An outline for the study of Old Testament prophecy, widsom, and worship

Front matter

/In Outline for the Study

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY WISDOM and WORSHIP

\NK SEAY

Preface

The present study is not a treatise about the Bible, but a guide to the study of the Bible itself. It presupposes a desire to know not merely certain passages and proof texts, but the Old Testament as a whole — its contents and its purpose and message in its final form. It is believed that a thorough mastery of these should precede detailed criticism of particular books or sources and questions of authorship and date. The subject matter usually covered under the title of "Introduction to the Old Testament" should be, in this view, not introductory, but a systematic inquiry of a more advanced kind. Such matters are therefore avoided, and the attempt is made to get a view of the Old Testament that will hold, whatever may be one's present or later position on questions of authorship and the like.

The outline here given aims, moreover, to be a stimulus to further study and a preparation therefor. The amount of time devoted to the mastery of the present outline might well be devoted to a single book of the Bible. Especially should the preacher's chief study be his Bible; and unless he is stirred to a more definite and detailed systematic study of particular books and phases of the Old Testament, the present work will have failed in one of its central purposes.

This book is written at the request of the College of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church,

G An Outline of Old Testament

South, for use in the course of study for itinerant and local preachers; but it is hoped that it may be found useful as well for courses in the Old Testament in schools and colleges, for advanced classes in Sunday schools and other organizations, and also to individuals who in private study wish a general survey of the Old Testament by a first-hand study of the Old Testament material itself.

The above is adapted from the Preface to the author's "Outline for the Study of Old Testament History," to which the present work is a companion volume. The two together cover the entire Old Testament, but each is a unity in itself. Gradually it is being felt by scholars that the proper place for beginning the study of the Old Testament is not with the Old Testament history, but with the prophets. It is suggested, therefore, that in college courses and the like the present volume be studied first.

The title, "An Outline for the Study of Old Testament Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship," is not allinclusive, but as a longer statement would be somewhat cumbersome, and as these are the phases of central interest, this title is considered best.

The author has in places followed his "Story of the Old Testament," and frequent repetitions from the "Outline for the Study of Old Testament History" and from earlier sections of the present volume are to be found. Such repetition may mar the literary unity of the work; but it is demanded by the most scientific pedagogy, and the author's purpose is, of course, a pedagogical one. This purpose, indeed, has fashioned many things in the book that to the advanced student may seem illogical and unscientific.

Acknowledgments are hereby made not only to the works quoted and referred to in the footnotes, but to all Old Testament scholars whose works the author has read. Especial thanks are due to Bishop Edwin D. Mouzon and Mrs. Frank Seay for careful reading of the manuscript and valuable suggestions, and to Mr. King Vivion for aid in the verification of references. Frank Seay.

Dallas, Tex., May 24, 1919.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

The present outline is not for easy reading, but for study. In fact, one can hardly master any literature of a different age and clime from one's own without more than a casual reading. Bible stories are serviceable for immature minds, but the maturer student should aim to know the fundamental messages of the Bible itself; critical discussions about the Bible are in order for those who have mastered its contents, but these should be preceded by a familiarity with the Bible text itself, and to that end an outline of some kind is a valuable aid. Therefore:

1. For the best work every one should use a widemargin Revised Version of the Bible. The American Standard rendition is, in spite of some objections frequently made to it, the most accurate English translation of the Old Testament and is therefore recommended.

2. Mark your Bibles (a) by writing in the margins a title for the various paragraphs. It is well to print the main heads and write the subheads. Use either the paragraph headings suggested in the textbook or your own headings, (b) By underscoring passages to which, for any reason, you wish to call attention for later thought, (c) By writing at the bottom or top of the pages other notes or questions for later study.

3. The chapters, sections, and paragraphs are arranged according to the requirements of the subject matter. The chapters are not used for references; for convenience of reference the sections are made continuous throughout the book. The section numbers and headings are in black-faced type, and the pararaphs are marked with the paragraph sign (If). Individual classes and students have different needs and abilities, and the lessons should be arranged to suit each case.

The Biblical material is so large as to furnish almost too much ground for a single course for less advanced students. In such cases, it is suggested that the book might be divided into two shorter courses, one on the prophets and the other on the remainder of the Biblical material used in the book. A judicious instructor may find it wise to shorten his course by omitting certain portions of the study or by sketching some of the material more cursorily. This is especially so with the detail priestly prescriptions. The author has made no suggestions in this regard, because the original purpose of the study as contemplated by the course of study for young Methodist preachers involved a reading of the whole Bible, and because, further, the needs of classes vary so widely that the amount and character of such omissions should be left to the individual instructor.

4. In every Bible passage the student should aim first of all to get the contents. The outline should be taken as a guide to that end. It is not intended to summarize the Bible text, but to lead to a mastery of the text itself. One should aim at a general view, leaving more detailed questions for later study. If, however, these questions persist in the mind, the commentaries may be consulted. Do not follow the outline slavishly. Look for other viewpoints in the Bible passages and learn to get the peculiar message of each to your own mind.

5. Wherever the textbook says "Read" or "Compare," read carefully the passage referred to. It is easy to get into the habit of omitting some because the reference seems familiar or for other reasons. By such omission the student loses much. The rereading of a familiar passage may give one a new point of view, and often the passage is not as familiar as was thought.

6. The book for convenience contains three kinds of footnotes: (a) Stars (*), which are used simply to give references to the books and pages from which passages are quoted; (b) superior figures, which are used for notes of general or pedagogical interest; and (c) letters, to indicate notes of a more advanced or technical kind. This scheme of footnotes enables each reader to pass over such as may not be of immediate interest, and thus obviates the tendency of frequent footnotes to break into the continuity of a passage.

7. Attention is called to the Bibliography in the back of the book for those wishing further study.

Chapter I Amos, The Harbinger Of A New Era And The

PREACHER OF A GOD OF INTERNATIONAL

AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

§ 1. The God of History and of the Nations of Earth.

Amos 1 and 2.

Ifl. Who was Amos and when did he prophesy?

There is a local as well as a national dating. Compare the phrase "two years before the earthquake" with "before the war/' "since the storm/' and the like modern provincial datings. The exact dates are not known. It is sufficient for the present purpose that Amos lived and prophesied during the earlier or the middle period of the eighth century. Takoa was a wilderness country about twelve miles south of Jerusalem. While, therefore, Amos prophesied in Israel, his home was in Judah.

If 2. Amos's arraignment of Israel.

(1) The higher forms of speech and writing come from humble beginnings. The Greek drama grew out of the orgies and festivals of Dionysus, the god of wine and vegetation, and even the plays of Shakespeare are a development from this same source mediated by the dull didactic miracle plays of the

Middle Ages. The modern novel seems, strange to say, hardly more a development from the older romance and poem-story than from the habit of letter-writing. The prophecies of Amos do not form themselves on the same basis as the early Church homily and its descendant, the modern sermon, but on the basis of the ancient oracle -poem. The preaching of Amos would have been an anachronism cast in the mold of the modern sermon. The people were familiar with the primitive priestly and prophetic oracles, and this was the natural form for the message of Amos to take. Picture him at a memorable Israelite feast uttering a series of short oracles against the nations of the ancient world.

Note his diplomatic skill. He begins by condemning those his hearers wished most strongly to see punished — Israel's determined foes: Damascus, the capital of Syria; Gaza of Philistia; Tyre; Edom; Ammon; Moab. After a vague, much -debated reference to Judah, which might make a few wise heads discern the direction of his discourse, the prophet comes home with a stroke as sudden and as telling as Nathan's "Thou art the man." (2 Sam. 12:7.)

With these points in mind read Amos 1:2 to 2:8.

(2) Was the sin of the foreign nations the worship of idols? or cruelty and the violations of principles of social justice? Note that in the case of Ammon not only the cruelty but the motive of the warfare seems to be condemned. What was that motive? Is there in this any especial message for the present world situation? Note that in the case of Moab, at least, a nation is condemned for a crime committed not against Israel but against another foreign people. In view of these facts, is Jehovah to Amos a God of the Hebrews only or of other nations also? Are his dealings with men based upon considerations of favoritism and ritual, or of morality and social justice?

(3) Does the same standard of social justice that applies to the nations apply to Israel as well? What was Israel's sin? Elijah had condemned a king for the murder of a subject and the wanton confiscation of his estate; but Amos goes far beyond this. Burn into your memory the last half of Amos 2:6. The same things that foreign nations had done to Israel and to one another, the richer and more powerful group in Israel had done to the weaker. "God condemns as much the one course as the other," is the prophet's announcement.

Some recent scholars, accentuating the social interest, have tried to make the Old Testament prophets the fathers of democracy. This is only partly the case. The Hebrew prophets seem to have acted upon a theory of the divine right of kings, just as they assume a regime of slavery and just as Abraham and Jacob practiced polygamy. They deemed the king the anointed of Jehovah. The fathers of the theoretical principles of democracy are the Greeks, not the Hebrews. Yet the heart of democracy is sympathy and pity for the poor and oppressed. This, not the Greeks, but the Hebrews championed. Democracy's heart is, perhaps, more important than its head; and Amos's 2 cry for social justice and pity is the heart of democracy, and is, not less than the writings of Plato, the forerunner of the utterances of Woodrow Wilson in 1917-18.

1f3. Why was Israel's sin especially heinous?

The basis of Israel's religion in Amos's view is not merely in the fact that Jehovah is the national God, but is in requirements of gratitude for especial acts of national deliverance. This emphasis is preeminently characteristic of the prophetic viewpoint.

114. What will be the outcome of Israel's sin?

Note the vigorous, terse phrases. Amos always expresses himself like a master.

1} 5. Some scholars think these two chapters were never spoken, but were a written prophetic message; others think they are a collection of short oracles spoken at different times, or contain inserts of oracles composed at different times. In any case, in the form in which they now appear, they constitute an adroit and masterly presentation of a powerful and epoch-making message.

Read the two chapters through again in the light of your study.

§ 2. The Philosophy and Rationale of the Coming Punishment of Israel; The "Hear This Word" Oracles.

Amos 3 to 6.

fl. The setting of the prophecy. (1) Note that, while at recurring intervals in chapters 1 and 2 the phrase "Thus saith Jehovah"

jfl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 19

occurs, in this section the phrase "Hear this word" introduces the several divisions.

Read 3:la ? 4:1a, 5:1a.

(2) An economic revolution had just caused the passing of the older independence of the peasantry with their small holdings and the concentration of wealth into the hands of the few with its consequent luxury.

Read Amos 3:12b and 15, and 5:11.

(3) The popular doctrine is that Israel is Jehovah's people : he has blessed her with prosperity and wealth.

Read 2 Kings 14 : 23 and 25.

"Israel only hath Jehovah known of all the families of the earth," they thought, "and Jehovah will soon crown his present blessings with a coming glorious day." To this popular doctrine Amos opposes a startling message: what is it?

Read Amos 3:2; read also 5:18.

Evidently Amos and the people followed IsraeFs unique relation to Jehovah with different "therefores," and they expected different kinds of days of Jehovah. This contrast explains how startling and revolutionary was his message in chapters 1 and 2.

(4) "If Jehovah is angry with Israel [as, according to the Moabite stone, Chemosh was* with Moab],

*Quoted in the "Outline for the Study of Old Testament History," page 147, from Mercer's "Extra Biblical Sources for Hebrew and Jewish History," page 148. For a key to the different kinds of footnote designations in this volume see the Suggestions to Teachers and Students on pages 9 to 11, paragraph 6. If you have not read these Suggestions carefully, do so now. Indeed, it surely gladsome sacrificial feasts and many offerings would win him over," thought the people; but Amos has no such view.

Read Amos 4:4, 5 and 5:4-6.

Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba were sacred shrines of Israelitish worship.

Tf2. The oracles.

Noting that the three main counts in Amos's indictment of Israel are (a) violence and oppression, (b) dependence on ritual and sacrifices rather than on justice and right as a means of winning God's favor, and (c) luxury and wantonness,

Read Amos 3 to 6.

Consider particularly (a) the prophet's stirring call to righteousness and religion (Amos 5:4-9 and 14, 15), (6) his pronouncement of judgment (3:11-15, 4:6 to 5:3, 5:16-20 and 27), (c) his terse quotable sentences and vivid imagery (3: 2-6 and 12, 5:19, 20). Note also 4:1, of which George Adam Smith* says, "It is a cowherd's rough picture of women: a troop of kine — heavy, heedless animals, trampling in their anxiety for food upon every frail and lowly object in the way. But there is a prophet's insight into character. Not of Jezebels, or Messalinas, or Lady Macbeths is it spoken, but of the ordinary matrons of Samaria. Thoughtlessness and luxury are able to make brutes out of women of gentle nurture, with homes and a religion."

is well to read them frequently in the course of your study.

*The Expositor's Bible, "The Twelve Prophets," Vol. 1, page 148.

§ 3. The Visions and the Controversy.

Amos 7 to 9.

%1, The first two sections of Amos, as has been seen, contain a series of oracles introduced by the phrases 'Thus saith Jehovah' ' and "Hear this word," respectively. Harper* calls the second section "The sermons." By this term he rightly indicates that they are a further departure than chapters 1 and 2 from the primitive poem-oracle in the direction of the sermon. The third section is a series of visions, and as such become the forerunner of another type of prophetic literature to be met later in more developed form in the Apocalypses.

Read Amos 7: la, 4a, and 7a, 8: la; and 9: la, whose different phraseology indicates even more clearly its vision-character, the vision itself being, indeed, of a more developed sort. The vision may be the oldest form of the oracle.

1f 2. What are the contents of the first two visions? What is the third vision and its message? And how does it differ from the other two?

If 3. The controversy with Amaziah, a great moment in history; compared by George Adam Smith to Luther at the Diet of Worms.**

*The International Critical Commentary, "Amos and Hosea," page cxxxii.

**Book previously cited, page 108.

(1) What is Amaziah's charge? Recall that Ahijah had incited a conspiracy against Rehoboam (1 Kings 11:26-31); and that Jehu was urged on by (Elijah), Elisha, and the Rechabites in a conspiracy against Ahab. Amos, however, despite Amaziah's fears, seems to be of a different sort. He is rather an interpreter of what God is doing in history than a fomenter of plots. He calls the nation to repentance and appeals to moral forces.

(2) Who was Amos? What was the nature of his call? And how does he meet Amaziah's charge? Amos, of course, does not mean that his father was not a prophet, but refers to the fact that he was not a member of a prophetic band or guild called "the sons of the prophets." Compare, for an example of the free use of the word "son" in Hebrew, Deuteronomy 34:7, where the original reads: "Moses was the son of a hundred and twenty years when he died."

*} t 4. The fourth vision.

What is the vision and its interpretation? What again are the sins Amos sees in the Israelitish people? And what (note especially verse 11) are the notable features of the doom here pronounced?

If 5. The fifth vision.

(1) Compare especially the visions of Micaiah ben-Imlah (1 Kings 22:19) and of Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-4). Note that even Amos, who attacks the popular worship so strenuously, sees Jehovah "standing by the altar."

Ifl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship, 23

(2) The significant passage in the chapter, and indeed in the whole book of Amos, is verse ?• The Israelites are surfeited with the idea of the favoritism of Jehovah, the God of great deliverances, such as at the Red Sea and in the victory over Sisera. Against this idea Amos propounds severally these doctrines:

(a) God will punish other nations, not for partisan but for moral reasons;

(b) God will expect more of Israel, because she has been especially favored (Amos 3:2);

(c) And here (in this climax of Amos's wider outlook) God leads and cares for other peoples as well as for Israel.

Keep this passage in mind in your further study.

^ 6. The far-flung hope.

Beyond the prophetic arraignments and the judgments predicted there arises and grows in the history of prophecy a hope for a divine event toward which history moves. The presence of this hope, as of the broader outlook referred to in the preceding paragraph, will be observed from time to time. These two aspects of prophetic thought, along with the moral emphasis previously noted, make the development of Israel's religion of prime importance in the history of humanity.

§ 4. Amos and His Times.

If 1. The place of Amos in the history of prophecy in Israel.

The revolt that founded the kingdom of Israel was instigated, according to 1 Kings 11:26-40, by the prophet Ahijah on the ground that foreign worships from Sidon, Moab, and Amnion had corrupted the religion of Judah under Solomon's rule. The socio-political question of taxation and oppression Ahijah does not seen to touch, unless Jeroboam's plea to Rehohoam reflects his ideas also.

Made in a far larger mold than Ahijah was Elijah. His message to Ahab was, like that of Ahijah, a protest against foreign worships, against which he thrust the slogan "Jehovah is the God." Elijah, not less significantly championing the ancestral religion, rebukes a ruthless king for the murder and dispossession of his subject, Naboth.

The movement begun by Elijah resulted in a revolution under Elisha and Jehu and in the overthrow of the foreign Baalism.

Perhaps a landmark in prophetic development is marked by a contemporary of Elijah who never caught the imagination of Israel, but who was nevertheless a great, bold spirit, Micaiah ben-Imlah.* Standing over against the prophetic guilds, he boldly predicts Ahab's defeat before a non-Israelitish foe. He sees Jehovah as enthroned and as bemoaning the shepherdlessness of his people. Compare Mark 6:34.

*"Ben" in Hebrew corresponds to the Scottish "Mac" and means "the son of." The English custom places the word "son" at the end instead of the beginning. It is better to transliterate rather than to translate the term, as it really forms a part of the surname; as, ben-Imlah, McKnight, Mclntyre, Robertson, Williamson, etc.

ffl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 25

Of a rather opposite point of view, it would seem, was Jonah ben-Amittai, the ardent nationalist who predicted the success of the wars of Jeroboam II., and who, like Elisha, may have seemed in his day "the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof/'

Read 2 Kings 14:25.

The same narrower nationalistic viewpoint is attributed to him in the book of Jonah. This question will be considered in connection with the study of that book.

Amos, according to Amos 1:1 also a prophet of Jeroboam's reign, may have represented a reaction from the Jonah group of prophets/ and also a further projection of the ideals of Micaiah ben-Imlah and of Elijah. He sees Jehovah as exalted above the nations and as working out his will by punishing Israel and them, and by caring in some sense for them as he does for Israel. Amos attacks not merely a tyrannical ruler, as Elijah and ben-Imlah had done, but the whole social order. He condemns the entire people as rotten to the core. The grounds of the overhanging judgment he locates in moral conditions of the broadest social kind.

One's estimate of Amos will depend, of course, on one's view of previous Israelite and Oriental history; but under any theory, perhaps, the estimate

a The book of Jonah may well be considered as an account of how the narrower prophet Was through a tragic experience converted to the viewpoint of Amos. Compare §3, f[5 (2). The character of the book of Jonah, however, must be postponed until the book of Jonah is considered.

26 r An Outline of the Old Testament [§4

of Cornill* is not far wrong. "Amos is one of the most marvelous figures in the history of the human mind." He travels a path that all later piophecy follows.

1J2. One of the constant questions amongst students of the prophets is, "Why did Amos of Judah prophesy in Israel?" Some have answered by denying that Amos was from Judah and have tried to locate the Tekoa referred to in the northern kingdom. The facts, however, seem all against this most inherently probable assumption a priori, and favor the view that Amos of Judah, by a prophetic activity in the sister nation of Israel, builded out from the work of Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah ben-Imlah, and Jonah ben-Amittai, and became the founder of the new prophetism.

♦"The Prophets of Israel," Corkran's Translation, page 46.

Chapter II Hose A, The Prophet Of A Forlorn Love

§ 5. The Status of Opinion upon the Interpretation of Kosea.

Ifl. The problem of interpreting the book of Hosea, and especially the first three chapters, is so intricate that it will be well to consider it before reading any part of the Bible text itself. These first three chapters present the story of a, tragic married life — of a wife who was guilty of adultery and harlotry. But here interpreters differ. Some take the story as an allegory or parable or prophetic vision of something that did not happen in fact, but is told by the prophet to picture the true course of Israel's conduct toward Jehovah.

Most modern scholars, however, believe that these chapters recount real happenings; but here again differences arise. Some hold that Hosea married a pure young woman, who afterwards went astray and, it is usually added, broke the prophet's heart. Then, just as Jeremiah and Paul see in their respective "calls" the fulfillment of what God had in mind before their births, so Hosea sees the hand of God in his life from the beginning and feels that Jehovah was enacting in his experience a parable of Israel's apostasy to teach by a prophet's love for a wayward wife how Jehovah loves the wayward and sinful Israel.

Others think that just as Isaiah went barefoot to call attention in a striking way to the coming Captivity, and just as Jeremiah wore a yoke as a symbol of subjection to the hated foreigner, so Hosea feels God's call to marry a woman who is already a notorious harlot in order by so unusual a course to call attention to Israel's conduct more forcibly than could be done even by the most vivid imagery in utterance or writing.

Strong arguments can be urged for any of these views, and one should not put any of them permanently aside without a careful consideration of the arguments. As, however, in such a network of possibilities the first requisite is to get some consistent view, the following one is presented. It is not in any way offered as a final solution of the problems involved, but as one that will serve until the student can by further study reach his own conclusions.*

%2. It is customary to divide the book of Hosea more or less roughly into two sections: First, chapters 1-3, the story of the prophet's married life; and, secondly, chapters 4-14, the prophetic sermons. This is hardly adequate. The book seems to center roughly around not one but two figures — it is an ellipse, not a circle. Chapters 1-10 are dominated by the figure of a wayward wife; chapters 11-14 (or 11-13, if chapter 14 be a conclusion applicable

*For other interpretations see the pertinent passage in J. M. P. Smith's "The Prophet and His Problems," and the Commentaries of Harper, Pusey, and George Adam Smith.

to both sections) are dominated by a sort of parable of a prodigal son. The first section is in two divisions, the story (1-3) and the sermons (4-10).

If 3. It is worth noting in passing that the first section of Hosea presents a new literary form. a It is not a series of oracles, like the first chapters of Amos; nor a series of visions, like the last chapters; nor yet an independent discourse or discourses, like the middle section of that book. It is rather a story (be it parable or fact) and a series of sermons and applications based thereon. This form needs to be kept in mind, as it will be of interest in comparison with other books to be studied later.

§ 6. The Book and Its Message.

«[ 1. The first division of the first section of Hosea.

(1) Since Hosea 1:2 is in the third person and 3:1 is in the first, it is not impossible that they refer to the same event and that the editorial superscription of the book b is not merely verse 1, but verses 1 and 2. The superscription tells, then, not only, as in the case of Amos, the date of the prophecies, but also the central fact of the author's prophetic activity.

a This new literary form grows very naturally, of

course, out of the prophetic oracle-vision. The prophet or seer sees a vision and then gives his interpretation. Compare Amos 7 to 9.

bDetails cannot be given here because of the limits and character of the present work. Suffice it to say that there are difficulties under any theory.

(2) Next comes the story of Hosea's marriage to Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and of the birth of their three children.

Some interpreters think that by the time of the birth of the second child Hosea suspects the virtue of Gomer and that he names the child "Unpitied" — that is, "without a father's pity/' in view of that suspicion. This seems unnecessary here or even after he has named the third child "No-kin-ofmine," since the prophet names his children to enforce his prophetic messages, as is shown in the naming of the first child "Jezreel." "No-kin-ofmine" would therefore merely convey the message that Jehovah renounces kinship with Israel.

Without making the situation too modern and without in any way justifying Gomer, it is not at all impossible that the beginning of the misunderstanding between Gomer and Hosea may have been when the prophet's serious mind thus named his child. One might compare the prosaic, matter-offact way John Wesley courted, by asking his classmeetings whether they thought the married or the single life preferable for him, while another man walks off with his sweetheart, or even how oblivious he was, after his marriage, to what some one calls "the little things that go to make up the chain of a woman's happiness." Prophets, in other words, do not always make the best husbands.