Israelite history from about 1200 to 1000 BC is marked by the leadership of the Twelve Judges. The Book of Judges does not give a chronological account of the time between the settlement of Canaan and the rise of the monarchy, but instead tells a series of short accounts of the Judge’s accomplishments. The Twelve Judges served the Hebrew people as tribal leaders, military leaders, arbiters of disputes, and enliveners of faith. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites fell into a cycle of sin, calamity, repentance, and deliverance. The Judges emerged when the Israelites began to fall away from their core religious beliefs by worshipping false Gods. Each time that happened, God sent a Judge to save the Israelites from destruction.
One of the most prominent Judges was Deborah. Her story was chronicled in the Canticle, or Song, of Deborah. The Canticle of Deborah was written down during the 12th Century BC, and it might be the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry ever recorded. Deborah is the only female Judge of the Twelve, and she is portrayed as a strong, confident, capable woman. She was commanded by God to launch a war against the Canaanites because of their aggressive attack and pillage of Israel. After leading the Israelite army to victory, Deborah broke into a victory hymn celebrating her victory against the Canaanites.
The Canticle of Deborah
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begins in Verse 2 by praising God for delivering the people who rallied to Israel’s support and helped in the days of trouble and affliction. This gave the future Israelites an example of bravery and faith to follow, and reminded them of God’s forgiveness. God could have let them suffer under the Canaanites, but instead he brought people together who could save Israel. In spite of the praise offered to those who helped save Israel, the real glory for the victory went to God. It was He who intervened and saved His people from the oppression under which they were suffering . This conveys the message that God is always the most deserving of praise because of His everlasting forgiveness. Next, in Verse 4, the song says that “earth trembled, heaven quaked.” Storms and earthquakes are part of the traditional image of theophany, which is a manifestation of God to humankind. This sends the message that God was and is present, helping His people through their struggles. After that, in Verse 6, the canticle tells about the plight of the Israelites before Deborah was sent by God, which impresses upon the reader the seriousness of sin and rebellion against God, even though he is always merciful and forgiving. Verses 9 and 10 repeat the message of praising God for his forgiveness and kindness in helping the Israelites get free from sin and darkness. Overall, this section from The Canticle of Deborah supports the theme of God’s forgiveness. This is relevant in today’s society because humankind is currently trapped in a cycle of sin.
Many people are straying from the path of God and falling prey to temptation. This passage from the Book of Judges reminds us of the seriousness of our sins, despite the fact that God is very merciful and forgiving. In addition, the passage also reminds us that even though God often works through humans, He is the one who deserves the praise from us. In conclusion, The Canticle of Deborah preaches a message of the magnitude of God’s forgiveness, while also reminding us of the seriousness of our sins and rebellions against
God.
Noah and Utnapishtim both were told to do something similar by their God or gods. The two differences that I noticed the most between these two texts include; the duration of the flood and the landing spot of the ark. In both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible a person is approached and told to abandon the possessions they have and to build an ark. Noah is approached by God and told to build an ark. Utnapishtim had a different experience. He was told of what to do through a dream that was caused by one of the gods. Another similarity is the way that Noah and Utnapishtim were told about the ark was that they both were given specific measurement of how to build the ark.
The Sumero-Babylonian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, after two and a half millennia of dormancy, was resurrected by British archaeologists in the nineteenth century. Amid the rubble of an Assyrian palace, the twelve clay tablets inscribed the adventures of the first hero of world literature – King Gilgamesh, whose oral folk tales go back to at least 3000 years before Christ (Harris 1). Tablet XI contains the story of the Flood. In this essay let us compare this flood account to the more recent Noah’s Flood account in Genesis of the Old Testament.
Guilt is a powerful force in humans. It can be the factor that alters someone's life. On the other hand, forgiveness can be just as powerful. In The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, her characters-the Price family-travel to Africa on a religious mission. Throughout the novel, the concept of guilt and forgiveness is reflected on multiple occasions. Each character has a different experience with guilt and how it affects them in the end. By structuring The Poisonwood Bible to include five different narrators, Kingsolver highlights the unique guilt and forgiveness to each individual experiences as well expresses the similarities that all humans face with these complex emotions.
In both The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicity and Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, the women in the stories are using scripture to explain and justify the claims they make about their faith and the faith of others. They do this by sharing stories about their life and events in their lives to show how the spirit has been moved into them. Both texts describe how these women see themselves as readers of the Bible, what religious authority each is claiming, and what new social reality each woman is arguing that is in keeping of God’s will for human beings.
The overall theme from Judges is that of disobedience on behalf of the Israelites and the consequences from God that follow, which carries on into 1 Samuel. One particular instance of disobedience lies in Judges 1:27-2:3. In this excerpt, the Israelites disobey God by not totally annihilating the Canaanites as they are spreading out to conquer the land and God punishes them for their disobedience. The consequences for their failure to carry out God’s command are made known to them when a messenger from heaven delivers God’s verdict in Judges 2:1-3. God declares that since they have not completely killed or driven out the Canaanites, the Canaanites “shall
This essay has reviewed the literary elements included in the narrative of David and Bathsheba. These include the development of characters, the plot, and setting the narrative. The story of David and Bathsheba uncovers the sinful nature of man and how it causes destruction in people’s lives. David may have been a man after the heart of God, but he failed when he committed adultery and murder. The story continues to show true repentance is always forgiven by God. Christians can learn from this narrative to seek the will of God and depend on the Holy Spirit to stay away from sin. When sin does occur, the person is to confess it to the Lord and is then forgiven. The narrative also demonstrated God is always in control and His will is always accomplished.
The book of Judges is the sequel to Joshua. It is the seventh book of the Old Testament. It recounts stories and events from the death of the hebrew leader and prophet Joshua to the birth of the hebrew Samuel. That is roughly, from the end of the Israelite conquest of Canan in the 13th Century B.C to the begining of the monarchy in the 11 th century B.C. It tells about the hebrews from Joshua’s Death to the time of Samuel. It was written in about 550 BC, on tablets named the Ras Shamra tablets. The Ras Shamra tablets where later discovered in the early 20th Century, even though the stories and acountings of the judges where already known and written. The book of Judges belongs to a specific historical tradition which is called the Deuteronomic history. The author of the book of Judges, was in exile in Babylonia. While in exile he was deeply concerned with foreign domination. So he wrote many of his stories on the migration of the tribe of Dan to the North and the sins of the Benjamites. The author emphasized that Israel was being influenced by foreign powers and the loss of freedom and prosperity. Recurring throughout the book is the stereotyped formula: "The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord." Then after each period or subjection the author introduces another formula: " But when the people of Israel cried the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people. Through-out the book, the book of judges tells about prophets, rulers and influencial people such as: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tilian and Samson. There are also many more minor people.
A Treasure from Judges, by Dr. Rod Mattoon is a very practical, powerful and discerning book. This book is an expositional verse by verse commentary with an emphasis on practical application for everyday living. The outlines in the book aid in the presentation of the material as well as the understanding of the book of Judges. The book is filled with sermon illustrations that go along with the bible text as well as an illustration index at the back. Each study in the book has an interesting, easy to understand word studies from the Greek and Hebrew language. These studies help bring out truth and insight from the scripture. Treasures from Judges contains topical and character trait studies that pertain to each passage along with a subject
Righteousness is often defined as a trait for one whose actions reflect what is morally correct which classifies them as the ideal or ‘perfect’ person. According to Genesis, though, being righteous correlates to your relationship with and loyalty to God rather than being the ideal or ‘perfect’ person. This is clearly presented through the personalities and actions of Noah and Abram as they both hold a direct relationship with God and continually prove their complete and utter loyalty to their Lord.
After reading Timothy Noah’s work, The Great Divergence, I am able to adequately analyze the content of the text and describe what the book meant to me while reading it. I would describe this book as informative, interesting, and simplistic. Noah conveys his message in a way that is easy to understand while supplying the reader with many facts about The Great Divergence, what Noah describes as the increase in wealth separation between the top one percent and the rest of the population. I described this work simplistic because Noah formatted the reading in a way that made it very easy to follow and absorb outside sources. For example, Noah described an American’s mood during the 1920’s bull market, “…he could envision an America set free, not from graft, nor from crime…,” by using a source from another author (pg 15). In that case, it was Frederick Lewis Allen, and he set the excerpt apart from the rest of the text by decreasing the text size and justifying the new margins. This
Holy Bible: Contemporary English Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1995. Print. (BS195 .C66 1995)
The roles of Noah and Utnapishtim in the Flood Myths are quite similar. There are several differences regarding the two flood myths, but the general idea behind the two remains consistent. In the Mesopotamian Flood Myth, the Gods were overwhelmed by the amount of humans that existed on Earth and were unable to sleep due to the noise of men. So they decided to "exterminate mankind." While in the Hebrew story of Noah and the Flood Myth, God grew tired of the evil that had plagued mankind and engulfed the earth. So God decided to start the world over to undue the mistakes of man. Both of these stories display an attempt by the Gods to start the world over to cleanse the earth. Both Utnapishtim and Noah were spoken to by Gods and asked to build large boats from which all who were to be spared would seek shelter during the storm. Both men were allowed to spare the lives of their family via the safety of the boats. Also, the method used by the Gods in these myths are the same, the skies would rain down upon the earth flooding the land and killing all who were not ordered onto the boats.
Noah, reputably known as the builder of the Ark, the 1st wine drinker and the 10th and final of the Antediluvian Patriarchs. Not much is known about Noah origins other than his age which was said to be roughly 500 years old when 1st mentioned in Genesis 5:32. It is said that Noah was a blameless man that walked with God, but due to his righteousness he was disliked by his fellow man. After the great flood, God promised to Noah that never again would the he destroy all life on Earth using a flood also known as the Noahic covenant. Noah later became a husbandman, or small landowner, which is below that of a yeoman. There he planted a vineyard and eventually created wine. This led to Noah becoming a drunk and passing out in the nude. Noah’s son Ham happened upon Noah and told his brethren of the ordeal. Noah blamed Ham for his embarrassment and cursed Ham’s son, Canaan. The curse of Ham was that Canaan would be a servant under his uncle, Shem. It is said that Noah died at the ripe old age of 950 years old, nearly 350 years after the floods told about within Genesis. He ...
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Rev. ed. Edited by Chad Brand. Nashville, TN: Holman, 2003. S.v. “redemption.”
Movies and books such as The Da Vinci Code that carry themes that are directly related to the Bible are going to face criticism, especially when the themes within them display controversial information that undermines how Christians and the Church understand the Bible. The Da Vinci Code explores a conspiracy about the Vatican and Jesus, and director Ron Howard displays on screen what author Dan Brown presented as historical truth in his novel. Much like Brown, director Darren Aronofsky presented his 2014 film Noah to be a truthful account of the famous Biblical story, but in reality rewrote the story to be what many argue is an “anti-biblical” representation of the true story of “Noah’s