Hist 101 Discussion Wk 2
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Feb 20, 2024
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Discussion Questions Week Two: Did God Take Sides in the Ancient Near East?
January 22-January 26, 2024
HIST 101 1.
In proclaiming “The Ten Commandments,” does God seem more
concerned that the Israelites will not give Him proper respect, or that they will not be able to live together in harmony? (
Pick one: "both" is not an acceptable answer.
)
In proclaiming The Ten Commandments God was more concerned that the Israelites will not give Him proper respect. He starts off by saying “…who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”. Him saying this seems
like he is striking fear into the hearts of his followers by reminding them He
is the reason for there freedom from the terrible life they were living in Egypt. The first commandment is that you shall have no other gods other than God. Every civilization that we have studied has been polytheistic and God knows this. He reminds his people that he is the only God they should be worshiping. He continues this idea with the next commandment which is that you should not worship any idol. All the other civilizations have built massive temples to impress their gods, and God does not want this as this is
not the point of believing in him. Even though the tenth commandment is explicitly about living in harmony with your neighbor, I feel the other commandments speak more about how God wants his followers to give Him proper respect. 2.
“Israel’s Harlotry in Moab” tells a pretty harsh story — especially for the unlucky couple Zimri the Israelite and Cozbi the Midianite. What different things have the Israelites done wrong? This story from the Bible starts off by telling us that the Israelites have done
many things wrong, and God is angry at them. “and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.” Which in simple terms means the women were committing prostitution. Verse 2 goes to say that they were offered to participate in sacrifices to appease the gods, and the Israelites followed. Both crimes are explicitly said in the Ten Commandments. God punished them by telling Moses to hang the offenders in front of the everyone else in hope that this would stop the sinning of his people. They also were “plaguing” the children with sexual ideas, and they were punished for it and the plague was stopped.
3.
According to “David Becomes King over Israel,” what seems to have made David a good king? (By the way, note that the Phoenician king
mentioned here, Hiram of Tyre, sent some of Phoenicia's famous cedar logs, which we will see in lecture, to help build David's palace!)
What made David a good king was that he ruled with the help of God. He got into the position of king by being a good servant to God. Another reason
he was a good king was that he conquered a lot of land in his forty-year reign. Many times, through the reading David gives thanks to God for helping him conquer these places, throughout his reign he said many times he’s more powerful because of the Lord. By the end of his reign, he ended up ruling all of Israel with all thanks to be given to the Lord for his help through it all. When David Defeats the Philistines God told him exactly what
to do to help him defeat them.
4. "Accounts of the Campaigns of Sennacherib" describes the Assyrians' war in 701 B.C. against King Hezekiah, ruler of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah. We have three different sources here for this same event. One is the "prism" monument that Sennacherib put up to celebrate his victories. Two sources, though, are from from Sennacheribs' enemies, the Hebrews, through the Hebrew Bible's books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. (The Hebrew Bible = the Christian "Old Testament.") How would you contrast the Assyrians' understanding of the Assyrian-
Hebrew conflict to how the Hebrews understood it? Which description, Assyrian or Hebrew, seems more
believable to you? Why? (
Again, pick one.
"Both of them are believable" is not an acceptable answer
.)
Both sources are going to favor their side in the conflict since this is their side of the conflict. The Assyrian point of view is more violent in the description, along with describing how the Assyrians entered, conquered, and returned to their homeland. The description is a lot gorier when it comes to the tactics that are being used in the conflict. On the other hand, the Hebrew point of view just said King Hezekiah paid the king of Assyria, and an angle from above struck down many men in the Assyrian camp. This caused the Assyrians to go back home. It also talks about how the king of Assyria was killed and the Hebrews would not know this since they are not inside of Assyria. I believe the Assyrian account is more believable because like I mentioned earlier the tactics of war were very straight forward whereas the Hebrews account was just about how an Angel came from above and killed many. 5. “Revolt of the City of Suru of Bit-Halupe” recounts, in the voice of Assyrian Emperor Assurnasirpal, a real historical event. What exactly had the citizens of Suru of Bit-Halupe done, and how did Assurnasirpal respond?
The city of Suru had revolted and killed Hamataim their governor and picked a new king Ahiabab. Assurnasirpal responded by calling on the gods and he mobilized his chariots and went to the city. He took captive the
newly appointed king and stormed the city. All the rebels were seized and Assurnasirpal and his officers entered the palace and his temples and took everything in them. He took back control of the city and flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and covered the newly built pillars with their skin. The limbs were cut off of the royal officers who had rebelled, and for Ahiababa he was flayed, and his skin was hung on the wall of Nineveh. I think this was done as a reminder of their crime so they would not try to revolt again.
6. Imagine that you are Ahiababa, and the citizens of Suru of Bit-
Halupe visit you at your house in Bit-Adini and tell you their master plan: They’re going to rise up in rebellion against Emperor Assurnasirpal, and they want you to become their new king after they do that! Would you take the job? Why or why not? I would not take the job of being the new king. The Assyrians were very violent as we have seen in lectures this week and throughout this week’s reading assignments. This plan of revolting seemed like it was not thought out very well with how quickly they fell against the Assyrians, and with defeat the only real possible outcome of the rebellion, I would feel this type of punishment would be the only plausible outcome of the rebellion. 7. Step back and think about all these readings. Does the Hebrews' God seem to be a god for all peoples, or instead only for certain
people? What do these readings say about how people in the ancient Near East understood violence as a way to honor and obey their God(s)? The Hebrews’ God seems to be a God for certain people. There is a lot of violence towards other groups of people that are not the Hebrews. Violence to honor God is very common, in the excerpt about David becoming king over Israel David is rewarded for taking over the people and he is considered a good servant in the eyes of God. If the Hebrews acted in violence in the name of God they were called a good servant. This goes to show that the Hebrew God was a God only for certain people.
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