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Hebrew Bible
Many people think Rome is a copy and imitation of Greece
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Much Roman philosophy, literature and poetry is self-conscious model after Greek material
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He was grown in Rome and he doesn't want to go
to college
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While he is a donkey, he is able to see everything because he
sold his kidnap
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=> Golden glimpse that Roman works
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+ Roman's answer to Antigone: Antigone is high round >< Golden Ass is low round
=> shows the underside + accurate view of life in Rome
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Roman is bureaucratic: Rome developed that is similar in the West today
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(18:00)
2 versions of Hesiod and 2 versions of 1 story from Genesis contain contradictory ideas=> plot recap:
The Greek, Roman and ancient Jew are actually strange in the originality
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The bible was not treated in the West normally
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=> This contain similar content to Herodotus' or Hesiod's and Homer's
=> different reaction

3/ Bible:
- Root of Western Civilization: Greek + Rome= civilizations; Bible- book
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The
Western imagination traces origin to Greece
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Turkey is not European: too far to East, exotic, and foreign
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doubted=> intellectual dishonesty
people have to the New Testament
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If Judaism and Christianity => so as Islam: In 3CE
but Muhammad wrote in 6-10
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- 2 parts: Old Testament + New Testament
- "bible": Latin "biblio"-book, Greek "biblia" means book
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+ Used to be plural as lots of pages stuck together => eventually singular than plural
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+ There was a lengthy process that a symbol collated and made into a unity
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=> not written at the same time
- bible = anthology

4/ The Old Testament- Hebrew Bible -Jewish Bible - Tanakh (because to call The Old
Testament is Christian and incoherent to call something old if not something new)
It was a different story
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(35:28)
- In total: 39 books
- Christian & Jew: same book but different orders
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- "Tanakh" composed of 3 different Hebrew words: describe 3 different contents of the 3 sections of
Tanakh
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- Most books are named after people or from prophets (Jehovah)
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- The books follow the life of the ancient Jewish: patriarch and matriarch
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Chhildren who grow up in Sunday school might
be called Childhood Story about Israel heroes like Abraham, Joseph or David
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+ Significant code of law primary laid down in the 1st 5 books => followed by Jew & Christian
who believe that they were given to the prophet Moses (39:50) for more than 3000 years ago
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- To Christian who worships the same God as Judeo, the Old Testament is the significant part of their
religion and tradition
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- 2nd sequel of the New Testament :
+ composed over 4000 years
+ Jesus who is believed by Christian to be literally the son of God who came to Earth
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2/ evidence of something
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=> Reason: Before the bible was written, people can touch their hand on the bible to testify to Lord
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- Torah:
- oldest section of Tunakh
- Greek "Pentateuch" or "Five Books of Moses"
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(It is hard for an author to write about his own death)
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From historical point, Moses was not the author
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In 1949, (45:06) Torah evolves from a variety
of sources over a long period of time
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=> developed in numerous
versions=> all were written down
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It was written down 3000-4000 years ago or
many thousands of years ago
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5 authors: J-E-D-P-R
It is believed that these 5 wrote 5 books, each wrote one
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But these 5 were not put directly to Torah, but coincidentally 5 come up
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Torah
was arranged dramatically
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- J- 2nd version- the oldest
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+ live 950 ~750 BC in Judah
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+ wrote The Song of Deborah which depicts a woman- warrior inserted in The Book of Judges
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+ wrote at the same time as J but range of date for E was smaller
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E is less colorful, less literary than J
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E also tells another
version of the
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+ main author of The Book of Deuteronomy- major contributor to the historical like books of bible
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P- 1st version- Priestly sources
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+ writing is dry
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+ took the writings of 4 authors + confined + edited his own materials to make them coherent
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- Greek " origin"
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(In Hebrew Bible, books are named after their first word)
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Living things of the earth- cattle, wild animals and finally man and woman
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On the 7day, God take a rest- the
first Satan
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*No hierarchy, no subversion, no Eden, no forbidden trees
+2nd version 2:4- J
* Explicitly said: Garden of Eden (verse 8)
* No mention the number of days God took to create the world
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Everything happens on that one day
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He makes a man from the dust of the ground => gives a soul by breathing into him
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=> Adam came from dirt
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Garden of Eden and Adam is inside the garden
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God says man may not eat the latter
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=>
Adam not fine=> God put Adam into a deep sleep => God remove a rib to make it a woman
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- People often tell the mixture of these 2 versions:
+ 1st: no split between man+ woman, no submission of woman to man
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The word: us, our => who ?
=> Received answer: God is everything; everything is multiple
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=> This is a historical moment when Polytheism waned- monotheism rose => this is the polytheism's
oldest story
=> Holy theism- older story in which there were more than 1 God
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=> The beginning of one tradition turned out to be the combination of numerous other traditions that
are largely extinct and lost
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=> When R did, he decided to combine but
not harmonize them
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Collected thousands of years of myths,
legends and folktales => write down in paper and get them to a single mythology
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=> Israel good at gathering everything, holding and preserving it
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Whether this is true or
not, it's not important but to acknowledge the complexity of this book
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The book has equally interesting back-story => knows as a whole
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- Canaan (Israel today):
+ tiny area of Mediterranean
+a breach between Africa, Asia, and Europe
+was continuously occupied >10,000 years
+ popular, promised land for hunters
+ gather tribe- where Israel's life comes from
+ had no large cities and civilization never develops into empire
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It is hard
to maintain army, trait route or develop the large government
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- Enduring contribution of Israelites to Western Civilization: monotheism
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Every other culture ever been studied was polytheistic
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When one culture that has only one God, it
always acknowledge and recognize everyone's God=> not only do we not worship your God, we do
not acknowledge the existential reality of yours
Yahweh or Elohim was probably one of many Gods that at some points to the past
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For some reasons we don't know, Israelites lost all other Gods
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=> Why the minority, not a civilization or an empire but the chosen people?
=> Surrounded by many civilizations, Israel developed and extended network of Law? Lord?
Maintain their own identity because they were monotheistic (one true God and they were the only
chosen people)

The Book of Job
- Question: why do bad things happen to people? Why the unique righteous suffer? How can God and
Satan talk to one another? What kind of God is this who makes a bet with Satan?
- In Kethuvim, the 3rd section with other work life: song of Solomon and songs
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In Middle Eastern, many folktales and local legends are similar to The Book of
Job
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The way the dialogue unfolds and the arrival of mysterious
friends=> seems to be a self-contained work
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This motif was
common in Ancient Middle Eastern, Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Babylonian literature
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- Israelites: surrounded by other civilization, frequently attacked, exploited
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After Exile- Diaspora, survivors who used this folk legend asked fundamental questions about the
nature of God and God's responsibility for humanity's suffering
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- The book takes good and evil for granted => The righteous lives in a world that evil was taken for
granted
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- The traditional picture of Job - oversimplification which pictures a good man who truly obedient
to God
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=> in the end is awarded with much
more prosperity
- But Job is more complicated than this because he challenges God
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In the end of text, he discovers that there is no reassuring answer
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- Karen Armstrong wrote a book "The history of God": Job dares to question divine creed
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- The prophet in Torah: God allows Jewish people to suffer because they deserve of the treatment
they receive (sin)
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Ending: Job admits transcendence of God Job must confront the truth that the small creature like
himself cannot argue with the transcension to God
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Then who is not satisfied by God? The author does not deny our right to question God but suggests
that intellect alone is not equipped to deal with this matter
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When Satan challenges, God seems almost insecure, uncertain with his most royal servant
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- The concept of "devil" has a history:
+ We think Satan- prince of darkness did not exist in Judaic history
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When
Genesis was written, snake has a very good reputation- symbol of fertility and renewal because a
snake shakes its skin, rebirth, renews and easily forms a circle- a shape that has no beginning or
ending
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+ Through Hebrew Bible, the devil is not an absolute force of evil but more of adversary, obnoxious
prosecuting - not Godly but not evil
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In other versions, Satan was
called the Adversary
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Reading dialogue is like reading the script of the
play
=> reading Job = reading Antigone: Think about actors, actions, and whether Job is a tragedy? What
is hermatia?
When reading dialogue in ancient time => think of Platonic philosophy
- Book 1 & 2:
+ Job and his family are all good people, not greedy, craven or hypo critic
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Job shares his
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Little did he know that
one day God and Satan sit around and talk about him
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Some historians argue that the first 2 books are like books for
little kids=> easy: Job's existence is uncomplicated, simple and happy
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+ The differences are so large => look like 2 different stories by 2 different authors that have been
needed together
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thinks the complicated is to make a point that life is not easy
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* Final: what Job has? What is taken from him and when as this did not happen at once=> trouble
people to read the book
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- way God makes Job suffer
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* Book 3- 31 are the middle of the story- dialectic part- when Job and his friends talk about the
problem
=> a debate: Job said something and he is challenged and turned by all his friends
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* the way the text talks about "skin", "surfaces" and "outside" is interesting => the negotiation
between inside and outside
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Book 3: Job curses at the day of his birth= > dramatic negor (22:10)

- Book 4 + 5- Eliphaz:
+ least sophisticated thinker
+ said nice things + put all sources in genuine good will
+ offers comment on human logic- very conventional wisdom
- Book 6 + 7- Job:
+ Job has no answer: drinks venom+ completely inconsolable
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- Book 8- Bildad:
+ invokes the language of father and son => build up that argument
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Example: Galileo wrote science
in form of a dialogue where people discuss physics problem with Sagrado, Salviati, and Simplicio
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"Simplicio" means simple => exist to ask stupid
questions so that they have chances to go through the problem and cover all the basics
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Father needs to teach their
son and sons need to listen to their father
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- Book 9 + 10:
Job's reply: At first he seems to agree: articulates his vision that life and all its hugeness and
smallness are terrified
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- Book 11- hardest- Zophar:
+ replies to Job's misgiving and terror about God's total interest and uninterest + hugeness and
smallness
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He
thinks there is a surface
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* Zophar: Justice exists with God- far from human
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Not only human needs a larger horizon but also
human's perception is small and limited that they can't detect innumerable vistas??
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Human never
understand God and vice versa
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+ Sin in Hebrew: "altruism"
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Both show the problem- missing
the mark
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=> Normally, children don't pay for their parents' sin
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Death, slavery,
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=> why Job's children need to die to help God and Satan prove a point? How humanity construct
religion and law to question this?
+ The word "iniquity" permeates in the Bible
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-Book 30 & 31- Climax:
+ Job puzzles about merry and sadness => involves attitudes, moods, feelings
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- Book 32:
+ Things start with stranger Elihu -the most mysterious while the author did well at explain
everything else
=> question why the righteous suffer? Elihu seems sincere and likeable, speaks with a lot of
authority but actually he calls everyone else with false wisdom
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=> Elihu is the youngest
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The suffering
was earned because of their sin
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- Book 33- Elihu:
+ Sleep is how human go beyond to access God
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=> By the end of speech, Elihu seems to warn Job not to try too hard to peer beyond the
human to understand God
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He reveals everything that has been said and all arguments
+ offers rebuttal and refinement; draw the philosophical proportion to climax
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The language God uses is extraordinary
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=> clear articulation of God, from God himself
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=> order is majestic and incomprehensible
+ A biography by Jack Miles:
BoJ represents the climax of the plot of the entire Hebrew Bible: The moment that God can even do
bad things is a moral climax of the entire collection of Torah
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Until the end of
Revelation, there is not another time when God comes to Earth and speaks directly to human beings,
only speaks through messengers
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+ End: justice: God seems good than bad
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