September 14: The "Empire" of Egypt (Spear)

The First Egyptian Empire?  (Old Kingdom 3000-2181 BC; Middle Kingdom (2040-c.1776 BC)

•Unification of two lands (Menes = Narmur) symbolized by the crown of the south (the upper nile) and the crown of the north (the lower nile)

•The Pyramids.  The Great pyramid of Khufu (=Cheops) c.2550 BC

•Forces of unity

  The Pharaoh:  a theocracy
  Religion (Ma'at)
  Geographic isolation
  The Nile River
  Natural Resources

Forces of expansion

External stimuli:  The Hyksos arrive c.1776 BC leading to end of geographic isolation coupled with a power vacuum in Middle East:  breakup of the Babylonian Empire.
New aggressive warrior Pharaohs.

Thutmose III 1490-1436 BC, Egypt's mightiest king (a.k.a.  Tuthmosis)

•His grandfather was Thutmose I who was the first to be called Pharaoh.
•His mother was Hatchepsut (Hat-Chep-Sut) who ruled as pharaoh for 20 years.
•Personally led numerous campaigns in Middle East and Nubia
•Siege of Megiddo.  (Cf. ref to Megiddo in Rev. 16:16).
Obelisks placed in Thebes and Heliopolis in honor of the god Amon (2 now in NY and London).

Back to Hatchepsut.  Questions of Gender.  Her trading expedition to the Land of Punt = Somalia).

Patterns of Empire in Egypt

•Egyptians didn't absorb the new principalities in the mideast
•Old rulers in mideast were replaced by puppet rulers
•Sons of foreign princes were brought to Egypt to be educated
•Increased centralization (vizier; Amon; Thebes)

Summary

September 15: Mesopotamian Empires (Spear)

I.  Sumer and Akkad  (Samuel N. Kramer, History Begins at Sumer)

II.  The role of geography
 A.  Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
 B.  Other natural resources, esp. clay.
  [Cuneiform=wedge shaped writing, c.3,000 B.C.]

III.  The City States
 A.  Some characteristics
 B.  The ziggurat ( The temple to Nanna the moon god at Ur)
 C.  Lugal-Zagesi, c.2340 B.C.
 D.  The Uruk of Gilgamesh (c.2550 B.C.)
  Uruk = Erech (Gen.10) = Warka
  1.  The Historicity of Gilgamesh
  2.  The theme of kingship

IV.  The Old Babylonian Empire of Hammurabi (c.1776 B.C.)
 A.  Code of Hammurabi
 B.  The Enuma Elish
  1.  Importance of Marduk
  2.  The theme of kingship

September 18: The "Epic" of Gilgamesh (Menzer)

I. What is this thing? A cycle of poems
A. Editing issues: a highly mediated text
   text first written down ~2000-1700 B.C.E.
   Edited ~600s B.C.E. (library of Assurbanipal), again late 1800s C.E.
   This translation from the 1960s.
B. Questions of genre
 1. What makes something an epic?
 2. Why do we care about questions of genre?
   categorization and validation
I. What is this thing about?
A. Cities and urban civilization
 1. Ideal Uruk vs. Troubled Uruk (61-2)
 2. Enkidu’s entrance into civilization
    human relationships (64, "the woman’s art")
    gains and losses (65)
 3. Companionship
    The city and its people (65)
    Gilgamesh’s dreams (66-7)
         gender and emotional relationships (see also 94-5)
 4. Is civilization worth it? Enkidu’s curse and Shamash’s response (90-1)
B. Human limits
 1. Glory and death (70, 72, 90)
    The story before and after Enkidu’s death
 2. Gods and humans: the flood
    Comparisions to Genesis story, connections to Mesopotamian environment
    Utnapishtim’s philosophy (106-7)
 3. The value of human relationships
    Siduri’s philosophy (102)
    Gilgamesh’s return to Uruk (117)
    Last picture of Gilgamesh (119)
 

September 19: My Love Is a Rose and Other Things that Really Matter: Myth, History, and Faith (Matthews)

1) First exercise--the demise of literacy and the demise of allegorical interpretation as modern phenomena

2)  Second exercise---the language of love:  when it really matters

3)  Enuma Elish;  Genesis 1-11;   introductory remarks, dates, definitions

4) The question of genre:  fact, myth, and the question of truth

5) Comparison of Genesis creation to Enuma Elish------

common theme  order out of chaos
(for biblical language most close to Enuma Elish,  cf. Psalm 74:12-15; 89:9-11, etc)
the "science" of dividing the waters of the deep:  or,  So, what is a "firmament" anyway?  (cf. Gen 1:6-8;  7:11;  8:2)

War vs. Words;
Blood vs. Dust
Purpose of creation
The "female" question

name of God----Elohim; vs.   YHWH Elohim
portrayal of God
means of creation
order of creation

Introduction:
Proto-philosophy?

The beginning of philosophy
Greek philosophical experience - philo-sophos
Aristotle - All human beings (anthropoi) desire to know by nature, Metaphysics

For it is owing to their wonder that human beings both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters. … And someone who is puzzled and wonders thinks of themself as ignorant (whence even the lover of myth (philo-mythos) is in a sense a philosopher (philo-sophos), for the myth is composed of wonders).  Aristotle,

But …
"The Jewish people did not begin to philosophize because of an irresistible urge to do so.  They received philosophy from outside sources …"  Julius Guttmann, Philosophies of Judaism (3)

So we should not expect to find any irresistible urge to philosophize among the ancient Israelites, if Jewish philosophy arose only much later in response to external influence of Greek, Christian, and Islamic philosophical sources.

Philosophical activity is the thinking we engage in when we try to understand our experience, a philosophical voice is the speaking or writing that expresses this understanding about what causes us wonder, astonishment, or surprise (thauma)
The Story of Gilgamesh - Siduri, Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh
The creation stories - and God said … , and the LORD God did …

Are there contradictions in these stories?  Since the ancient Israelites and Mesopotamians did not really have a fully developed rational faculty, we can certainly expect there to be contradictions, right?
Not obviously contradictory
It is possible for both to be true

Methodology/Epistemology - How do you decide whether a myth or story is true? Resonance theory of truth
Factual basis, its basis in experience
Shared, public, communicable
Reproducible, recognizable
Secures agreement among members of the community, not idiosyncratic

Two significant truths Genesis creation story calls attention to
We are moral beings - we can and do distinguish between right and wrong
Religious experience that is not some variant of anthropomorphism involves an experience of something that is unnamable and unspeakable - when you name it and characterize it, you bring it down to human terms

Conclusion
The philosophical voice that speaks using discursive, argumentative reason, a voice that characterizes philosophy in the ancient Greece of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle is not the only expression of our attempts and history of attempts to come to terms with human experience.  We can discern other distinctive and legitimate philosophical voices in the ancient texts of the Israelites and Mesopotamians.

September 22: David's Empire (Spear)

I.  Some preliminary comments

II.  David's Empire

• The Israelites before David--a tribal structure (e.g. Dan, Benjamin, Ephraim), with two main groups--Israel and Judah, and fighting against the Canaanites and the Philistines, each holding the Mediterranean Sea coast.  They engaged in raiding parties (I Sam. 17:53, 23:27).  The technology and arms were controlled by the Philistines who were more cosmopolitan and had iron and bronze from trade (I Sam. 13:19-22).

• The figure of David himself.  His multi-faceted, charismatic personality (I Sam 16:18)

    2. the nature of Israelite Kingship

•The importance of anointment = messiah (I Sam. 16, 24:6, 26:11; II Sam. 1:14, 2:4, 5:3)
•The chosen one is least expected
•Internal qualities predominate over good looks
•It is not dynastic (I Sam. 13:14)

C. Military Conquests
David vs. Goliath; David led raiding parties; relied on Joab as his chief general (II Sam. 12:27); used mercenaries, e.g. the Philistines (II Sam. 23:13); relied on Yahweh for military advice (I Sam. 23:4; II Sam. 5:19-24); subdues his neighbors--the Philistines (II Sam. 8:1) and the Moabites (II Sam. 8:2)

D. David's Marriages
    1. polygamy was an accepted practice; he had a harem (II Sam. 12) with a minimum of six sons by six different wives. (II Sam. 5:13)

    2. Some of these wives represented marriage alliances; e.g. Michal linked him to the house of Saul (I Sam. 18:20).

III.  The end of David's Empire
    1. David was succeeded by his son Solomon (d.927); after Solomon's death the United Empire split again into northern and southern states--Israel and Judah; rise of the Assyrians; The Assyrians conquer Israel in 722, absorbing the 10 northern tribes into the Neo-Babylonian Empire

    2. Judah falls to the New Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.  (Psalm 137 shows vividly the image of empire from the point of view of the conquered.)

IV.  Appraisal of David's Empire, of the Israelite Empire
Size and duration; the idea of a Golden Age
 

September 25: Early Israelite Religion (Rutledge)

Prologue: Jerusalem
I. The Book:  The Bible and Western Civilization
 -TANAKH - an acronym for Law, Prophets, & Writings; other terms:  Torah; Pentateuch
 -three phases:  oral, written, canonical (< "canon" = standard of authority)
 -form of the book:  papyrus, scroll; parchment/ vellum; codex (pl. codices)
 -written in Hebrew, Aramaic (translations: Greek Septuagint; Aramaic targums)
 -an anthology or communal book: a hermeneutic spiral   [cf. women and Gen. 1-3)
II. The Israelites - "People of the Book"
 -terms: Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, Israelis
 -relation to Mesopotamia, Egypt; nomads; tribal background
 -the odd nature of history in the Bible:   history as sacred story
  -prehistory of Israel (Gen. 1-11); patriarchal/matriarchal history (Gen. 12-50)
III. Ethical Monotheism - three themes:
 a)  Monotheism:  "no other gods before me"
b)  A Moral Order:  law of the jungle (Gen. 4: 23)  vs. law of the Lord (Ex. 20; Lev. 25)
c)  the Nature of human beings - "amphibians," both natural & spiritual creatures;
   in the image of God, yet estranged, “fallen away” from God
IV. Israelite Distinctives:  Covenant, Exodus, and Torah
-the idea of a covenant with God; a chosen people (Gen. 12-12; Ex. 19)
 -the "master story":  the Exodus from Egypt - fulfillment of the covenant promises
 -the statement of the covenant:  the Teaching (Torah; Law):  Ex. 20
 

September 26: Israelite Religion II: Prophecy, Exile, Rabbinism (Rutledge)

I.  Israelite Distinctives:
 -a ‘People of the Book’ - the importance of a canon of scripture
 -the odd nature of history in the Bible:   history as sacred story
 -ethical monotheism:  love God, and (therefore) love your fellow human beings
 -a realistic anthropology:  humans as  "amphibians," both natural & spiritual creatures
-Covenant (Gen. 12; Ex. 19), Exodus (the ‘master story’ of Judaism), and Torah (Ex. 20)
II. Prophecy:  Religion as Critic of Society
 -the dangers of power and success:  growing indifference to the weak and the poor
 -the prophet as the ‘spokesperson’ for God:  “Thus says the Lord…”
 -the concern for social justice (Amos, Is. 1, 6):  a God of judgement
III. Exile and Recovery
 -the fall of the nation to Babylon:  587 bce as the low-point of biblical history
 -a God of mercy remembers the covenant (Is. 40, 42); messianism; a universal God (Is. 45)
 -Rabbinism:  the future form of Judaism; synagogue, not Temple; rabbi, not priest; study and
   prayer, not sacrifice; Torah, Mishnah, Talmud