Reading the Old Testament Essay - 1187 Words

The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These†¦show more content†¦The sources that do not come from the bible specifically are ones that have everything to do with it but show some insight as to the history of it. They help peel a little off the mystery that the bible is surrounded by. The Nova website gives us an insurmountable amount of information about the archeology, history, and thoughts on the bible. Therefore without these sources, we would be in the dark on what was behind the bible and without that knowledge people would be more skeptical of the bible that has no background to as how it came to be in existence. If there was no history or sources behind it then we would have no idea why these authors felt compelled to write anything and what their culture was like that influenced it. Most importantly we would never be able to answer the question, who wrote the bible? Higher criticism are techniques of analysis to find out what circumstances surrounded the writing of the bible, how many versions there are, and plenty of other questions (Boadt 80). One of these criticisms is source criticism which is also called â€Å"literary criticism.† This deals with whether earlier to the written word we have if there were others before and how they were incorp orated into the present text (Boadt 81). In the bible especially in the Pentateuch there is a considerable amount of evidence in the text of more than oneShow MoreRelatedReading The Old Testament Prophets1045 Words   |  5 PagesFor the second part of this assignment, apply the information and insights on reading the Old Testament prophets to a specific passage we have studied this module/week in the Isaiah course. Write an essay on 1 of these passages: Isaiah 1:1–19; 2:1–22; 3:1–26; or 5:8–30. What genres, themes, and literary features of prophetic passages, in general, do you see in these specific texts? Try to focus not just on what the prophet is saying, but how he communicates his message in a way to get the attentionRead MoreJewish And Christian Sacred Text1001 Words   |  5 PagesJewish and Christian Sacred Text For years people have had a hard time distinguishing the difference between Christians and Jews. Even when reading about these two religions, they are very similar. There are two main differences that stand out the most amongst these religions. One of them is that Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah while Jews believe He was a prophet. The other difference is their opinions on sacred text. Jewish people and Christians both have sacred text; however, ChristiansRead MoreBible Critical Reflection1108 Words   |  5 Pagesinterpret it for myself, but that is technically not reading the bible with a critical analysis. 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Even so, Old Testament is vital literatureRead MoreHow We Got The Bible1382 Words   |  6 Pagesbackground knowledge of what country or if it were the Romans that actually created the Bible. In this world there has been several theories that the Romans were the ones that wrote it or it was the English that wrote it and printed it out. After reading the book â€Å"How we got the Bible† by Neil R. Lightfoo t, it gave me the right knowledge and understanding of who wrote the wonderful collection of books. Understanding how we got the Bible means that we have to know how it was written, on what it wasRead MoreBoring s Introduction Of The New Testament898 Words   |  4 PagesBoring’s Introduction to the New Testament, was a very interesting book. It detailed just about everything you would want to know about the New Testament and then some. He left no stone unturned in taking you deep into the history of every book and just about every writer that wrote the books of the New Testament. Boring is a very detailed writer, he takes you beyond what you think that you might know and in his own way breaks it down in a kind of complex way. The title explains the subject justRead MoreThe Old Testament And New Testament1704 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Old Testament to discover the story and character of God that is concealed within the pages of the Old Testament stories. By taking a little time to understand the context of the stories in the Old Testament readers can see the faithfulness, loving nature, and kindness of God. Most times people are dissuaded from reading the Old Testament books because they assume God is mean and harsh within those pages, but that simply isn’t the truth. God is revealed in every story in the Bible – Old TestamentRead MoreReview of The Epic of Eden1494 Words   |  6 PagesThe Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. Sandra L. Richter, InterVarsity Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-8308-2577-6 Albert Einstein once said â€Å"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.† This is an extremely powerful quote, and I will seek to convey its strength, as applied to our lives as Christians, upon the careful review of Sandra L. Richter’s The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. Richter designed this text as merely a toolRead MoreProphets1005 Words   |  5 Pagesparallels that have been drawn between the books of the prophets and the New Testament does not necessarily mean that they were able to predict the future—it means that the New Testament authors such as Matthew had either heard or could refer back to the writings of the Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea. The problem is not that the authors of the New Testament were trying to build a bridge to the old; the problem is that over time the people have come to think like Borg did inRead MoreSeized By Truth: Reading The Bible As Scriptur e Is Written1048 Words   |  5 PagesSeized by Truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture is written by Joel Green, a New Testament scholar, and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Prof. Green, has participated and contributed greatly on a wide range of topics related to both New Testament scholarship and theology. In Green’s book, he states Reading the Bible as you would read any other book does not support a reading of the Bible as Scripture (2). â€Å"This way of engaging the