Hebrew Origins
Only 2 cultures in the ancient world produced "literature" and "history". What other cultures? Migrant cultures?
1. Greece (Herodotus)
2. Judah (on the Greek model)
Other cultures have monuments, not literature:
- Egypt
- Chaldea/Babylonia
- Persia
- Hittites
Hasmonean propaganda
- Great empire (small territory)
- Grandiose treatment of great kings (Solomon/David)
- Fake heros (Hezekiah/Josiah)?
- Only 1 temple, destruction of Mt. Gerazim (Samaritans)
- Orthodoxy
- Propaganda as history (Kings and Chronicles) - re-evaluate in this light
- Re-use of patriarchal myths (Pentateuch)
- Leviticus only applied to ideal priesthood
- Claim to dual legitimacy of kingship and priesthood (a new invention)
Development of Hebrew language:
- Not by nomadic tribes
- Originally only for nobility and priests
- Alongside cuneiform for international correspondence
- Scribal developments
Judean culture:
- Population mostly illiterate, had to be taught Torah by Pharisees
- Pharisees taught, Sadducees ruled, Essenes (former priests) rejected
- Other temples (Leontopolis, Elephantine)
- Hebrew Bible was constantly evolving, not finished
- Only 1 verified Exodus: returnees from Elephantine in Egypt
- No evidence Israelites ever were enslaved in Egypt
- Role of Dead Sea Scrolls and works of Enoch tradition
- Challenges to authority & legitimacy were squashed (Jesus/John the Baptist)
- Relationship to Septuagint in Egypt (timing and people/who?)
- Early mystical traditions
- Early tradition of female consort for Yahweh