Old Testament 1 Essay
Saturday, 07 May, 2005
Which would you pick?
- On what grounds has the historicity of the Abraham narrative of the book of Genesis been questioned, and how might its historicity be defended?
- What is the theological significance of the land in the book of Joshua?
- Outline the main events of Hezekiah's reign, making reference to both biblical and extra-biblical evidence. Briefly assess the significance of Hezekiah in Israel's history.
- How does the book of Proverbs relate to the theology of the Old Testament more generally?
- How did the concept of remnant arise in Israel and, what was its significance?
- On what grounds might Ezra be viewed as a new Moses?
- Discuss the theme of wisdom in the book of Daniel. To what extent does Daniel, as a wise man, represent a new kind of Israelite wisdom?
I'm tossing up between all the odd numbers. 1 might be interesting but perhaps would not stretch me. Ditto with 3 (though I am in the middle of 2 Kings in my Bible reading at the moment and am reading about Hezekiah so that might be sort of cool and I've never done anything on the Kings before). 5 would be really interesting and I'd love to see how it manifests itself in the New Testament (Romans 9-11, etc.) 7 looks scary as I've never really understood the second half of Daniel so perhaps that's the one I should do. (Richard says don't do the easiest question—do the one that's going to stretch you the most.)
Blinks:
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5 looks good to me. Are there any other references to the remnant in the NT (aside from Romans)?
Yeah, based on what youve been saying, about how you realise Moore is about the experience not the marks, get the most beneficial experience you can…
And post a copy of your essay up here 8-)
Matt
The “easiest” question may not actually be so… if you feel it’s not stretching you, plumb the depths a little deeper. I would choose the Hezekiah question, as he is such a fascinating, prevaricating, fallible, normal personality. The opportunity to look into ancient primary documentary sources is a winner in my books.
Hey,
I was trying to fix my blogroll at 5:15 on Friday night after work. I put you in the original but when i ‘published’ you, and a few others werent there. So i will need to fix that. Sorry!
Stu.
My personal preference would be for 5 as well - I found the ‘remnant’ theme in books like Isaiah to be really interesting. However, 7 looks interesting, too.
(I realise that was a bit of a fence-sitting answer)
Re: the stretchiest question, I guess that’s up to you, but I often feel there is a fine line between stretching yourself and doing a question that’s too removed from where your strengths are - at least, I’ve made that mistake before, anyway.
5 is good, but I think I would find #2 more interesting.
Keep in mind Hebrews 3-4: the concept of rest/land/sabbath/heaven is all interlinked, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff there.
7 sounds very interesting, although yeah, I don’t know what to do with the revelation bits…then again maybe Daniel doesn’t either: he just writes it down and that’s it.
5 is certainly attractive - but 2 looks very interesting. That would be my pick.
Just remember: Do not attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once.
P.S. I’ve booked my flights - 15th and 22nd.
I like 5 too, but since everyone likes 5, my other choices would be 4, then 7, 3, then 2 (i feel like i’m voting!)
Stu
Hey, where do I SMS my vote to?
I’m working on an essay on Daniel at the moment, examining how the two halves are related to each other.
The great porblme in writing essays on Daniel, is that most of the articles believe Daniel was written in the 2nd century BC, which I reject.
With regards to what Haoran said, Daniel specifically says that he can’t understand what’s revealed to him (e.g. 8:27) - generations of scholars and commentators have obviously known better!
John: I’d be interested to know how the date issue makes writing the essay a problem. Would you mind elaborating?
I guess I’m just sick of all the articles by people who hold to a 2nd century BC date and interpret everything through that grid. The view essentially stems from a belief that predictive prophecy can’t happen, though not every scholar would connect the two.
This means that 2nd century concerns are mistakenly read back into the text - for example, thinking that the issue in chapter 1 is that of clean vs. unclean food