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35. I owe this understanding to the title and content of Harvey Cox’s On Not Leaving It to the Snake (New York: Macmillan, 1967). Paul Tillich, one of the two most important Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, makes the same point when he speaks of “heteronomy” as one of three ways of living one’s life. “Heteronomy” means living in accord with the agenda of others (people, culture, the nation, and so forth). “Autonomy” means living with one’s self as the center (and is thus hubris). “Theonomy” means living with God as one’s center; it is the desirable state of affairs, and that from which we have “fallen” into either heteronomy or autonomy.
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36. For an exposition of this understanding within the framework of Jungian psychology, see Edward F. Edinger, Ego and Archetype (New York: Penguin, 1973), esp. pp. 16–36.
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1. Deut. 26.5–9.
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2. Another compact summary also cited by a previous generation of scholars as early tradition is found in Deut. 6.20–24. Here the context is the instruction of children: “When your children ask you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ Then you shall say to your children, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. God brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that God promised on oath to our ancestors. Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good.’ ”
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3. See the story of the public reading of “the book of the law of Moses” by Ezra in Neh. 8–9. Obviously some stories in the Pentateuch were being told centuries earlier. The eighth-century prophets of Israel and Judah refer to the exodus and the ancestors. See, for example, Amos 2.10, 3.1, 9.7; and Mic. 6.4.
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4. The promise is repeated and amplified in subsequent chapters. In Gen. 15.5, God promises Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars of the heavens; in 17.1–8, God promises to Abraham and his offspring an everlasting covenant and “all the land of Canaan.” (Canaan is the name of the geographical area that eventually became Israel.)
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5. Abraham and Sarah’s inability to have a child is a major theme in Gen. 12–21.
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6. Gen. 25.19–26.
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7. Gen. 29.21–30.24.
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8. Gen. 45.4–5, 7–8.
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9. I owe the phrase “primal narrative” to Walter Brueggemann, The Bible Makes Sense (Atlanta: Knox, 1977), esp. chap. 3. He emphasizes meaning one: “of first importance.”
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10. The connection between “primal” and “archetypal” is suggested by the roots of the latter. Arche means “beginning,” and tupos means “impression” (as in an impression made by a seal in wax, or by a piece of type on a sheet of paper). “Archetype” thus means something imprinted “from the beginning” that recurs again and again; an archetype imprints itself again and again.
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11. Exod. 12.37. That this number is impossibly large is suggested by a number of factors. This may have been more than the population of Egypt at the time. Moreover, such a large group could not possibly have spent an extended period of time in the wilderness (which was mostly desert). Finally, it is probably more than the population of Israel some three hundred years later in the 900s BCE, during the time of the united kingdom under David and Solomon. Rather than reflecting historical fact, the number is the product of the storyteller’s dramatic license.
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12. Exod. 1.8.
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13. Exod. 1.13–14.
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14. The next several paragraphs (up through the call of Moses) are based on Exod. 2–3.
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15. Exod. 2.23–25.
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16. Exod. 3.2.
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17. Abraham had visions (Gen. 15.1–17, 17.1–22, 18.1–15); Jacob saw a flaming ladder connecting heaven and earth and exclaimed, “Truly this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28.10–17).
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18. Exod. 3.7–8, 10.
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19. Exod. 3.14. What does this response mean? Formally, the statement is a tautology in which the second half repeats the first half without supplying any further information. But does that mean the answer says nothing? Or does it mean that God is ineffable, beyond all words? Or, as some scholars suggest, should the phrase be translated “I will be present as I will be present,” thus affirming both divine presence and divine freedom?
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20. Exod. 5.1, 17.
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21. The first nine plagues are narrated in 7.14–10.29. They reflect the dramatization of storytelling. For example, although the fifth plague kills all the livestock of Egypt, there are still livestock alive to be killed in the subsequent plagues of boils and hail. We are also repeatedly told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. On the one hand, this is an explanation of why Pharaoh is not impressed enough by the plagues to let Israel go. On the other hand, it also affirms that even Pharaoh is under the control of Israel’s God. But presumably God never hardens anybody’s heart. The plagues are also referred to in Ps. 78.42–51. There seven are listed: water turned to blood, flies, frogs, caterpillars and locusts, hail and frost, plague (on humans or animals?), and death of the firstborn. Not mentioned are gnats, boils, and thick darkness. Given the difference in genres (a psalm instead of a narrative), not much weight should be given to the variances. It is interesting, though, that the two lists make use of the common biblical numbers ten and seven.
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22. The tenth plague is described in 11.1–9 and 12.29–32. The regulations for Passover are given in 12.1–28.
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23. Exod. 14. The identity of the body of water is unknown. Though older translations refer to it as the Red Sea, the Hebrew phrase means “the sea of reeds,” possibly referring to a shallow and marshy area near the shore of a body of water. Moreover, the story refers both to a strong wind driving the sea back all night long, as might happen to the shallow end of a body of water, and to the sea dividing in the middle. See 14.21–22.
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24. This seems the most natural meaning of the language. Some scholars have suggested that the reference is not to the temple as God’s dwelling place and sanctuary but to the “holy land” as a whole as God’s dwelling place. In any case, the hymn reflects a time considerably later than the events it describes.
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25. Miriam is named in Exodus as Aaron’s sister. In Num. 26.59, she is also spoken of as Moses’ sister. In Mic. 6.4, she, Moses, and Aaron are referred to as the three leaders of the exodus.
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26. The journey to Sinai and God’s provision of guidance, food, and drink in the desert are described in Exod. 16–18. In Num. 11.31–32, we are told that the quails covered the ground to a depth of two cubits (about three feet).
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27. Exod. 19.4–6.
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28. The Ten Commandments are found in Exod. 20.1–17 and Deut. 5.6–21. The Book of the Covenant is found in Exod. 20.22–23.33.
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29. Many of them also have parallels in other ancient Near Eastern law codes. See Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch (New York: Doubleday, 1
992), pp. 200–204.
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30. Respectively: Lev. 19.18, Exod. 21.17, Lev. 11.1–47, Exod. 21.28–36, Lev. 15.16–18.
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31. Deut. 15.1–18.
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32. Lev. 25. A bit of background: When the Israelites settled the land of Canaan, every family was given a plot of agricultural land. Over time, families that ran into difficulties sometimes lost their land because of debt. In the jubilee year, land was to be restored to the original family of ownership. So radical is this law of the Pentateuch that it may never have been observed (with a possible exception in the 400s BCE during the time of Nehemiah).
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33. The story of the golden calf and its sequel is found in Exod. 32–34.
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34. Exod. 34.6–7.
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35. Num. 10.11 reports their departure, and the rest of the book speaks of their years in the wilderness.
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36. The book of Deuteronomy is commonly dated to the 600s BCE. It (or a portion of it) is often identified with a book “discovered” in the temple in Jerusalem in the year 621 BCE, which then served as the basis of reforms of Israel’s life and worship under King Josiah (see II Kings 22–23).
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37. Deut. 34.4.
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38. I owe this useful phrase to John Dominic Crossan. I cannot recall whether he has used it in one of his books, but I have heard him use it in lectures.
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39. Brueggemann, The Bible Makes Sense, pp. 45–46. His commentary on Exodus in The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), pp. 675–981, is superb.
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40. Another five percent are called “retainers,” basically a service class attached to the elites and consisting of the army, government officials, high-ranking servants, scribes, the upper level of the priesthood, and so forth. I have taken this terminology and the information on the typical shape of such societies primarily from Gerhard Lenski, Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966). I have summarized this type of society elsewhere. See, for example, The God We Never Knew, pp. 134–36.
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41. I owe the first two phrases to Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), chap. 1. He uses them to describe life under Pharaoh in the world of Egypt and often refers to this way of structuring society as “royal consciousness.”
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42. Exod. 20.2–3.
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43. Deut. 34.10–12.
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1. Two chapters long: Joel and Haggai; three chapters long: Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah.
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2. For the sake of economy of language, I will refer to the author of Matthew’s gospel as Matthew, even though we are quite certain that Matthew (one of the twelve disciples of Jesus) did not write it (just as we are quite certain that John did not write the gospel that bears his name). Indeed, we are not certain of the names of any of the authors of the gospels. It is reasonably likely that Mark and Luke wrote the gospels bearing their names, however, though there is no consensus about this.
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3. Matt. 1.22–23, quoting Isa. 7.14. I note in passing that Matthew quotes the Greek version of the Old Testament (known as the Septuagint and often abbreviated LXX), not the Hebrew text; and that the Hebrew word in Isa. 7.14 does not mean “virgin” but “young woman.” Of course, I did not know this when I was a child.
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4. Matt. 2.5–6, quoting Mic. 5.2.
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5. Matt. 2.13–15, quoting Hos. 11.1.
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6. While writing this book, I tried to verify this by locating an edition of Halley’s Bible Handbook from the 1940s, but the oldest edition I could find was the twenty-second, published in 1959 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan). In it, fifty-six specific “foreshadowings and predictions” of Jesus as the messiah are cited from the Hebrew Bible; see pp. 354–66. See also pp. 386–87, citing events in the gospels “predicted” in the Hebrew Bible.
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7. Quotations are taken from pp. 354 and 367 of the twenty-second edition (see previous note).
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8. For examples, see my book co-authored with N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), pp. 84–85.
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9. For reasons for this conclusion, see John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1991) pp. 214–16.
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10. The class was taught by Rod Grubb, then a young professor at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Grubb was a remarkable combination of intellectual, political science professor, Lutheran pastor, assistant football coach, and former football player. He later taught at St. Olaf College. I also took a Christian ethics course from him, and it is possible that I encountered Amos in that course and not in his political philosophy course.
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11. Amos 2.6–7. His “inaugural address” (a modern designation, not one from the text) begins in 1.3 and ends in 2.8 or 2.16.
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12. Amos 4.1, 5.11, 8.4.
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13. Amos 6.4–7.
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14. Amos 5.21–24.
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15. Mic. 3.9–12.
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16. Amos 4.1–3.
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17. Hos. 1.6–8. The root of Lo-ruhamah is the Hebrew word for “compassion,” related to the Hebrew word for “womb” and sometimes used in the Bible to speak of the central quality of God’s character. Thus “not pitied” means “not compassioned” or “not treated with the compassion a mother feels toward the children of her womb.” But because these phrases either do not work well in English or are impossibly long, “not pitied” is used.
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18. Isa. 8.1–4, 7.3. Immanuel, another symbolic name associated with Isaiah, has already been mentioned.
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19. Isa. 20. Public nakedness was shocking in that culture. Presumably Isaiah did not walk in this manner continually for three years, but occasionally over a three-year period.
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20. Jer. 19; quoted verse is 19.10.
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21. Jer. 27–28. Hananiah was probably a “court prophet” employed by the king.
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22. I discuss this in more detail in my The God We Never Knew (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), pp. 19–26.
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23. It was not that I had become a wild and free-spirited libertine. If anything, I was too serious and too “good.”
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24. Amos 7.15.
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25. The academic discipline of biblical scholarship that I was then learning did not take these stories seriously either. It was common for biblical scholars to distinguish the classical prophets from prophets outside of Israel by saying that ecstatic religious experience was not characteristic of or important to the former.
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26. They include Isaiah’s dramatic numinous experience of God in the temple (Isa. 6), Amos’s visions (Amos 7.1–9, 9.1), Jeremiah’s call and visions (Jer. 1.4–13, 4.23–26), and Ezekiel’s visions, “possession” by the Spirit of God, and “traveling” in the Spirit (Ezek. 1–3).
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