neviim - prophets, 

Deut - joshua through kings, revised by the guys that wrote deuteronomy at the same time 

-devised for context of late monarchy

after return from exile

focus on "others" - land/ethnicity

focus on keeping covenant stuipulations - obedience

Boundaries in Joshua: Land/Ethnicity

Jordan River

A.) Land has clear boundaries

 - jordan river is very important

 --lots of transitions during crossing

b.) promise changed to fulfillment - transition

 - wilderness turned to land (wandering was over)

 - chaos to order

 - stones used to mark boundary, conjure up questioning child to express deuteronomistic educational motif

The People has Clear Boundaries 

Jericho

A.) YHWH fights battles

-divine warriot who defines who Israel is by intervening on behalf of his people

B.) Use of herem - focal point!

-herem: dividing between us and them

 ---Caananites - you die.......Israelites, you live

A.) Rahab

- prostitute, boundary dweller

shelters spies from jerichoans, helps israelites take the city

-has deuteronomistic confession of faith and survives (boundary dweller picks right side)

B.) Gibeonites

-non-israelites, become servants of israelites to avoid death

Boundaries in Joshua - Obedience

A.) Achan

-one responsible for screwing up invasion of jericho

-stoned at end of text and his children

B.)Obedience trumps Land: Transjordanian tribes

-Reuben, Gad, 1/2 of manasseh

--symbolizes what it means to live in diaspora

--what it means what it means to be a jew and not live on the land

-----bad

Obedience as Key: Shechem

-constant renewal at rock, symbol of ultimate obedience

A.)Judges in the Deuteronomistic Work and Vision

-support monarchy by inventing a failed system of leadership

create idealized system of amphicytyony of 12 tribes, each with a judge

B.)Shofetim as "ideal" leaders

-judges assume a unity only to undercut it

-cyclical plot shows judges as invention

---cycle: apostasy -> oppression -> outcry -> deliverer -> rest -> apostasy...REPEAT

A.) Cyclical Plot spins out of control: Politics

  1.)Ehud, Deborah/Barak - OK

  2.)Gideon - troubling

  3.)Jephtah - more troubling

  4.)Samson - failure

      kills a bunch of philistines out of personal motivation, not for deliverance

B.) Cyclical Plot spins out of control: Women

  1.)Jael - stays inside, survives politics

  2.)Jephthah's daughter - intentionally goes outside, killed but remembered by politics

  3.) Levite's concubine - forced outside, abused and dismembered by politics

A.)Anti-king: knows they fail

B.)Pro-King: knows they have YHWH's support

 --Zion/king theology: king, yhwh and palace/dynasty are all bound together

   kings have divine sponsorship

C.)Kings and Obedience: Siani Covenant

D.)Thus: ideal presentation that is unstable: multiple ideological stances

A.)Expectations at end of Judges, beginning of samuel

  1.) Need for King

  2.) Need restored cult (Elides corrupt)

  3.) Samuel as partial solution at best

     transitional figure

B.) Samuel and Monarchy

    1.)Anti-King 

    2.) Pro or neutral on King (donkey story - donkeys lead saul to samuel)

    3.) Saul as set up by these tensions

A.)Defined as flawed (disobedience)

      he screws up and gets punished by yhwh all the time (isnt david)

B.) Flaws get exposed

  1.) sacrifice issues: goes through with sacrifice against samuel's wishes

  2.) makes rash vow saying soldiers cannot eat during an attack, or they will be put to death

  3.) destroys all of amalekites except for king, was supposed to kill king. Big flaw

C.) Shift of Spirits

    somehow, sauls spirit turns evil and his stock falls, david goes up

D.) The Bitter End

 1.) Medium of Endor 

     -saul begs her for help and she summons up samuel for him

 2.)Suicide

    falls on his sword to avoid capture..... sure

    David immediately yells to all the world that his death wasnt his fault

A.)We Know He'll Win

   1.) Anointing - Assured Success

   2.) Entry to Court (harp. Goliath)

B.) Clever Politics

   1.) Co-opts Sauls dynasty

       takes his heir into his watch, marries his         daughter

   2.) Uses philistines

   3.) Benefits from events he supposedly doesnt control

        -Death of Saul(mourns, but takes advantage)

        -Assassination of Abner (mourns but doesnt punish Joab) abner was sauls heir's general

        -assassination of Ishbaal

            sauls heir

C.) Clever Ideology

     1.) Assembles the triangle, takes ark to jerusalem

     2.) Claims "house" linked to Temple and YHWH

          gives up Michal and extinguishes sauls dynasty

      3.) ideology withstands difficulties - Succession Narrative

             -when we start to see that monarchs arent that good (after david)

A.) Monarchy as Failure

 1.) known to have ended historically

 2.) explanation - covenant theology/ideology

B.)Monarchy as Valid

 1.)Monarchy represented as divine wish

 2.) Explanation is: Zion theology/ideology

Stories of Kings

Solomon

 1.) Saint

    associated with wisdom

    sponsor of temple, the basic standard of deuteronomist monolatry

    made to be mouthpiece for deteronomic values

 2.) Non-Saint

   everything derogatory about him is moved to the beginning OR end of his reign

    ex.) end of realm, gathers metals and horses against deuteronomy. at end, assembles massive harem (after he builds the temple, it becomes deserved)

1.) Rehoboam of Judah

  son of solomon

 - lousy politician, loses northern tribes

 - still blessed by yhwh somewhat(keeps dynasty)

2.)Jereboam I of Israel

  monarch of northern tribes, made two shrines, 1 in north( Dan) and 1 in south(bethel), contradicting Deuteronomic ideals. and angering YHWH 

      led to chaos in the north and jereboams defeat

3.) Israel vs. Judah

     a.)israel as chaotic/disordered (no dynasty and short kingships)

     b.)Judah as relatively ordered (dynasty)

key point of judgement is Cult Centralization.

1.) Jehu of Israel - a good israelite king. Yes but..

2.) Athaliah of Judah - a bad davidite queen. yes but.

3.) Ahaz - a really bad davidite

4.) Hezekiah - positive but "caught" in ideology

 a.) played off against end of israel

 b.) supports/supported by the king/zion theology

 c.)ideology can encourage errors (revolt vs. assyria)

5.)Ending the Eternal Dynasty

 a.)Manasseh - explaining the end

     -terrible king, reigned for 55 years (fact ignored by deuteronomists)

     -his terribleness facilitates the end of the dynasty as yhwh's retribution

  b.) Josiah - how to understand the best ever

     - even the greatness of josiah cannot overcome the evil of manasseh

     - chaos happens after josiah, deuteronomists blamed manasseh

 c.) an uncertain conclusion

     - josiahs son jehoiachin takes throne, supplanted and imprisoned by babylonians 

A.) Evidence from Mari

 holds lots of prophetic oracles

B.) Prophet as critic of king?

 - prophets hold political power, sometimes office themselves

 - if not approving of king, have vision of new king, problem solved!

c.)Nathan

   parable about david

   - or solomon? political statement

   - gives us new ways of envisioning monarchy of yhwh

A.) YHWH's royal messenger 

    - intermediary b/w deity and people

            -divine and human

B.) methods of Communciation: Verbal and non-verbal

    - royal messenger model: "the king decrees" 

    - "thus says the lord' - messenger speech

    - yhwh is president of Divine council

    - prophets deliver oracles: verbal responses or speeches

    - sometimes they just make symbolic actions or motions

A.) Weber on charismatic authority

  -not typical charisma as defined by Weber

  - charisma through authority

  - relies on authority to command respect and power through voice and actions

   ex.) elijah

B.) Charisma and the Problem of Succession

 - turns into legal and traditional authority due to day-to-day ritual

A.) Mari Evidence 

B.) Evidence from Ancient Israel 

ecstatic - out of body experiences that transcend the body. prophets using this were ecstatic prophets

 ex.) catatonic trances

also sympathetic magic - using a parallel relationship to develop magic and explain it

conceptual magic - magic through context with the magic

prophets led israel to support the covenant

-historically, prophets probably come from before covenant

biblically, covenant comes before prophets

-p

A.) Prediction 

 1.) Short-Term - Clear Social Purpose

   -seems to be assured, if it doesnt come true, dont worry about it

   - ex.) Elijah and Micaiah ben-Imlah

 2.) Longer-range - Clear Deuteronomistic purpose

  - did prophets actually say these things, or did the deuteronomists revise their statements to fit their ideology?

   ex.)Prophecy of Jereboam fulfilled by Josiah

          -coincidence, josiah isnt mentioned in original prophecy

B.) Prediction + a Certain type of Content

  1.) Opposing sin/corruption (Elijah/Ahab)

    - elijah prophesized to oppose baal prophets

  2.)Favoring monolatry(ahaziah)

A.) The Limits of Prophecy

 - dont know if actually a prophecy or an educated guess, or personal motivation

B.) The limits of the prophets

 - didnt really listen to YHWH, picked crappy successor

A.) Poetic

 -prophecy is a rhetorical act, formed in such a way to have an input on audience

B.) Not all from named author

 - what material in the book can be traced back?

  -- ex.) end of amos, texts assume House of David has fallen and will renew. since Booth of David falls after exile

        -cont. amos didnt exist here, he was before. as a result, this oracle was aded by editors

A.)Seen as best examples: "classical"

B.)Relation to "Covenant" thinking unclear

- rarely was term covenant to describe Divine-Israel relationship

 - not seen as treaty, more of a long-developing relationship

A.) Amos

 1.)Context 

     - 760, uneven prosperity in political stable northern kingdom

 2.)Person

   -noqed: shepherd

   -not a native but an outsider ,southern

   - conflict w/ amaziah nd "professional status"

      - he says he isn't a neviim. amaziah says that amaziah has authority in sanctuary. amos says that he isnt part of an order, he just is who he is

  3.) Understand of people/yhwh relation

     a.) tsedeqah and cosmic order

       -"right cosmos", right relationship. when person to person and person to deity is working, you have tsedeqah

     b.) mishpahat - justice

         -maintaining order, can also mean judgement, deciding the case. doing so can also mean what is proper or fitting yhwh's idea of tsedeqah. an act of justice is one that supports order

          -shalom: god's righteous plan (peace, health)

              -acts of mishpahat affim shalom

   4.)Is the Relationship/Israelite Identity Secure?

      a.) Does worship help?

         -day of yhwh

      b.) Election(means punishment)

      c.) Election - threat of dissolution in 9:7-8a.

Hosea:

1.) context 

  - 20years after Amos, nothern kingdom is approaching chaos

  - had a wife named Gomer

 3.)Marriage Metaphor

   -israel has to be faithful to her man(yhwh)

     -da'at elohim - knowledge of god has to be intimate knowledge, in marriage metaphor

     - hesed: steadfast loyalty, love

          V-Shaped relationship

Marriage(want)           Restoration(willhappen)

                      Divorce(happens)

Amos - Justice and righteousness

Hosea - wants da'at elohim and only yhwh     

A.) Context

 - judah is not crushed by assyrians, slowly gains power

B.) Person

  - from Moresheth, shepherd region

  - relation to "my people", (people of the land)

  -does not use much messenger speech

C.) Understanding of people/yhwh relation

  -yoked to covenant loyalty, walking humbly

  -yoked to issues of land tenure/rent capitalism

    - families rent the means of production from others

  - latifundialization: rural landowners go into debt, those who hold capital foreclose on them, usually unfairly(micah compares to cannibalism)

  - worship at temple also vital

  - officers also vital, but fail

     --prophets and conflict

     -- court is deficient

D.) Is the relationship secure?

   -YHWH's intervention soon - bad news

    - relationship beyond the end? (micah or editor)

          --survival of zion

          --survival of agrarian vision of justice

          --survival of court -- messianism

A.)Context

  -Syro-Ephraimite War;Invasion of Sennacherib

     -meaning Aramaics-israelites

B.)Person

 -Priest? Maybe.

 -Definitely an insider with access to courts and monarch. could be a court prophet.

C.)People/YHWH Relation

 a.)Concern with justice and righetousness

  -important, but, working it out is political

    -yhwh expects trust of the monarch

D.) Is the relationship secure?

  -Double-Meaning of comissioning oracle - Hezekiah?

  - Double meaning of kids names

    --Immanuel: "god is with us"

    --Shearjashub: "a remnant will return"

    --Maharshalalhashbaz: "spoil speed, prey haste

  -Destruction has double meaning

   --Perhaps severe(purification - 1:21)

   --can Isaiah let zion end?

     -hints at inviolability of zion

A.)Context

  -prophesized from time of Hosea to exile (in judah), about 40 years in total(biblically round number)

B.)Person

  -may have been of a priestly line

  -well-connected

    --similar priests killed for his sermons, jeremiah is not

C.)People/Yhwh view

  1.)National

   -loyalty to yahweh is expressed through monolatry and worship practices

   -loyalty in politics, submit to Babylon!

     -must be a vassal as punishment for rejecting yhwh, showing submission, loyalty through suffering

   -divine freedom

   -relationship understood through older traditions

   2.)Personal(appearance of jeremiah)

     -broken relationship

     - laments all the time

     -conflicts

    relationship to yhwh

      -call narrative

      -confessions

D.)Covenant under threat?

  -lack of submission to yhwh

  -belief in inviolability of zion

  -hope in exile: eventual return, new davidide, new covenant

A.)Context

 -Babylon and question of identity

  --priest during first exile

B.)Person

   -Priest, prone to mystic speculation

   -psychology?

C.)Nature of people/yhwh relation

 1.)Covenant

   -sound deuteronomic in places, BUT

 2.)Crosses with levitcus, in terms of Holiness

 3.)temple is essential

   -shows how worship problems are central to ezekiel

   -merkabah visions: visions of yhwh enthroned

 4.)personal relationship

  -idk

D.) relationship under threat?

   -key:presence of yhwh

     -behavior in temple - bad as of late

   -hope - in exiles

     return to glory of the people, question of returning to land