Week 1 Discussions
636 words by jle
586 BCE is a key event in the bible and also a turning point in the shaping of the bible altogether. One of the main reasons is because it marks the event in history where Babylon destroys and overtakes the capital of Jerusalem. This marks an era of hardship and desperation for the people of Jerusalem. Many of their people, especially rulers, were taken into slavery. The people who managed to survive the invasion lost all of their food and their gold and items of worth because practically worthless. As discussed in class, many people traded family heirlooms and even gold for small portions of food such as stale bread or a small piece of meat.
Lamentations can basically be summarized as an account of the pain and hardship felt as Jerusalem fell to Babylon. Lamentations was said to have been written by a prophet named Jeremiah, also known as the “Weeping Prophet”. Jeremiah was said to have lived through these events and according to class discussion, must have been quite an ordeal due to the fact that the occupation of a prophet was extremely difficult in those days. As stated earlier, Lamentations also describes the degree of hardship and starvation the people of Jerusalem had to go through. These accounts were told from many points of view in describing the horrible things that happened.
Due to the geography of the land the bible includes many invasions and battles. The main reason for this is because most of the land was surrounded by desert and due to water consumption there were few places for nations to settle down at. This created a huge problem because many places were open to invasion by a close neighbor. For example, Israel was invaded many times due its geographical location. Many of Israel’s neighboring countries were much stronger and powerful. This exact same factor can also describe the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. In our day and age, resources such as water are easily located. In the times of the Bible, only the most prosperous areas had water. This may include areas located near the Jordan and Nile rivers. Disputes over areas such as these could show how the Bible is affected by the geography of the land.
In my opinion, I think it is highly possible for the Bible to exist anywhere. There are billions of people living in the world today, which means there are billions of personalities in the world. Because of this simple fact, it is possible that there will be prophets and even a man such as Jesus Christ walking the earth today and may be looked down upon and criticized. Our next savior may be the next homeless person that we pass on our way to Xavier University. The world around us is just so close-minded and easily influenced that history might just repeat itself. No matter how many years may pass, we, as people, still have the exact same characteristics that we had a thousand years ago.
The Merneptah Stele is a stone text is a eulogy written in poetry form to the pharaoh, Merneptah. Merneptah was the successor to his father, Rameses II. The importance of the Stele is that is the first documented evidence that Israel existed and is also the only mention of Israel in Egyptian records. The Merneptah Stele also tells of how Pharaoh Merneptah conquered Israel and other areas of Canaan.
In order to understand ancient texts critically we must learn to look past the obvious and locate something beyond that. Most religion scholars and people such as ourselves must be open to the fact that we may not be one hundred percent correct when trying to read these ancient texts. Being patient and open minded is the key element to understanding these ancient writings.