The relationship between an authoritative scripture and the community that considers it such is complex. The text shapes the community—its beliefs, its values, and its practices. At the same time, the community in a very real way shapes the text as well. The text is not, except perhaps in the abstract, intrinsically authoritative: it derives its authority from the community. And that community—or rather, in the case of the Bible, those interrelated communities—has a continuous history which cumulatively provides authority both to the text and to the processes of expansion, modification, interpretation, reinterpretation, adaptation, and even selective rejection of biblical traditions. The processes are ongoing, as ancient texts are continually accommodated to suit new circumstances, and what these texts meant becomes intertwined with what they mean. The many voices heard in the pages of the Bible, themselves coming from different times and contexts, begin these multiple processes, and so the processes are first authorized by the Bible itself.
Reading the Bible, then, is difficult, but it is also rewarding. Its many voices unite in celebrating Yahweh, the god of Israel, a god passionately if mysteriously engaged with the world and the humans who inhabit it.
Chronology
Appendix
The Canons of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
References
Translations from the Bible are usually from the New Revised Standard Version; in some cases I have modified the translation to reflect the meaning of the original more closely. Chapter and verse numbers follow the New Revised Standard Version. Unless credited, translations of other texts are my own.
Chapter 4
1. Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 253.
2. Ibid., 114.
Chapter 6
1. Code of Hammurapi 195, translation adapted from Martha Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), 120.
Chapter 8
1. Martti Nissinen, Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 19–20.
Chapter 9
1. Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, II Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Bible 11 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1988), 338–39.
Chapter 10
1. Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 2, The New Kingdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006 [1976]), 153, 151, 162.
2. Stephen Mitchell, The Book of Job (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987), 88.
3. Jack Miles, God: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1995), 325.
Chapter 11
1. The subtitle of Baruch Halpern, David’s Secret Demons (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001).
Further Reading
Annotated Bibles
Attridge, Harold W., ed. The HarperCollins Study Bible. Rev. ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
Berlin, Adele, and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. The Jewish Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Coogan, Michael D., ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 3rd augmented ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Harrelson, Walter J., ed. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003.
O’Day, Gail R., and David Petersen, eds. The Access Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Senior, Donald, and John J. Collins, eds. The Catholic Study Bible. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Introductions
Brettler, Marc Zvi. How to Read the Jewish Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Kugel, James L. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now. New York: Free Press, 2007.
McKenzie, Steven L. How to Read the Bible: History, Prophecy, Literature—Why Modern Readers Need to Know the Difference, and What It Means for Faith Today. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Reference
Achtemeier, Paul J., ed. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.
Barton, John, and John Muddiman, eds. The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Freedman, David Noel, ed. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Hayes, John H., ed. Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. Nashville: Abingdon, 1999.
Keck, Leander E. et al., eds. The New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon, 1994–2004.
Mays, James L., ed. The HarperCollins Bible Commentary. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2000.
Metzger, Bruce M., and Michael D. Coogan, eds. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Meyers, Carol, ed. Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Rogerson, J. W., and Judith M. Lieu, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob, ed. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville: Abingdon, 2006-.
van der Toorn, Karel et al., eds. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
Ancient Near Eastern Texts
Chavalas, Mark W., ed. The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006.
Hallo, William W., ed. The Context of Scripture. Leiden: Brill, 1997–2002.
Society of Biblical Literature. Writings from the Ancient World. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1990-.
Canon
Trebolle, Julio. “Canon of the Old Testament.” In The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, 1:548–63. Nashville: Abingdon, 2006.
History and Archaeology
Coogan, Michael D., ed. The Oxford History of the Biblical World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
King, Philip J., and Lawrence E. Stager. Life in Biblical Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.
Laughlin, John C. H. Archaeology and the Bible. London: Routledge, 2000.
Miller, J. Maxwell, and John H. Hayes. A History of Ancient Israel and Judah. 2nd ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.
Biblical Religion
Miller, Patrick D. The Religion of Ancient Israel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000.
Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
Prophets
Petersen, David L. The Prophetic Literature: An Introduction. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002.
Sweeney, Marvin A. The Prophetic Literature. Nashville: Abingdon, 2005.
Job
Newsom, Carol A. The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Terrien, Samuel L. The Iconography of Job through the Centuries: Artists as Biblical Interpreters. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.
Index
A
Aaron, 44, 46, 47, 50, 65, 66, 74, 111
Abraham, 5, 13, 21, 23, 32, 59, 109, 111–14, 118
Absalom, 119
Afterlife, 105
Ahab, 28,30
Ahijah, 80
Alexander the Great, 23
Amenemope, Instruction of, 103
Amos, 81, 84–86
book of 81, 84–86, 89
angels, 41
apocalyptic literature, 90
Apocrypha, 8, 10
Aramaic language, 6, 7
archaeology, 21, 28–31 ark of the covenant, 61, 118, 119
Asherah, 40, 78
Astarte, 40
Assyria, Assyrians, 21, 22, 25, 78, 83, 84–85, 91–99
Athaliah, 114
authority of Bible, 12, 122–24
authorship of Torah, 12–16, 19–21
Azazel, 40
B
Baal, 35, 37, 40, 78, 101
Babyl
on, Babylonians, 3, 5, 6, 21, 22, 25, 34, 38, 51, 69, 83
Balaam, 31, 78, 81
Barak, 115
Baruch, book of, 8
Bathsheba, 114, 119
Ben Sira, Wisdom of, 6–7, 8, 10, 98, 111, 114, 119–20
Bilhah, 5, 114
books of the Bible, 2
order of, 4, 8, 10
booths, festival of, 67, 69, 71
C
calendar, 66–67, 69
canon, 7–11, 127–29
case law, 55–56
Chemosh, 28, 38, 40
cherubim, 41
Christianity, 4, 8, 10, 73, 74, 90, 102, 107, 113, 118, 122
Chronicles, books of, 3, 6, 94, 95, 118, 119
chronology, 3, 23–25, 125–26
circumcision, 45, 46, 47, 65, 71, 112
clean. See purity, ritual
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 21
council, divine, 40–41, 82–83, 106–7
covenant, 2, 58–63, 86–88, 97
Covenant Code, 53, 54–59
creation, 14, 22, 23, 33–37
Cyrus the Great, 39
D
D, 16
Dab‘a, Tell ed-, 48, 49
Damascus, 85, 91
Daniel, book of, 6, 7, 8, 10, 90
David, 20, 22, 24, 31, 38, 59, 73, 79, 84, 88–89, 98, 109, 111, 116–19
day of atonement, 67
Dead Sea Scrolls, 9
Deborah, 29, 114–16
Song of, 115
Decalogue. See Ten Commandments
Deir Alla text, 31
Delilah, 115
Deuterocanonical books. See Apocrypha
Deuteronomic Code, 53, 56–57
Deuteronomy, book of, 4–5, 6, 16, 19–20, 22, 53, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64, 70, 123
divination, 75, 78
Documentary Hypothesis, 15–16, 18–21
E
E, 16, 44
Ecclesiastes, book of, 7, 10, 104–6
Ecclesiasticus, book of. See Ben Sira
Egypt, Egyptians, 21, 103, 105
gods of, 50
history of, 29, 32, 47–48, 93, 117
See also Exodus, the
Elijah, 80, 111
Elisha, 75, 80, 111
elohim, 16, 44
Enoch, 111
Enuma Elish, 34
Esther, book of, 6, 7, 8, 10, 69
etiology, 45, 46
Euphrates River, 97
exile, 85–86, 88, 113
in Babylon, 3, 6, 51, 88
Exodus, book of, 5, 13, 19, 22, 32, 42, 43–52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 69, 70, 71, 74, 109, 122–23
Exodus, the,5,22,32,43–52,70–71,98
date of, 48
geography of, 48–49
Ezekiel, 80, 111
book of, 5, 8, 40, 75, 83, 84, 89, 90, 123
Ezra, 7
book of, 6, 20
F
Flood, the, 14, 18, 21, 37–38
form criticism, 19, 45–46
Former Prophets, 5, 8, 83, 102
G
Gad (prophet), 80
Genesis, book of, 2, 4–5, 10, 13, 22, 31, 32, 35, 39, 40, 43, 45, 47, 48, 50, 64, 71, 111, 112, 113, 114
genres, 2, 5, 45–46, 73, 102
Gilgamesh, epic of, 37–38
God, names of, 13–16, 44
golden calf, 61
Greek language, 6, 7, 8, 15, 33, 41, 67, 75
Greeks, 25
H
Hagar, 111, 114
Haggai, book of, 83
Hammurapi, 38, 54, 58
Hanukkah, 69
Hebrew Bible, 6, 8, 10, 116, 122
Hebrew language, 6, 7, 14, 16, 17, 26, 27, 46, 48, 57, 59, 66, 90
Hebrews, letter to the, 119–20
Hebrews, the, 47, 48
Hebron, 118
Hezekiah, 69, 91–99, 103, 111
history, biblical, 5, 21, 22–32, 47–48, 52, 91–99, 112, 116
Hobbes, Thomas, 13
Holiness Code, 53, 58
holy days, 66–67, 69–70
Horeb, Mount, 14, 44
Hosea, 85, 87
book of, 5, 10, 45, 83, 87
Huldah, 114
Hyksos, 48
I
impurity. See purity, ritual
incense, 67
inscriptions, 17, 26–28, 31, 40, 96
Isaac, 5, 21, 111, 112, 113, 114, 118
Isaiah, 80, 82, 85, 86, 98–99
book of 5, 8, 9, 36, 39, 40, 51, 82, 83, 89, 91–99, 102
Ishmael, 111, 113
Islam, 66, 74, 105, 113, 118
Israel, Northern Kingdom of, 22, 24, 28, 39, 84, 85, 88, 91
kings of, 24–25
J
J, 16, 44, 45
Jacob, 5, 21, 111, 112, 113
sons of, 5, 21, 43
Jael, 115, 116
James, letter of, 106
Jeremiah, 10, 80, 83, 85, 86, 87, 111, 112
book of, 5, 8, 40, 83, 87–88, 89, 102
Jerome, 8
Jerusalem, 28, 39, 69, 75, 84, 85, 88, 89, 91–99, 109, 118
Jesus, 10, 20, 74, 90, 113, 118
Jezebel, 114
Joan of Arc, 115
Job, 106–10, 111, 112
book of, 10, 37, 106–10, 112, 121
wife of, 114
Joel, book of, 84
Jonathan, 117
Jordan River, 15, 51, 80
Joseph, 2, 32
Josephus, 98
Joshua, 5, 13, 19, 22, 24, 111, 114
Josiah, 29, 69, 79, 111
Judah, Southern Kingdom of, 22, 28, 39, 84, 85, 88, 91–99, 117
kings of, 24–25
Judah, tribe of, 117
Judaism, 2, 4–11, 51, 67, 69, 71, 73, 74, 102, 105, 107, 122
judges, 114–15
Judges, book of, 2, 5, 8, 22, 29, 40, 49, 114–15
Judith, 115
book of, 8
K
Kant, Immanuel, 21
Kepler, Johannes, 21
Ketuvim. See Writings
Kierkegaard, Søren, 112
Kings, books of, 3, 5, 19, 22, 27–28, 29, 30, 39, 40, 75, 78, 80, 81, 83, 91–99, 116, 119
Kingship, 38–39
L
Lachish, 94
Lamentations, book of, 5, 10
Latter Prophets, 5, 8, 53, 83, 102
law, 5, 53–63
Leah, 5, 114
Levi, tribe of, 65
Leviathan, 35–37, 108
Leviticus, book of, 22, 40, 53, 58, 64, 66, 69, 70, 71, 72
Lilith, 40
Lot, 111
Luther, Martin, 8
M
Maccabees, 31, 69
books of, 8, 10
Major Prophets, 5, 83
Malachi, book of, 5, 10, 83, 87
Manasseh, tribe of, 29
Marduk, 34–36, 38, 40
Mari, 78, 79
Megiddo, 28, 29–31
men, status, of 57, 58
Mesha, 26–28, 38
Messiah, 90
Methuselah, 23
Micah, 85
Micaiah, 83
Michal, 117
Milcom, 40
Minor Prophets, 5, 10, 83, 102
Miriam, 46, 73, 114
Moab, Moabites, 26–28
monotheism, 40–42, 50, 62, 104
Moses, 5, 12–16, 19–20, 22, 23, 32, 43–47, 50, 74, 109, 111, 112, 114, 116
Muhammad, 73, 113, 118
myth, 21, 33–42, 98, 112
and Exodus narrative, 49–51, 52
and history, 38–40
N
Nahum, book of, 73
Naphtali, tribe of, 115
Nathan, 79, 80, 119
Nebuchadrezzar
(Nebuchadnezzar), 38, 75
Neco, 29
Nehemiah, book of, 6
neighbor, 58, 62
New Testament, 4, 10, 59, 90, 113
Neviim. See Prophets Nile, river, 49
Nile Delta, 48, 49
Nineveh, 94
Noadiah, 114
Noah, 4, 18, 21, 37–38, 47, 59, 111
wife of, 114
Northern Kingdom. See Israel, Northern Kingdom of
Numbers, book of, 3, 17, 22, 31, 46, 64, 67, 71, 72, 78, 81
O
Old Testament, meaning of term, 4, 6