(1) 1.28 "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing”

(2) We are God’s regent on earth, given authority similar to his own.

c. We have a special importance to God. Our lives, in particular, are especially valuable:

1) 9.6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.

d. We are creatures of power, freedom, and dignity, not at the mercy of the powers and forces of nature.

F. The nature of the universe, cosmos especially from the human point of view

1. Enuma Elish

a. The cosmos are disorderly and chaotic

1) The Gods are given responsibility for natural phenomena by Marduk.

2) But they may not carry out that responsibility in a regular way.

a) They may have their own agenda, which leads them to act in ways that undermines the regularities of nature.

b. The existence of many Gods suggests the possibility of various sorts of conflict.

1) Conflicts between Gods (within which humans can be caught up).

2) Conflicts between different groups of people, who may be supported by different Gods.

3) Multiplicity of ethical values and standards

c. The Gods are morally indifferent.

1) There is no reason to think that the Gods are concerned with justice.

2) Nor is there reason to think that they are concerned with our well being.

d. The Gods and human happiness.

1) The well being of individuals and political community depends upon Gods.

a) Gods, nature and man are part of same realm

b) Man must try to integrate himself with Gods / nature even though there is no inherent harmony to the Gods or nature..

(1) Respect them.

(2) Propitiate them or encourage them to help us. by bringing gifts.

2) Or man can try to appeal beyond the Gods to the powers that shaped and formed them.

a) We can try to propitiate them as well

b) Or use magic to call them forth

2. Hebrew Bible

a. God creates an orderly universe

1) God separates and categorizes everything he creates.

a) Including time: he separates the seventh day from all the others.

b) This suggests that everything in the universe has its proper place and will follow its regular path.

2) God promise Noah after the flood the universe will continue in an orderly fashion.

3) The cosmos is purposeful and unified.

a) What is created each day depends upon what was previously created.

b) Those things created on the 4th through 6th days, are dependent on those things created on the 1st through 3rd days.

(1) light / sun, moon, and stars

(2) air and water / birds and fish

(3) land, vegetation / animals, mankind.

4) This suggests that God created things in the world to fit together in an orderly and hierarchical.

a) Things are created to serve the needs or requirements of other things

b) Thus the universe is a place in which everything can, in general, expect to get what it needs or requires.

5) Thus we human beings can rely on the order of nature to attain our ends.

b. There is no possibility of conflict within the divine realm spilling over to human beings.

1) There is one order to the universe, thus one right and wrong.

c. God creates a moral order.

2) God’s activity of separation and categorization is a model for human morality and religious ritual.

a) Morality divides up actions into right or wrong, good and bad. To be moral is to categorize actions and circumstances appropriately and follow the correct rules in each case.

b) Religious ritual in the Hebrew Bible usually involves the separation of the holy from profane.

(1) Holy things are such things as animals brought to sacrifice, or foods that meet the dietary laws, or days set aside for or regulated in a special way by God.

G. Creation and Politics & Morality

1. Enuma Elish

a. The story parallel the politics of Babylon

1) Men are slaves to Gods and many men are slaves in Babylonia.

2) Marduk rules with absolute power as does the King of Babylonia

b. Enuma Elish is the national epic of Babylon

1) It was recorded in seven tablets

2) It was solemnly recited and dramatically presented in the course of festivities marking the spring New Year

a) It is the focal point of Babylonian religious practice.

3) The conflict between Tiamat and Marduk was seen as a war between the forces of cosmic order and forces of chaos

a) This struggle was believed to be repeated every year

(1) A plausible given the periodic and catastrophic upheavals of nature in Mesopotamia.

b) The New Year reenactment was a ritual drama.

(1) Vernal equinox: nature suspended between death and life.

(2) Recitation of the story was an analogical repetition of the primordial victory of cosmic order.

(3) It was thought to encourage renewal of nature and Babylonian communal life.

II. Implications of the creation story in the Hebrew Bible

A. Although the story of creation, and the account of God and his works it portrays, of is so well known to us that it seems almost obvious, it is in many ways not obvious at all. Indeed, although we make fun of the myths of the ancient polytheistic religions, these stories are in two ways, quite plausible.

1. For ancient men and women, the natural world is not all that orderly or friendly.

a. Terrible things occur, often without any obvious reason.

1) Natural disasters often occur, such as fire, flood, hail storms.

2) Illness and accident plague human lives.

3) Domestic and foreign political upheavals occur, sometimes for inexplicable reasons and without much warning.

b. Thus it is not surprising that ancient men and women pictured the natural world as under the sway of indifferent and capricious Gods.

2. The actions of the polytheistic Gods—and in the case of the Sun and the Moon—the Gods themselves are visible. Natural forces are powerful, yet limited.

a. The God of the Bible, however, is utterly invisible and all-powerful.

b. While the story of the Biblical God is simpler than that of the polytheistic religions, and thus is less fantastic in many ways, to someone who has not been brought up in one of the Biblical religions, the notion of an all-powerful, invisible God might also seem fantastic.

B. So it is not surprising that polytheism is so prevalent in the Ancient world, even in the relatively advanced civilization of Ancient Greece.

C. Thus, to have pictured the universe as an orderly place under the sway of an all-powerful God is a tremendous feat:

1. Of abstraction, that is, of seeing an order underlying the apparent chaos of life

2. And, also, of moral commitment, to the notion of a God who is concerned about all human beings equally.

D. But this view also creates a problem: accounting for evil.

1. We will see that this problem leads to many new developments in biblical religion.

E. It is interesting to compare the Biblical order to that of Plato’s forms.

1. Plato largely accepted the view of the visible universe implicit in polytheistic religion: he saw it is as ever in flux and as thus chaotic.

a. One could not expect to find order or predictable occurrences in the visible world.

b. Thus Plato only saw order in the ideal forms that are imperfectly realized in the visible world.

2. The Bible says that there is an order in nature that is created by an orderly process under the hands of one will, that of God.

3. It is hard to imagine natural science developing without the Biblical notion that the universe is orderly.

a. For that there is an underlying order that we can find and express in laws of nature is the presupposition of all modern natural science.

III. The Garden of Eden

A. What is the Garden of Eden?

1. What is knowledge of Good and Evil?

a. Knowledge of what desires and actions lead to human happiness.

1) This is the typically ancient Greek understanding of morality. Morality is meant to lead to our happiness.

b. Knowledge of our obligations to others.

1) This is the typically Biblical understanding of morality.

2. Adam and Eve lack this knowledge because:

a. Their lives are so simple they can make no choices between one desire or action and another.

b. Since it is easy for Adam and Eve to satisfy their desires,

1) They have no motive to take from each other.

2) They have no need of help from each other.

3. The Garden of Eden is similar to the city of pigs: there is no justice or injustice in it.

B. First interpretation of the story:

1. Why do Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil?

a. The fruit looks good for eating.

d. They are not motivated by a desire for knowledge of good and evil.

1) They can have little understanding of what this knowledge means and why it would be good to have.

2) The text suggests this by the curious grammatical construction “that it….”

2. What is the nature of their sin?

b. Adam and Eve are very much like children or higher animals in their lack of self-awareness and responsibility.

1) This story, then, is one that explains the distinctive features of human beings as we emerge from pre-history and childhood.

3. Why does God punish Adam and Eve?

a. Punishment is necessary in order to create human beings who can be morally responsible for themselves.

b. To be morally responsible we must

1) Recognize that we can choose to act one way or another.

a) Given the simplicity of life in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were barely aware of this.

2) Be self-conscious and self-aware. We must be capable of looking at our actions or interpreting our own actions.

3) We must be able to compare our actions to some ideal or standard of morality

4) We must be able to stop and think before we act.

c. Recognition of a failure to follow God’s command brings about these four capacities.

1) In violating God’s commandment Adam and Eve come to learn that they can choose to live one way or another.

2) Coming to recognize they have violated God’s commandment, is coming to have self-awareness.

3) God’s commandments are the ideal or standard which we must come to meet.

4) Punishment helps us remember the consequences of actions and the importance of stopping to think before we act.

4. How is the punishment related to the crime?

a. The need to labor comes about because, with knowledge of good and evil, our desires expand.

1) We come to recognize the possibility of both satisfying our desires in new and different ways (e.g. more comfortable surroundings) and of coming to have new desires (e.g. for new music.)

2) In coming to self-awareness, we become capable of comparing ourselves and our well being to that of others and to some ideal.

a) That we should have this capacity is suggested by the story of creation, which makes much of our special nature and dignity. Without self-awareness we could not recognize our special place in creation.

b. Labor pains in birth come about because:

1) Self-conscious creatures are more sensitive to physical pain.

2) Self-conscious creatures are capable of expecting pain. This is painful in itself, and makes it difficult for us to relax and roll with the punches.

a) Our capacity to think and plan enables us to act to overcome the sources of pain.

b) But this same capacity makes pain more severe when there is nothing we can do but wait it out.

c. Mortality

1) The text does not clearly say that death is a punishment.

a) In saying that Adam and Eve will die if they eat the fruit, God may be saying that they will die sooner than they otherwise would have.

(1) Perhaps Adam would have lived to 1000 rather than 930. Perhaps 70 years is but a day to God.

2) Mortality might be understood to result from our recognition that we are going to die which is also a product of our self-awareness.

5. Why are all other human beings besides Adam and Eve punished as well?

a. Because we all go through the process, as children, of violating the commands of our parents and being punished for doing so..

b. This is how we become morally responsible by doing.

6. What makes this interpretation plausible?

a. It helps us understand the justice of God’s vicarious punishment of, not just Adam and Eve, but all human beings.

b. It fits with the special place of human beings in creation. If we had no knowledge of Good and Evil, we would not recognize our status in God’s creation.

c. It fits with our sense that leaving the Garden of Eden is, in some respects, an advance for human kind.

1) Only if we leave can we be good and truly do God’s bidding.

a) This is difficult for us.

(1) For, precisely because our desires expand, we are tempted to do injustice

(2) And it takes a long time, and more than one punishment, to learn to stop and think and determine what is morally correct action..

b) But, on this interpretation, God eventually helps us by:

(1) Giving us commandments teaches us morality.

(2) Fear of God’s punishments and love of God for his commandments helps us overcome our temptation to do evil.

c) On this view, human beings can hope, over time, to come closer and closer to God’.

(1) We can recreate the good life of the Garden of Eden by doing what God commands us to do.

d) And it is a greater achievement for a self-conscious creature to do what God wills then a limited creature.

2) Only if we leave can we have the pleasures that come with self-awareness for pleasure, like pains, is greater for self-conscious creatures.)

D. Common to both interpretations:

1. Source of evil in the world is human action.

IV. Cain and Abel

A. That Cain and Abel bring God gifts without being commanded too shows the natural and appropriate attitude towards an all-powerful God:

2. Gratitude for what we have received.

B. But Cain’s offering was not as substantial as Abel’s.

1. It was not really a sacrifice of his own goods.

C. Cain does know killing Abel was wrong even though God has never forbidden human beings to kill one another.

1. That is why he lies to God.

2. This shows that we can have knowledge of morality without the revelation of God’s commands.

D. Cain is not punished as severely as he might have been for one or more of the following reasons.

1. Cain did not kill with premeditation and may not have actually realized he would kill Abel, since no one had ever died before.

3. God seeks to warn to others that murder is wrong and God punished the unjust.

a. This is the first time in which God seeks to intervene in human history by showing all human beings his concern for justice, and his capacity and willingness to punish the unjust.

V. Noah

B. Importance of the story

1. Why is punishment of the people of Noah’s generation justified, when God has not given any specific moral commands? How can they be iniquitous?

a. Human beings could have discovered the moral rules by which we should live by means of reason.

b. But we have one of two troubles:

1) We don’t seem capable of discovering those rules.

2) We don’t seem capable of living up to them.

2. New era in human history is begun

a. Noah has a central position between Genesis and Abraham

1) Ten generations from Adam to Noah

3. The flood is a temporary reversal of creation

a. Cosmic catastrophe: two halves of waters which God separated are brought together

b. Man’s wickedness, the inhumanity of man to man undermines not just politics and society but the creation itself. Evil shakes the foundations of the earth and creates a temporary return to primordial chaos

1) “earth became corrupt (Genesis 6.5, 11)

2) Man’s good deeds helps make the world whole and orderly

a) Tikkun: to bind, repair the world

4. New creation that is different, in part, from the first creation

a. Noah and his sons are told to “be fruitful and multiply” 1: 28; 9:1

b. They given new things to eat

2) Although they are not permitted to eat flesh with its lifeblood in it.

a) This passage is frequently taken to be a prohibition against cruelty to animals.

c. A new genealogical line is created.

1) Everyone alive is a descendant of Noah, as we are of Adam

2) The text, in this way, again emphasizes brotherhood of mankind

3) New genealogical lists are presented as is new table of nations.

5. Covenant

a. God promises not to destroy earth again

b. Why does God make such a promise?

1) He recognizes that the “devisings of the human heart are evil from youth”

a) Text does not say from birth, but from your.

(1) This suggests that the problem is not original sin. Thus it supports the first intepretation of the garden of Eden story.

(2) On this view, the process of education can go either way.

(a) Perhaps, there are or temptations in growing up that lead to evil if a person does not have sufficient education in the other direction.

(b) What might these temptations be?

(i) To see happiness and fulfillment through our own efforts rather than by following the moral rules we could discern.

(ii) We do not listen to the moral teaching of our parents, our community and, ultimately, God.

b) Perhaps God has lowered his expectations for us.

2) The very promise insures that God will not have to take such action.

a) The covenant is God’s intervention into history in a more dramatic way.

b) God does two things to help make human beings better.

(1) First he reveals some moral laws to us. In particular he tells us explicitly

(a) that murder is wrong

(b) and that human beings must act so as to punish murderers.

(i) “He who sheds human blood by humans his blood shall be shed.”

(ii) This is often interpreted as a general injunction to seek justice.

(2) Second, God promises to be the ultimate backstop for morality: he teaches us that he will punish murderers.

(a) “from every beast I will requite it, and from human kinds from every man’s brother, I will requite human life.”

(b) God helps us with the flood: the memory of it is a warning to us to behave well.

(i) Though God won’t destroy world

(ii) Might destroy us:

c) Thus the covenant with Noah is the promise of God’s intervention in history

(1) Mankind will know of law and of punishment for violation of the law

(2) God does not just create order in nature but creates a moral order

3) What is the significance of God’s gradual intervention in history? Why did he not reveal moral rules prior to Noah (and, with regard to murder, Cain)?

a) Perhaps God would have preferred not to have to intervene in history in this way.

(1) It almost seems as if God is conducting an experiment to see if human beings can discover and live by moral rules without his direct revelation of them.

(a) But we have failed the experiment.

(b) This view does not seem to be compatible with the notion of an all-powerful, omniscient God who could have foreseen what men and women would do.

(2) Perhaps the story of the gradual revelation of God is not so much about God but about human beings and our gradual discovery of God, or of the central importance of a divine sanction for morality.

VI. Exodus Major Themes

A. God intervenes in history

1. In early books of Genesis

a. God creates ordered universe

1) He creates both a

a) Natural order

b) Moral order

2) Both of which are

a) Understandable to us

b) Guide to our life

b. Thus God gives us a vision of ideal life, but we are not able to live up to it.

c. Explanation of evil is human disobedience which is made possible by human freedom, free will. Two kinds of evil result from human action.

1) The evil created by human action

2) The evil that is God’s punishment for human action.

2. But God intervenes in history to help us. The story of God’s intervention found, most dramatically in Exodus. Central themes of Exodus all involve God’s intervention into history.

a. God gives us commandments and promises to punish those who reject these commandments.

1) Again, as in the story of Noah, we learn that

a) Human beings need detailed instruction. We cannot seem to figure out what morality and God require of us by means of reason alone.

(1) So God gives us a set of commandments that concern all aspects of our political, social, and individual lives in Exodus.

b) Human beings need the fear of God’s punishment to make us obey his commands.

(1) So God reveals his great power and concern for humankind in Exodus.

2) Whereas the commandments given to Noah are for all human beings, the commandments given the Israelites are for them.

a) They are meant, however, to teach some of these commandments to the entire world.

(1) A nation of priests is a nation that aims, like priests due, to teach God’s word and encourage others to follow it.

(2) A holy nation is one that is separate from others and that dedicates itself to God.

(a) It is separate, in that it follows special ritual commands, in order to point other peoples to God.

(b) It is also separate so that other nations can see that it has prospered only when following God’s commands

b) Thus the moral commandments of Exodus are for all people. But the ritual commandments, and the detailed laws, are for the Israelites.

(1) Other groups of people must make their own laws that exemplify the standards of justice found in God’s law.

(2) Anyone can also become an Israelite.

b. God is the redeemer from injustice and oppression: Exodus story of the liberation of a people from slavery and oppression to freedom

1) Dramatic impact on the history of

a) Jews

(1) God: who brought you out of the land of Egypt

(2) Shaped the national consciousness of this people as no other event

(a) Reminder of what we owe God.

(b) And what we can expect of God.

(3) Exodus referred to about one hundred twenty times in the rest of the Hebrew Bible

(4) Model for other intervention that

(a) Maccabean revolt

(b) Zionism

b) Other liberation movements influenced by the bible: Exodus is a model for liberation movements in other times and places.

c. God has sovereignty over nature

1) God exists above nature and outside it

a) Ten plagues:

(1) God uses natural phenomenon in creating these plagues: all but last have roots in phenomena of nature.

(a) This shows us that God controls natural events.

(2) Even more so, the last plague shows us that God can abrogate natural law.

d. Human beings cannot defy God’s will or thwart his purposes

1) Pharaoh:

a) First he says “I do not know the Lord nor will I let Israel go”

b) Later

(1) He must get up in the middle of th night and surrender

(2) He even asks for blessing from the Lord

e. History has meaning and purpose

1) Prophesy in Genesis 15:13-14

a) Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

2) The story of Exodus shapes much historical writing and the philosophy of history.

a) For the Greeks, there is a constant cycle in human affairs.

(1) Things get better and then worse.

(2) Political communities move from having good regimes to bad regimes and then back again.

b) For the Israelites, history has a beginning and an end. Things improved and get worse, but ultimately they attain their appointed end.

B. What is the aim of the Israelites?

1. Israelites promised

a. The promised land, Canaan

1) Land centrally important to a semi-nomadic people

2) Land of milk and honey

3) Not the Garden of Eden or heaven in the most common Jewish interpretations.

a) When read in conjunction with the New Testament, however, the land of milk and honey is often thought of as heaven.

b. To become a nation of priests and a holy people.

1) See above.

2. What is the connection between the two promises?

a. By becoming a nation of priests, the Israelites become a united nation.

1) They are disciplined by the commandments: everyone follows them.

2) The commandments require them to show concern for, and sacrifice for, each other and for the common good.

3) And this allows them to conquer the Holy Land.

a) God, as before, seems to want to intervene as little as possible.

b) He wants the Israelites to become a people who need his ongoing help as little as possible.

c) God mainly helps by giving the commandments and reminding the people of his power to punish those who violate them.

b. The Israelites, however, are not just like the Athenians under Pericles.

1) For unity comes in their commitment not just to their political community, but to God’s ideals and commands.

2) For the Israelites, there is something more important than political success and having a good life in this world.

a) It is more important to be a nation of priests and a holy people.

3) Thus the Israelites are called on to conquer the Holy Land, but not to create a great empire.

a) They must take the lands of others, because that is necessary if they are to become a holy people.

(1) And the text sometimes suggests that the people who lose their land deserve to because of their own evils.

b) But they must not go too far and take what they do not need or deserve.

c) Nor do they need to do so. For, while they seek a both necessities (milk) and some luxuries (honey), they do not seek material well being above anything else.

(1) The Sabbath and jubilee regulations and the sacrifices limits their pursuit of wealth.

(a) As do the requirements of taking care of widows, orphans and the poor.

(2) And the Sabbath rules and sacrifice help them keep their minds on God, not just their own well being.

4) Thus, in being a nation of priests and a holy people, the Israelites will show the world that it is possible to live well without taking unduly from others.

a) The limited pursuit of land and wealth enables the Israelites to defend themselves without threatening others.

C. How Exodus occurs: God, Moses and the people: the Murmurings

1. Reluctance of the people at various times to go forward

a. People are

1) Fearful

a) Even when they possibly should not have been

(1) Why didn’t 600,000 men turn and fight when the pharaoh’s armies approached them before the sea of reeds?

2) Complaining and quarreling

a) Concerned about everyday life rather than with the end

(1) God and Moses take the long view. They are idealistic.

(a) The promised land makes hardships today endurable

(2) The people take the short view. They are more materialistic

(a) They have doubts about reaching the end

(b) The real test of divine power, for them was more immediate: can God help them with their immediate troubles.

b) Perhaps they are also complaining about the difficulties of the commandments

(1) Exodus also comes with laws, commandments,

(2) Numbers 11:4-6

(a) Want fish which they ate freely in Egypt

(i) Freely might mean: provided by the Pharaoh abundantly so that they could work

(ii) Some rabbis also interpreted this as free from commandments”

(3) Israelites had been Pharaoh’s slaves; in wilderness became God’s servants

(a) Hebrew word, eved, is the same

(4) Freedom requires discipline

(a) Take initiative and responsibility

(b) Live up to a common standard of law without the harsh repression of external forces

b. Not that they do not wish emancipation: cry out to god

c. But that they are not wholly capable of resisting without aid

1) Dispirited due to experience of slavery; oppression and slavery teaches

a) Not to fight back because it is so dangerous. The anger at oppression might lead a slave to act in ways that threatens his own life.

b) Not to stand on own and take charge of life, because one can’t: Thus slaves show no initiative

c) Not to have hopes for the future, because their seems to be none.

d) Not to have self-respect, because one is not respected

e) Ex. 6:9

(1) “Therefore say to the Israelites, 'I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.'"

(2) “Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.”

(a) Broken spirit: kotzer ruach: shortness of spirit an idiom for impatience but here probably literally dispiritedness

d. This is why Moses has to come from outside of the people: he was in the court of the Pharaoh.

1) Leaders of revolutionary movements often have to come from outside or exercise spectacular leadership.

a) Often from someone not raised among them: Moses who was raised in the court of the pharaoh

b) In other revolutionary movements by men like Washington, Lenin

2. Ex 32 1 Golden calf

a. story

1) Moses on the mountaintop 40 days

a) People anxious and frightened

b) All of them?

(1) Interpreters often suggested that differences and parties develop

(2) In part because later, some stand with Moses and kill others, presumably those who had lead efforts to make golden calf

2) Aaron weakly complies

a) Collecting golden jewelry and shaping molten metal into a calf or young bull

3) People worship the idol, feasting and playing in front of it

a) Hebrew for play litzachek has, according to Rashi, sexual connotations: the worship was orgiastic

4) God proposes to destroy the people and make of Moses’s line a “great nation”

5) Moses argues with God and wins his promise of forgiveness

6) Moses comes down from mountain, sees people and is angry: smashes the tablets and mobilizes his supporters

7) The people were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies),

8) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

9) He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.'"

10) The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day.

11) Moses said, "Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day."

b. What is Golden calf: two views

1) ? Of Canaanite origin and an later interpolation

a) story loses meaning on this view

2) Egyptians worshiped a bull God, Apis

c. How does Moses convince God to spare the people?

1) There is difficulty in doing this: after all the people had just made the covenant and promised to obey God.

2) Moses appeals to the reputation of God: what will the Egyptians (and others) say about God. How can he achieve his purpose of making his will known if he destroys the people he claims to be liberating?

a) No other people would want to be God’s.

3) Midrashic response: what can you expect from people who had grown up in Egypt (and who brought them there?): imagine a businessman who opened a perfume shop for his son on a street frequented by prostitutes.

d. Moses’s Purge

1) This is summary justice, without warning and trial.

2) The first purpose is to teach a lesson and hold the Israelite people together.

a) This is a kind of terrorism, although presumably only against the guilty, that is against those who took part in the worshipping of the calf.

(1) That is idolatry, and a capital crime according to biblical law.

(2) But, could the Levites be sure that they only killed the guilty?

3) Another purpose is to divide community, create a vanguard leadership of people more committed to the cause. The Levites will now be firmly committed to Moses

a) In part to justify what they had done.

b) And, in part, because they might have feared the reaction of the people to their action.

(1) The authority of Moses protects them from retaliation.

4) Moses acts in God’s name: did God authorize what he did? There are different interpretations.

a) No: Moses acts on own but justifies actions in God’s name. This tells us something about extraordinary political leadership.

b) Yes: but the act was too terrible to write down. Moses took the blame so that God would not be blamed.

(1) Nachmanides: an emergency measure.

5) Used to justify Leninist politics of terror

a) Lincoln Steffens defense of Lenin

3. Exodus tells about the balance between leaders and outside help and the people

a. Role of leaders and outside help seen in stories of the murmurings and the Golden calf

1) Leaders must

a) guide people in right direction

b) insure that they receive what they need immediately in order to stiffen their resolve for the march

2) At times most discipline them in stern ways; creating division and helpers

a) When the people fall back too far as to threaten the enterprise

b) When he can’t satisfy immediate needs

b. Role of the people

1) Terror and force is not enough

a) Can’t kill all the people: must educate them

b) Terror doesn’t and can’t create the initiative and self-discipline necessary to make a united, disciplined people.

c) Indeed, terror sustains, rather than overcoming, the fears of the people

(1) Except on part of those who must carry out the purge.

d) It is a temporary measure used to defeat counter-revolution and keep the process on the way.

(1) Without the purge, the Israelites might not have been united enough to follow Moses for forty years in the desert.

2) Exodus can’t be brought to success by the people who begin it

a) Only a new generation, raised under different circumstances, with different experience, can take on responsibility and initiative required to attain end

(1) Thus 40 years

3) New generation must be educated

a) Moses gives up daily political control: under advice of father-in-law Jethro

(1) Ex 18:19 Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God, and you should bring their cases before God;

(2) teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.

(3) You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

(4) Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.

(5) If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace."

b) Moses main task is as teacher: In Jewish tradition, Moses is called Moshe Rabenu; Moses our teacher, our Rabbi

D. Covenant

1. The covenant is the source of social contract view of politics

a. Political obligation rests on consent

b. Similar to view of Glaucon in the Republic

1) Glaucon emphasizes fear of injustice that leads men and women to form agreements

a) That found here, too: people come together for protection

(1) Not just for help of each other, but help of God

2) But moral transformation emphasized in Exodus and in later

a) Individual: To accept obligation is to become a different kind of person, one who has responsibilities

b) And it is to become a political entity, a united people

(1) One that is disciplined by the commandments, that is, willing to act together to attain their goals.

2. A covenant is unlike a contract and much more like marriage

a. It is a commitment by two parties to stay in a certain relationship.

b. Part of that relationship is for the two parties to come to know each other better.

c. And, in the course of doing this, they come to better understand the nature of their relationship and thus what this relationship requires.

d. Thus exact requirements of that relationship cannot be specified in advance.

E. Law

1. Ten Commandments

a. First five govern our relationship with God, and with our parents, who stand in for God in our lives

b. Second five govern our relationships with each other.

1) The constitute the basic rules necessary for any ongoing political community.

2. The law code

a. Two aspects

1) Rules / mishpatim 21:2-22:16

a) which are

(1) These are the rules (mishpatim) that you shall set before them

(2) Legal codes, regulated by government, with specifc penalties attached.

b) contents

(1) slavery

(a) legal restraints on the power of a master over his Hebrew male and female slaves

(b) legal rights of slaves

(2) offenses that incur the death penalty

(a) premeditated murder

(b) assault on or cursing one’s parents

(3) infliction of physical injury

(a) by

(i) one person on another

(ii) altercation

(iii) hands of a master

(iv) pregnant woman innocently caught in a fight

(b) lex talionis: retributive justice

(4) infliction of physical injury on living creatures

(a) laws of theft of livestock and with burglary

(b) compensation to be paid for causing damage to another’s crops either by grazing livestock or by fire

(5) etc.

2) Commands devarim 22:17-23:19

a) “Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of the Lord and all the rules”

b) Moral and religious prescriptions which, with exception of the first three are left to collective and individual conscience.

(1) There is no specific penalty prescribed and no expectation that individuals would necessarily be punished for violating these commandments by people.

(2) Although God promises to punish

c) These include.

(1) First three: sorcery, bestiality and sacrificing to other gods

(2) concern for unfortunates

(a) of the land every 7^th year

(b) weekly Sabbath: enjoyed equally by Israelite, bondsman and stranger

(4) Don’t mention names of other gods

(5) Three annual pilgrimages / festivals for men

(6) Preserve sacrifices from corruption

(a) Bring first fruits to house of the Lord

(b) Prohibition of killing a kid in it’s mother’s mile

d) The commands do not have specific human penalties attached for a number of reasons:

(1) Most of them are enjoined on all of the people acting collectively, not just on individuals.

(a) For example:

(i) care for widows and orphans might fall to individuals.

(ii) But while most individuals could contribute to the care of some widows and orphans, they could not do so by themselves.

(iii) Some form of collective provision is necessary in which people contribute to a general program or are asked to pay taxes.

(b) Thus it is a collective responsibility to take care of widows and orphans.

(c) So it makes no sense for a whole community to punish itself for violating this command. Rather, the appropriate response for such violation is to create a collective effort to meet it.

(d) And the specific penalty owed by an individual who failed to do his or her share (by, for example, paying taxes) would vary depending upon the kind of political and social program developed to take care of widows and orphans.

(2) The appropriate penalty for many of these actions might vary from one time to another.

(3) Perhaps God wanted to encourage some kinds of religious toleration, that is, tolerance for a diversity of views about what such things as Sabbath observance involves.

(3) God's law transmitted to the Moses, with the express command to transmit it fully and exactly to the people

(a) The lord spoke to Moses, saying: tell the Israelite people (ex 25:1)

(4) The entire assembly vowed to keep God's laws (ex 24:3-4)

(5) There is no mediation of God's favors or words through priest or king.

(3) thus law is public

(4) and religious duty to study the law

(a) you shall teach it to your children