesh which is based on the Poem of Atrahasis. This story as we have it comes from an early Babylonian version of about 1700 BC, but it certainly dates back to Sumerian times. It combines familiar Sumerian motifs of the creation of mankind and the subsequent flood. On one of the Sumerian king-lists, Atrahasis is listed as king of Shuruppak in the years before the flood. The name Atrahasis means "Extra-wise,"and is thus, as Stepanie Dalley points out, quite similar in meaning to that of Prometheus ("Forethinker"), father of the Greek flood hero Deucalion.

Assyrian letter and envelope

It's amazing how similar we are to the ancient Semites.  The main difference is the technology. I found this pic of a letter and envelope in a Yale U. page.  It is of an Assyrian letter (tablet form) and its envelope.