Week 11: Respond Again
1343 words by aminias
Jivory1, thanks for the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. I definitely agree with you that world hunger is a huge problem and that is why I have chosen this project. If more people contribute to the problem of world hunger, the less of a problem it will be.
Mdeloach7, the project is going pretty well. I just updated my blogs about how my project is going. You should check it out.
Tchevis, I appreciate the positive feedback. I definitely agree with you. I know that hunger is a problem in other areas besides the United States, but I am going to take it step by step. I am starting off small but hopefully I will work my way up and expand my project.
Both source criticism and textual criticism are very good methods of analyzing and interpreting texts. Source criticism focuses more on where the text originated from and when it was written. According to wikipedia, source criticism refers to the attempt to establish the sources used by the author of the text. Source criticism is used to investigate and analyze texts to see where they came from and to relate them to other texts. It allows us to get a more accurate description of what happened. On the other hand, textual criticism focus more on the removal and editing of errors in texts. Scribes, in the old days, often made mistakes or errors when copying certain manuscripts or texts. According to wikipedia, textual criticism is used to analyze a manuscript or text copy and to reconstruct the original text as closely as possible. This type of criticism is almost always used when a new version of a Bible is created. Many versions of the Bible try to make the Bible easier to read, but at the same time many errors and mistakes occur when new versions are created. These Bibles are usually reviewed by a critic to make sure they are accurate.
The Book of Tobit is named after Tobit, who was a wealthy and devoted Israelite. He lives along with the people who were taken captive from Israel to Nineveh. He was exiled by for burying Israelites who had been killed by Sennacherib, who was King Sargon’s II Son. After Sennacherib dies, Tobit is able to return to Nineveh. Then he goes and buries a dead man who had been murdered. As he was sleeping, bird droppings fell on his eyes and he goes blind. This causes him to have problems with his marriage. Throughout his life, Tobit suffers a lot and at one point he begs the Lord to take his life. He later remembers that he deposited a large amount of money he left in Media. He sends his son, Tobias, to go to Media and to bring him back the money. The angel Raphael, who is disguised as Azariah, one of Tobit’s kinsmen, joins Tobias to help and protect him as he travels to Media. As he is traveling, he confronts a large fish that attacks him. Raphael tells him to kill the fish and to take its heart, gall bladder, and liver so he can used it to make medicine. Once he arrives, Raphael tells Tobias of a beautiful woman named Sarah, who is in despair and has been praying for death. The demon, Asmodeus, killed each of her seven husbands on their wedding nights. Tobias decides that he will marry her. Raphael tells Tobias to use the fish’s heart and liver to prevent the demon from attacking him on the wedding night. They get married and Sarah’s father throws them a feast. While Tobias is at the feast, Raphael obtains Tobit’s money. Once the feast has ended, they all return back to Nineveh. Raphael tells Tobias to use the gall bladder to cure his father from being blind. Then Raphael shows everyone who he really is and then he goes back to heaven. Tobit tells his son to journey away from Nineveh, because God is planning to destroy it. Once his father dies, Tobias takes his family and travels back to Media. The main lesson of this story is that everything happens for a reason according to God’s plan. God allowed Tobit to go blind and to suffer so that he would send his son, Tobias, to Media. Then Tobias was able to save Sarah and to marry her.
The Maccabees were a Jewish liberation movement that fought for freedom from Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and maintained their freedom for about one hundred years afterwards. After the split of Alexander the Great’s empire, Antiochus IV Epiphanes was appointed rule over the Seleucid Empire, which included the Jews. Antiochus subsequently encouraged the Hellenization of the peoples of his empire. However, a small group of Jews, called the Maccabees, refused to become Hellenized like many of the Jews at the time, whom they considered to have revoked their holy covenant with God. The main issue that spurred the Maccabee revolt was the selection of Onias III to the position of high priest, which most of the Jews considered a political appointment. Soon Antiochus began to actively pursue Hellenization and outlawed circumcision, Jewish feasts, sacrifices, and Sabbaths. Even owning Jewish scriptures was considered a crime. The revolt began when a Jewish priest named Mattathias killed another Jew who offered to present a sacrifice to Greek gods. Many people consider the Maccabees heroic because Mattathias’ son, Judah Maccabee, led an army of Jews to victory against the Seleucid dynasty using guerilla warfare. The Maccabees, who got their name from their leader, destroyed the Greek altars and idols, and killed many of the Jewish collaborators. After the last of a series of battles, the Maccabees marched into Jerusalem and ritually cleansed the temple. The Maccabees were very heroic because they were the underdogs. Their revolt could have been crushed easily, since the power of the Greeks at the time was immense. However, the Maccabees fought a series of courageous battles, and were finally able to practically tire the Greek empire into submission. Many Jews today look up to the Maccabees today as the saviors of the religion. If it were not for the Maccabees, the Jews very well might not exist today.