Gary Rendsburg - Book of Genesis.pdf - Religie (ciekawostki) - judaika

The Book of Genesis

Part I

Professor Gary A. Rendsburg

T HE T EACHING C OMPANY ®

Gary A. Rendsburg, Ph.D.

Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University

Gary Rendsburg holds the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History at Rutgers University in New

Brunswick, NJ. He serves as chair of the Department of Jewish Studies and holds an appointment in the History

Department.

Dr. Rendsburg majored in English and journalism as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina and

graduated in 1975. He then pursued graduate work in Hebrew Studies at New York University and received his

Ph.D. in 1980.

He previously taught at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY (1980–1986), and at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY

(1986–2004).

Professor Rendsburg’s areas of special interest include literary approaches to the Bible, the history of the Hebrew

language, the history of ancient Israel, and the literature and culture of ancient Egypt.

Dr. Rendsburg has held a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and has taught as a visiting professor

at the University of Pennsylvania, at Colgate University, and at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Professor Rendsburg is a frequent guest of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where twice he has served as

visiting research professor and twice he has held the position of visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced

Studies.

Dr. Rendsburg is the author of five books and more than 100 scholarly articles. His most popular book is a general

survey of the biblical world entitled The Bible and the Ancient Near East , co-authored with the late Cyrus H.

Gordon (1997).

He has visited all the major archaeological sites in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan and has participated in excavations at

Tel Dor and Caesarea. In addition, he has lectured around the world, including Europe, Japan, and Australia.

For more information, go to: http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/faculty/grendsburg/.

Table of Contents

The Book of Genesis

Part I

Professor Biography ............................................................................................i

Course Scope .......................................................................................................1

Lecture One

On Reading the Book of Genesis...............................2

Lecture Two

Genesis 1, The First Creation Story...........................5

Lecture Three

Genesis 2–3, The Second Creation Story ..................7

Lecture Four

An Overview of Ancient Israelite History.................9

Lecture Five

The Ancient Near East.............................................11

Lecture Six

The JEDP Theory and Alternative Approaches.......13

Lecture Seven

Genesis 6–8, The Flood Story .................................16

Lecture Eight

Genesis 9, Covenant ................................................20

Lecture Nine

Genesis 12–22, The Abraham Story ........................23

Lecture Ten

When and Where Did Abraham Live? ....................25

Lecture Eleven

Genesis 21–22, Abraham Put to the Test.................27

Lecture Twelve

Women in the Bible—Sarah and Hagar ..................29

Map of the Ancient Near East circa 1400 B.C.E. ........................................... 31

Timeline of Israelite History ............................................................................32

Biblical Names—People and Places ................................................................33

Glossary .............................................................................................................37

Biblical Scholars ...............................................................................................44

Bibliography ......................................................................................................45

Egyptian Chronology (Lecture 23) ...................................................... Part Two

Essay: Mummification (Lecture 23) .................................................... Part Two

Essay: The Hebrew Language .............................................................. Part Two

The Book of Genesis

Scope:

This course of 24 lectures focuses on the first book of the Bible (in both the Jewish and Christian canons), the book

of Genesis. This particular book is an extremely rich text that can be approached from a variety of perspectives,

including literary, historical, theological, and archaeological. Most of the stories in Genesis (creation, flood,

Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and so on) are well known, but many crucial issues in the study of the book are less

familiar to general audiences. We will present these issues in a detailed fashion; the 24 lectures afford us plenty of

time to work through the 50 chapters of the book of Genesis.

The course will speak to the different perspectives listed above. First and foremost, we will approach the text as a

piece of literature, highlighting the many literary devices and techniques employed by the ancient author(s) of the

book. In so doing, we will demonstrate that what on the surface may look like rather simple tales are, in fact, the

products of great literary sophistication. This finding bespeaks not only a remarkably gifted author but also an

ancient Israelite audience that could appreciate and understand literature of such high quality and brilliance. We are

led to conclude that literature played a central role in the life of ancient Israel, thus establishing at a very early time

the notion that the Jews are the people of the book.

We will talk about the history that lies behind the book of Genesis. We will address such questions as when

Abraham lived, where his birthplace of Ur was located, under which pharaoh did Joseph serve, and so on. We will

also raise even more fundamental questions, such as did Abraham and Jacob and Joseph and so on exist at all, or

were they simply literary creations of ancient Israelite literati? To answer these questions, we will need to look at

other ancient Near Eastern sources from the three main regions: Egypt, Canaan, and Mesopotamia. Thus, this course

also will provide an introduction to these neighboring cultures, especially as they affect our understanding of the

Bible.

We will delve into theological issues. What can we learn about the religion of ancient Israel from reading these

stories? Did the ancient Israelites believe in one God? Or did they only worship one God without denying the

existence of other deities? And what was the nature of the God of Israel? Was he similar to the other deities of the

ancient Near East? Or was he uniquely different? Was he, in fact, even a he? Religion is more than the conception

of the deity, however; it also includes the relationship between God and man, and this, too, embodied in the

covenant concept of the Bible, will be a topic of exploration in this course.

As intimated above in the paragraph about history, this course will use a vast array of archaeological evidence to

illuminate issues in the book of Genesis. The evidence, both textual and artifactual, will come from across the

ancient Near Eastern landscape, from Mesopotamia in the northeast, from Canaan most proximate to Israel, and

from Egypt in the southwest. We are required to retain such broad horizons because the book of Genesis itself does

so. Abraham is born in Mesopotamia; he migrates to the land of Canaan; his grandson Jacob returns to

Mesopotamia, where he lives for 20 years; and at the end of the book, Joseph and his brothers are resident in Egypt.

Most importantly, we will deal with questions of authorship. Is the book of Genesis the result of a haphazard

compilation of disparate sources? Or does it present itself as a unified literary whole, suggesting a single author?

And in either case, when might the book have been written and/or achieved its final written form?

Finally, we will explore various other issues that emanate from our reading of Genesis. Often, these topics will be of

interest to biblical studies in a wider scope. For example, we will explore the question of women in the Bible: Why

does the Bible include so many female characters, especially in comparison to other ancient Near Eastern literature,

and why are these women often portrayed in unexpectedly heroic fashion, often at the expense of the male

characters? We will discuss different translations of the Bible: Why are there so many different versions? How are

they different? How are they similar? And we will take time to consider the way later generations of Jews and

Christians understood the Bible, especially given that these later readings are often quite different from the original

authorial intent.

In sum, the multifaceted book of Genesis allows for numerous avenues of inquiry: We will do our utmost in this

course to tackle all of them.

Lecture One

On Reading the Book of Genesis

Scope: We begin with a basic overview of the course, touching on a number of crucial issues at the outset, creating

almost a set of ground rules, as it were, for reading the book of Genesis. We will approach the text as

literature, as history, and as theological treatise—all at once! Most importantly, we will attempt to

understand the text in its original setting, reading it with the knowledge and worldview that an ancient

Israelite would have brought to his or her reading of Genesis. Finally, in contrast to those scholars who

carve up the text into separate sources, we will take a holistic approach to the text of Genesis.

Outline

I. This course is, first and foremost, a course on the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible in both the Jewish

and Christian canons. We will perforce need to look at other biblical material at times, but we will keep our

focus on Genesis throughout. Because both the Bible in general and Genesis in particular are so wide-ranging, I

will need to use a variety of approaches while presenting the material.

A. Most importantly, we must recall that we are reading ancient literature; thus, we will most frequently use

literary analysis—that is to say, the course will look and sound like a literature course.

B. Second, much of the material in the book of Genesis, especially from chapter 12 onward, to the end of the

book in chapter 50, needs to be situated in a historical context. Thus, we will bring historical analysis to the

material, as we seek to uncover the history of ancient Israel and the surrounding cultures in the ancient

Near East—that is to say, at times, the course will look and sound like a history course.

C. Third, we must recall that the text that we are reading presents some of the most basic concepts of ancient

Israelite religion, such as the worship of a single deity; thus, we will need to discuss aspects of ancient

religion, cult, and theology—in such instances, the course will look and sound like a religion course.

II. There are three questions that one may ask while reading the Bible:

A. What was the author’s original intent, and how did his or her original audience understand the text? This

will be our main emphasis throughout the course. To successfully answer this question, we must immerse

ourselves in the world of ancient Israel by attempting to live and think, as well as we can, like an ancient

Israelite in, say, c. 1000 B.C.E.

B. How has the text been interpreted by the two faith communities who hold the Bible to be sacred, namely,

Judaism and Christianity, throughout the ages? This subject requires a different approach, as we will

illustrate with a few examples. Before moving to these illustrations, however, note that the formative

periods of Jewish and Christian interpretation largely coincided: Jewish midrashic writings from the rabbis

and early patristic writing from the church fathers both date to the late Roman or Byzantine period (4 th

through 6 th centuries B.C.E.).

1. Later Jews and Christians developed a belief in creation ex nihilo , that is, “out of nothing,” and

therefore, read this belief into their reading of Genesis 1. As we shall see, however, Genesis 1 states

exactly the opposite.

2. The wording of Genesis 1:26, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness,” may suggest a

belief in the Trinity, but this is a later Christian theological development not to be found in the Jewish

Bible.

C. What does the text mean to me today? For this question, one turns to one’s personal clergy for religious

guidance, but this is not a matter into which we will enter during this course.

III. The book of Genesis is a book about origins. It presents ancient Israel’s understanding of two beginnings.

A. The first 11 chapters of Genesis discuss the origins of the world, since those stories are of a universal

nature.

B. Chapters 12–50 in Genesis present the origins of the people of Israel. Actually, Israel is not quite a people

yet but, rather, a family, namely, Abraham and his descendants.

Gary Rendsburg - Book of Genesis.pdf

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