RE: In the beginning....
April 25, 2018 at 7:11 am
(This post was last modified: April 25, 2018 at 7:52 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Well, since we're only discussing genesis, exodus, and leviticus...(the first few books) then we have to point out that the stories we have now achieved their form in the post-exilic period (and frankly, the ones we see today wouldn;t be complete until the 3rd and 2nd centuries). Because those books proceed the others in placement in magic book, we subconsciously assume that they describe events (real or imagined) before the next few books. They do not. They are the conceptual and mythical prelude to exile compiled during and -after- exile but run co-currently with it. A way of explaining the present or recent past, by way of an ancient melodrama. This is entirely common to establishment legends, and cultural myths.
They were finalized after the fact, after the assyrian client state of judah fell to bablyonian forces..and after egypt (fearing babylonian encroachment) invaded to the euphrates and killed the king of judah in the process at the battle of megido. After anti babylonian insurgents in jerusalem provoked the siege of that city and the execution of it's most important residents (and their tradition along with them) and the subsequent deportation a significant percentage of the populace. They were replaced by a native judahite governer who...while also being a collaborator of the new regime, attempted to encourage those spread out by the conflict (in babylon, and in egypt) to return home. He was assassinated and this lead some who had returned or never left to flee to those expat communities in babylon and egypt.
Now.....understanding the historical chronology (which yes, is divorced from the biblical one)..are there witnesses to this as-history? Absolutely. This is corroborated not only by bablyonian records....but also by the archaeological record (the babylonians did storm through the territotory and reduce jeruslaem to ash and rubble). What this tells us is that the myths contextualized a then present conflict. The "prophetic" books of the ot are religiously inspired political commentary, describing the immanent terminus of this conflict as seen by the two competing ideological factions represented in the ot and in the historical and archaeological record.
By the end of this power struggle, the kingdom and specifically the city of jerusalem to which exiles returned was thoroughly depopulated, ideologically fractious, and in ruin. The surrounding countryside, however, had not seen the brunt of the conflict as there was little of strategic or economic interest to egypt or babylon in some hillside goat pens. It's this influence, the pastoralist influence, that comes to dominate magic book. Even with the return of the exiles, the population of the province was half that of the previous kingdom. Roundabout 583bc there were 75k people in the kingdom. By 499 there would only be 30k in the province.
In general, the trouble with biblical narratives is not that they aren't grounded in history, but that they aren't grounded in the timeframe they purport to be. The narrative is confused, compiled during and post exile, and most of the narratives mix a mythologized and legendary (but still descriptively historical) past with then-present moments and more than a little bit of ideological propaganda. This, again, common. The culture was dealing with dissolution and diaspora. Their history was as scattered as their population, they had disagreed beforehand and those divisions were only made stronger squeezed between two ancient superpowers. What little they could have known for certain lay in the ruins of their city - and this...for a people chosen by god himself...demanded an explanation.
Here's a fun thought experiment. Imagine a catastrophe. Tomorrow morning, the world is in ruin. As civilization burns all around us, we here on the boards make a plan to converge on a single geographic point. Less than half of us make it.
We then set out to write a history of the world, from memory. What kind of book do you think we'd end up with?
They were finalized after the fact, after the assyrian client state of judah fell to bablyonian forces..and after egypt (fearing babylonian encroachment) invaded to the euphrates and killed the king of judah in the process at the battle of megido. After anti babylonian insurgents in jerusalem provoked the siege of that city and the execution of it's most important residents (and their tradition along with them) and the subsequent deportation a significant percentage of the populace. They were replaced by a native judahite governer who...while also being a collaborator of the new regime, attempted to encourage those spread out by the conflict (in babylon, and in egypt) to return home. He was assassinated and this lead some who had returned or never left to flee to those expat communities in babylon and egypt.
Now.....understanding the historical chronology (which yes, is divorced from the biblical one)..are there witnesses to this as-history? Absolutely. This is corroborated not only by bablyonian records....but also by the archaeological record (the babylonians did storm through the territotory and reduce jeruslaem to ash and rubble). What this tells us is that the myths contextualized a then present conflict. The "prophetic" books of the ot are religiously inspired political commentary, describing the immanent terminus of this conflict as seen by the two competing ideological factions represented in the ot and in the historical and archaeological record.
By the end of this power struggle, the kingdom and specifically the city of jerusalem to which exiles returned was thoroughly depopulated, ideologically fractious, and in ruin. The surrounding countryside, however, had not seen the brunt of the conflict as there was little of strategic or economic interest to egypt or babylon in some hillside goat pens. It's this influence, the pastoralist influence, that comes to dominate magic book. Even with the return of the exiles, the population of the province was half that of the previous kingdom. Roundabout 583bc there were 75k people in the kingdom. By 499 there would only be 30k in the province.
In general, the trouble with biblical narratives is not that they aren't grounded in history, but that they aren't grounded in the timeframe they purport to be. The narrative is confused, compiled during and post exile, and most of the narratives mix a mythologized and legendary (but still descriptively historical) past with then-present moments and more than a little bit of ideological propaganda. This, again, common. The culture was dealing with dissolution and diaspora. Their history was as scattered as their population, they had disagreed beforehand and those divisions were only made stronger squeezed between two ancient superpowers. What little they could have known for certain lay in the ruins of their city - and this...for a people chosen by god himself...demanded an explanation.
Here's a fun thought experiment. Imagine a catastrophe. Tomorrow morning, the world is in ruin. As civilization burns all around us, we here on the boards make a plan to converge on a single geographic point. Less than half of us make it.
We then set out to write a history of the world, from memory. What kind of book do you think we'd end up with?
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