This week focus on how the implementation of your project is proceeding.
It has been a trying time. It seems like every time I try to do something different, I hit a road block. Let us just say that changing the world is hard. My website fell through. Dr. Homan did not think that people would have a reason to visit my page so he suggested that I try something else. I thought about making a YouTube video but I realized that I am kind of technologically challenged. I would not know the first place to start.  I then thought about trying to mentor to someone who is younger than me even though this is not my ideal world reaching project. I thought this would be manageable but this is hard to do when you do not have anyone to mentor to. Then Melissa and I got the idea to mentor to the middle school students that she had been volunteering with for her service learning project. We are in the process of coming up with a game plan on how we are going to set this up. We also have to get permission to do this so that is where we are with our project. Updates soon to come.

What makes a good king according to the Deuteronomistic Historian?

The name Deurteronomistic Historian was created by Julius Wellhausen in his Documentary Hypothesis. This hypothesis said that Moses wasn’t the creator of the Torah but in all actuality there were four different writers of the Torah. These four different people’s works were brought together by Ezra in 450 BCE. This hypothesis is apart of Source criticism which looks at the linguistic and cultural aspects of texts of the Bible and tries to figure out who wrote the different books of the Bible and when they were written. The Deuteronomistic Historian is credited with writing the books of Deuteronomy all the way to 2 Kings. It is thought that these books were written by a group of priests over a large amount of time, some of which was before the exile during the reign of King Josiah and some after the exile happened.

The Deuternomistic Historian is credited with writing the Deuteronomic Law code found in the book of Deuteronomy.  In this law code the laws set forth by Moses are told. In this law code, the characteristics of a good king are found. To the Deuteronomistic Historian, a good king is one who follows and obeys all of the laws put forth in the Deuteronmistic law code. A good king would follow all the laws but he would make sure the people in his kingdom follow all the laws set forth by Moses as well. He would make sure that God was central in his kingdom and no other false gods gained any standing. An example of a good king would be King Josiah. According to the person who wrote Kings, Josiah was a king who “turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses.” This is what the Deuternomistic Historian sees as being a good king.

Would the Deuteronomistic Historian approve of George W. Bush? Why or why not?

Now we go to the subject of George W. Bush Jr. First off, George W. does not devote himself fully and truly to his religion at least not in the public realm. We do not really know what religion George W. Bush is. He could be Catholic or Protestant or Seventh Day Aventis for all that we know. He could be a Jehovah’s Witness or even an atheist. He could be any religion in the world and the greater American public would never know. The Deurteronmistic Historian would not approve of George W. Bush at all. Because of the way that our government is set up, the Deuteronmistic Historian would not approve of any of the current leaders except for maybe the Dalai Lama. In modern day government, there has to be a separation of church and state. Long past are the days when the religion of the king was the religion of the people like in the Renaissance time period. If the religion of the time was not fitting the king’s needs, he had the power to change it. He could change the laws that would make it appropriate to go against the church if he wanted to. But anyway back to the issue at hand. I do not think that George W. Bush would not be seen as a good king I mean ruler. He does not follow the laws of Deurtonomistic Law Code so he would not be seen as a good Deuteronmistic king.

What is the worst thing that David did?

We all know how David from Bethlehem became King David. He will always be known as the little boy who beat the Great Philistine king Goliath with a rock. After he became king however, David did some really bad things. First he had the man who literally handed over Saul’s kingdom to him killed for “killing the king” even though the king asked to be murdered. He also takes a census showing his lack of faith in the LORD which is a major no-no in the Ancient Near East. I think the worst thing that David ever did was his affair with Bathsheba and the circumstances surrounding it. First, David spied on her while she was having her cleansing bath that a woman back in that period had right after she came off of her period. This was to show that Bathsheba was not pregnant before her encounter with David. This is a time when David should be in the field fighting with his men but he is instead at home. He sees Bathsheba and he thinks that she is beautiful. He wants her. He asks his advisor who this woman is and he is told that she is one of the soldiers in his army wife. This soldier’s name is Uriah and he is off at war where the king should be. So when husband is away the kids will play and that is what David does. He calls Bathsheba to him and they commence to making a baby literally. David tries to keep what he did secret so he tells Uriah to come home and “wash his feet.” Because Uriah is so righteous however, he will not sleep with his wife because his country is at war and he would not disrespect it like that. So David tells Uriah to carry a letter to Joab the general which is ultimately his own death sentence. Uriah is killed and Bathsheba mourns for him for the proper amount of time then she immediately marries King David and goes about their merry way, or so they think.

Describe the Jerusalem Temple. What is the history of the first and second temples?

King Solomon is the king who built the temples. He spent a lot of time and money on his building projects during his reign. He spent seven whole years building God’s temple next door to his palace. Outside the temple sits the altar and the Bronze Sea with twelve bulls. The sea is a tub of water where the priests cleansed themselves. Found with in the temple is the room that the Hebrews called the Holy Place. In this room there are ten lamps and ten tables. Found with in the Holy Place is the Holy of Holies or the “Most Holy Place.” This is God’s throne room where two statues of golden cherubim and the Ark of the Covenant are found. The Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE when Jerusalem is captured by the Babylonians. When the exiles are allowed to come back, they start to rebuild the temple slowly but surely. The splendor of the second is no where as great as that of the first but it is a magnificent one. The second temple is finished and dedicated 515 BCE.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Week 09: Implementation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.