The Nine Commandments: Uncovering the Hidden Pattern of Crime and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible - Hardcover

Freedman, David Noel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385499868 ISBN 13: 9780385499866

Publisher: Doubleday, 2000

Synopsis

In a book certain to be as controversial as Harold Bloom's The Book of J and Elaine Pagels's The Gnostic Gospels, David Noel Freedman delves into the Old Testament and reveals a pattern of defiance of the Covenant with God that inexorably led to the downfall of the nation of Israel, the destruction of the Temple, and the banishment of survivors from the Promised Land. Book by book, from Exodus to Kings, Freedman charts the violation of the first nine Commandments one by one-from the sin of apostasy (the worship of the golden calf, Exodus 32) to murder (the death of a concubine, Judges, 19:25-26) to false testimony (Jezebel's charges against her neighbor, Naboth, I Kings 21). Because covetousness, Freedman shows, lies behind all the crimes committed, each act implicitly breaks the Tenth Commandment as well.

In a powerful and persuasive argument, Freedman asserts that this hidden trail of sins betrays the hand of a master editor, who skillfully wove into Israel's history a message to a community in their Babylonian exile that their fate is not the result of God's abandoning them, but a consequence of their abandonment of God. With wit and insight, The Nine Commandments boldly challenges previous scholarship and conventional beliefs.

David Noel Freedman has been General Editor and a contributing coauthor of the Anchor Bible series since its inception in 1956. He is a professor in Hebrew Bible at the University of California, San Diego, and lives in La Jolla, California.

About this title

About the Author

DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN has been General Editor and a contributing coauthor of the distinguished Anchor Bible series since its inception in 1956. He is currently a professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of California, San Diego, and lives in nearby La Jolla.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Advance Praise for The Nine Commandments

"David Noel Freedman is one of the most insightful, provocative and original biblical scholars of his generation. Where so many other scholars delight in taking the Bible apart, in this book, as in others, Freedman focuses on putting it together-what lay behind the master editor who compiled the Primary History of Israel, from Genesis through Kings? What secrets did he bury, book by book, that tied the whole together and underlined its theme of disobedience to God's commands, leading ultimately to exile? Whether this great unifying scheme was intentional may be debatable, but no one can deny that the pattern Freedman found is there. And only a profound scholar like Freedman could have found it, lying undiscovered for two thousand years."
--Hershel Shanks, editor, Biblical Archaeology Society

"When you get tired of wild claims on one hand, and unexciting introductory comments that every scholar knows, on the other, then you're ready for this book. It is real scholarship: the case is argued, the evidence is presented for us to see for ourselves, and it shows us something new. This is something that has been there for over two millennia, but no one saw it until now. While many books about the Bible show us the trees, this book shows us the forest. It shows how remarkably connected a huge group of the Bible's books are. What's more, it shows that the Commandments are not just stated in the Bible. They make a difference in the lives of people in the Bible's stories(and, by obvious implication, in our lives as well."
--Professor Richard Elliott Friedman, author of Who Wrote the Bible?

"This book, written by a great biblical scholar and editor, is yet pitched for a popular audience. It is simply and eloquently written, but as with all of David Noel Freedman's work, it is charming and imaginative, full of detailed insights. His thesis is bold and may not convince all; but it is a delight to follow his brilliant pursuit and defense of his hypothesis."
--Frank Moore Cross, professor emeritus, Harvard University

Reviews

This book is the rare example of a scholar who manages to say something newAnew!Ain an utterly accessible and engaging book about the Bible. Freedman, the general editor of the Anchor Bible series, argues for a pattern of disobedience throughout the Old Testament: God gave the Ten Commandments, and then one by one, the Israelites broke them. Israelites broke the first two commandments ("You shall have no other gods before me" and "You shall not make for yourself an idol") by worshiping a golden calf instead of God. They subsequently took the Lord's name in vain, broke the Sabbath, shamed their parents, committed adultery and murder, and stole. The tenth commandmentA"You shall not covet"Alies at the heart, Freedman asserts, of the other nine; although it is never broken by itself, it is, in a sense, broken nine times. In other words, Achan stole because he coveted someone else's property (Joshua 7); David committed adultery because he coveted another's wife. Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel failed to uphold their half of their covenant with God. The "scarlet thread of commandment violations" ends with the exile of Israel. God, Freedman suggests in an important argument, did not abandon Israel; Israel abandoned him and his laws, and God responded. In the tradition of Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg and Robert Alter, Freedman merges two styles of biblical study, exploring the Bible both as theological text and as a work of literature. Freedman has produced a riveting book that will fundamentally change the way readers understand the Old Testament. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Freedman's literary-historical argument for a single editor of what he calls the "Primary History" of the Hebrew Bible--the nine books from Exodus to Kings--should appeal to a large audience. He makes an engaging and plausible case for correspondence between the arrangement of the books and the commandments of the Decalogue. In this view, the first nine commandments are represented, one per book, according to the order found in Jeremiah. Freedman maintains that the pattern of the biblical narrative corresponding to the order of the Decalogue in Jeremiah suggests that Jeremiah's scribe Baruch edited the Primary History. Also, in this interpretation the tenth commandment, focused on covetousness, becomes a "supplement" that "presents the motivations behind the crimes, especially for violations of commandments six through nine." Whether convinced or not, readers will find Freedman's discussion engaging and accessible and his framework one that forms an effective narrative for introducing Hebrew Scripture and its cultural setting. Steven Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The First & Second Commandments

You shall have no other gods before me

You shall not make for yourself an idol

The first two of the Ten Commandments, like many of the others, are the subject of extensive discussion and debate among scholars. The aforementioned numbering problems (is this commandment one, two, or one and two?) have only been part of the controversy. Some of the most interesting discussions surround what it means to have no other gods before Yahweh. Does this mean that other deities could be tolerated as long as Yahweh was given priority (a belief system known as henotheism)? Or, while acknowledging there are other gods, is this a demand that Israel worship only Yahweh (a belief system known as monolatry)? Or are we to understand this command the way it has been traditionally understood, as denying the existence of all other gods except Yahweh (a belief system known as monotheism)?

While the traditional approach is often assumed to be the correct one, cross-cultural comparisons, as well as closer scrutiny of certain biblical passages, have called this understanding into question.

Whether we look at the religions of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, or even Canaan, we find many gods being worshiped. Even though an individual city or nation might have its chief deity, the cultures of the ancient Near East recognized and gave homage to a wide assortment of gods and goddesses. For example, Assyria's chief deity, and the one from whom the nation and capital derived its name, was Ashur. Nevertheless, Assyrian religion acknowledged a whole pantheon of deities and, on occasion, even incorporated new deities into their pantheon from their contact with (usually via conquest of) other nations. In light of this practice, could Yahweh be to Israel what Ashur was to Assyria--the "top god," but not the only god? And if so, did Yahweh always hold this position of priority in Israelite religion?

Did Israel Ever Have Other Gods Before Yahweh?

In a chance discovery in 1928, a Syrian farmer exposed an ancient tomb while plowing a field. What followed was the unearthing of a once bustling coastal city-state known in ancient times as Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra). Within the palace complex at Ugarit there was discovered a collection of sacred writings that give us a unique look into Canaanite religion and society of the fourteen and thirteen centuries b.c.e. While we already had glimpses of Canaanite culture from descriptions in the Bible (usually in the form of condemnatory remarks), the texts from Ugarit give us the perspective of the "other guys." These texts show that although only a small number of gods play an active role in their mythologies, god-lists found at Ugarit demonstrate that literally hundreds of gods were imagined to exist. With this in view, the first of the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, if we are to interpret it as forbidding the acknowledgment or worship of any other god except Yahweh, would certainly go against the grain of what seems normative for the Canaanite culture that surrounded Israel. Yet, the texts from Ugarit, while giving us greater insight into ancient Canaanite religion, might shed light on the development of ancient Israelite religion as well.

Do Gods Grow Old and Retire?

A motif found in the mythological texts at Ugarit, as well as in other mythologies of the ancient Near East, is that of the senior, retiring god, who, while maintaining his formal position of authority, is largely displaced or, in some cases, completely supplanted by a younger, more energetic and active god. For example, at Ugarit, the senior god, El, usually serves as a backdrop for the exploits of the younger Canaanite storm-god, Baal. When the Canaanite pantheon is threatened by the deified Sea (Yamm) and later by Death (Mot), it is the self-asserting Baal who comes to the rescue. Similar scenarios are attested in the mythologies of ancient Mesopotamia. Both Marduk in Babylon and Ashur in Assyria gradually replace the Sumerian god Enlil as the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon. In Greece, Zeus, who, like Baal, is a storm-god, replaces the older Kronos. The reason for this "changing of the god" seems, in most cases, to be tied to changing political or social configurations within a region. For example, when a people or nation gained supremacy over another people or nation, so did their representative deity. In turn, these changes were reflected in the popular mythology. Thus, when Babylon gained control over all of Mesopotamia, Marduk became the chief hero of the Mesopotamian creation story, as well as the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon.

Some scholars have suggested that a parallel phenomenon may have occurred in the development of Israelite religion, that Yahweh in Israel, like Marduk in Babylon, eventually displaced an "older" regional god, in this case, the Canaanite god El. These scholars argue that while we would not expect to find a myth in the Bible explaining how Yahweh rose to eminence over an older, retiring god, since the prevailing monotheism of later (and perhaps earlier) periods would have seen to it that such a narrative did not make it into Israel's sacred text, there appear to be remnants in the biblical traditions that such a usurpation may have occurred.

What's in a Name?

Biblical epithets for the God of the Patriarchs include El Elyon (God Most High), El Olam (Eternal God) and El Shaddai (usually translated as God Almighty), among others. This would be expected from a people living in Canaan, since, as we have already observed, El was the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon. Yet, this very observation requires us to reconsider the translation of the above names. "El" is usually understood, at least in nearly all translations of the Bible, as a generic name for "God." Thus, El Shaddai is rendered as "God Almighty." However, the evidence from Ugarit suggests that the El of biblical tradition could be understood as a personal name for God. Thus, El Shaddai could be translated as "El the Almighty." Yet, is there any evidence in the Bible that El should be understood as the personal name of a deity rather than simply the generic word for "God"? And if so, should this be understood as representing an earlier phase in Israelite religion where El was the chief deity prior to the emergence of a deity named Yahweh? Let's look at the evidence.

God's Name Change

First of all, while the name Yahweh is used throughout Genesis, a passage in Exodus seems to indicate that its occurrence in these earlier narratives is anachronistic. In Exodus 6:3, Yahweh informs Moses,

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.

Yet, a cursory perusal of the patriarchal narratives shows that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all use the epithet Yahweh. In what sense, then, was the name Yahweh not known to the patriarchs?

It was such a question, along with others, that led scholars to postulate that different sources were used in constructing the "five books of Moses," at least one of which preserved a tradition that the name Yahweh did not come into use in ancient Israel until the time of Moses. Adding support to this theory was the observation that when the narrative strands employing different divine names are separated, many of the so-called "doublets" (stories that are very similar to one another) separate as well. For example, there are two narratives recounting the naming of Isaac. In one, Genesis 17, the divine names used are Elohim, the generic name for God, and El Shaddai. In the other, Genesis 18, only the name Yahweh is used.

The narrative strand that uses the divine name Elohim was referred to by these early scholars as "E." Similarly, the strand that employs the divine name Yahweh was called "J" (from the German Jahweh, as the theory was largely developed in Germany). Yet, it was soon discovered that within "E" there were still more doublets and stylistic differences. Because a group of these texts seemed particularly interested in priestly matters (proper sacrifice, ritual law, etc.), it was called the "Priestly" source, or "P." What was left over retained the designation "E."

Although the discovery of these sources had many stages and included the contributions of numerous scholars, the most complete and compelling presentation was given by a German scholar named Julius Wellhausen, and it is therefore sometimes referred to as the Wellhausian theory, although it is more often called the Documentary Hypothesis or the JEDP theory (D for Deuteronomist, an independent composition consisting of the book of Deuteronomy). While the Documentary Hypothesis is not without its dissenters, it has become the prevailing model within biblical scholarship for understanding the composition of the Torah.

The Worship of "Other Gods" in Ancient Israel

Regardless of whether Yahweh displaced an older and retiring El in the development of Israelite religion, that Israel worshiped more than one god is well attested in the Bible itself, even though the behavior is almost always mentioned only to condemn it. Examples of such judgments against worshiping other gods, like the following from Jeremiah, could be multiplied, quite literally, a hundred times over. In Jeremiah 11:10 Yahweh declares,

They (the nations of Israel and Judah) have returned to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.

Elsewhere in Jeremiah, Yahweh remarks disparagingly,

And where are your gods that you have made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble, for according to the number of your cities, so are your gods, O Judah. Jeremiah 2:28

The worship of many gods was clear...

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385499868
• ISBN 13: 9780385499866
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240