{"title":"Torah and Life in the Land—Deuteronomy 12–34","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"IT IS LIKELY that the Torah scroll that was brought before King Josiah (2 Kgs 22) was some version of Deuteronomy 12–26, which constitutes the lengthiest legal code in the Bible. In the present form of the book, the code functions to lay out in detail the prescriptions and prohibitions that derive from the “Ten Words,” or Ten Commandments, the seminal principles that are meant to enable Israel to live in love and fear of YHWH and thus “prolong [their days] on the fertile-soil” that YHWH swore long ago to give them. Permanent residency in the land “oozing milk and honey” (Deut 11:9) is the goal of Torah living, and the most consistent affirmations of Deuteronomy are these three: the land is ...","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116807063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Love Poetry of Disaster—Lamentations","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0030","url":null,"abstract":"THE BOOK OF Jeremiah includes a lengthy prose account of events leading up to and following the fall of Jerusalem, written in the distinctive language of the Deuteronomistic Historians. This account accords with the book of Kings in its report that the people of Jerusalem and Judah repeatedly refused the appeal made by YHWH’s prophets to repent (Jer 34:15–22; 35:12–17; 36:29–31; 44:2–6; cf. 2 Kgs 24:20); their punishment is therefore deserved. Establishing the fact of impenitence and thus defending the justice of God is the Deuteronomists’ primary theological concern, but it does not touch on everything that people of faith might ...","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"190 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114856149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"At-Onement with YHWH and with Land—Leviticus 16–27","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"THE GOAL OF Leviticus is that Israel should live out its Sinai-based vocation to be a “holy people” (Exod 19:6). Its many ritual prescriptions and regulations for ordering daily living, punctuated with just one narrative (Lev 8–10), are a social imaginary, a highly concrete way of conceiving how Israel might organize itself as a community capable of hosting in its midst the radical holiness of God. From the perspective of this book, God’s immediate presence to Israel is a daily reality, not just in the wilderness but for all time: “I will go about in the midst of you . . . ” (26:12). Living with YHWH in its midst is both opportunity and threat. This is the condition of Israel’s own holiness, yet it is a highly volatile condition that can turn, suddenly or gradually, in the direction of disaster. The core problem with which this book contends is the potential incompatibility between God and Israel, the incommensurability between divine holiness and Israel’s own capacity to overcome human frailty—be it unwitting error, deliberate sin, or the tendency toward death that is ever-present in our bodies—and enter fully into the holy life of God....","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123431990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Settling the Land a Second Time—Ezra–Nehemiah","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0042","url":null,"abstract":"IN SOME WAYS, Ezra–Nehemiah is a companion piece to Esther, another story of Jews living as vassals of the Persian Empire, although it has none of the patent absurdity of Esther. Nehemiah’s story, like Esther’s, starts in a Persian court, but most of the composite story takes place in Jerusalem. Cyrus “the Great,” the first ruler from the Achaemenid dynasty, in the first year after his conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE issued a decree that allowed Jews to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1–4). The decree marked a policy of granting provinces a greater measure of local and regional control in exchange for cooperation with imperial economic and political goals. The book covers a period that exceeds the life of the two individuals for whom Ezra–Nehemiah is named. Four or five Persian kings are mentioned—Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus/Xerxes, Artaxerxes I, and maybe Artaxerxes II (Ezra 4:5–7; 6:14)—whose reigns span more than a century (c. 538–400 BCE). The book makes no consistent attempt to specify the chronology. The so-called Nehemiah memoir is considered by some the oldest and most accurately historical part of the book, recording the experience of a highly placed imperial agent. It suggests that some twenty years into the reign of Artaxerxes I (445 BCE), Jerusalem was still largely in ruins (Neh 2:3), even if the temple had been reconstructed two or three generations earlier (c. 515 BCE) at the urging of the prophet Haggai....","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131394774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Justice and Intimacy—Micah and Hosea","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0024","url":null,"abstract":"LIKE AMOS, HOSEA AND MICAH were independent prophets, making public statements in poetic form, saying things that people did not want to hear but could not forget. Hosea was apparently a native of the northern kingdom; he began to prophesy during the reign of Jeroboam II (c. 750 BCE) and evidently continued until approximately the time of the fall of Samaria in 722....","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129390719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Tragedy of the Chosen: Saul’s Kingship—1 Samuel","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0018","url":null,"abstract":"THE STORY OF Samuel, the last and possibly the best of the judges (1 Sam 7:15), provides the framework through which we view the rise and fall of Israel’s first king. The opening section of the book focuses on Samuel’s birth, childhood, and lifelong work as a circuit-riding judge (7:16–17), and then in his old age, his reluctant anointing of a monarch so Israel can fulfill its ambition to be “like all the nations” (8:20). Saul’s last important exchange before his own death is with the disgruntled ghost of Samuel, summoned back from Sheol by a medium, through whom Samuel delivers, not the guidance for which Saul longs, but rather a last rehearsal of Saul’s royal failures (28:16–19); hence, Samuel renders the final judgment on Saul’s kingship. But the book’s first and most comprehensive statement about how God characteristically disturbs human power arrangements comes many years before that, in an exultant song (2:1–10) uttered by Samuel’s mother, the once-barren Hannah. After bearing and weaning her son, Hannah pronounces that he will be ...","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130352225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Joking about Genocide—Esther","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0039","url":null,"abstract":"ESTHER IS THE edgy Jewish joke in the Bible. A rabbi teaching the book of Esther to an audience of Gentiles opened with this story:\u0000 \u0000 Adolf Hitler was having his fortune read. “I see,” said the teller, gazing into the crystal ball, “that you will die on a Jewish holiday.”...\u0000","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114761689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Questioning Prosperity—Amos","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0023","url":null,"abstract":"GENERALLY RECKONED AS the earliest of the writing prophets, Amos spoke out during the long, prosperous reign of Jeroboam II (c. 788–747 BCE), the warrior king who brought the northern kingdom of Israel to the peak of its power. Like Elijah, Amos, “one of the livestock-breeders from Tekoa” in the rural hill country southeast of Jerusalem (Amos 1:1), had no prophetic pedigree or portfolio (7:14). He was another freelance man of God from Judah prophesying against the northern kingdom, like the earlier anonymous prophet who once delivered an oracle against Jeroboam I at the high altar at Bethel (1 Kgs 13). Bursting onto the national stage, Amos made it clear that the word he brought was no good news; he proclaimed it because he had no choice:...","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121011427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Surviving the Furnace of History—Daniel","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0040","url":null,"abstract":"LIKE THE SCROLL of Esther, Daniel is a “hidden transcript”1 within the Bible—a serious yet playful piece of literature that speaks from the perspective of those on the underside of harsh political, military, and cultural domination. Following in a pattern of biblical history that begins with Pharaoh and reaches its acme with Haman, the enemy of Queen Esther and the Jews, the book of Daniel shows how the empire’s subjugation of this particular people turns, with remarkable ease and no clear logic, into determination to wipe them out. This book has the overt theological dimension that Esther lacks; rather than showing the mobilization of the Jews against those who seek to kill them, the book of Daniel envisions how “the Most High God” (Dan 5:18, 21; cf. 4:21, 22, 29 Heb., 4:24, 25, 32 Eng., etc.) and the heavenly powers will intervene—at some not clearly specified time in the future—on behalf of the threatened people....","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"62 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122584681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Proverbs and Ecclesiastes","authors":"E. Davis","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190260545.003.0034","url":null,"abstract":"These books of so-called wisdom literature keep a low theological profile, attending to the practical and immediate aspects of everyday life. Proverbial sayings are community property, a form of local and regional knowledge treasured in traditional cultures (such as contemporary South Sudan), especially among women. Recognizing the biblical proverbs as short poems—like Japanese senryu—may counter a modern tendency to view them as merely stating the obvious or expressing the social conservatism of the powerful. Rather, they highlight likely consequences in a world that is not fundamentally chaotic, tragic, or absurd; these latter possibilities are explored in Ecclesiastes. Although Qohelet’s central themes are ephemerality and mortality, it calls upon those living in an unpredictable world to take pleasure in daily matters—food, work, relationships—that are gifts from God.","PeriodicalId":325838,"journal":{"name":"Opening Israel's Scriptures","volume":"101 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133066134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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