English 233:  Introduction to Western Humanities -- Baroque & Enlightenment

Study Guide on ancient Jewish history

Our reading on this topic is Matthews and Platt, The Western Humanities (3rd Edition), pp. 133-8, together with the last two paragraphs on p. 140.  Our purpose in taking this up is to acquaint ourselves with certain theological concepts developed by the ancient Jews that play an important role in Saint Augustine's picture of universal history (though often with a changed interpretation and/or an extended application.  This section also introduces you to several episodes in Jewish history that played an important role in Augustine's picture of universal history.  You might want to print off a copy of this Study Guide and use it to take notes on as you work through the reading.  You will achieve a better understanding if you try to put things in your own words.  Your notes will also serve as a convenient source for review as examination time approaches.

Theological concepts developed by the ancient Jews that are integral to Augustine's picture of unviersal history

What is a "covenant"? 

• The account in Matthews and Platt focuses on a particular instance of covenant essential to the notion of Jewish identity.  What is this?

• Here's something to be thinking about:  what additional incidents in the Biblical historical account that you may be acquainted with invite being seen as "covenants"?  In your reading of the Creation and Fall story, for example, can you see how interpreters might come up with the idea of there being a covenant with Adam?  What about Noah?  The term "testament" comes from Latin testamentum, which is a translation of the Greek term diathéké, which means "covenant."  What then are Christians claiming when they name some books of their Bible "the New Testament" and those of the Hebrew Bible "the Old Testament"?  (Cf. Paul's Letter to the Galatians, 3:15-18).

The Ten Commandments

• How were these understood to have come to be? 

• What was their role in what was understood to be a new covenant?

• Make it a point to memorize them.  (Use any translation you please.  You need not do this in a spirit of piety.  But their influence on both Christian and Jewish communities has been immense, and you can hardly expect to understand Luther, Calvin, or pre- and post-Tridentine Catholicism if you have no grasp of these.  You might find it interesting to compare Exodus 20:1-17 with Deuteronomy 5:6-21.)

When did Hebrew oral traditions about the people's history turn into Scripture?

• How does this compare with the writings of the first Greek historians (Herodotus and Thucydides)?

• What crucial assumption organizes the Hebrew way of explaining what happens in history that does not play a role in classical Greek historiography?  ("Historiography" = writing of history.)

What is a "prophet," and what was the role of prophets in Jewish history? 

What is "eschatology"? 

What is "apocalypse"?

What is a "Messiah," and what was the historical situation of the Jews when this idea entered their thinking?

What ideas did the Hebrew Bible, as it eventually developed, lead various thinkers within the ancient Jewish tradition to develop about

• what God's ultimate plan was for his favored people?

• Later you will want to ask yourself how this compares with the Christian view(s) on this question.

• what God's intentions were about how human sin could be overcome?

• Again:  how is this like, and unlike, what the Christian picture turns out to be?

Episodes in Jewish history that play an important role in Augustine's picture of universal history

Who was Abraham? 

Who led the Deliverance from the Egyptian Captivity?  What else did he do? 

What was the Ark of the Covenant?  What do the letters YHWH denote? 

What was the Promised Land? 

What did the Israelites do between the time they left Egypt and the time they took possession of the Promised Land?

What figures were important (when?) in the Kingdom of Israel? 

When did the kingdom divide into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom? 

What disaster befell the Northern Kingdom (and when)?

 

Something to speculate upon:  Do we have today the writings that record the history of the Jewish people as it was understood and taught by the priests of the Northern Kingdom?  Might it make a difference if we did?

Something else to speculate upon:  How do you imagine the Southern Kingdom explained the fate of its northern rival to itself?

What was the "Babylonian Captivity"?  (How and when did it begin and come to an end?  What happened during it?)

Matthews and Platt point to some changes that entered into Jewish society and theology in the wake of this episode.  Get clear on what these are:

social/political changes

•  

• Something to think out:  What impact did the Babylonian Captivity have on the position of women in Jewish society?  At the end of their discussion of ancient Judaism Matthews and Platt append a summary of developments in Jewish thinking an practice concerning women.  Which of these changing ideas has the most impact on Augustine's picture of universal history?

theological changes

•  

• Here's something M & P do not discuss that you should think out:  What kind of problems did the Babylonian Captivity pose for the ancient Jewish theologians, and what sort of interpretation of that historical episode did they adopt as a way of dealing with that problem?   Consider that as a temple priest in Jerusalem  you hold the following two postulates:  (1) the God we worship is not just the god among the many that exist that we have decided to worship, but the God who created and presides over the entire cosmos; and (2) this God has, in the course of history, declared to us that, among all the peoples of the world, we are his favorites.  But history has now confronted you with a calamity.  Your armies have been decisively defeated by a powerful foreign foe, and you now find yourself forceably transported to the eastern fringes of the Babylonian Empire.  The victor, however, is generous, and in fact wants to assimilate you into his society.  He offers you a post in the Babylonian administration, which of course will require you to take part in periodic religious ceremonies that are a part of the political life of the community.  Some of your friends advise you to accept the offer.  They argue thus:  "Either the Author of the Universe favors the Babylonians, not us.  Or the god we took to be the author of the creator of the whole world is only one god among many, and the gods whom the Babylonians worship have proved themselves stronger than Jahweh.  We have always maintained that ours was a religion based on history; we should honestly face up to what has happened and accept the verdict of history.  We should integrate ourselves into Babylon, become good citizens, and be grateful that these people aren't prejudiced against people who used to oppose them."  In other words, the defeat of Judea says you have to give up either postulate (1) above, or postulate (2), or both:  you can't simulaneously maintain both.  How can you possibly maintain your religion in the face of such obvious facts?

The Jewish community during the Hellenistic Period

• When did Alexander the Great bring Judea within the Greek (Hellenic) cultural sphere?

• What was the Seleucid dynasty? 

• What effect did it have on Jewish life?

• What was the Maccabean Revolt?

The Jewish community during the Roman Period

• When did the Romans take over Judea?

• Who was Herod the Great?

• What was the Masada Rebellion?  What is the name for the people who carried it out?

• What is meant by the term "the Second Diaspora"?  (What was the [First] Diaspora?)

• Something to think about:  What do you think early Christians took to be the explanation for what happened to the Jews during the reign of the Roman emperor Titus?

Something you might try your hand at (not required):  Suppose you were to organize the history of the Jews under the idea of the role and fate of temples as a focal point for communal identity.  What would belong under the following cateories?

• pre-temple times

• period of the First Temple

• between the First and Second Temples

• period of the Second Temple

• between the Second and Third Temple

• period of the Third Temple

• post-temple times

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  Suggestions, comments and questions are welcome.  Please send them to lyman@ksu.edu .

      Contents copyright © 1999 by Lyman A. Baker. 

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      This page last updated 24 August 1999.