General Introduction to the Old Testament
The Old Testament Bible contains three main types of literature.
A first, extensive group of books, after a short introduction on the origin of the world and the human race, is concerned with events in the history of the Hebrew people, from its distant beginnings down almost to the threshold of the New Testament. Two different bodies of writings belong to this first group: the Pentateuch and the Historical Books. The latter are in turn subdivided into four sections:
1. The work of the Deuteronomist, includes the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel (2 books), and Kings (2 books). The name “Historical Books” is often applied only to this section.
2. The work of the Chronicler, which includes the two Books of Chronicles, along with Ezra and Nehemiah.
3. Three stories of hope: Tobit, Esther, and Judith.
4. The two Books of Maccabees.
A second group consists of those books which are almost completely in the form of poetry and are therefore called, the Poetic Books. Since, however, they also deal chiefly with doctrinal or sapiential subjects, they are also called the Didactic Books or the Sapiential Books. Among these, the Psalms and the Book of Job are outstanding as poetry. The third group is made up of writings that bring together the oracles of the prophets of the Jewish people, and sometimes the events of the prophets’ lives.
The reader is referred to the introductions of the individual books. Here, in an introduction intended to facilitate understanding of the Old Testament as a whole, I shall limit myself to highlighting the salient moments of Jewish history (which is divided into two clearly distinct periods, by the Assyro-Babylonian deportation) in its relation to the formation of the sacred books.
Prehistory
The account of the origin and formation of the Hebrew people is preceded by eleven chapters which have for their purpose to locate this people within the universal history of the human race, which is examined from its beginnings. It is these early stories that come to people’s minds when they think of the Bible: creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Tower of Babel, Noah and the flood. Rightly so, for these introductory texts have a special significance. What is this significance?
The stories surely do not claim to be history as we would write history today. Rather, these descriptions of the foundation of the world describe our human vocation and also the essential elements of the human drama; they describe that which is the deepest reality of creatures and their history and which is the result of events that really happened. They describe our relation to God as the result of creation (a relation that we can never set aside), sin and death, the scandal of our divisions, our responsibility and our freedom, the fact that we are called to salvation. The tradition puts these stories together, using images current in the mythologies of the neighboring peoples; but it has known how to transform these in a radical way by placing the emphasis—and here is its originality—on faith in a single God and on an authentic picture of the human being as it comes from the hands of God.
The Major Moments in the History of Israel
Down to the End of the Monarchy
Before the Formation of the Monarchic State
Within the historical evolution of the Near East, the events and actions of Israel begin to emerge as the history of a particular human group at the time of Abraham (ca. 1850 B.C.). Its unique character will be revealed with ever increasing clarity until it is established as a political entity under King David (ca. 1010–970 B.C.).
The Cycle of the Patriarchs
We find no clear witness outside the Bible to the history of these distant ancestors. The tradition concerning this history gives a picture of a nomadic life that mirrors to a great extent what we know from other sources; they are therefore credible, at least in this respect, in the eyes of the critical historian. Legend certainly plays a part, but it is only ornamentation of a substance made up of authentic recollections. Ancient civilizations, before the age of writing, had a relish for story-telling that is being lost today; the stories were faithfully handed on thanks to fixed modes of expression.
The great ancestors put their mark on Israel’s special destiny; they were the ones who launched its adventure with God. They stand out as incomparable human beings, and yet they are not divinized but are shown as having their weaknesses. Some stories enable us to see that there were divergent or superimposed traditions regarding certain events. Each tradition was perhaps connected originally with one of the many early sanctuaries built throughout the country; it was recited there at the time of worship. In this way memories were kept alive among the people, who venerated them as a communal possession. The final editor tried to unify these traditions without, however, always removing the signs that show them being cobbled together and the contradictions in details.
A first main idea strikes us in this ancient history: the God of the patriarchs is shown as having a personal relationship with those human beings; he is present in human history. He is a personal God, a God who commits himself and to whom human beings commit themselves in turn. It is not without reason that the Bible speaks constantly of “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Abraham: the father of the Hebrew people, the point of departure of their vocation. Jacob, also called Israel: the founding father of the twelve tribes; for this reason his name, rather than that of Abraham, who was the father of other peoples as well, becomes the symbol of a common membership, a bond of union amid all the vicissitudes that will scatter this people in the course of the centuries down to today. Isaac: between Abraham and Jacob, becomes somewhat less prominent; he is the man who passes on the blessing of God.
The next personage to emerge after Jacob is Joseph, whose surprising fate gave rise to a wonderful narrative that is rich in psychology and teaching, very edifying, and a finely constructed piece of literature.
Whether or not the tribes really and directly descended from Abraham and Jacob, and whether or not they were all in Egypt, it is certain that only later on did they acquire their clear characteristic features. Secular documents have little to tell us about their origin, and historians can give only vague bits of information. This is of little importance. The day would come when they recognized their solidarity and the fact that despite their divisions, they shared one and the same vocation.
The Work of Moses
The first five books of the Bible, that is, the Pentateuch or Law, are attributed to Moses. Today, however, critics are able to show that the final redaction of these texts occurred at a much later date. Moses nonetheless remains the most prestigious of the prophets and at the same time the humblest of believers. He was also the founder of the people and the one who gave organization to newly-born Israel. No one else has ever played so important a role. It is with good reason, then, that the fundamental work, the constitutional charter of Israel, is attributed to him. Besides, except for Jesus, has the history of humanity ever known a greater mystic who has taught human beings to recognize God and his jealous demands?
It may be argued whether this leader led all the tribes through the wilderness (between 1250–1200 B.C.) or only the most important ones, and whether the signs and miracles attributed to him have perhaps been exaggerated. There is no doubt, however, that in his time the oppressed people were set free. This period will be a constant point of reference, because it was the period in which the people discovered God and entered into his plan.
The Law that is attributed to Moses created the customs of the people; it strengthened their faith in the one God amid a polytheistic world; it gave them their worship and their social life. Observance of it was not a constricting noose but a way of spiritual growth; it forged their spiritual attitudes and formed their consciences.
The Settlement in Canaan
This important period in Israel’s history is still rather obscure. The Bible has preserved the memory of a great conquest but also accounts of endless guerilla warfare. As a result, the Book of Judges does not fully back up the grandiose pictures of the Book of Joshua. This period was close to the heart of Israel, because it was the period in which they were given the land; this people loved its country as the place to which God had linked his blessings and his presence. The land, promised and given, will in time become the symbol of the kingdom of God and finally of the heavenly homeland.
The conquest was followed by a no less obscure period during which the tribes remained independent, without a common leader, with the result that there was real anarchy. During this period, the confession of faith in the one God of the patriarchs entailed a demand, the significance of which it is difficult for us to grasp, for while people obeyed the God of Israel, they also feared the vengeance of other divinities who were thought of as having been defeated in the war of conquest but still installed in neighboring countries.
Furthermore, the people found themselves threatened with strangulation, because other invaders made their appearance during the same period and sought to gain for themselves part of the territory of Canaan. Among these were the well-armed and well-organized Philistines. Sudden attacks caused Israel to throw itself entirely on the Lord when everything seemed lost; thus, there were surprising revivals, but these were followed by periods of great disorder.
The Period of the Organized States
Birth and Consolidation of the Monarchy
The twelve tribes were divided into two groups, a northern and a southern. Unity was achieved only episodically, and even then it was only partial. When dangers and wars arose, it was necessary to organize the people if they wanted to survive, but if they appointed a leader, were they not perhaps mocking God, the sole king of Israel, and usurping his place? Nonetheless, a central organization under a king slowly took shape. Samuel, a prophet and the last of the judges, anointed Saul as king at God’s command. But this reign left a tragic and unhappy memory. David, on the other hand, whom God put in the place of the rejected Saul, succeeded brilliantly and led Israel not only from war to independence and sovereignty but also to dominion over neighboring peoples. He also gave it its capital, Jerusalem. The incomparable splendor of the reign of Solomon, the next king, who gave the nation its magnificent temple, was seductive, but those who saw farther, discovered the gnawing worm already at work. In fact, human greatness caused forgetfulness of God; the way was being paved for an age of compromises, and Israel’s endemic sickness, idolatry, found a place even within the royal family. Solomon’s prestige rivaled, indeed, that of the mighty of his time, but should Israel become a people like others?
Political Decline
For over eighty years David, and then Solomon, were able by their personal authority to overcome the forces of division that kept North and South in opposition. But immediately after these two kings, each section claimed autonomy and sought to establish its own unity. The life of the little kingdom of Judah was centered in the one temple of Jerusalem. This focus was important, because it helped to strengthen faith in the one God. The kingdom of Israel (the North), on the other hand, had several sanctuaries, especially those at Shechem, Dan, and Bethel. The South remained faithful to the line of David down to the deportation; this was the Messianic line. The North, on the contrary, experienced crises among its rulers and palace revolts; several dynasties usurped power, one after another. Idolatry was a temptation to all of them and was fostered by the kings, often for political motives. There were, of course, also periods of fidelity; the teaching of the priests and the message of the prophets did not fail to recall the conditions of the covenant. The true prophets, the “guardians of the covenant,” were challenged, but they were also listened to, as we know from the fact that their writings have been preserved.
The two states were increasingly caught in the vise of the great powers and were tossed about in conflicts, first between Egypt and Assyria and later between Egypt and Babylon. Samaria, the capital of Israel, fell in 721 B.C., and the people were deported to Nineveh. Judah, well defended on its hills, was sheltered by its distance from the routes of the armies and resisted for over a century, but it finally fell to the blows of the Babylonians in 587 B.C.
The Period of the Prophets
This period of decline was also the period of the prophets. Prophetism was a multiform movement. Entire groups devoted themselves to the cultivation of ecstasy; these were the official prophets, who spoke as the king desired. There were also authentic prophets, exceptional men who rose up to speak in the name of God; in the midst of the turmoil in Israel, they held fast to the indispensable values of the covenant and the human conscience. Thanks to them, human thought and faith in God made gigantic and definitive progress. In the North, Elijah and Elisha rose up as champions of God against the kings and also made themselves feared by their power as wonder-workers. In the South, the first two “major” prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, were close to the kings; they also left us their poems, as did the men in both kingdoms whom we call the “minor” prophets: Amos, Hosea, Micah, and others.
The Stages in the Redaction of the Books
The books that recount the history of Israel down to the fall of the monarchy, and especially the Pentateuch, are a mosaic of fragments in different genres and from different periods, all of them brought together in a degree of unity. Before the books took shape, shorter literary units had been formed in the course of the centuries; in these units earlier texts of varied origin were brought together for a variety of reasons. Prior to the period when anything was written down, there was oral tradition that preserved both the ancient prose material and the even more ancient poetic material.
Thus this part of the Old Testament, which is the fundamental part and the part whose historical coherence is of greater importance, is already the reflection of a tradition and an interpretation that had been revised several times over and the texts that had been worked on until they achieved their present form. Here are the main stages of this journey, as the scholars have been able to reconstruct them:
1. In the early period of the monarchy the ancient traditions, written and oral, were collected and integrated with testimonies and the stories of more recent events. The Yahwist and Elohist traditions, as well as the early annals for the reigns of Saul and David, were already established in the tenth and ninth centuries before Christ.
2. Beginning in the eighth century B.C., we enter a second stage of literary formation. This period marked the beginning of the activity of the prophets, who in their preaching reflected anew, and in a deeper way, on the preceding revelation as seen in the light of the contemporary religious and social condition of the people.
3. The seventh century saw the writing down of the substance of Deuteronomy, which presented the divine law anew on the basis of both ancient traditions and the theology preached by the prophets. The earlier historical narratives were reinterpreted in the light of all this.
4. In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the painful experience of exile led to a new rethinking of the entire historical and religious experience of Israel, this time by priestly circles that enriched the collections already written down with contributions from their own traditions as brought up to date with the fruits of their present thinking.
There is reason to think that our Old Testament text, at least for the first group of writings (from Genesis to the Books of Kings, inclusive) was already complete toward the beginning of the fourth century B.C.
From the Exile to the Coming of Jesus Christ
The knowledge people usually have of the history of the chosen people ends, for practical purposes, with the Exile. After that, the only thing we know is the wonderful deeds of Daniel and the Maccabees, which stick up like islands in a vast sea of ignorance. In fact, for many Christians, the period from the restoration of Israel to the coming of Jesus is unimportant, a parenthesis or time of waiting in God’s plan; it is the obscure and unimportant end of the Old Testament.
The reality is quite different. If the major prophets were silent during this period (and this was no small trial for believers), some voices were raised at the beginning of it, and they were strong voices, those of the last minor prophets: Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Above all, however, this was the period in which the priests and the scribes (students of the law) devoted themselves to a deeper understanding of the faith and the formation of spiritual movements. This period also bore the mark of another decisive experience: the Hebrews who returned from the Exile were forever cured of their recurring inclination to idolatry. It was not that they had ceased to come in contact with the pagan world; on the contrary, they were forced to see it close at hand in the daily life of their communities. But, far from allowing themselves to be absorbed by the surrounding culture—a very attractive culture!— their thinking and faith underwent a development and perhaps an adaptation, but one that led to a deepening of their own original values. A time of very great testing still lay ahead, but they would have the strength to struggle heroically in remaining faithful to monotheism and their heritage from their forebears. As a result, the faith in the time of Jesus would no longer be identical with the pre-Exilic faith; it would be the new and vigorous faith now known as “Judaism.”
This period was, then, anything but a rather inglorious ending to a prestigious past! In fact, even if we look only at the duration of this period, we will see how inappropriate the term “epilogue” is. This period occupied almost six centuries, or as many as Israel had lived in the Promised Land after settling there. More importantly, it was these centuries that in God’s plan proximately prepared the Old Testament to open itself to the New, in which everything would begin anew and be transformed. This is why it was precisely during this period that the Old Testament Bible as we know it today took shape. It is from this period that there dates not only the final redaction of the historical sections, already compiled during the preceding period, and the definitive redaction of the Psalms, but also the composition of almost all of the rest of the Old Testament (the Prophets in large measure; more or less the entire Sapiential part; and the remaining Historical Books). Let us try, then, to describe the life and more important events of these centuries.
The Exile
Allusions in the Prophets and many Psalms help us understand somewhat the lot of the exiles; they also help us understand their overflowing joy as they returned after 538 B.C. In addition, the general history of this period provides information on the lot of deported populations.
We today have not grown up with a religion that is tied to a country, a monarchy, or a single temple; it is, therefore, difficult for us to imagine what a torment exile was for the surviving Jews of the Kingdom of Judah. In addition to the harsh personal experience of deprivation, the Exile meant the total ruin of a people to the point that they were uprooted and their worship suppressed.
It is true that deported populations were gradually able to settle down. Although important individuals suffered the darkness of Babylonian prisons, the majority of the exiles did not have to live in the camps which the word “deportation” suggests to us. They were, nonetheless, always far from the Promised Land, deprived of their sanctuary, and without a recognized religious and political structure; in short, they were scattered and in disarray. In these circumstances, it took a great deal of daring to believe that, despite everything, the story of this people had not come to an end and that Israel still had its mission of bearing witness to God in the midst of the nations. Yet this was precisely the claim of the deported prophets (Ezekiel), spiritual persons, and priests; all the signs said otherwise, but the faith was now strengthened by what had happened.
It can be said, in fact, that in Exile Israel discovered new spiritual origins. It finally realized that God’s plan was not dependent on the political fate of an earthly kingdom. Now that structures had been destroyed, God’s word and law could touch hearts more deeply. Suffering was purifying. Israel recognized that its lot was the fulfillment of divine threats, a chastisement it had deserved, and it turned to the Lord with sincerity and with a greater depth and stability than before. In face of its conquerors who sang the glories of their gods, it cried out the nothingness of all idols. Yahweh would not accept the place he was invited to take in the procession of pagan divinities. The fear had been that the scattering of the chosen people would destroy their spiritual self-awareness and their unity; instead, they found their true unity, that given by faith and hope.
The Restoration
In 539 B.C., an unexpected and unforeseeable radical change occurred: the Persian empire replaced the Babylonian in control of the Middle East. Cyrus, the new master, who is presented in the second part of Isaiah as God’s chosen instrument, gave proof of an unexpected tolerance toward the religion and customs of each ethnic group. All dreams were now permissible; songs were already improvised for the caravans that would cross the desert in a new exodus, an exodus more splendid than that of long ago. What hope-filled days! The reality was to be less impressive. Persian policy did indeed provide for organizing the return of deported peoples and the rebuilding of their sanctuaries, but Israel was not to experience a national restoration. It would not regain its independence and would remain for good under the control, even if often a benevolent control, of one or another foreign power. Israel would have to find some other basis than earthly political structures for its life and its specific religious vocation.
The exiles returned in a number of caravans that were formed at intervals. The returnees were for the most part members of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the families of which had lived at one time in Jerusalem and the surrounding territories; they came with their priests and Levites. The other tribes, which had cut themselves off after the death of Solomon in 931 B.C., had been in exile since 721 B.C., and after almost two centuries, were now widely scattered. Foreign populations had taken up residence in Samaria from the end of the eighth century B.C. on and formed a new ethnic group. The northern part of Palestine, too, displayed a medley of peoples, so much so that the land of Jesus’ infancy and early public ministry came to be called “Galilee of the nations,” that is, of the pagans.
The “little remnant” of survivors organized themselves with difficulty. Jerusalem was entirely in ruins; commercial activities and trade were not renewed, since the returnees preferred to settle in the surrounding area where at least the fruits of the earth were not lacking. The temple was rebuilt between 520 and 515 B.C., but only seventy years later the walls would need repair and Nehemiah would almost have to use force to accomplish the repopulation of the city. This rebuilding of the temple and the city was a modest, difficult task, but a courageous one. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah contain the evidence for it.
The exiles who did not return organized into groups in foreign territory, chiefly in Babylonia and Egypt. Since they had no religious reasons for remaining attached to their new country, they would be more mobile and able to migrate. Thus, especially during the period of Greek domination, groups of Jews scattered across the Mediterranean world; wherever they went, they occupied a quarter of a city and opened a synagogue. They did, however, retain ties with Jerusalem, to which they went at times on pilgrimage.
Greek and Roman Domination
The regime of the Persians, who had authorized the restoration of a Jewish province, ended two centuries later, as unexpectedly as it had begun. This marked a second step taken by Providence, which was preparing the way for the coming of Christianity. The East had done its work; it was now the turn first of the Greeks and then of the Romans; in the future the task would be entrusted to all the nations. One name stands out at the beginning of this new upheaval: Alexander the Great. The Bible hardly mentions him, and then only long after the event (see 1 Mac 1:1). But the young conqueror filled the world with astonishment at his rapid victories. The countries along the Nile and the Euphrates now entered into the political and cultural life of the Mediterranean world; a common mentality spread abroad.
Alexander did not have time to enjoy his vast conquest, for he met death in Babylon in 323 B.C. His generals competed for power. Of importance for the biblical story were the dynasty of the Lagids or Ptolemies, who gained control of Egypt, and the dynasty of the Seleucids, who took possession of Syria, Asia Minor, and Persia. In 319 B.C., Judea was under the relatively peaceful control of the Ptolemies, but at the beginning of the second century B.C., the situation changed rapidly. In 198 B.C., Antiochus III defeated Egypt at Panion in Palestine, and Judea entered the orbit of the Seleucids. The new monarch brought his state to its greatest heights, but the generals of Rome were already taking to the roads of the East. The king had to accept burdensome conditions of peace: sending his own sons as hostages to Rome, handing over Asia Minor, and paying an enormous tribute. There is an echo of this in the biblical episode of Heliodorus (2 Mac 3).
The reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes was marked by a Draconian policy of cultural and economic assimilation. In his vision everything had to submit to the Greek way of life. Fears for his own threatened reign are not enough to explain the arrogance of which he has left the memory; if we look at the money he coined we see that he was increasingly bent on his own divinization. From 167–164 B.C. he profaned the temple and launched a violent religious persecution, which in turn gave rise to the glorious revolt of the Maccabees. His successors, one after another, struggled for power and for the favor of the petty kings whom they sought to control; a period of intrigues returned, and the end of the first Book of Maccabees gives some examples of these.
As a result, the little province of Judea enjoyed for some decades a sufficiently stable autonomy and even enlarged its domain; it was ruled by high priests of Maccabean descent, who before the end of the second century B.C. also took the title of king. But unity and independence were uncertain possessions. Some religious groups deliberately distanced themselves from the policy of the priests; the confusing of spiritual charge and civil sovereignty was not without its dangers for the faith and for freedom and represented a step backward. The more forward-looking religious groups based their teaching solely on reverence for God and his law; these were the Hasids (“faithful ones”), from whom came the Pharisees, and the Essenes, who distanced themselves in an even more systematic way and whose thought and way of life have been revealed to us in the Dead Sea scrolls. Those who aligned themselves with the priesthood would be the opportunists of a later date: the Sadducees. The success of the religious movements among the people testified in its own way to the fact that the spiritual vitality of Judaism was no longer linked to the political lot of the nation.
Distant Rome was winning respect for its aristocratic regime; this great western power was capable of bringing pressure to bear on the Greek kingdoms. The Jews, and especially the Maccabees, had sought alliances with it since the second century B.C. But a hundred years later the legions imposed Roman rule on the entire Mediterranean basin and ended the anarchy in the various states. Pompey intervened in Palestine. There he found Jerusalem in a state of revolt; religious and political factions were tearing at each other; different segments of the population were engaged in a terrible war. As if the faith were no longer an issue in these events, no book of the Bible has preserved the memory of those sad and shameful days. Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C.
Cynical schemers were subsequently able to take power locally; history has preserved the name of the despot known as Herod the Great (37–4 B.C.). He thought to win the gratitude of the Jews by rebuilding the temple with some magnificence. A few decades later Judea would be governed by procurators sent directly from Rome; the fact that one of them, Pontius Pilate, played a central part in the trial of Jesus saved him from being forgotten. Judea lived in a state of tension between the demands of the occupying ruler and expectations of rebellion. The Pharisees and the religious leaders known as the scribes were close to the people. Others pursued impossible political dreams; as the result of one of their revolts, the Jewish state would disappear for good in A.D. 70.
Meanwhile, however, Judaism had put down spiritual roots sufficiently deep for it to live on independently of the land and the temple, even though it would always look back to these with nostalgia.
The Communities
The community of Judea fulfilled a function of its own until its disappearance in the second destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
For almost six centuries, this Jewish community, more than any other, regarded itself as the guardian responsible for the faith and the prayer (see the Psalms), the vocation and the hope of Israel. Established in the land of the forefathers, which was always looked upon as the Promised Land, and with the temple as its center, led by the priests and instructed by the teachers of the law, this community made it its aim to ensure the permanence of the Jewish inheritance. This explains its care in preserving the priceless historical, prophetic, and sapiential writings that had been handed down, and in relating the understanding of these to the contemporary situation, as well as its assiduous production of new writings, in the form, above all, of meditations on its privileged history and on Israel’s law, and of attempts to deepen and develop its understanding of these (Chronicles, Tobit, Job, Qohelet, Song of Songs, and, although not accepted into the Jewish Bible, Ben Sirach).
For three and a half centuries, down to the time of the Maccabees (177 B.C.), the Judean community sheltered itself against the upheavals in the world. Rather insensitive to universalist and missionary ideas (see, in contrast, the Book of Job), it waited instead for the day on which all peoples would give recognition to Jerusalem and would come there as pilgrims. But beginning in the second century B.C. this community was called upon to give an example of fidelity during the first religious persecution known to history. At that time, groups of its most selfless members were able to answer this unexpected demand with the heroism of martyrs and the victorious resistance of warriors, who gave new life to the ancient stories of the wars of the Lord that were their inspiration. Rightly would a new and glorious page in the history of Israel soon be written (first Book of Maccabees).
It was precisely from this community, in the midst of which it arose, that newborn Christianity would separate itself; it would be Paul, a Jew of the Diaspora, who would most vehemently proclaim the universality of salvation independently of the law, the nation, the land, and the sanctuary. James, on the other hand, a Christian of Jerusalem, would have more difficulty in following the lead of Paul.
Many communities scattered throughout Palestine preserved their ties to Jerusalem. The Samaritan community, on the other hand, remained suspect.
As we saw, the Samaritan community represented a mixed population. It had also opposed the restoration of Jerusalem and had built its own separate place of worship. The religious schism of Samaria was complete in the third century B.C.; from then on, the Samaritans would be viewed as heretics and are so seen in New Testament times. A small community of Samaritans has existed down to our own day.
The communities scattered throughout the world reflected the movement and fate of the populations with which they were mingled. They spread abroad especially during the Hellenistic period, a time of city-building and cultural renewal. Some of these Jewish communities built temples at Elephantine and Leontopolis (Egypt), but on the whole the communities retained their connections with Jerusalem and remained firm in the faith of their fathers, even if they wrote in Greek, the common language of the Mediterranean basin.
Their literary works bear witness to a desire for dialogue with the pagan world, an aspiration to be recognized as heirs of a great culture. It was in these exchanges that the missionary concern began to strengthen.
But these communities also experienced suspicion, ill-will, persecution, and plundering. In fact, they astonished others by their special way of life, their religion, and their law.
We do not know why they were unwilling to enter the life of the cities by including their God in the pantheon, where all the divinities could co-exist peacefully.
The authors of Judith, Esther, Daniel, Wisdom, and Maccabees II have in mind these cities that were tempted from time to time either to turn in on themselves or to let themselves be assimilated by tenacious and irresistible cultural movements. These cities also gathered up and translated into Greek the ancient biblical writings. This literary activity was especially intense in Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander the Great during his Egyptian campaign. The Greek version of the Hebrew originals is known as the Septuagint (the “seventy,” i.e., translators). Its importance is inestimable because it made the Bible accessible to the vast Hellenistic world; it is the Bible that would be cited by the various New Testament writers, and all Christian communities outside of Palestine would take it as the foundational scriptures. In addition to the writings that had found a place in the Bible, a number of others were composed: commentaries on biblical history and teaching, applications, edifying stories, and so on, that bear witness to an intense spiritual and Messianic movement marked by a profound religious fidelity.
Scattered believers lived in expectation of a new gathering in Jerusalem, where all peoples would at last be reunited.
The answer to this hope was the event that took place on the Christian Pentecost.
Meanwhile, these communities spread throughout the world the knowledge of a single God and the expectation of a universal salvation. They served as a basis, throughout the cultural world of the Mediterranean, for the Christian mission that would actively propagate this mission of salvation, while identifying it with the new covenant of Calvary that had replaced the covenant of Sinai.
The Pentateuch
This, Israel’s fundamental book, which it called the Torah (means Law), has five parts (whence the Greek name “Pentateuch” means “five sections”):
Genesis: the book describing the origin both of the world and of the Israelite people.
Exodus: the story of the departure from Egypt.
Leviticus: primarily, the rules for worship, the exercise of which is entrusted to the tribe of Levi.
Numbers (the book of censuses): the Law governing the organization of the people.
Deuteronomy (or “Second Law”): primarily a prophetic appeal for fidelity to the Law and for a conversion of heart.
In the form in which we now know it, the Pentateuch was, it seems, compiled around the second half of the fifth century B.C., but its roots are deep in the most remote past of Israel.
For a long time, the Hebrews, like all nomadic peoples, transmitted orally the traditions, laws, and customs of their people. In their substance the stories, even though revised and expanded, went back to real events. Subsequent generations completed, and adapted to new situations, the laws set down by Moses when he was organizing the people of God. Memories and traditions achieved a fixed form especially at the sanctuaries, that is, ancient centers of worship that kept the memory especially of events that had taken place there (Bethel, Shechem, Mizpah, etc.), and in liturgical formulas (songs, etc.) that were used at various religious festivals.
Finally, in the period of the monarchy, the stability that this brought promoted literary activity. Starting in the tenth century, the “Yahwist” collection took form in Jerusalem; the “Elohist” collection arose a little later in the northern kingdom of Israel; then, in the eighth and seventh centuries, as a result of the activity of the Prophets, the “book” and discourses of Deuteronomy took shape; finally, during the Exile (sixth century), the Jewish priests, using criteria of their own, gave a new version of the laws and history of Israel (the “Priestly” tradition).
The Pentateuch arose out of this collection of traditions; this accounts for the various codes of laws that repeat one another and for the two versions of stories. Each tradition in fact has its own leading ideas, its own religious emphases, its own style. The first or “Yahwist” gives God the proper name “Yahweh”
The “Elohist” tradition is more restrained; it calls God “Elohim,” a common noun for “divinity.” It depicts him as more demanding, emphasizes his superiority, and separates him to a greater extent from human beings: he speaks to them in dreams or through the mediation of the angels.
The “Priestly” tradition, for its part, likes numbers and genealogies; each stage of history (Noah, Abraham, Moses) is accompanied by a new covenant; it is concerned above all with laws and cultic institutions. Even the stories told bear the mark of this legalism; the account of creation, for example, aims at giving a basis for the law of the Sabbath; the covenant with Abraham finds expression in the sign of circumcision.
We shall leave aside for the moment the “Deuteronomic” tradition, which gave rise to a special book.
The Book of Genesis
The Origins of the World and of the People of God
The Book of Genesis is made up of contributions from three sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, and the Priestly, these contributions being intermingled even within one and the same episode. Despite this, the book has a unity, because the Priestly tradition has given it an organic structure. The story of the origins (chs. 1–11) and the story of the Patriarchs (chs. 12–50) are clearly distinguished.
The work first of all gives an imaginative account of creation and the first sin. Here, elements from ancient tradition are used in sketching a broad picture of the origins; various sections explain how evil, suffering, and death entered the world through the sin of the first man; the promise of salvation makes clear from the outset what the meaning of the entire biblical story will be. The priest who seems to have compiled these pages makes use of increasingly more focused genealogies in order to show the continuity of the creation of Adam and the obscure beginnings of the human race with the beginnings of Israel. Creation thus appears as the first act in the history of the salvation of humankind.
Contemporary advances in the study of the history, laws, and ways of life of the ancient East assure us that the popular stories about the Patriarchs are based on truthful living memories that were transmitted with the intention of being faithful. The sacred writers thus hark back to the distant past in order to show that the Creator has established special bonds with Israel. In the persons of their ancestors this people has enjoyed the preferential favor of God, who has chosen them for a special mission on behalf of the entire human race and has also promised them a land to live in.
This love-inspired plan is accepted by Abraham with a faith that stands up to every test, but the Lord is also able to entrust his promise even to a sinner like Jacob in order to show that his predilection is unmerited. He is thus able to turn to his own purposes a reprehensible crime like that of Joseph’s brothers. In short, the second part of the book corresponds with the first: in order to save guilty humankind God enters history and links himself, for a specific period, to a particular people, choosing Abraham rather than Lot, Isaac rather than Ishmael, Jacob rather than Esau. The day will come, however, when all nations will be blessed in Abraham.
The promises stated in the Book of Genesis find their fulfillment in Christ and the Church. Jesus will be born of the line of Abraham, but he exists even before Abraham, because he is the beloved Son of the Father, the second and new Adam who comes to save what the first Adam had lost. The Church of Easter begins the new creation, but the chosen people of the new covenant are the spiritual descendants of Abraham the believer and are journeying toward the new Promised Land, the kingdom of heaven. The story of the Patriarchs is our story.
The Book of Genesis may be divided as follows:
I: Origin of the World and Humankind (1:1—11:32)
A: Creation and the Fall (1:1—3:24)
B: The Reign of Sin (4:1—5:32)
C: Death and Resurrection of God’s Work (6:1—9:17)
D: A World of Diverse Peoples (9:18—11:32)
II: Origin of the People of God (12:1—50:26)
A: Abraham, Man of Faith (12:1—25:18)
B: Jacob, the Sinner Who Redeems Himself (25:19—36:43)
C: Joseph, the Suffering Righteous One (37:1—50:26)