Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The Ten Commandments are a strange mix. They proscribe not only stealing and even the craving to have any property belonging to your neighbour. (And neighbour’s property includes his wife.) The command not to kill is certainly not meant to be interpreted literally as a general law since God elsewhere commanded lots of killing of … Continue reading “Ten Commandments: Where Did they Really Come From?”
We have covered five of the six chapters in Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. The final chapter covers a topic that for me is the most interesting of all, but before going there Gmirkin outlines what he has covered so far. He has presented “substantial new arguments for viewing the Primary History of … Continue reading “The argument so far: Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible”
This post continues the discussion of Russell Gmirkin’s Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. All posts in the series can be accessed in the archive. –o0o– After discussing the popularity of Greek foundation stories and the appearance of the same genre in the Pentateuch, Gmirkin looks at one more type of narrative that is … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Political Evolution in Literature”
I should follow up my previous post with a clarification of Weinfeld’s argument as he presented it in his 1993 book, The Promise of the Land. The bolding is mine for the benefit of those who don’t want to read lots of text but just hit the highlights. As is well known, most of the … Continue reading “Postscript on Rome’s and Israel’s foundation stories”
Weinfeld compared the Abrahamic promises that prompted his emigration from Mesopotamia to Canaan with the similar destiny prophesied for the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas at the outset of his travels: much as the descendants of Aeneas would someday found Rome (Homer, Iliad 20.307; Virgil, Aeneid 3.97-98), so Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation and … Continue reading “Comparing the Rome’s and Israel’s Foundation Stories, Aeneas and Abraham”
[Greeks] are very fond of hearing about the genealogies of heroes and men, Socrates, and the foundations of cities in ancient times and, in short, about antiquity in general . . . — Hippias speaking to Socrates in Plato, Greater Hippias, 285d –o0o– Greek foundation stories provide the closest correspondence with the Pentateuchal narratives that … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Greek Foundation Stories and the Bible”
Continuing from Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Legal Narratives (esp. Panegyrics), continued . . . . There is one more Greek comparative illustration I wanted to look at before picking up with Gmirkin’s main example as I promised at the end of the previous post. I had meant to look at a section in Plato’s Timaeus before … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Legal Narratives continued . . . Solon and Atlantis”
Continuing from Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Law-Giving Narratives as Greek-Inspired Literature . . . . The historical narratives of both Herodotus and Thucydides contain narratives explaining the origins of Athenian laws of three notable lawgivers in both myth and history: Theseus, Solon and Cleisthenes. (Russell Gmirkin appears to say that both historians address the latter … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Legal Narratives (esp. Panegyrics), continued”
The previous post, How Does One Date the Old Testament Writings?, was a step back for a broader look through a discussion by Niels Peter Lemche at the kind of literature we find in the Pentateuch, how it compares with literature expressing similar interests and ideas found in other ancient literature, and the relevance of this … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Law-Giving Narratives as Greek-Inspired Literature”
I have been posting insights from Russell Gmirkin’s Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible (archived here) in which he argues that both many core and peripheral features of the text of the Hebrew Bible bear closer similarities to Classical Greek writings and practices than to what we find in ancient Mesopotamian and Levantine culture. … Continue reading “How Does One Date the Old Testament Writings?”
After the introduction (covered in my previous post) Russell Gmirkin divides chapter three of Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible, “Biblical, Ancient Near Eastern and Greek Laws” into thematic sections: laws relating to homicide, laws relating to assault, to theft, to marriage and inheritance, to sexual offences, to slavery, to social legislation (concerning resident … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible: Homicide Laws”
[These Laws] will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to … Continue reading “Mosaic Laws: from Classical Greece or the Ancient Near East?”
Also he says that “Exodus to Joshua: depict the Elders and Assembly as “national democratic institutions . . . subordinate to . . . Moses and Joshua.” Democratic? Really? From what does Gmirkin extrapolate any meaningful form of democratic process? Austendw questioning a point made in relation to the post The Bible’s Assemblies and Offices Based on … Continue reading “Primitive Democracy in Ancient Israel”
Is it possible that the Bible’s account of priests and prophets contains hints of borrowing from the Greek world? Not that those Hellenistic features mean we have to jettison entirely sources and influences closer to the Levant. Let’s look at another section of Russell Gmirkin’s Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible (2016). Previous posts: Plato and … Continue reading “Bible’s Priests and Prophets – With Touches of Greek”