User:AL2015/sandbox

I would place this section on the page Epic of Gilgamesh under Later Influences in the Garden of Eden section.

Similar to Enkidu, the man and the women realize they are naked after eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and cover themselves with fig leaves.

User:AL2015, your edit is pretty straight forward and a valid point. Good work!

Wife-sister narrative
Coat's argues about the value of genre definition and the intention of each the stories. In the Wife-sister narratives in the Book of Genesis:

The three wife-sister narratives are all related to each other in some way sharing common content, structure and genre for communicating the content. In all three stories a promise for progeny is not a factor in the content and the structure rather the narratives have a focus on blessing.

Mendenhall Outline

 * 1.	Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition
 * a.	Covenant idea must have been a much later development of religious thought
 * b.	Covenant relationship between Israel and Yahweh is not merely a stage in the history of religious concepts, but was an event which had a definite historical setting and historical consequences
 * c.	Difficulties:
 * i.	Arriving at any concept of a covenant which would bind together the tribes and also form a foundation for the normative conception that in this event Yahweh become the God of Israel
 * ii.	Origin of that sense of law and justice, morality and ethic
 * iii.	Israelite monotheism in contrast to the polytheisms of ancient cultures
 * d.	The Nature of Covenant
 * i.	Beginnings of law most closely connected with religion- oaths
 * 1.	Makes the promise binding
 * ii.	International covenants developed a specialized form of their own in Babylonia and Assyria
 * iii.	Comparing Hittite and biblical material becomes less so when:
 * 1.	It seems certain that the Hittites themselves did not originate the covenant form- Borrowed form from the East, Mesopotamian sources
 * 2.	Many of these covenants were made with people of Syria itself
 * 3.	Independent parallels between the Hittite and biblical materials have already been pointed out
 * iv.	Suzerainty Treaty:
 * 1.	Establish a firm relationship of mutual support between two parties
 * 2.	Unilateral
 * 3.	Stipulations of the treaty are binding only upon the vassal and only the vassal took an oath of obedience
 * 4.	Vassals obligation to trust in the benevolence of the sovereign
 * v.	Any historical or legal traditions in the bible which can be identified as preserving the text of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel
 * 1.	Books of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Joshua directly connected with this legal tradition
 * e.	The Structure of the Covenant
 * i.	Covenant was designated by a phrase which would be translated as “oaths and bonds”
 * ii.	Six elements found Hittite treaty texts:
 * 1.	Preamble
 * 2.	The historical prologue
 * 3.	The stipulations
 * 4.	Provision for deposit in the temple and periodic public reading
 * 5.	The list of gods as witnesses
 * 6.	The curses and blessings formula
 * f.	Other Factors in the Covenant
 * i.	9 different elements involved in covenant relationship familiar throughout the Mediterranean coastal lands in the period before the time of Moses
 * ii.	Home of this form is in the second millennium B.C. and cannot be proven outside Israel to have survived elsewhere
 * g.	Covenant Forms in Israel
 * i.	Decalogue
 * ii.	Several facts about early history of Israel are well accepted:
 * iii.	Why Israelites federation has such a lasting influence, while others evidently fell apart in a short time
 * 1.	Formation of the covenant community and even more in the content of the covenant itself
 * 2.	Israelites did not bind themselves by oath to obey Moses as their leader instead they were bound to obey certain stipulation by Yahweh
 * 3.	Moses seen as a messenger- not a party of the covenant
 * iv.	No curse and blessing formula in the Decalogue itself
 * h.	The Covenant of Joshua 24
 * i.	Discontinuity between the generation of Moses and that of Joshua
 * ii.	New covenant formed that which became the basis of the federation of tribes
 * iii.	No indication that it was a continuation of the Mosaic covenant
 * i.	The Breakdown of the Covenant Form
 * i.	Demand for a king
 * ii.	Separation of the historical and legal traditions
 * iii.	Prophets of the 8th century messages were in harmony with basic structure of the Mosaic covenant
 * j.	The Rediscovery of Moses
 * i.	Moses was rediscovered after been dormant for nearly three and a half centuries
 * ii.	The covenant of Moses had to be harmonized with the covenant of Abraham
 * iii.	Great emphasis placed on the divine forgiveness
 * iv.	Foundation of the New Covenant by Jeremiah

Weinfeld Outline

 * 1.	The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East
 * a.	Two types of covenants in the Old Testament:
 * i.	Obligatory type reflected in the Sinai covenant (God and Israel)
 * 1.	 Treaty patterns prevalent in the ancient Near East
 * ii.	Promissory type reflected in the covenants with Abraham and David
 * 1.	“Royal grant”
 * 2.	Gifts of land (Abraham) and dynasty (David)
 * 3.	 Gifts to Individuals who excelled in loyally serving masters
 * b.	Two types of official judicial documents had been diffused in the Mesopotamian cultural sphere from middle of 2nd millennium onwards
 * i.	Political treaty (Hittite empire)
 * 1.	Obligation of the vassal to his master
 * 2.	Curse directed towards vassal who will violate the rights of his king
 * 3.	Protect rights of master
 * 4.	Future loyalty
 * ii.	Royal grant (Babylonian kudurru documents)
 * 1.	Obligation of the master to his servant
 * 2.	Curse directed to one who violates rights of the kings vassals
 * 3.	Protect rights of the servant
 * 4.	Reward for loyalty and good deeds already performed
 * iii.	Both contain: historical introduction, border delineations, stipulations, witnesses, blessings and curses
 * c.	Parallel with Assyrian grants
 * d.	Correspondence between the deuteronomic literature and the Neo-Assyrian documents is very noticeable in the description of the benevolence of God towards the Patriarchs and towards David
 * e.	In the more developed and therefore more reflective sources like P and D one can find a certain distinction between the term for grant and the term for treaty
 * f.	Not fulfilling the commandments of God is considered violation of the covenant also by the Priestly author, but the covenant in this case is not the sworn obligation of the vassal, which is never alluded to in      P, but the solemn promise of God to establish a steadfast relationship with the people
 * g. Legal formula expressing the gift of land to Abraham are identical with the legal formula of conveyance of property in the ancient Near East
 * h. The Covenant with Abraham and the Covenant with David are based on a common pattern and their literary formulation may have thesame historical and literary antecedents
 * i. The grants to Abraham,Caleb, David, Aaron and the Levites have muchin common with the grants from Alalah, Nuzi, theHittites, Ugarit, and Middle-Babylonian kudurru's
 * Mainly in documents from the second half of the second millennium B.C
 * This fact and the possible link of the mentioned Israelite grants to Hebron, the first capital of David's kingdom, may lead us to the contention that it was Davidic scribes who stood behind the formulation of the Covenant of grant in Israel

=Mendenhall Paragraph- Formation of Covenant Community=

According to Mendenhall, the covenant was not just an idea, but actually an historical event. This event was the formation of the covenant community. Wandering the desert, the clans left Egypt following Moses. These people were all of different backgrounds, containing no status in any social community. With all these circumstances they formed their own community by a covenant whose texts turned into the Decalogue. The Israelite's did not bind themselves to Moses as their leader though and Moses was not a part of the covenant. Moses was just seen as a historical figure of some type sent as a messenger. The Israelite's followed the form of the suzerainty treaty and were bound to obey stipulations that were set by Yahweh, not Moses.

Weinfeld Paragraph- The Covenant With Abraham in Gen. XV
According to Weinfeld, the Abraham covenant represents a covenant of grant, which binds the suzerain. It is the obligation of the master to his servant and involves gifts given to individuals who were loyal serving their masters. In the covenant with Abraham, Abraham is promised land because he obeyed God and followed his directions. In the covenant with Abraham in Genesis XV, it is God who is the suzerain who commits himself and swears to keep the promise. In the covenant there are procedures of taking the oath, which involve a smoking oven and a blazing torch. There are many similarities between Genesis XV and the Abba-El deed. Genesis XV and similarly in the Abba-El deed it is the superior party who places himself under oath. Also the oaths in both involve a situation where the inferior party is delivering the animals while the superior swears the oath. The Abraham covenant is part of a tradition of covenantal sacrifices, which dates back to the third millennium B.C. The animals that are slaughtered in the covenant in Genesis XV are considered a sacrificial offering. The covenant in Genesis XV preserve the sacrificial element alongside the symbolic act.

Trible's -Man and woman in opposition and dissonance
According to Trible's analysis, in Judges 19:1-2 the man and woman are introduced with similar identifications, but their meanings have prominent dissonance. The man, a Levite, has a respected place in society that sets him above many other males. The woman, a concubine, has a lower status in society and is placed beneath other females. The concubine is not the same as a wife and she is not treated as one. She is nearly a slave who is secured by a man for his own purposes. The opening sentence of the story shows the inequality of the two characters. Trible mentions that the woman is the object of the sentence and the man is the subject. In the next sentence though the man and woman reverse roles. Two manuscripts traditions have survived saying that the concubine played the harlot or became angry with the Levite. All versions agree that the concubine left the Levite for her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah. Trible talks about the distance between the Levite and concubine with the father in the middle of the situation. With the Levite originally having all the power, the concubine now is switching places. According to Trible, it is a fight between power and brutality versus helplessness and abuse

Hayes Outline
Intermarriage and Impurity in ancient Jewish Sources I.	Is a principle of Gentile ritual impurity found in ancient Israelite and Jewish texts? II. Louis Epstein identified several rationales for prohibition of intermarriage
 * a.	The custom of endogamy
 * b.	Enmity with other groups
 * c.	Religious differences with other groups
 * d.	Racial differences
 * e.	Self-reservation in times of threatened assimilation

III. Alleged Gentile ritual impurity communicated by physical contact to the Israelites partner is not the rationale for restrictions on intermarriage in the biblical, Second Temple, and rabbinic periods IV. Fear of profaning the holy seed of Israel not fear of contracting ritual impurity from a Gentile V.	Pure/impure versus holy/profane VI. Ezra and the Profanation of Holy Seed
 * a.	Ban on intermarriage innovated in two ways:
 * i.	In its universal scope (all inter-ethnic unions were banned)
 * ii.	In its rationale (fear of profanation of the holy seed)
 * b.	Torah prohibition of intermarriage refers only to 7 Canaanite nations and certain other specified nations: fear of intimate contact will lead Israelites to imitate their idolatrous and immoral ways
 * i.	Not intermarriage with Gentiles
 * c.	Women of foreign nations are assimilable whole those of the seven Canaanite nations are not
 * d.	D puts ban on for moral-religious and sociopolitical reasons
 * e.	Ban promoted by Ezra and Nehemiah

Hayes Paraphrase
Ezra and Nehemiah appear to promote the ban of intermarriage with all Gentiles. According to Hayes, Ezra is not a racial ideology that is concerned with purity of blood. The logic behind this ban is not the purity of blood, but the religious notion of Israel as a "holy seed". The holy status of the Israelite's is not racially based, but religiously based. With intermarriage the holy seed of Israel becomes mixed with the profane seed. In other words, intermarriage violates the holy seed of Abraham and Israel.

Heger Outline and Paraphrase
Patrilineal or Matrilineal Genealogy in Israel after Ezra by Paul Heger

1.	Reduce pagan influences on the Israelite community by avoiding social contacts with surrounding people

2.	Disputing conventional scholarly assumptions
 * a.	Israelite genealogy was and is patrilineal
 * i.	Ezra and Nehemiah did not introduce the matrilineal principle
 * ii.	Children of a Jewish woman and a Gentile man were considered to be Gentiles→ took after ethnicity of their fathers
 * iii.	Matrilineal identity is impossible
 * b.	Ezra’s motive for expelling Gentile women and their offspring
 * i.	Ezra and Nehemiah’s prohibition on intermarriage with the Canaanites to all Gentile women was not linked to the principle of matrilineal genealogy
 * ii.	Leaders believed that the identity of the Israelites depended on the seed of their fathers, not on the ethnicity of their mothers
 * iii.	Their decision to prohibit intermarriage with all Gentile women was due to the great danger of assimilation resulting from the evil influence of social interaction with the surrounding nations
 * iv.	Ezra and Nehemiah considered it their supreme duty to ensure the persistence of the Israelite people
 * 1.	Avoid cultural assimilation
 * v.	Ezra’s text on the subject of intermarriage follows the pattern of Deuteronomy with respect to the prohibition of intermarriage with the Canaanites
 * vi.	Motive: strict social separation to avoid evil influence, particularly idolatrous worship

3.	Disputing scholarly theories on ethnicity and conversion
 * a.	Lawrence H. Schiffman’s theory
 * b.	Shaye J.D. Cohen’s theory- circumcision

4.	Thesis: Jewish identity is gained by birth from parents who legally convey it to their offspring

According to Heger, Ezra’s motive for expelling Gentile women and their offspring was because at the time leaders believed that the identity of the Israelites did not depend of the ethnicity of their mothers, but depended on the seed of their fathers. The motive behind prohibiting intermarriage with all Gentile women was due to the danger of assimilation resulting from the influence of social interaction with the surrounding nations. The expulsion of the foreign women and their offspring was directed in order to preserve the purity of the Israelite “holy seed”. Thus, Ezra did not introduce the idea of matrilineal identity.