Summarize Ecclesiastes. What role did alcohol play in ancient religions? Summarize textual criticism and source criticism and explain why they are valuable tools. Why do some people think that Moses wrote the Torah, and what evidence is there that he did not? Identify each of the following terms: J, E, P, D, R, and Q. What happened historically in Israel after 586 BCE until Jesus’ birth? Find some things that Tobit and 1 Maccabees have to do with your project.

Alcohol played a part in many common religious traditions, such as the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine, which I commonly know as communion. Alcohol was used in many of the same manors in Ancient religions. It was drunk at important remonies such as festivals devoted that honored God. Alcohol in ancient religions had almost the same role as it does today. They drank it at celebrations and times of happiness. It also brought many people to their lowest point along with destroying families, just as it does today. Textual criticism deals with the study of text and figuring out what others during that time period was writing about and trying to find out how it was actually written when it was written. After that they try to find the errors of embellishment that they think the work has. Source criticism, is looking at the author of the work to see if it is his own work and is it valid. This way they can see of many of the things written by them are true. Sometimes a writer would make a person responsible for all the bad things that happened at that particular time just because he dislikes a person. Many people believe that the Torah was written entirely by Moses. They think this because it is the story of the life of Moses. Deuteronomy 31 agrees with this and tells us that Moses wrote the Torah “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” In Romans chapter 10 verses 5, Paul tells us that Moses wrote the law. Torah means law, so many people believe that he wrote it. There are many people that think that Moses had nothing to do with writing the Torah. The big argument that people can’t understand how can he write about how he dies? At the end Moses dies, so how can you write about it. Authors tend to repeat themselves because all the stories are repeated. The authors of the bible are said to be J, E, P, D1, D2, R, and Q. J is the bible author that stands for Yahweh. Out of all authors he is the only one that is not a priest. At this time King Jehoram was the king of Judah. Some people back then believe that a woman wrote this part of the bible, along with talking animals and sex fantasies. Next comes the author E. He stands for Elohim and is said to be known around the time that Israel was destroyed. This author tells us about Moses and Joshua. If you were to look up and see if this author is credible you would see that he loved Moses and disliked Aaron. The next author is P and he was around the time frame of 700 BC. This was when King name was Hezekiah. In this one type God he was seen has merciful and fervent to his people in his kingdom. P is the easiest of all authors to figure out especially with his talking problems. D1 comes next on the list and this time period was around 586. D1 talks about the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. It tells the story of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah. D2 is after 587, and talks about the stories of hope for the exiled Jews. R comes up next on the list. He takes all of the writings of all the other authors and made them into one manuscript. The book of Tobit was what it was called and it is located in The Apocrypha. The Apocrypha is only included into certain bible. Tobit was a Jewish man who had a crazy job. He would pay great respect to the dead Jews and got the boot out of Nineveh for his kindness. After Nineveh’s died he snuck back in to his own city. One day at work he was sleeping and a bird fly by and dropped a nasty present in his eyes. Not only was it nasty but also he became blind and wanted to die. He sent his Tobias to go collect some fund from someone that owns him. He takes an angel with him. Then somehow he kills a fish on the way and took the fish’s heart, and internal organs. One the way home Tobias meets a young lady named Sarah. Sarah was messed up in the mind and an evil spirit. Every time she would get married her husband would be killed by a demon named Ashmodai, on their honeymoon. I hope they got to go out a happy man! The only good things that came out of cutting the fish was that they use the gallbladder to cure Tobit’s blindness. Then to marry Sarah, Tobias must burn the fish liver and kill the demon. Tobias then marries Sarah, which made him crazy for doing so, and his dad secretly is digging his grave in fear that his son will be dead soon. Tobit tells his son to leave Nineveh in fear that it will be destroyed.

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