Rabbi David Wilfond’s Message – Friday, August 27, 2021
August 26, 2021Rabbi David Wilfond’s Message – Friday, September 3, 2021
September 2, 2021
Literary Perspectives in the Life of Ancient Israel
Beginning Shabbat, September 4, 11 AM
After Torah Study on Krasnow Zoom
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2580409807
Faith Krasnow, facilitator
This course includes 24 discussion/lectures and a 30 minute video primarily but not only on the foundational stories of the Book of Genesis. We will approach the text as a piece of literature. On the surface many of these well known stories look like simple tales, but they are, in fact, products of a great literary genius.
The Bible itself, enriched by the great cultures of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan, breaks through the traditions of these texts with a literary sophistication and refinement heretofore unknown. We are seeing remarkably gifted authors but also an ancient Israelite audience that could appreciate and understand literature of such high quality and brilliance.
We cannot but conclude that literature played a central role in the life of ancient Israel.
When Was the Book of Genesis Written?
Lecture 19
Genealogies, unique to ancient Israel, have made it possible for historians to date events that go far back in time with considerable certainty. For example we know that the Torah was canonized (redacted and closed) in the Second Temple Period, probably under the benevolent Persian rule (550 BCE-334 BCE).
But when was Genesis written? Many historians are convinced that it was written in the 10th century BCE, in Canaan in the period of the monarchy after the people had long been in the land. No wandering nation can establish a code of law which requires a long period of development. Nor can a code of law be established without a governing body that has the authority to enforce the law, hence a king: 10th century, Davidic Monarchy.
This raises many questions: Why is the law attributed to Moses, leader of a wandering tribal people given the assertions above? How did it happen that Israel alone regarded its law as sacred? How much of Israel's codes were borrowed from Mesopotamian law?
