Deuteronomy: something completely radical. Josiah's reforms.
Remember, Deuteronomy came from "new-found" scrolls when the Israelis were exiled in Babylon. Hilkiah and Shaphan found the scrolls that became the second law -- the second law of Moses.
Too much to transcribe here.
Bottom line: Deuteronomists argues that the David monarchs were the only legitimate rulers of the whole of Israel (northern and southern kingdoms); their story culminated in the reign of Josiah, a new Moses and a greater king than David (Jesus?).
The Deuteronomists introduced a new torah.
The prophet Jeremiah began his ministry about this time.
Deuteronomists: violent and strident. Would take Canaan by violent force if necessary. Absorbed the violent ethos of what they had experienced during nearly 200 years of Assyrian brutality.
But then Josiah killed in 622. The Babylonians had conquered Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and had become the major power in the region. Judah's brief independence was over.
In 586, Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Nebchadnezzar in 586.
Now, in exile: the scribes pored over the scrolls in the royal archive.
Now, the "Priestly" layer is introduced. We don't know whether "P" was an individual or more likely an entire school.
P revised the JE narrative and added the books of Numbers and Leviticus, drawing upon older documents -- genealogies, laws and ritual texts -- some written down, others orally transmitted. The most important of these: the "Holiness Code." -- a collection of 7th century laws -- and the Tabernacle Documents -- a description of Yahweh's ten shrine during the Israelites' years in the Sinai wilderness which was central to P's vision. Some of P's material was very old indeed, but he created an entirely new vision for his demoralized people.
But P's vision was entirely different than that of the Deuteronomists.
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Quoted verbatim.
Unlike the Deuteronomists, P's vision was inclusive. His narrative of alienation and exile constantly stressed the importance of reconciliation with former enemies. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his most famous work, the first chapter of Genesis, in which P describes Elohim creating heaven and earth.
This was not a literal, historically accurate account of creation. When the final editors put the extant biblical text together, they placed P's story next to J's creation narrative, which is quite different.
So, even though P came later, his/her writings were the basis of Genesis. That's why it was confusing for me. I always thought the extant Bible was like a journal, or a diary, chronologically put together as J, E, D, P were writing. I was wrong to think that the beginning of the Bible was J's work and then E added to it, and then D came along with Deuteronomy. Finally P came along and did the chapters after the torah. In fact, the editors or redacters came along and re-ordered everything and edited -- probably mostly typographical errors, etc.
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In 539 BCE, Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon and Persia became the largest empire the world had yet seen.
Cyrus released the Israelites from exile. Most chose to stay in Babylon. Those that stayed continued to do great stuff for the Jewish religion.
The returning Israelites -- returning to Jerusalem -- were called the Golah. The returning exiles brought with them nine scrolls: Genesis, Exodu, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
They also brought with them anthologies of the oracles of the prophets (neviim) and a hymn book, which included new psalms composed in Babylon. It was still not complete, but the exiles had in their possession the bare bones of the Hebrew Bible. Wow.
And there you have it.
A second more modest temple was re-established on Mt Zion.
The northern kingdom not quite so enamored with all this.
And that will bring us to the second chapter of this book, "Scripture."
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