Bible

B

2

Deuteronomistic History

In recent years the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings have been recognized as a unified account of the history of Israel from the time of Moses (13th century bc) to the Babylonian exile (the period from the fall of Jerusalem in 586 bc to the reconstruction in Palestine of a new Jewish state after 538 bc). Because the literary style and theological perspective are similar to those of Deuteronomy, this account is called the Deuteronomistic History. On the basis of the last events it reports, among other evidence, it seems to have been written about 560 bc, during the exile. It is possible, however, that at least one edition was written earlier.

The writer (or writers) of the work set out to record Israel's history and also to account for the disaster that befell the nation at the hands of the Babylonians. On the one hand, he worked as any other historian would, by collecting and organizing older sources, both written and oral. He used materials of many kinds, including stories of the prophets, lists of various sorts, earlier histories, and even court records. In fact, he often refers the reader to his sources (for example, see Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18; 2 Kings 15:6). On the other hand, however, he worked as a theologian—and one who already had firm convictions about the course and meaning of the events he recorded. He expressed those convictions by the way he organized the material and by placing speeches, which he had written, into the mouths of the major characters (for example, see Joshua 1). He believed that Israel had fallen to the Babylonians because of disobedience to the law of Moses (as in Deuteronomy), especially in its worship of false gods in false places of worship; he also believed that the prophets had warned of the exile long before it happened.

B

3

The Poetic Books

Both the cultic and wisdom poetry of the Old Testament are difficult to date or to attribute to particular authorship, primarily because they contain so few historical allusions. David is regarded as the author of the Psalms because of the tradition that he was a singer and composer; in fact, only 70 of the 150 Psalms are specifically identified with David and far fewer than that originated during his era. The attributions to David and to others are found in the superscriptions, which were added long after the Psalms were written. The identification of Proverbs and other wisdom books with Solomon stems from the tradition of that king's great wisdom, and is reliable to the extent that Solomon did encourage institutions that developed such literature. Wisdom poetry contains in the sayings some of the oldest material in the Hebrew Scriptures and in compositions such as Ecclesiastes and Sirach some of the latest.

The Book of Psalms became the hymnal and prayer book of Israel's second temple, but many of the songs pre-date the second temple. They contain motifs, themes, and expressions that Israel inherited from its Canaanite predecessors in the land. Many voices speak in and through the Psalms, but above all they are the voices of the community at worship.

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4

The Prophetic Books

Few if any of the prophetic books were written entirely by the person whose name serves as the title. Moreover, in most instances even the words of the original prophet were recorded by others. The story of Jeremiah's scribe Baruch (see Jeremiah 36; see also Isaiah 8:16) illustrates one of the ways the spoken prophetic words became books. The various utterances of the prophets would have been remembered and collected by their followers and eventually written down. Later, most of the books were edited and expanded. For example, when the Book of Amos (c. 755 bc) was used in the time of the exile, it was given a new and hopeful ending (Amos 9:8-15). The Book of Isaiah reflects centuries of Israelite history and the work of several prophets and other figures: Isaiah 1-39 stems primarily from the original prophet (742-700 bc); Chapters 40-55 come from an unknown prophet of the Exile, called Second Isaiah (539 bc); and Chapters 56-66, identified as Third Isaiah, come from various writers of the period after the exile.

C

The Canon

The Hebrew Bible and the Christian versions of the Old Testament were canonized in different times and places, but the development of the Christian canons must be understood in terms of the Jewish Scriptures.

C

1

The Hebrew Canon

The idea in Israel of a sacred book dates at least from 621 bc. During the reform of Josiah, king of Judah, when the temple was being repaired, the high priest Hilkiah discovered “the book of the law” (see 2 Kings 22). The scroll was probably the central part of the present Book of Deuteronomy, but what is important is the authority that was ascribed to it. More reverence was paid to the text read by Ezra, the Hebrew priest and scribe, to the community at the end of the 5th century bc (see Nehemiah 8).

The Hebrew Bible became Holy Scripture in three stages. The sequence corresponds to the three parts of the Hebrew canon: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. On the basis of external evidence it seems clear that the Torah, or Law, became Scripture between the end of the Babylonian exile (538 bc) and the separation of the Samaritans from Judaism, probably by 300 bc. The Samaritans recognized only the Torah as their Bible.

The second stage was the canonization of the Nebiim (Prophets). As the superscriptions to the prophetic books indicate, the recorded words of the prophets came to be considered the word of God. For all practical purposes the second part of the Hebrew canon was closed by the end of the 3rd century, not long before 200 bc.

In the meantime other books were being compiled, written, and used in worship and study. By the time the Book of Sirach was written (c. 180 bc), an idea of a tripartite Bible had developed. The contents of the third part, the Ketubim (Writings), remained somewhat fluid in Judaism until after the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in ad 70. By the end of the 1st century ad the rabbis in Palestine had established the final list.

Both positive and negative forces were at work in the process of canonization. On the one hand, most of the decisions had already been made in practice: the Law, the Prophets, and most of the Writings had been serving as Scripture for centuries. Controversy developed around only a few books in the Writings, such as Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon (Songs). On the other hand, many other religious books, also claiming to be the word of God, were being written and circulated. These included the books in the present Protestant Apocrypha, some of the New Testament books, and many others. Consequently, the official action of establishing a Bible took place in response to a theological question: according to which books would Judaism define itself and its relationship to God?