Week 11: Respond Again
1640 words by dfoster
Respond to comments on your project.
I just want to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions on my project. I really liked the one from Andrew who said I should make a myspace or Facebook page. I really had not considered that before. It would get a lot of participation probably but I do think people will just join it and not really pay attention to what it is trying to do. I am glad that you guys like my project.
What is the difference between source and textual criticism?
Biblical scholars use many different forms of criticism to determine how to interpret and analyze different texts in the Bible. They use critical forsms such as feminist, archeological, historical and African American. These help the biblical authors to become more aware of the true events surrounding a story in the Bible. Two very important forms of criticism are textual and source criticism. These are termed as lower criticism and higher criticism respectively. Let us look at the criticism termed lower criticism first or textual criticism.
Textual criticism is termed “lower” criticism by biblical scholars. Why is this? Is it because this type of criticism is not as qualified as the other one? No, this answer is not right. IT is called lower criticism to distinguish it from the other criticisms. This form of criticism looks at the texts themselves that records the Bible. This form of criticsism shows that there is no such thing as the Bible. There are only a lot of texts that are brought together into one book. Textual criticism looks at books like the Masoretic Text (MT) which is a Hebrew version of the Bible and the Septuagint (LXX) which is a Greek Translation of the Bible. In textual criticism, scholars look at different forms of the Bible to see if any errors were made during translation of them. The versions or should I say textual witnesses are the LXX (Septuagint, written in Greek), the Vulgate (written in Latin), the Masoretic Text (MT, written in Hebrew), the Dead Sea Scrolls (also written in Hebrew) and finally the Samaritan Penteauch (also written in Hebrew). They use these textual witnesses to decide which versions of the stories found within the Bible are the Urtext or the original text that scribes made mistakes in and changed. To do this they use two different rules: lectio brevior lectio potior and lectio difficilior lectio potior. The first rule lectio brevior lectio potior says that the shorter reading is the more probable reading. What is meant by this is that the Biblical scribes would be more likely to add something to the Bible than take it out. Biblical scribes would often add words to the readings to make it easier for them to understand. The second rule of lectio difficilior lectio potior means that the more difficult reading is probably the original writing. So scribes would often try to harmonize a verse that to them did not fit with the ones around it or they would try to make it so that the reading was simpler and easier to understand than its original writing. The problem with textual criticism is that there can some times be occurrences when the scribes mess up in their translations on accident. We will look at the terms parablepsis, haplography, dittography, homoioteleuton, and homioarcton. Parablepsis is when a scribes eye “jumps” to the wrong place within the text and the text is then written wrong because either text is left out or it is put in twice. Haplography is the occurrence of a scribe skipping to the same letter that is ahead of his actual spot resulting in the leaving out of words. Dittography is when a scribe repeats something he just said. Homoioteleuton is when the eye skips to another word with the same ending. Homoioarcton is when the eye skips to a word with the same beginning of the word. (Disclaimer: All of the previous material and the information following was gotten from the Bible Dudes website.)
Now we shall look at the source criticism or higher criticism as it is sometimes called. Source criticism is a way that biblical scholars try to determine the original authors of the stories that were compiled to make up the Bible. Biblical scholars use it to understand who wrote what in the Bible and when it was written. To do this, Bible scholars use the Documentary Hypothesis. This hypothesis says that the Torah Is made up of four different documents written by four different people not Moses. This hypothesis was made by Julius Wellhausen. Wellhausen looked at the words used in different places of the Bible to try to connect these writings to the four different authors or JEPD. J is called so because his use of the term YAHWEH to refer to God (name is J because in German it is spelled Jahwe). He is thought to have lived between 922 and 722 probably around 840. This is thought because the Edomites have a revolution before and after this time and it is mentioned. He was the only author that was not a priest and very likely could have been a woman. Anything that involves talking animals, dreams or sex can be attributed to this author. J is thought to have lived in Judah. E stands for the word Elohim. Elohim lived some time during 922-722 BCE. He was a Moses priest so he made a story about Aaron making the Golden calf in antiquity. Any stories that are said to be embarrassing to Aaron or his sons is most likely written by this author. He also did not the monarchies in both Israel or Judah. There was a person who comibinded the writings of both J and E in 722 BCE. He is said to be the redactor or the editor of the two texts. The next letter is P. P is the priestly source. He makes Moses looks bad and his writings stop in the book of Numbers. There is a big debate on when this author lived. Anything that has to do with ritualistic procedures or with the church is written by him. The final author is the D or the Deuteronomistic Historian. This author writes the history of Israel. Before the time of exile in 586 BCE his message to the people was to get your act together Israel however after the exile he told the people that God would come back to make their lives a lot more comfortable. All these works were brought together by Ezra in 450 BCE to make the Torah as we know it.
Summarize Tobit, and what is the main lesson of this story?
Tobit is the story of Tobit who is a very faithful and pious follower of God’s laws. He does very good deeds. He feeds the poor and he buries his people who are dead and not able to be buried. Tobit is burying one of his kinsmen and he falls asleep. While he is asleep a bird poops in his eyes and he goes blind. He sends his son to get some money that he is owed and he meets a girl who has had seven husbands and they all have been killed by a demon named Asmodmus. While TObit’s son Tobias is traveling he is accompanied by the angel Raphael. Raphael tells him to cut open this fish and take its gall , heart and liver and save them. He meets the girl, Sarah, who has been unsuccessful with marriage up until then and he marries her. He places the heart and fish liver on a pile of ashes which burn and sends the demon away and then he goes to his father and puts the gall in his eyes which makes him able to see again.
The main lesson in Tobit is that if you follow the will and law of God faithfully you will never be forsaken. He uses Tobit to say that sometimes bad things happen to good people but if you remain faithful to God then all things will work out in the end.
Why do some people consider the Maccabbes to be heroic?
They are considered to be heroic because they chose to follow God’s law rather than be faithful to Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This was a group that fought for and acquired their freedom rather than be disrespected and oppressed by Antiochus IV. This is what makes them heroic.