OBST 800 Readings Assessment Former Prophets 09-17-2023

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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY Former Prophets Reading Assignment Submitted to Dr. Michael Graham, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course OBST 800-B02 Old Testament Backgrounds by Kristopher Williams 17 September 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT…………………………………... 1 Archaeology of the Iron Age I……………………………………………………... 1 Canaanite/Israelite Iconography…………………………………………………… 2 The Settlement Period………………………………………………………………3 Kingship and the State in Ancient Israel………………………………………… .... 4 Warfare in the World of the Bible…………………………………………………. 5 THE IVP BIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTARY: HISTORICAL LITERATURE…. 7 THE WORLD AROUND THE OLD TESTAMENT……………………………………... 8 Transjordan: The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites…………………………... 8 Philistia and the Philistines………………………………………………………… 8 OLD TESTAMENT PARALLELS………………………………………………………... 9 ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN THEMES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY…………………...9 ii

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT Archaeology of the Iron Age I 1 According to American-Israeli archaeologist Aren Maier, from approximately 1250 B.C. until 1150 B.C., scholars can confidently utilize material remains to argue that “the eastern Mediterranean in general and the Levant in particular witnessed major changes in social, political, and economic makeup” (Maier 54). With the so-called Late Bronze Age in the region experiencing an amalgam of what Maier refers to as a “club of superpowers” consisting of the Hittite Empire, the Assyrian Empire, and Egypt’s New Kingdom, a period of political uncertainty and unrest following their declines can be attested through archaeological remains. Analysis of these remains, according to Maier, demonstrates levels of instability occurring due to the rapid decline and collapse of the Hittite Empire, a loss of internal political coherence and international military projection from Egypt, and the appearance of “new” ethnic groups into the region, with special attention on the so-called “Sea Peoples” thought to originate from the modern-day Aegean Islands. A lack of foreign-made “prestige” goods in remains from Israel suggests a sharp decline in international trade. Reliance on material remains to reconstruct a probable timeline is due to the fact “from the early twelfth century until well into the late eleventh and early tenth centuries there are few contemporaneous written sources relating to the historical situation in the southern Levant” (Maier 54). Textual data from biblical sources may retain some relevant data but are more likely to be reflections upon the outcomes of the time period rather than contemporaneous reports. During this time, the former powers were unable to intervene much in the region, allowing the small tribal groups and clans to consolidate political power and establish localized 1 Aren M. Maeir, “Archaeology of the Iron Age I,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 54-61. 1

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states. Archaeological data allows for confident assertions of occupation of modern-day Israel by Hebrews/Israelites, Philistines, native Canaanites, Phoenicians, Aramaeans, and various Transjordanian nomads who traveled westward into Israel. While denying the larger “conquest view” some read in the book of Joshua, Maier notes that the texts do not read as absolute claims and require interpretation within the context and culture of the overarching world of the time. Maier argues that the biblical states of Israel and Judah, rather than descending from common ancestors and a unique history, coalesced into identity groups over time. Canaanite/Israelite Iconography 2 In his contribution “Canaanite/Israelite Iconography,” Brent Strawn recognizes, based on their familiarity with the second commandment prohibition on making images of a divine being for the purpose of worship, that “readers of the Bible who are unfamiliar with the artifactual record might suspect that the presence of artistic remains in ancient Israel/Palestine would be slim to nonexistent” (Strawn 172). Strawn offers material evidence seeking to refute the idea that ancient Israelites did not eschew artwork that could, from a modern perspective, be identified as religious in application. This recognizes the idea that many items which scholars and lay individuals assume to have religious connotation may not actually. In one analysis, Strawn assigns focus on the idea that carved figures of bulls and calves, so familiar to Jews and Christians with the exodus events and false worship, recovered in archaeological excavations do not necessitate the idea that these items were actually or always associated with the practice of religion. Contextual evidence for this assumption is lacking, according to Strawn. It may, indeed, be the case that figures of 2 Brent A. Strawn, “Canaanite/Israelite Iconography,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 172-181. 2

animals were used in cultic practices, but they may also have had another function outside of worship. Indeed, even if the assumption, in the case of bull figurines, is correct regarding worship, the answers to “Which deity and how was it used” are sought (Strawn 174). Similarly, these questions can be extended to the “Judean Pillar Figurines” in order to ascertain whether they are idols representing some deity or whether they are nothing more than secular artwork representing humans. The problem, as noted again by Strawn, is that epigraphic evidence noting these items as representations of deities, much less a specific one, exist. In his examination of extant seals and conclusions that can be drawn, Strawn allows the possibility that Yahweh is depicted as an embodied individual. 3 This conclusion may support the idea that those Yahweh worshippers possessed an understanding of their god that is lost to many today or whether the overarching culture of the area somehow produced a heterodox, syncretic theology that melded items from Canaanite religion (Strawn 181). The Settlement Period 4 Pekka Pitkänen states that “the settlement period can be considered to have started when the ancient Israelites entered the so-called Promised Land” (Pitkänen 201) and then expands upon this statement in an effort to offer a comprehensive overview of the meaning of this. While admitting that “archaeological evidence from the area provides a major source for interpretation and historical reconstruction,” Pitkänen makes it clear that a comprehensive examination of the material remains is not his intention (Pitkänen 201). Rather, Pitkänen directs his attention into surveying the history of discoveries and scholarly interpretations of the data, from the mid-19 th 3 Alan F. Segal, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012), for an argument that presses the idea that ancient Judaism supported the idea of an embodied Yahweh existing alongside an invisible Yahweh without confusion or division. 4 Pekka Pitkänen, “The Settlement Period,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 201-222. 3

century to the time of writing. One item Pitkänen examines is what he believes to be a misreading of data among contemporary scholars due to anachronistic interpretation, namely by utilizing modern theories and attempting to force the data into these categories rather than allowing them to speak on their own terms and in their contexts. Importantly, Pitkänen can accept modern scholarly ideas that argue for Israelite settlement into Canaan as occurring over a long period of time without seeing conflict with the books of Joshua and Judges that seemingly present an account of occupation of Canaan within a generation or less. Pitkänen sees the biblical accounts as recorded as strong evidence of composition near to the time of the events rather than reflection many centuries later with different cultural understandings. The accounts as recorded seem better placed in earlier times and reflect literary tendencies in line with contemporary conquest accounts of the late 2 nd millennium B.C. (Pitkänen 206). So, rather than seeing the items as historically suspect, they can be located in a geographical and temporal region with literary similarities with other ANE Kingship and the State in Ancient Israel 5 According to Nili Fox, notes that monarchy itself was the normal, accepted form of government across the ANE, but that “royal ideology surrounding the person and power of the king differed somewhat from state to state” (Fox 475). Ideology varied through time and place, which according to Fox allowed for the development of kingship ideology in Israel that was not out of the ordinary. This is important since the data obtained through the biblical texts, which Fox argues is “our only written source for the creation of kingship in Israel” (Fox 476), apologetically places the biblical accounts within a rough temporal period and allows historians 5 Nili S. Fox, “Kingship and the State in Ancient Israel,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts , ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), pp. 475-491. 4

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to assess veracity based on comparative methodology. Fox does not deny the likelihood of later composition with historical and theological reflection on the part of the biblical authors (Fox 476). Those individuals classified as “good kings” by the biblical authors, who were only located in Judah, were those understood to be faithful to covenant with Yahweh, while “bad kings,” which included all kings of Israel and most of those of Judah, were syncretistic compromisers who were in rebellion against Yahweh socially, politically, and religiously. In a series of subsections, Fox examines the purposes of various offices while attempting to gain access to the procedures utilized by the bureaucracy in the United Monarchy and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. An interesting takeaway is that much archaeological evidence suggests a stronger federal government than previously expected, meaning that “during the monarchic period local governments were tied in a secure network to the central authority” (Fox 481). Warfare in the World of the Bible 6 According to Mark Schwartz in “Warfare in the World of the Bible,” the biblical authors all but assume a state of perpetual warfare when he observes that “Wars pervade the biblical narrative, mentioned in all but two of the books of the Old Testament” (Schwartz 506). A strong reason for the almost continuous state of warfare is Israel’s geographical position. Essentially, Israel exists as the crossroads of the Ancient Near East. Trade routes, expressed through well- traveled roadways connecting Asia with Africa, could also be used to move armies rather than goods. Israel itself came to be seen as strategically important. In one sense, it could be utilized as a buffer zone to provide distance between the homelands of rival empires in which battles 6 Mark Schwartz, “Warfare in the World of the Bible,” in Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts, ed. Jonathan S. Greer, John W. Hilber, and John H. Walton (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2018), pp. 506-514 5

could be contested without harm to native populations. Moreover, control of the area, whether directly or through puppet governments, could provide the superior power with economic benefits without necessary military expenditures. This does not mean, however, that warfare in Israel was merely the result of imperial powers. The biblical texts provide ready data that warfare between local inhabitants persisted when imperial powers waned as the former made efforts to expand their political and economic influence. Schwartz chronicles advances in weaponry. He especially notes the move from bronze weapons and armor to those made of iron while observing the move from chariots to cavalry (Schwartz 507). Simultaneously, logistical advances permitted larger army sizes and the appearance of new strategies for successfully taking control over ruling centers. One potential reason for these advances may be related to topographical considerations and the development of more sophisticated siege weapons since, despite common beliefs, “archaeological evidence shows that sieges often were thwarted” (Schwartz 508-509). Rather than being necessarily successful, sieges were understood to be tenuous due to extended supply lines and the possibility of disease on the part of the besieging army. According to Schwartz, the neo-Assyrian Empire (early 1 st millennium B.C.) was the first to perfect siege warfare, whose evidence exists in a series of friezes in imperial palaces demonstrating the consequences of resistance and lauding Assyrian success. Many military encounters related by biblical authors may exhibit later theological analysis of the results rather than strict relating of the facts, at least by modern standards. However, modern military historians, in their analysis of information contained in the texts, argue that many of the tactics related by the biblical authors are not inventions of a creative 6

author, but tactically sound and effective military techniques that demonstrate responsible relaying of information (Schwartz 511). An important clarification Schwartz attempts is use of terminology utilized by authors to describe their successful military campaigns. A discussion of the use of the term herem , regularly translated “dedication,” and sometimes taken by hostile scholars to designate the complete annihilation of rival ethnic and religious groups in Canaan. Used as an “anti- apologetic,” these scholars sometimes argue that the god of Israel demanded human sacrifices and promoted a process of ethnic cleansing. Schwartz notes that incidents of herem are rare, with Judahite/Israelite kings having a reputation for mercy. Judgements from Yahweh, according to Schwartz, are better understood to be “the reaction of Yahweh against sin, not against a particular ethnic group” (Schwartz 513). Later biblical evidence demonstrates the continued existence of these groups that were “completely annihilated,” suggesting that the authors utilized contemporary hyperbolic language to describe the complete defeat of an enemy in battle rather than report a factual account (Schwartz 514). THE IVP BIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTARY: HISTORICAL LITERATURE John Walton, Victor Matthews, and Mark Chavalas promote the idea that modern readers engage biblical texts in their context while attempting to understand the literary genres of the ancient world as they communicate. Ideas of historical accuracy are brought under scrutiny since modern concepts of what constitutes factual representation of reality is not necessarily the same as those of the biblical authors. In the first instance, the biblical author was under no obligation to report items that are important to later readers since this cannot be predicted. Moreover, the biblical authors are selective rather than comprehensive; they tell the story from a certain point of view in order to communicate to their original audience. The idea of historical 7

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accuracy also extends to the reports about the supernatural being made by the biblical author. The modern reader must not simply reject the account because he or she denies the possibility of supernatural occurrences. THE WORLD AROUND THE OLD TESTAMENT Transjordan: The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites In this contribution, Joel Burnett situates the reader with the contemporary situation the Hebrews/Israelites faced as they entered Canaan by focusing attention onto the people groups who lived beyond the Jordan River. These groups, rather than exhibiting large-scale power on the international stage like Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon, were localized. They interacted regularly with the Israelites through trade and a shared, general worldview, though this also extended to open warfare as the rulers of each nation vied for resources. Burnett argues that cognate languages allowed for communication, whether for trade or interchange of cultural and religious ideas, along with similar, though not identical, written scripts (Burnett 340). Archaeological data permit reconstructions of daily life, along with possibly providing evidence of worldviews and beliefs, among the Transjordan peoples. In some cases, direct archaeological evidence supports the existence of cultic iconography for the gods worshipped by these groups as related by biblical texts. Philistia and the Philistines Carl Ehrlich, while not necessarily seeking to sanitize the Philistines into a group unnecessarily libeled by biblical authors, offers a balanced approach that utilizes data from the Old Testament. along with examinations of literary and archaeological remains from other ANE groups, in order to better situate them in their contemporary world. Ehrlich notes that the Old Testament remains the primary literary evidence for the history of the Philistines, though he 8

admits that this is hazardous since the authors have a bias against the Philistines due to their identification as the existential enemy of the United Monarchy (Ehrlich 358). Bias, however, need not necessitate an inaccuracy of reporting, however. Utilizing this observation, Ehrlich proposes to utilize extrabiblical literary reports and archaeological remains to assess the reports of the biblical authors. Contra what may be taken from the Old Testament, in which the Philistines are presented as primary worshippers of male gods of war, is the archaeological evidence suggesting more worship of goddesses at a popular level. OLD TESTAMENT PARALLELS As with earlier documents, Victor Matthews and Don Benjamin provide background information to situate readers in the thought world before providing translations of documents contemporary with many biblical texts. They alert readers to literary parallels while noting how these parallels preserve the cultural beliefs and praxis of groups contemporary with Yahweh worshippers of the Old Testament. Moreover, important overlaps of cultural items and worldviews observed in biblical texts help situate them in the time period during which the conquest/settling of Canaan occurred. ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN THEMES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY Jeffrey Niehaus seeks to argue that the grouping of “City, Temple, Image,” which is also the title of the chapter, operated as a part of a unified grouping across the various civilizations that modern scholars refer to as the Ancient Near East, to the point of seeing the three as a “sacred triad” that necessarily had to be present in unison. Niehaus offers an excursus of the understanding of city, temple, and image in each of the contexts of ancient Sumer, Old (as opposed to “Neo”) Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. Following this, he seeks similarities and contrasts between how each civilization utilized these parts of the “sacred triad” versus what he 9

believes is apparent in the Hebrew Bible. Niehaus recognizes that data on cities in the Assyrian Empire is difficult to isolate, thereby causing a lack of current scholarly consensus since the interrelation of temple and city construction at the behest of divine commandment in literary remains seems secure diachronically and geographically, but archaeological data is not currently forthcoming (Niehaus 88). One potential conclusion drawn from literary data and archaeology across the ANE, however, that can be utilized in comparison with those from the Bible is that of the “Heavenly City” motif. According to this, the so-called “Heavenly City” existed under to protection and patronage of a particular deity; most often, the primary temple of the deity was constructed in that city, with lesser satellite temples appearing elsewhere in the territory claimed by the god. In this way, the Israelites participated in this movement by constructing and preserving a temple for Yahweh in Jerusalem yet, according to biblical records, rejecting the necessity and denying the legitimacy of other temples for the worship of Yahweh. An obvious difference between the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem versus those of Egypt, Babylon, and other ANE civilizations is the theological rejection of physical representation of Yahweh. One potential interpretation supporting continuity with the ANE civilizations, despite the lack of physical representation of Yahweh in the Jerusalem temple, is the belief that the temple of the god was also understood to image that god. The god, taking up residence in the temple as an invisible being who was not limited to the physical idol placed there by human hands so they could better imagine and relate to the god, may find theological continuation into the New Testament through the idea of a Christian believer being a “temple of the Holy Spirit,” though this may be a forced reading that attempts to assume continuity of belief across many centuries and alterations of cultural understanding. The ideas present in the late 2 nd millennium B.C. and those of the early 1 st millennium A.D. mayor may not be related. 10

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