Lecture 2 Scholarly Approaches to the Old Testament
Lecture 2
The Work of Scholars – Different Approaches to the Old Testament
1.Textual Criticism -- This is sometimes called lower criticism. This type studies the biblical text itself. The oldest complete copy of any Old Testament book is a manuscript of the Book of Isaiah which dates to about the time of Christ. It was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The original copy of the Book of Isaiah was written several hundred years before the Dead Sea Scroll Isaiah was copied. The oldest complete copy of the OT in Hebrew is a manuscript called the Leningrad Codex. This codex was written around 1000 C.E. Modern versions of the Old Testament are essentially translations of this manuscript. There are two virtually complete manuscripts of the Septuagint that were written in the fourth or fifth centuries. The textual critic is able to compare the various manuscripts and thus better estimate what the original copies said.
2. Literary and Historical Studies -- This is sometimes called higher criticism. Literary and historical studies have three basic concerns:
1. source (was there an author or authors?)
2. form (in what form or style was the composition written or spoken?)
3. history (how did the present book develop?)
"Who wrote the Pentateuch?" – Different Approaches to Authorship
a. Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch -- Scholars who are more conservative say that Moses wrote the Pentateuch.
b. The Documentary Hypothesis -- This theory arose out of questions regarding alternating names of the divine, third-person references to Moses, repetitions, and differing names for the same place or person.
The Documentary Hypothesis is also called the JEDP Hypothesis. This theory holds that Israel's history was written in four stages:
J. A history using Yahweh as the principal name for God, written in the time of
Solomon or shortly thereafter.
E. A history using Elohim as the principal name for God, written around 750 B.C.E.
D. A history influenced by the finding of the Book of Deuteronomy during the reign of King Josiah in Judah. 621 b.c.e. is the date that the Book of Deutoronomy was found. 550 B.C.E. is the date that this history is generally dated around.
P. A history written by the priests around 450 b.c.e. This history contains priestly concerns as well as legal materials related to worship and geneological lists.
c. Also notice in your textbook the discussion of redaction criticism, canonical criticism, and socio-historical analysis.
Archaeology and Its Importance for Studying the Bible
Archaeology is the scientific study of ancient people and their cultures by studying the material remains of those people and cultures. Biblical archaeologists are interested in the peoples mentioned in the biblical story, and especially the Israelites.
A Tell is a flat-topped mound left behind by the accumulation of material from a long succession of human settlement at a particular location. Vertical trenches dug into these mounds reveal the layers left behind in different periods of settlement.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the most famous archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. They were found in 1947 when a Bedouin boy found the first manuscripts in a cave near the Dead Sea. When experts recognized their value, a systematic examination was made of other caves in the area, leading to the discovery of a treasure of both biblical and nonbiblical manuscripts. This discovery made available manuscripts or portions of manuscripts of every Old Testament book except two. Some of these manuscripts are 1,000 years older than previously known manuscripts. In addition, there are manuscripts from nearly one thousand nonbiblical books.
The Masoretic Text.
Most contemporary editions of the Hebrew Bible rely primarily on the Masoretic Text. The Masoretic Text takes its name from Masorah which is Hebrew for "transmission." Masorah refers to a school of medieval Jewish scholars who, during the ninth and tenth centuries C.E., produced a series of Hebrew manuscripts.
Two representative examples of the Masoretic tradition, the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, are among the most important manuscripts for biblical studies. Noted for their scrupulous care in copying each letter of the text, the Masoretic scholars also added vowel sounds and accent marks to the consonants of the Hebrew script. Their work, including marginal notes, remains an invaluable resource for modern translators. The Leningrad Codex is our oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Bible.
The two biggest factors in the translation and transmission of the Bible were the invention of the printing press and the Protestant Reformation. Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in 1455 was a revolutionary advance that made it possible to print books relatively quickly, rather than copying them laboriously by hand.
The Protestant Reformation was the religious reform movement of the Roman Catholic Church. It began in Germany in 1517. In that year a German monk named Martin Luther vigorously protested administrative corruption and other abuses within the Roman Catholic Church. Up until this time, the Bible was to be read only by priests. After the Protestant Reformation, all persons were encouraged to read the book for themselves.
Some other background terms to know:
Monotheism is the belief in a single God.
Polytheism is the belief in more than one god.
Henotheism is the belief in one god without denying that others may exist.
Polytheism characterized the religions of the ancient world, as it does such contemporary faiths as Hinduism. Judaism was unique in ancient world because it was monotheistic. In practice, however, Judaism was often henotheistic.