Seminar in Biblical History and Background

Dr. C. Mora

First class (22 October, 2015)

History and historiography

What is history

• Chronological record of events or past

• The explanation of or commentary of those events

• The records are most of the time, analysis of the events are given

• History are not only list of events, a commentary which analyze and evaluate the situation from a certain point of view will be presented along

Two type of History

• Res gestae – events that occurred. Objective history or reality (geschichte, story)

• Rerum gestarum – what we know about the past events. Historical science (Historie, history)

Utility of History

• “People who forget their past are bound to repeat it.” Jorge Santayana

• “People who forget their traditions lose consciousness of their destiny; and those who rest on his glorious tombs are better prepare for the future.” Nicolas Avellaneda

7 Questions of history

• What happened : Acts

• When did it happen : time

• Where : place

• How : mode

• Who did it : subject

• Why it happened? : causes

• What were the consequences : consequences

ART and Science

• Object : past events

• Subject: human being

• method: historical research is analytic-synthetic. It involve collection of data, analysis, and synthesis or evaluation.

Historiography – the truth behind the editing

• How the history is written

• Historio – history

• Graphy – written

• The science of allowing the sources to speak with some clarity about history by immersing oneself within the physical topography and culture ethos represented by the texts, and without misleading subject agendas. - James H. Charlesworth, The Pesharim and Qumran History: Chaos or Consensus? (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdsmans, 2002), 23.

Characteristics of OT history

• Overwhelmingly narrative in expression• However, on some occasion Bible can use different genre to express the history (Ps.

78; Ex. 15; Judges 5)

• More biographical ( it would follow certain kings and characters)• It is tendentious (it have a tendency to control the pace of the narrative)• It is theocentric• It is selective• It is professedly historiographic• It is consistently contextual (is would always provide some historical

background)• It is interpretative (from theocentric point of view)

Structure of the OT as a Historical Record

• The focal point of OT History: The Plains of Moab in Deuteronomy• Obey and live, disobey and die

• Exodus-Numbers: The constitution of a nation• Genesis: The history of Israel’s origins• Deuteronomy: the paradigm of Israel’s history• Joshua-2 Kings: An assessment of Israel’s historical and theological

experience (former prophets in Hebrew Bible)• Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah: History from a postexilic perspective (only

the good things done by the kings are recorded in the book of chronicles, and kings of Judah are in focus, not the ten tribes)

• The prophets: interactions with history• The writings: Interaction with Yahweh and with the historical community

Conclusion

• History of theology or theology of history are not the concern of the Bible

• Old Testament is both history and theology

• The historiography of the OT is theological, a theocentric approach.

2nd class

Devotional

Exodus 2

• God is able

The issue of history in our days

• Archaeology and History

What is Archaeology?

• Two treek words

• Archaios: ancient, from the beginning

• Logos: a word/treatise (a written work dealing formally and systematically with a subject)

Aim of Archaeology

• To discover, rescue, observe and preserve buried fragments of antiquity and to use them to help reconstruct ancient life.

• The method of finding out about the past of the human race in its material aspects, and the study of the products of this past (K. Kenyon)

Separation between Historian and Archaeologists• The written materials of the antiquity do not belong to thte field of

archaeology proper. They are more the province of historian than archaeologist.

Archaeology and History

• Archaeology is an auxiliary science of history. It is the handmaid of history

• Ancient writing was restricted to an elite class and frequently biased.

• Archaeology by contrast describes and explains to us how all types of people lived. It is not respecter of discriminator of class.

classification

• Archaeology is often considered to be a social science

• One of the four subdisciplines of Anthropology. Other areas:

• 1. cultural anthropology

• Physical anthropology

• linguisticsWildebrand classification

Nomotetic ideographicArchaeology history

Singular place

• As a social science, Archaeology is not actually a natural science as physics and chemistry

• It is more subjective and selective in its analysis and interpretation

• History is not a science, it is an art

Brief summary

• During the englightment (AD XVII and XVIII) they refuse of the historicism of the Bible cebame strong.

• No more historicism for the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

• H.S Reimarus (1694-1768)

• J. G. Lessing (1693-1770)

• D. F. Strauss (1808-1874)

• Science

• philosophy Historical-Critical JEDP

• Reform Deism Englightment• 1600 XVII 1700 1800 1874

• Sources

The New Handmaid?

• Because the declination of History and of Critical Historical Method, the sociology as new method of research.

• Wildhem Wildenbrand:

• Nomotetic – Natural sciences (set laws)

• Idiographic – historical disciplines (organize,

• An anti-literary and/or Anti-textual attitude. No “man” doing history anymore. Discarded the text and look for the social movements.

• Archaeology describe the background of the people

• History describe the events and activities of the people

Literary approaches: a mixed blessing?

• Because the failure of the CHM and the recognition of the Bible as a literary work (B. S. Childs, 1923-2007 “Canonical criticism”) it was brought the “new criticism” (a-historical or anti-historical):

1. Rhetorical criticism

2. Structuralism

3. Deconstruction

• But these people work with the Bible as another literature but did not believe it in its historical and inspirational aspects.

Overview of the Bible and ANE history and archaeology

Early bronze

Middle bronze

Late bronze

Iron age I Iron age II Persian period

The Greek The romans

3300 2000 1550 1200 1000 536 330 63

Palestine Abraham GodenAge

Egypt I-II Proto dynasty/III-VIII dynasty

1\0 P IX-XI Dy.

MK XI-XIIIPeriod of Joseph/ 2\o Xiv-XVII

Mesopotamia

Sumerians (semitic, origin not clear) 3300

Amorites(Hammurabbi)

Hurrians/Mittany