Defending the Bible: The King James Version

I have written several posts on “Defending the Bible” (see below for a list of posts on "Defending the Bible"). One of my readers and one of my students have asked me to write a post on the King James Version. I promised both of them that I would do it, but this post is not it. At a later time, I will write a post on the King James Version.

The purpose of this post is to address an article written by Paul Greenberg, the editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In his article Greenberg descries the problems with modern translations of the Bible and praises the beauty and accuracy of the King James Version. He wrote:

I’d like to think that, if you placed one of the newer versions side by side with the King James, even someone who’d never heard of either could appreciate the superiority of the older translation. All it takes is an ear for the English language.

In order to demonstrate the superiority of the King James Version over modern translations, Greenberg chose two passages from the Old Testament that, in his view, demonstrate that the translation of the Hebrew text found in the King James Version is better than the translation of the same passages in modern versions of the Bible.

The first example Greenberg provided was taken from the Joseph story, more specifically, Genesis 37:3. This text in the King James Version reads as follows: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.”

Greenberg wrote:

Many of the newer, spiffier versions of The Book cross the fatal line from translation into interpretation. Some even cross the line from translation into parody. The New English Bible, for example, washed out Joseph’s coat of many colors, which became only "a long, sleeved robe" in its denatured English, a literary style that might best be described as Modern Drab.

The expression “coat of many colors” has become a proverbial expression in American culture and it has provided the theme for children books, songs, movies, and for sermon topics. Mr. Greenberg believes that modern translations of the Bible have “washed out” the colors from Joseph’s coat and in the process made a “parody” of what the King James says.

However, what Mr. Greenberg is not aware of is the true meaning of the Hebrew words behind the “coat of many colours.” The Bible says that Jacob loved Joseph so much that in order to show to his family that Joseph was his favorite son, Jacob gave him a KeTöneT Passîm. And here lies the root of the problem.

Outside of the Joseph story, the word KeTöneT Passîm appears only once in the Old Testament, in the story of Tamar, the daughter of David, in 2 Samuel 13:18. The passage reads as follows: “Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times.”

In this text, the KeTöneT Passîm was the kind of garment the princesses of the house of David wore. This text seems to indicate then that the KeTöneT Passîm was the kind of garment worn by royalty. Thus, when Jacob gave Joseph a KeTöneT Passîm, Jacob was treating him as royalty, in fact, treating him as the ruler over his brothers. The KeTöneT Passîm signaled Joseph’s favored status in Jacob’s family.

The word KeTöneT is used in the Old Testament to designate a garment of some kind, but the word Passîm does not mean “color.” The Hebrew word Pas means “extremity,” as in the sole of the foot or the palm of the hand. It is for this reason that modern translations translate KeTöneT Passîm as “a long robe with sleeves” or “an ankle-length garment.” The translation “a coat of many colours” comes from the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible, which translates KeTöneT Passîm as tunica polymita, that is, a tunic made from different pieces of colored material.

Claus Westermann, in his book Genesis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1987) p. 262-63, wrote the following about the KeTöneT Passîm: “it is a special garment, a sleeved tunic (not a “coat of many colors”), according to 2 Samuel 13:18 the costume of a princess, an ankle-length tunic . . . that designates high rank.” Then, Westermann said: “It is this tunic, not Joseph’s dreams, that first poses the question: May a brother be thus exalted above his other brothers?”

The second example Greenberg used to demonstrate the superiority of the King James Version over modern translations was Psalm 23:4. In the King James Version, the text reads as follows: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

Mr. Greenberg wrote:

Compare the power and the glory, the stark faith of "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil," to the anemic version of the 23rd Psalm in a translation put out by the Jewish Publication Society, which mentions only "a valley of the deepest darkness."

Is ours so euphemistic an age that we dare not speak even of the shadow of death? This newest version of The Book reflects the New Living Translation that first appeared more than a decade ago. Here’s hoping that title didn’t mean to infer that older ones, like the King James, are dead.

Thus, according to Greenberg, the reason modern translations do not follow the King James in Psalm 23:4 is because modern translations are reluctant to speak about death and use the expression “a valley of deep darkness” as an euphemism for death.

A study of the Hebrew word behind “the valley of the shadow of death” is very revealing. The word calmäwët appears 18 times in the Old Testament. H. Niehr, writing in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), volume 12, page 396, said that the word comes from the word calam which means “to be dark.” The word clmT appears in Ugaritic with the sense of “darkness,” “gloom.”

The expression “shadow of death” reflects a popular etymology that derives the word from cal and mäweT, two words that mean “shadow” and “death” respectively. After studying all eighteen occurrences of the word in the Hebrew text, Niehr, the author of the article in the TDOT concluded: “Attempts to understand calmäwët in the sense of this popular etymology is unpersuasive.”

Two examples from the prophets will clarify the use of calmäwët. The first example is taken from Amos 5:8:

The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name (Amos 5:8 NRSV).

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name (Amos 5:8 KJV).

Amos says that it is God, who is the creator, who turns “deep darkness” (calmäwët) into morning. The expression “deep darkness and morning” is in an inverted parallelism with “day and night.” The idea of death, reflected in “the shadow of death” of the King James Version, is completely absent in the thought of Amos.

The second example is taken from Jeremiah 2:6:

They did not say, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?” (Jeremiah 2:6 NRSV).

Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? (Jeremiah 2:6 KJV).

In this passage, Jeremiah links the land of deep darkness with the wilderness wandering. The wilderness through which the Israelites traveled was a land of desert and pits, of drought and deep darkness. The same idea is present in Psalm 23:4. The psalmist was equating the inhospitable place where he worked with the place where his ancestors spent many years.

James Clemens, in his article “On the Expression ‘The Valley of the Shadow of Death’ in Psalm 23:4,” published in the Expository Times 5 (1893), p. 288, wrote:

"The shadow of death" simply expresses in a vivid way the gloom of the valley through which sometimes the flock is led . . . But a scrutiny of the particular term employed here, as we have seen, further assists in guarding against our seeing a necessary allusion to actual death. Keeping to the primary significance of the word, it is a "valley of deep darkness" that forms part of the Psalmist's picture.

The King James Version has a beautiful Elizabethan English that people love and a literary style that reflects the beauty of old English, an English than few people today can understand. On the other hand, modern translations of the Bible make an attempt at presenting a faithful reading of the Hebrew text in current English, even when the English of modern translations is not as sonorous as the English of the King James.

Other Posts on Defending the Bible:

Defending the Bible

Defending the Bible: The Date of Joel

Defending the Bible: The Conservative Bible Project

Defending the Bible: Burning the NIV


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Coat of Many Colors, Joseph, King James Bible, Psalm 23, Shadow of Death

Archaeological Sites in the Holy Land

According to a news release, Israelis and Palestinians have mapped some 7000 archaeological sites in the Holy Land. The following is an excerpt from the news release:

A team of archaeologists from UCLA, USC, Israel and Palestinian territories has developed the first map detailing Israeli archaeological activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem – much of it never publicly disclosed.

The fully searchable online map, which serves as a window into thousands of years worth of archaeological sites in the Holy Lands, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from American Schools of Oriental Research, the main organization for archaeologists working in the Middle East.

Built over several years through hundreds of hours of research, bolstered by freedom of information requests and, when necessary, a lawsuit in Israeli courts, the Web site provides interactive satellite maps showing locations of about 7,000 archaeological sites in the region, including:

• Shiloh, where the Bible locates the original tabernacle of the Hebrews
• Battir (Khirbet al Yahudiya), where the Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion
• the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea scrolls (the earliest copies of the Bible) were found
• Jericho
• many sites within Jerusalem.

The public can access the West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeology Database at http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/wbarc/ (users should have Google Earth installed to enjoy the full power of the database).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology

A Great Headline

Sometimes a headline can really attract readers. Here is a headline that appeared on The Times Online that really caught my attention:

Some people lose faith - but only bureaucrats can lose an Indian temple.

Here is the story:

The custodians of India’s archaeological treasures are to hire 10,000 attendants to patrol historical sites after an audit found that 34 monuments, including a cave temple, had “disappeared”.

A complex of ancient cave temples in the northern town of Basohli, which had yielded artefacts dating back as far as the 10th century, has also been lost.

How can anyone lose a temple?

The moral of the story:

All bureaucrats are alike, it matters not where they live.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Lost Temple,

Religion and War

Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, wrote a column titled “The Religious Wars” in which he reviews three recent books on religion that present unfavorable views of God, Judaism, and Christianity.

The following is an excerpt from his column:

Just a few years ago, it seemed curious that an omniscient, omnipotent God wouldn't smite tormentors like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. They all published best-selling books excoriating religion and practically inviting lightning bolts.

Traditionally, religious wars were fought with swords and sieges; today, they often are fought with books. And in literary circles, these battles have usually been fought at the extremes.

Fundamentalists fired volleys of Left Behind novels, in which Jesus returns to Earth to battle the Anti-Christ (whose day job was secretary general of the United Nations). Meanwhile, devout atheists built mocking Web sites like www.whydoesGodhateamputees.com. That site notes that although believers periodically credit prayer with curing cancer, God never seems to regrow lost limbs. It demands an end to divine discrimination against amputees.

This year is different, with a crop of books that are less combative and more thoughtful. One of these is "The Evolution of God," by Robert Wright, who explores how religions have changed - improved - over the millennia. He notes that God, as perceived by humans, has mellowed from the capricious warlord sometimes depicted in the Old Testament who periodically orders genocides.

(In 1 Samuel 15:3, the Lord orders a mass slaughter of the Amalekite tribe: "Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child." These days, that would earn God an indictment before the International Criminal Court.)

In addition to The Evolution of God by Robert Wright, Kristof also briefly reviews The Case for God by Karen Armstrong and The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade. Kristof concludes his article by saying:

I’m hoping that the latest crop of books marks an armistice in the religious wars, a move away from both religious intolerance and irreligious intolerance. That would be a sign that perhaps we, along with God, are evolving toward a higher moral order.

Mr. Kristof’s column is not very positive on Judaism and Christianity. In fact, although his column discusses Judaism and Christianity, religion and war, not once he mentioned Islam and how many of the followers of Islam are deeply involved in most of the religious wars being fought today.

I wonder who truly needs an armistice in the wars fought in the name of religion and who needs to move away from religious intolerance.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, War

Thanksgiving and Gratitude

When one reads the book of Psalms and what Israel declared about what God had done for them, one realizes that the people of Israel were a grateful people and that they offered thanksgiving to God in songs, in prayers, and in worship.

The gratitude of Israel was expressed in worship in the temple, as the people came into God’s presence to celebrate God’s faithfulness. In worship, Israel expressed joy and gratitude for the many blessings received from God, for God’s mighty acts performed on behalf of the community, or for anything that changed the life or the circumstances of an individual Israelite.

In addition, a study of the Psalms reveals that whenever the people came to give thanks to God, thanksgiving was always in the context of worship and it was always accompanied by an offering. The people expressed their thanksgiving with words and demonstrated their gratitude with an offering.

There is a remarkable contrast between the way Israel gave thanks to God and the way people give thanks today. People today are different: people say much but give little. People thank God for blessings received, but often, that expression of thanksgiving never comes with an offering.

In Israel, the voice of the people and their offering to God signified the grateful acknowledgment for the gifts and for the blessings received from God. Take, for example, the words of the psalmist in Psalm 7:17:

“I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

Psalm 7 is the cry of an innocent person pleading with God for help. The worshiper is asking God to answer his prayer. He is asking God for a special favor. He wants God to vindicate him before the community. At the end of his request, when God answers his prayer, the psalmist promises to do two things. First, he says, “I will give thanks to the Lord.” Then, he “will sing praise to the name of the Lord.” To the psalmist, thanksgiving is expressed in worship; thanksgiving and worship come together.

Thus, from a biblical perspective, thanksgiving comes in anticipation of a blessing to be received or in anticipation of a prayer answered. A good example of thanksgiving in anticipation of a prayer answered is found in Jesus’ prayer at the tomb of Lazarus. When Jesus came to where Lazarus was buried, before he ordered Lazarus to come out of the tomb, Jesus prayed and said: “Father, I thank you for having heard me” (John 11:41). Jesus thanked the Father before his prayer was answered.

In light of the psalmist’s expectation that his prayer would be answered and in light of Jesus’ prayer of thanksgiving in anticipation of a prayer answered, there are three important lessons people should learn about thanksgiving: people should thank God before they receive God’s blessings, they should thank God after they receive the blessings, and they should worship God as an expression of their gratitude for the blessings received.

The same coupling of thanksgiving with gratitude appears in Psalm 9:1-2:

“I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”

From the words of the psalmist, several lessons can be learned about thanksgiving. The psalmist said: “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart.” These are words of genuine gratitude. His “whole heart” means his whole life. The psalmist is grateful to God, so he gives thanks for everything he has and for everything he is.

He said: “I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” The psalmist is so confident that God will answer his prayer, that as an expression of his gratitude, he will tell others what God has done for him. To the psalmist, telling others what God has done for him was a demonstration of his gratitude.

He said: “I will be glad and exult in you.” Joy and happiness is the result of having received a blessing from God in answer to prayer. The psalmist says that his joy and happiness are in God, not in the blessing but in the giver of the blessing. Joy and happiness are properly expressed in worship and praise.

He said: “I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” The psalmist promised to sing the praises of God with other believers because God would vindicate him and because he was filled with a sense of wonder when he thought about God’s marvelous ways toward him. Another worshiper expressed the same desire to give thanks to God in the presence of other worshipers: “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation” (Psalm 111:1).

Today we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, but what should we do to express our thanksgiving to God? First, we express our thanksgiving to God in worship. However, when you come to give thanks to God, do not come empty handed. Give out of the abundance God has given you. Considering that the Lord's great love never ceases and that his compassion never fails (Lamentations 3:22), offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). Then, tell others what the Lord has done for you: “Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me” (Psalm 66:16).

Happy Thanksgiving.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Gratitude, Praise, Thanksgiving, Worship

Thanksgiving and Praise

This litany on Thanksgiving and Praise is an adaptation from several selections from the book of Psalms. The litany was read by the members of Trinity Baptist Church on Wednesday, November 25, 2009.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and Praise

We will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

Praise the LORD!
We will give thanks to the LORD with our grateful heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.

We will give thanks to the LORD with our grateful heart;
We will tell of all His wonderful deeds.
We will be glad and exult in the LORD;
We will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

With songs of praises We will praise your holy name;
We will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.
For You have delivered us from every trouble,
and our eye have seen what you have done for us.

We will come into your house with our words of thanksgiving;
We will pay you our vows, those vows that our lips uttered
and our mouth promised when we were in trouble.

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and we will tell what the LORD has done for us.
Praise the LORD!

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Praise, Thanksgiving

Off to New Orleans

I am leaving today to New Orleans to attend the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). The SBL is an organization that promotes the scholarly study of the Bible. Every year, the SBL meets in a different city (this year is New Orleans; next year it will be in Atlanta) and brings together scholars, teachers, students, religious leaders, and other persons who are interested in the critical investigation of the Bible.

Since I will be away for several days, I will not be blogging while I am in New Orleans and possibly will not be posting until after Thanksgiving.

I wish you and your family a happy Thanksgiving. May the blessings and the abundance that only God can provide be yours during these days of reflection and meditation.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Blogging

Did David and Solomon Exist?

Buy the book from Amazon.




Eric Cline, Chair of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures at The George Washington University, has written an article, published in The Bible and Interpretation, in which he discusses the archeological evidence for the existence of David and Solomon. The article is an adaptation of Cline’s new book, Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

The following excerpt was taken from the introduction to the article:

The debate as to whether or not David and Solomon existed has been one of the “hot-button” topics in biblical archaeology since the early 1990s. The introduction of a variety of new data has put to rest some aspects of the debate but intensified other aspects, and the debate itself shows no sign of coming to an end. The majority of the arguments by various scholars, on both sides of the debate, have been published in scholarly journals seldom read by students or the general public.

I recommend this article to all readers because Cline’s article is an excellent introduction to the archaeological discoveries related to David and Solomon and to the discipline of archaeology.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, David, Eric Cline, Tel Dan Stele, Solomon,

The Archaeological Evidence for David and Solomon

Image: The Tel Dan Stele


Norman Hammond, the archaeology correspondent for the Times has a review of Eric Cline’s new book, Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction, in which Cline introduces the discipline of biblical archaeology and the results of archaeological work in the lands of the Bible.

The following is a short excerpt from Hammond’s article.

Until 15 years ago, Professor Eric Cline notes in a new book, there was no extra-biblical documentary mention of even the House of David as ruling in Judea. The fragmentary Tel Dan Stele, found reused as building material at a site in what is now northern Israel in 1993-94, provided the first evidence outside the First Book of Kings.

Dating to about 842BC, the Tel Dan inscription describes the defeat of Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziyahu, king of Judah, by a ruler of Aram-Damascus earlier in the 9th century BC. The Israelites had invaded his territory, located somewhere in Lebanon or southern Syria, but he “slew seventy kings, who harnessed thousands of chariots and thousands of horsemen. And I killed Joram son of Ahab, king of Israel, and I killed Ahaziyahu, son of Joram, king of the House of David.”

“However, we are still lacking any contemporary or near-contemporary inscriptions that mention Solomon: at the moment we do not have a single one,” Professor Cline says. “Moreover, there is still very little archaeological evidence for the existence of David.”

The status of Jerusalem at this period is also debated, with some scholars arguing that the Bible account of a powerful capital city is true, others that it was, two millennia after its first settlement in the Bronze Age, what Professor Cline dubs “a small ‘cow town’. In fact, it is still not clear where David is positioned along the continuum from tribal chieftains to might kings.”

Hammond has presented a good review of Cline’s book. In the article there is a photo of the Tel Dan Stele. However, the caption of the photo misspelled Tel Dan; it reads “The Ten Dan Stele.”

Notwithstanding this obvious mistake, Hammond has written a good article.

You can buy the book on Amazon.com.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags:Archaeology, David, Eric Cline, Tel Dan Stele, Solomon

Women, Paris, and Pants

There is a law is Paris, a law that was introduced in 1800, that says that if a woman wants to wear pants like a man, she must go to the Paris police station and obtain authorization to dress like a man.

The law forbidding a woman from wearing pants in the city of Paris has survived repeated attempts to repeal it. The law was changed in 1892 to allow a woman to wear trousers but only “as long as the woman is holding the reins of a horse.” Then, the law was changed again in 1909 to allow women to wear pants on condition that they were “on a bicycle or holding it by the handlebars.”

Recently, the Paris city council asked the police chief to change the law. He refused by saying that it was “unwise to change texts which foreseen or unforeseen variations in fashion can return to the fore.”

What can I say about this law?

I am sure that this Parisian law reflects an old Catholic interpretation of Deuteronomy 22:5:

“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.”

Read my post on "Women, Pants, and Deuteronomy 22:5," Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

I wonder if the chief of police is as obtuse as those people who interpret Deuteronomy 22:5 as a prohibition against wearing pants.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Deuteronomy 22:5, Pants, Paris, Women

Hope for the Future - Part 2

Note: This post is a continuation of Hope for the Future - Part 1


The purpose of the use of the word “comfort” in the message of Deutero-Isaiah was to turn the lamentation of the people into a hope for the future. The coming of Yahweh to liberate his people was a source of hope. It was also the beginning of his intervention in the events of history to redeem his people, as he had done in Egypt, in order to bring them back to their land.

Deutero-Isaiah’s message of hope and the assurance that God would deliver his people was spoken with authority because the invitation to the people to find comfort in Yahweh was accompanied by an exhortation to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:3).

Deutero-Isaiah was called and sent to proclaim two great messages of hope to the people in exile. The first message was that the physical hardship imposed upon Israel and enforced by the exile was now coming to an end. The second message was that the iniquity of the nation had been pardoned. To the prophet, the change in Israel’s fortune and the restoration of the nation was based on divine forgiveness.

It is here that Israel could see once again God’s commitment to his people. It was God’s hesed, his faithful love, a love based on a covenantal relationship that moved God to forgive his rebellious people. It was because of that unfailing love that Israel’s time of servitude to alien masters had come to an end.

The expression “my people” in Isaiah 40:1 is significant in the context of the exile. When Israel was rebellious and serving other gods, God said that Israel was “not my people (Hosea 1:9). When God was angry because Israel’s heart was hardened, Israel was “this people” (Isaiah 6:9). Now that God has forgiven Israel, they are again “my people.”

The expression “my people” comes out of covenant language: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). At Sinai, Israel became God’s special people united with God by a covenant of grace. Thus, the words “my people” express God’s desire that the covenant relationship that once bound Israel to God be restored.

The exile came because of Israel’s violation of the covenant, and as a result, Israel had to suffer under the heavy hands of the Babylonians. Now, Deutero-Isaiah’s message of hope and comfort revealed that, not withstanding the overwhelming tragedy that fell upon the nation, Israel was still God’s people and they were still the object of his love and part of his redemptive purpose for the nations.

The prophet was commanded to speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem. This expression is used to identify God’s love for Israel as a husband speaks tenderly (“speaks to the heart”) to his wife (Judges 19:3). This metaphor appears again in Isaiah 54:4-8:

Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband-- the LORD Almighty is his name-- the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit-- a wife who married young, only to be rejected, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the LORD your Redeemer.

Several themes that appeared in the book of Lamentations, in the cry of distress of the lonely widow, appear again in this text of Deutero-Isaiah which is part of the message of hope and restoration that the prophet was preaching to Israel.

Israel had suffered shame, had been disgraced and humiliated. The prophet now proclaims that Israel would forget the shame it suffered, would remember no more the reproach of its widowhood, for Yahweh was her husband, the one calling back the abandoned wife who was deserted, distressed in spirit, and rejected. But that rejection was only for a brief moment: “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back” (v. 7).

Deutero-Isaiah’s message to Israel was that her “time of service” was over. This message of hope proclaimed by the prophet to a group of people who had lost their hope, reminded them of the time when their ancestors served as slaves in Egypt. In Babylon, most people were not put to forced labor as they had labored in Egypt, but Israel’s hard service in Babylon may be a reference to the humiliations the people suffered in exile. Israel’s time of service may be also a symbolic reference to the more than fifty years the people lived in the land of alien gods.

The message of comfort proclaimed by Deutero-Isaiah was a summons to a people who had lost hope for the future. The community’s crisis of faith and loss of hope was expressed in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. When the Lord explained to Ezekiel the meaning of the dry bones, the Lord said: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone’” (Ezekiel 37:11).

The crisis of faith was also expressed in the complaints of the people in which they expressed their doubt in God’s power to save them:

“Why do you say, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, ‘The LORD is not aware of what is happening to me, My God is not concerned with my vindication’” (Isaiah 40:27 NET).

“Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me’” (Isaiah 49:14).

To counteract the despondency of the people and their hopelessness, the prophet announced that God had forgiven the nation and that announcement became a great source of hope for Israel. The people would soon return to their native land because Israel was still the object of God’s great love.

So far, in this and in my previous post, I have described the message of hope proclaimed by Deutero-Isaiah. In my next post I will focus on the messenger of hope and explain how Deutero-Isaiah’s theology provided a new understanding of Israel’s mission in the world and how his view of the transformative power of God’s word became the catalyst for the Lord’s action in history.


Other Posts on the Exile:

The Babylonian Exile

The Lonely Widow

The Tenacity of Israel’s Faith

Hope for the Future - Part 1


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Deutero-Isaiah, Exile, Lamentations, Restoration

Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan

Image: Title page of the first edition of Leviathan (1660).





Very few people have ever read Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and the majority of Americans have never heard of Thomas Hobbes or his book Leviathan. And yet, as the editors of The New York Times wrote in a recent article, “Leviathan is arguably the most influential work of Western political thought, and one of the most analyzed..”

Although Leviathan was written in 1660, the translation of Hobbes’s book into Hebrew was published for the first time last month.

To celebrate this monumental occasion, The New York Times has invited five scholars to comment on the significance of Hobbes’s book and what modern readers can learn from a book that was written in 1660.

Follow the links below to read the significance of Leviathan and Hobbes’s views on religion.

Yoram Hazony, Shalem Center

Stephen Darwall, Yale professor of philosophy

Rebecca Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza

Fania Oz-Salzberger, historian of ideas

Menachem Lorberbaum, Tel Aviv University


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes

Hope for the Future - Part 1

In a previous post, I discussed the unprecedented suffering the people of Judah experienced as the result of the destruction of the temple and of the city of Jerusalem. The book of Lamentations portrays Jerusalem as a lonely widow appealing for sympathy and comfort from anyone, especially from God.

The writer of Lamentations vividly emphasized the horrors of the devastation caused by the Babylonians and the helplessness of the population of Judah by speaking on behalf of the people and lamenting that there was no comforter for the people and the nation.

According to the writer, this lack of a comforter was evidence that God did not care for his people:

“She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:2).

“Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; her downfall was appalling, with none to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:9).

“For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me” (Lamentations 1:16).

“Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:17).

“They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me” (Lamentations 1:21).

“What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter Zion?” (Lamentations 2:13).

It is clear that the use of the word “comforter” in the first two chapters of Lamentations means a helper, either human or divine. In Lamentations 2:13 a voice addresses the personified city and laments his inability to help the hurt of Jerusalem and wonders who can heal her wound, a wound that is “as deep as the sea” (v. 13).

The absence of a comforter for the wounded city and the belief that God had abandoned and forsaken his people heightened the sense of hopelessness, more so as the prayers of the people went unanswered. At the time when Israel was agonizing the most, at the moment of the people’s deepest despair, two significant events took place that changed the despair of the people into a hope for the future.

The first event was the release of Jehoiachin, the former king of Judah, from a Babylonian prison, thirty-seven years after his deportation. According to the conclusion of the book of Kings (2 Kings 25:27-30), in the thirty-seventh year of his exile (560 B.C.), Jehoiachin was set free by Evil-merodach, King of Babylon, and was given preference and a position of honor above the other kings who were vassals and captives in Babylon. The news that their anointed one, their Messiah, was alive and out of prison brought great joy to the people in exile. This event gave the exiles the assurance that there was hope for the future.

The second event was the call of a prophet to announce to the people that the exile was over:

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2).

This unnamed prophet, popularly known as Deutero-Isaiah, came preaching a message of comfort. The message that was to bring comfort to Israel was a message of hope, a message that God had come to bring an end to the people’s suffering because he had forgiven their sins and now would deliver them from their exile.

The prophet’s use of the word “comfort” was a direct response to the cry of the people in the book of Lamentations. In Lamentations 2:13, the writer asked who could help, heal, and comfort the suffering people. Now, the prophet proclaims that the Lord was the comforter of his people:

“Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones” (Isaiah 49:13).

The Bible pictures Yahweh as the one who comforts Israel (Psalm 86:17; Isaiah 12). Deutero-Isaiah used the imagery of Yahweh as the comforter of Israel to emphasize that God has heard Israel’s appeal for a comforter and to bring the good news that their exile was coming to an end:

“For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places” (Isaiah 51:3).

“Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem” (Isaiah 52:9).

The texts in Deutero-Isaiah where the word “comfort” is used have two things in common. First, the one who comforts is God and the one who is comforted is Israel. Second, the prophet uses the word “comfort” to express God’s action in helping the people and restoring them to their homeland.

Thus, the use of the word “comfort” in Deutero-Isaiah is a response to the lack of comfort in the book of Lamentations. The double use of the word “comfort” in Isaiah 40:1 expresses God’s urgency in liberating the people from their oppression. God’s urgency in delivering the exiles reflects his concern for the spiritual well-being of his people. After more than five decades in exile, many people were turning away from God and little by little they allowed their faith to grow cold, gradually accepting the culture and the religion of their captors. Thus, this threat to Israel’s faith led to the urgency of the prophet’s message. God’s urgency may also reflect his desire to renew Israel’s mission in the world, a theme that will be the subject of a future post.

Other Posts on the Exile:

The Babylonian Exile

The Lonely Widow

The Tenacity of Israel’s Faith

Hope for the Future - Part 1 (Present post)

Hope for the Future - Part 2 (Forthcoming)


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Deutero-Isaiah, Exile, Lamentations, Restoration

Biblical Feminism

Benjamin Ledford, a student at the University of Idaho discusses the theme of Biblical feminism in this video, which is a companion to his article, “Is God a Chauvinist?” which was published in the Argonaut, the university’s student newspaper.






Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Chauvinism, Feminism, Misogyny, Women

Is God a Chauvinist?

Benjamin Ledford, a student at the University of Idaho and a columnist for the Argonaut, the university’s student newspaper, has written an article dealing with the treatment of women in the Old and New Testaments.

The following excerpt is the introduction to the article:

One accusation often leveled at God and the Bible is that of oppressive paternalism. The Bible, so the argument goes, does not convey any unique “truth,” but was written by and for powerful, selfish men in a backwards, male-dominated time, and it reflects the views of those who were in control.

Of course, those who believe the Bible to be the word of God would disagree strongly, but setting aside the origins of the book, are the contents of the Bible chauvinistic or misogynistic? Does the Judeo-Christian tradition encourage the oppression of women?

If we want to know the answer, we will have to examine the Bible on its own terms. If we view it only from our own perspective, all we will find out is what we would have meant if we had written the Bible ourselves, which is really not at all helpful in understanding the book.

Ledford has written a good article and in general, I agree with most of his conclusions. Read the article in its entirety here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Chauvinism, Feminism, Misogyny, Women

Praying for the Food We Eat

Brent Emery has written an interesting article: “On faith: Learning to pray from a Jewish perspective,” in which he discusses Jewish prayers and how Christians can learn to pray from a Jewish perspective.

One section of his article caught my attention:

We as Gentiles have much to learn from our Jewish friends who have been praying for several millennia. Allow me an example of what we can learn from our Jewish roots:

Growing up in a Christian home, we always “blessed the food” before we ate. There are two things that are fundamently un-Biblical about our Christian tradition.

First, one does not “bless” food; rather, one blesses the Lord. In both the Bible and Jewish prayer, one does not bless things but rather blesses the Lord.

In fact, many prayers in Judaism begin with the phrase “blessed are you, Lord our G-d, King of the Universe.”

Secondly, notice that we prayed a blessing before we ate (which is a good thing) but were ignorant that the Hebrew Scripture commands us to offer a blessing “after” we eat (see Deuteronomy 8:10). So when we eat, we should bless G-d beforehand and afterward.

Careful attention to Jewish prayer brings a needed corrective to prayer at meals and brings us in alignment with the Biblical text.

The concept of “blessing the food” is found mostly in the Roman Catholic tradition. Most Protestants give thanks to God for his gifts, his generosity, and for the food God has provided. Thus, in most Protestant traditions, the prayer before the meal is not an act of “blessing the food,” as is done in the Catholic tradition, but it is a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Give us day by day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3). It is because God has provided us with our daily bread that Christians pray a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s generosity. It is in this act of thanksgiving that many Christians pray from a Jewish perspective.

Emery is right: there are many Christians who still need to learn how to pray from a Jewish perspective.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Prayer, Thanksgiving

Ancient Coins from the Second Temple

According to a news report, ancient coins dating from the time of the Jewish revolt 2,000 years ago are on display in Jerusalem:

JERUSALEM – Israel displayed for the first time Wednesday a collection of rare coins charred and burned from the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago.

About 70 coins were found in an excavation at the foot of a key Jerusalem holy site. They give a rare glimpse into the period of the Jewish revolt that eventually led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in A.D. 70, said Hava Katz, curator of the exhibition.

The Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire and took over Jerusalem in A.D. 66. After laying siege to Jerusalem, the Romans breached the city walls and wiped out the rebellion, demolishing the Jewish Temple, the holiest site in Judaism.

Read the story in its entirety here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Ancient Coins, Numismatics

The Lost Army of Cambyses [Not?] Found

Several bloggers have posted on the recent news that archaeologists have found the remains of Cambyses’s army lost in the western deserts of Egypt to a sandstorm 2,500 years ago. According to news reports, a large number of human bones as well as bronze weapons and jewelry were found in the Egyptian desert and it was believed that the bones were the remains of the legendary Persian army of Cambyses.

Andie, at Egyptology News has made the following announcement:

Thanks to Bob Partridge, editor of Ancient Egypt magazine, for forwarding an urgent announcement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities:

We need to inform you that recent reports published in newspapers, news agencies and TV news announcing that “twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni have unearthed remains of the Persian army of Cambyses,” are unfounded and misleading. The brothers are not heading any archaeological mission in Berenike Panchrysos at the small Bahrin Oasis near Siwa Oasis. This site has been excavated since 2002 by an Italian mission led by Dr. Paulo Gallo of Turin University

The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has already informed the proper legal and security authorities in Egypt and are taking the necessary procedures.

We wait more news on this developing controversy.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Cambyses

Digging at Tel Dor

The archaeologists in charge of the Tel Dor excavation are looking for volunteers to excavate at Tel Dor next summer. An archaeological dig needs people who are willing to work and provide the support needed to carry out the project. You do not need to have experience in archaeological work to volunteer. People of both sexes and of all ages are welcome. Recently, I received a letter from the archaeologists leading the excavation inviting people to apply to dig at Tel Dor. I am posting the letter below and inviting you to consider this request. They need your help.

Dear Madam/Sir,

The exquisite gemstone of Alexander the great that captured your attention is only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of one of the largest, long-lasting and high-profile archaeological projects in Israel. If you care about the archaeology of biblical times (Israelites, Phoenicians and Sea People), the Classical periods, and the cultural heritage of Israel and the Mediterranean; and if you are interested in forging a bond between Israel and the international community - please take a moment to look at the attached file. Like almost cultural projects around the globe, we need your help to endure.

We would be grateful if you could pass this message to any other interested parties.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ilan Sharon,
Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University Jerusalem
Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905
Tel. 972-2-2881304

Dr. Ayelet Gilboa
Chair, Dept. of Archaeology,
University of Haifa, Mount Carmel
Haifa 31905, Israel
Tel: 972-4-8240234, 972-4-8240531

Tel Dor website: http://dor.huji.ac.il/
Email: dor-proj@mscc.huji.ac.il

If you want to read more about the gemstone carved with the head portrait of Alexander the Great, click here and here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Tel Dor

Book Reviews - Old Testament

Review of Biblical Literature has published its latest edition of review of books in the area of biblical studies. Review of Biblical Literature is a publication of the Society of Biblical Literature.

The following reviews are of interest to students of the Old Testament:

Jim W. Adams
The Performative Nature and Function of Isaiah 40-55
Reviewed by Ulrich Berges

Description: Among linguistic philosophers, speech act theory has illuminated the fact that uttering a sentence does not merely convey information; it may also involve the performing of an action. The concept of communicative action provides additional tools to the exegetical process as it points the interpreter beyond the assumption that the use of language is merely for descriptive purposes. Language can also have performative and self-involving dimensions. Despite their clear hermeneutical importance, the notions expressed within speech act theory have been generally neglected by biblical interpreters. The few who have applied speech act theory to the OT typically subsume the discipline into an eclectic type of literary/rhetorical criticism. Such an approach, though, tends to discount the distinctive notions expressed by theoreticians. This dissertation presents the basic philosophical concepts of speech act theory in order to accurately implement them alongside other interpretive tools. The above analysis leads to applying these concepts to Isaiah 41:21-29, 49:1-6, 50:4-10, and 52:13-53:12. These four sections intricately function within the overall prophetic strategy of chapters 40-55: the call to return or turn to Yahweh. The way these chapters describe the nature of this return is for the reader to forsake sin, acknowledge and confess Yahweh as God alone. The first passage represents the basic concerns of chapters 40-48 and specifically Jacob-Israel's deliverance from Babylon through Yahweh's Cyrus illocutionary act. The final three passages represent the servant leitmotif running throughout the chapters and implore the reader through self-involvement to embrace the role of Yahweh's servant.

Philip Cary
Jonah
Reviewed by Jacek Stefanski

Description: Pastors and leaders of the classical church--such as Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley--interpreted the Bible theologically, believing Scripture as a whole witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Modern interpreters of the Bible questioned this premise. But in recent decades, a critical mass of theologians and biblical scholars has begun to reassert the priority of a theological reading of Scripture. The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible enlists leading theologians to read and interpret Scripture for the twenty-first century, just as the church fathers, the Reformers, and other orthodox Christians did for their times and places. In the sixth volume in the series, Phillip Cary presents a theological exegesis of Jonah.

Deborah L. Ellens
Women in the Sex Texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy: A Comparative Conceptual Analysis
Reviewed by Carolyn Pressler

Description: The writers of the bibilical laws, like the writers of other legal corpora throughout history, considered the regulation of sex to be of some importance. A study and comparison of the two groups of sex laws in the Bible, those in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, reveal that factors even more narrowly focused than the general desire to control social behavior shape the texts. These factors, as reflected in the text, are responsible for the differing conceptual matrices within Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Whereas the interest of the Leviticus sex texts is ontology, that is, the classification or oder of kinds and their relationships, the interest of the Deuteronomy sex texts is property, that is, the man's ownership of the woman's sexuality and its protection. Ellens shows how these differing interests influence subtle corresponding differences in the conceptualization of women in the two groups of texts.

Tremper Longman III
Jeremiah, Lamentations
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton

Description: The New International Biblical Commentary (NIBC) offers the best of contemporary scholarship in a format useful both for general readers and serious students. Based on the widely used New International Version translation, the NIBC presents careful section-by-section exposition with key terms and phrases highlighted and all Hebrew transliterated. A separate section of notes at the close of each chapter provides additional textual and technical comments. Each commentary also includes a selected bibliography as well as Scripture and subject indexes.

Paul Wilkinson
Archaeology: What It Is, Where It Is, and How to Do It
Reviewed by Aren Maeir

Description: This book has been written to be used by newcomers to archaeology in the field, and explains the techniques and methods that will help them understand and record the past.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Deuteronomy, Hebrew Bible, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Leviticus, Pentateuch, Old Testament, Prophetic Literature

The Forgotten Euphrates City

Archaeologists have found a 4,500-year-old circular city has that was buried on the banks of the Euphrates river, in the Syrian region of Tall Qabr.

According to a news report, among the artifacts uncovered at the site was a collection of ceramics that will allow researchers to understand life and culture from a place for which little information is available.

Archaeologists also found a stamp of great artistic beauty, probably belonging to one of the city’s dignitaries.

According to the archaeologists involved in the discovery, “the city could represent the passage from the rural cycle to the urban cycle, in other words the first cities in history and show the border of the Mari kingdom, the ancient rivals of Babylonia.”

This discovery may be of great significance to the study of the culture of Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Tall Qabr

The Possibility of Extraterrestrial Life

The other day, one of my students asked me whether I believe in extraterrestrials. That is a loaded question and in whatever way one answers it, the answer will not please some folks.

For those people like me and millions of others who were fans of Star Trek and enjoyed Mr. Spock, the half-human and half-Vulcan, the character who played a major role in the TV series and in the movies, and who served as the science officer and the first officer of the USS Enterprise, the existence of extraterrestrials is an intriguing possibility.

The existence of extraterrestrial life has not been proved and the likelihood of life outside the planet Earth remains only a possibility. However, my student’s question reminded me of a press release, published in 2008, in which it was reported that the Vatican was looking for the implications of the existence of life on other planets.

In that news release, the Pope’s chief astronomer, Father Jose Gabriel Funes, said he believed that intelligent life may exist on other planets and that the Vatican was studying the question of extraterrestrial life and its implication for the Catholic church.

The following is an excerpt from the news release:

[T]he Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.

"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.

Funes maintained that if intelligent beings were discovered, they would also be considered "part of creation."

In an article titled “Aliens Are My Brothers,” published in the official Vatican newspaper, Funes said that just as there are different forms of life on earth, so there could exist intelligent beings on other planets who were also created by God. Funes also believes that some of these aliens could even be free from original sin.

The acknowledgment by the Vatican of the possibility of life on other planets is a radical shift for the Holy See. During the days of Galileo, the Vatican was willing to put scientists to death for saying that the Earth moved around the Sun. In fact, the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating, among other ideas, that other worlds could be inhabited. But as Father Funes said, “mistakes were made, but it is time to turn the page and look towards the future.”

Beam me up, Scotty.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Aliens, Extraterrestrials

A Minoan Wall Painting Found at a Canaanite Palace

A press releases issued by the University of Haifa is reporting that the remains of a Minoan-style wall painting was discovered at the Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri. The following is an excerpt from the new release:

The remains of a Minoan-style wall painting, characterized by a blue background, the first of its kind to be found in Israel, was discovered in the course of the recent excavation season at Tel Kabri. This fresco joins others of Aegean style that have been uncovered during earlier seasons at the Canaanite palace in Kabri. "It was, without doubt, a conscious decision made by the city's rulers who wished to associate with Mediterranean culture and not adopt Syrian and Mesopotamian styles of art like other cities in Canaan did. The Canaanites were living in the Levant and wanted to feel European," explains Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa, who directed the excavations.

The remains of a Canaanite city from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550 B.C.) have been exposed at Tel Kabri, next to Kibbutz Kabri near Nahariya. A palace for the city's rulers stands in the center of the city, which was the most important of the cities in the Western Galilee during that period. Excavations began at Tel Kabri in 1986, conducted by the late Prof. Aharon Kempinski, and were halted in 1993. Over the past years, excavations have been renewed by teams directed by Dr. Yasur-Landau of the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa and Prof. Eric Cline of The George Washington University. Tel Kabri is unique in that after the city was deserted, no other city was built over its remains. Therefore, this is the only Canaanite city that can be excavated in its entirety. The palace too, which has been measured with geophysical tools at 1 to 1.5 acres, is the only such palace of this period that can be excavated fully. "The city's preservation enables us to get a complete picture of political and social life in the Canaanite period. We can reveal whether or not it had a central government, whether taxes were levied, what sort of agriculture there was and how politics were conducted at the time," Dr. Yasur-Landau explains.

Read the press release in its entirety here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Canaanites, Tel Kabri

The Value of Small Things

Many people today have a stereotypical view of Jews when it comes to the matter of money. Most of these stereotypes about Jews and money reinforce anti-Semitic views and should be strongly condemned by all.

Rabbi Avi Shafran, writing for the Jewish World Review, has a good article about Jews and money and the secret of their economic success. He wrote that the Hebrew people, “at least the materially successful among us — [have] a keen awareness of the fact that even a small thing has value.”

To illustrate his point, he used as an example the patriarch Jacob and what the Talmud has to say about him. He wrote:

As the Talmud puts it, "Each and every penny contributes to a large sum" (Bava Basra, 9b).

As it happens, the Jewish ideal of valuing even the smallest thing goes beyond the realization that things add up. It is a recognition of the inherent value of every thing.

In mere weeks, Jews in synagogues the world over will read the Torah portion in which our forefather Jacob, after transporting his family and possessions across a river, took pains to cross back over again, endangering himself. The Talmud conveys a tradition that the reason Jacob returned was to retrieve some "small jars."

"From here we see," the Rabbis went on to explain, "that the possessions of the righteous are as dear to them as their bodies."

That comment is not counseling miserliness; Jacob is the forefather emblematic of the ideal of "truth" or honesty. What the Talmud is conveying, rather, is a quintessentially Jewish truth: Material things, no matter how seemingly "worthless," have worth.

The lessons we learn from Jacob’s life and Rabbi Shafran’s conclusion is worth pondering:

Possessions are tools, in their essence morally neutral; put to a holy purpose, they are sublime. And so, Judaism teaches, valuing a simple, small coin can be a sign not of avarice but of wisdom. And what is more — and even more important — just as small amounts of money can in fact be worth much, so can small acts of goodness.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Frugality, Jacob, Material Possessions, Money

The Kristallnacht’s Bible

Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night”) or the “Night of Broken Glass” was a coordinated attack on the Jewish community by Nazi Germany. On November 9, 1938 thousands of Jews were killed or arrested, hundreds of synagogues were destroyed, and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked.

The New York Times is reporting that a two-volume Hebrew Bible that was looted from a library in Vienna on that night has been found and will be returned to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The following is an excerpt from the article:

On Nov. 9, 1938, a two-volume black-leather-clad Hebrew Bible vanished from a library in Vienna after that city’s Jewish community came under assault from soldiers during Kristallnacht, the start of the Nazi pogrom against Jews.

As is the case with much art looted during World War II, the Bible’s location during the following few decades was mostly unknown.

But last winter, the two volumes, printed 493 years ago, were smuggled into New York City, according to federal authorities, who noticed them advertised in a catalog of a New York auction house and confiscated them.

On Monday afternoon, at a repatriation ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, the historic Bible began its journey home, 71 years to the day after it was seized.

The atlas-size Bible, which was printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice in 1516, several generations after the Gutenberg Bible, according to scholars, bears faded gold Hebrew characters on its three-inch-thick spines. And, “for the first time in a Hebrew Bible, the chapter numbers appear in the margin,” according to the catalog issued by Kestenbaum & Company, the auctioneer, which estimated its value at $20,000 to $30,000.

The owner of the Kristallnacht’s Bible was unaware that the Bible had been stolen. The placement of the Bible in the Museum of Jewish Heritage will serve as a vivid reminder of the suffering inflicted by the Nazis on the Jewish people.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Kristallnacht, Kristallnacht’s Bible

The Tenacity of Israel’s Faith

In my last post on the exile, I described the devastation of Judah caused by the Babylonian invasion and the anger and despair of the people as expressed in the book of Lamentations. When one considers the devastation caused by the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the deportation of the people to Babylon, one would expect that such a comprehensive devastation of a nation might bring about the end of their religious life. However, it did not.

The history of Israel during the Babylonian exile is very sketchy. Since the biblical sources do not provide enough information about Israel’s life in Babylon, it is difficult to recreate the conditions of the people in exile. The book of Kings ends with the destruction of Jerusalem to which an appendix was added to announce the release of Jehoiakim in 560 B.C., after thirty-seven years in prison, by Evil-merodach, the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:27-30).

A sketchy history of the exile can be developed by compiling information from several different sources. The book of Chronicles ends with the fall of Jerusalem, although some of the narratives dealing with the temple and its cultic functionaries may reflect a post-exilic situation. An appendix to the book of Chronicles describes Cyrus’s proclamation giving liberty to the exiles (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). The writings of Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah also give a snapshot of life during the exile. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah deal with events that happened at the end of the exile, primarily the return of the Jewish people from Babylon and the rebuilding of the temple.

The people of Judah not only adapted to their circumstances, but they emerged from exile with a renewed sense of mission and with a new form of religious faith that developed through the adversity of life in Babylon. In fact, it was the suffering and affliction of the exile that forced the leaders of the nation to reevaluate their religious experience in Babylon, an act that eventually gave birth to Judaism.

There is no denial that many Judeans lost their faith in Yahweh, since they were unable to understand how the devastation of their nation fit into the faith they had come to embrace, a faith which declared that Yahweh was their protector and the one who fought for them. Many people were unable to reconcile the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple by the Babylonian army with their view of the inviolability of Zion in a way that could preserve their faith.

The vast majority of Judeans, however, emerged from the ordeal of the exile with the belief that Yahweh had brought about the events that led to the destruction of the nation because of the disobedience of the people. They concluded that Yahweh had evoked the curses stipulated by the covenant and had exacted judgment and punishment on his people for their violation of the demands of the covenant. Although many Judeans were indignant with the initial devastation, a feeling expressed in the book of Lamentations, the people came to accept God’s judgment upon the nation. It was in the midst of the paroxysms of hopelessness that the people’s faith matured and they learned to accept the affliction they had suffered at the sovereign hand of their God.

The people who were deported to Babylon were deprived of the moorings that gave them their identity as the people of God. They were uprooted from their native land and taken to a pagan environment. They were removed from their cultural environment, from their place of worship, and from their ancestral land and forced to sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land (Psalm 137:4). Many of those who were forcibly taken to Babylon, died there and never again saw their homeland.

As a result of the exile, many changes took place in the religious and social life of Israel. There was a challenge for the people to change and to innovate if they were to survive as a people and as a nation. As a result of the exile, there were three main areas where changes precipitated radical results.

First, the monarchy had ceased to exist, and kingship was never reconstituted. The end of kingship challenged the divine promise that David’s dynasty would continue forever. The possible end of the Davidic dynasty created a crisis of credibility: Would God honor his promises to David?

Second, the temple was in ruins and the rituals carried on there were no more. The destruction of the temple was devastating to the religious faithful because they thought that the temple was inviolable. The destruction of the temple by the Babylonians shattered that theology. The destruction of the temple created a crisis of faith: How could God be worshiped without a temple?

Third, the land, which was considered holy, had been a unifying factor in the religious formation of the nation. However, as the result of the exile, Yahwism had been torn from its nation, cult, and land. As a result of the loss of the land, an important change took place in the people’s understanding of their God. The people understood that Yahweh was not a God localized within the boundaries of the land, but that he was a universal God, a God who also could be worshiped in Babylon.

Other changes took place in exile that would forever change the character and the nature of the people of Judah. The new generation of Judeans who were born in Babylon forgot their native language, Hebrew, and adopted Aramaic, the language of their conquerors, as their new language.

The exile revealed the tenacity of Israel’s faith. Deprived of the temple and of a holy city, the exile brought about the need for personal religious response. Religion became individualized and Jerusalem ceased to be the only place where the worship of God was possible.

The exile brought about the need for an agonizing reappraisal and refinement of their religious traditions. When the people were taken to Babylon, they took with them many records and documents that later were used to preserve their legal, historical, and religious traditions.

In exile a greater emphasis was placed on preserving their religious and cultural heritage in writing. The preservation of the ancient heritage of the nation included many of the traditions that were transmitted orally from generation to generation, the preaching of the prophets, the rituals of the temple, and the teachings of the priests. Canonical activity quickened in Babylon as holy books began to replace the holy temple. In exile, Israel became the people of the book.

Although the synagogues probably existed before the destruction of the temple, in exile the synagogue became a place for prayer, study, and local worship and it served as a temporary replacement for the temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue “contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple.”

Finally, the exile brought about the need for a theological response to the events leading up to the exile. The people understood that Israel had been unable to keep the covenant. All three major prophets of the exile declared the need for a new kind of covenant, a new saving act of God. In exile there was the development of the idea of monotheism, remnant theology, and the concept of the suffering servant, an idea that grew out of the remnant concept.

Although living in a strange land, the people never forgot the heritage they left behind and Jerusalem remained in their thoughts and their hearts. The longing of the people for their native land was expressed by the words of the psalmist: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy” (Psalm 137:5-6).

In exile, many of the people maintained their distinctiveness as a people and it was this tenacity that saved the religious traditions of the nation and gave birth to Judaism. Also living in a foreign land, the exiles retained the belief that the land of Canaan was theirs. The people never abandoned the desire and the hope to return to the land that was given to them by God as their eternal inheritance.

The exile had a deep impact on the religious and cultural life of the people of Judah. The exile destroyed the belief in the inviolability of the temple. The exile produced the view of the universality of God and that he would be with his people even in a pagan land. The exile forced the people to reevaluate the view of the uniqueness of God and reject polytheism, the worship of images, and other pagan practices. In exile, faithful observance of the Sabbath, circumcision, and strict adherence to the Law became the signs of loyalty to God.

The exile produced reactions ranging from anger and despair to acceptance and hope. In an upcoming post, I will address the message of hope proclaimed by the exilic prophet known as Deutero-Isaiah.

Other Posts on the Exile:

The Babylonian Exile

The Lonely Widow


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Babylon, Exile, Judaism