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Class Prep
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Engaging God @ Sinai
- If the Torah is the heart of Jewish scripture, the heart of the Torah is the scene in Exodus 19–23 when Moses meets God on Mount Sinai and receives the commandments from God—that is, the first time he receives them. He gets angry with the Israelites soon after and breaks the tablets, and has to go back to God for version 2.0 in chapter 34. And then there's a third version of the ten devarim or statements in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, which is a little different from versions 1.0 and 2.0. There's also a divergence in the number of commandments: there are actually 14-15, not 10, in Exodus 20, though later summaries speak of only 10 (Exod 34:28; Deut 10:4). It's this sort of duplication and diversity that leads scholars to believe there might have been more than one tradition about this foundational event in different parts of Israel and in different periods, a view that prompted the Documentary Hypothesis.
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- Since the scene at Sinai is about the Israelite and later Jewish community's relationship with God, the journal question for today tries to probe what you believe and think about the human relationship with God. For those of you who believe in God and/or have such a relationship, you can speak from that experience. What does God mean for you? What does it mean to be in a relationship with the God or higher power that you imagine? For those of you who are atheist or agnostic, your position also reflects a belief about what the term "God" signifies, and that definition likewise informs your commitment to the belief that God as so defined does not exist (atheism) or that you cannot know (agnosticism). So you can also consider the question, what does God mean for you, but then you can discuss why you therefore have come to your conclusion, and/or how you evaluate the choices of others for whom the relationship with a god is important.
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- Today's readings include primary (i.e., biblical) and secondary (contemporary) sources. You'll be reading a few chapters from the biblical book of Exodus (1–4 means chapters 1 through 4; 12–14 means chapters 12 through 14, etc.). These chapters will familiarize you with the story of the Hebrews' escape or exodus from slavery in Egypt and their encounter with God on Mount Sinai (chapters 19 through 20). As you read ch. 19–20 in particular, be alert to repetitions, duplicate versions of events, or contradictions in the text. Make a list of anything you find. You'll also read Psalm 68, which is not in the Torah but rather in the Ketuvim or Writings. It too celebrates the theophany on Mount Sinai, as do many other passages in the Jewish Bible, and actually predates the accounts in Exodus and Deuteronomy. How is it similar, and different, from Exodus 19–20?
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- Turning to the secondary reading in Swenson and Levenson, come to class prepared to discuss the following questions:
- Is there any historical or archaeological support for the story of the Exodus? (Swenson; by the way, pp. "31-4" on your syllabus means pp. 31-34; the second 3 is considered superfluous in some page numbering systems)
- In his introduction, Levenson argues that the historical-critical approach to scripture should allow a rendering of Tanak that is faith-neutral and therefore less biased against Judaism than past Christian readings Jewish scripture. However, Levenson finds that anti-Jewish bias persists, and is focused on two Jewish institutions. What are those institutions and how do Christians (mis)read them?
- Levenson continues in the introduction to describe traditional Jewish approaches to Torah, and to compare and contrast these with historical and humanistic approaches. He states that Torah-observant Jews today by-and-large reject the historical approach. Be able to explain why they do, AND why Levenson thinks (in contrast) that historical approaches can coexist with theological commitments.
- In chapter 1, Levenson explores his key insight that the Sinai event functions as an archetype or mold into which human experiences could be fit. It is like your mythology in this way: it is a story that the Jewish people continued to inhabit and adjust and use to shape their collective (and changing) identity over time. He argues that the story is thus "true" for Judaism in a manner that is quite separate from questions of its historical veracity. He then goes on to develop certain points in the story that teach us features of the Jewish notion of and relationship with God. Be able to discuss three of these features.
- Be able to define the following terms:
- historical criticism
- source criticism
- halakhah
- mitsvot
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- Assigned Readings
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- Primary: Exodus 1–4, 12–14, 19–20; Psalm 68
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- Secondary: Swenson, Bible Babel 31-4; Levenson, Sinai and Zion 1-12, 15-36, 42-5
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- Slides from Lecture
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- Further Reading
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- Blenkinsopp, Joseph. The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible, The Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
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- Dever, William G. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archaeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2001.
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- Friedman, Richard Elliott. The Bible with Sources Revealed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.
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- --------. Who Wrote the Bible?. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987.
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- Plaskow, Judith. Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.
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- Links
- Which Ten Commandments - This site, hosted by the Biblical Heritage Center, compares the contemporary Jewish, Catholic and Protestant versions of the Ten Commandments. Read it in conjunction with the two versions in the Torah: Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. You could write an extra credit paper answering their questions in light of the biblical evidence, including also some research on the Biblical Heritage Center, which states that it is "not a religious organization and thus has no hidden agenda to proselytize anyone" (http://www.biblicalheritage.org/introduction.htm).
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- Sources
- Photographs:
- "Theophany on Mt. Sinai (Exod 19–20)," illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company, 1907. Online, The Bible Revival, http://thebiblerevival.com/clipart/1907/ex20-1.jpg.
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