Written for my Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures class my first year of college.
When approaching a new class, there is always a certain amount of mystery regarding what is to be learned and how it will be taught. When approaching a religious studies class, it is seemingly more ambiguous. It provokes all the usual questions and on top of these, questions such as how "traditional" will the material be and how much, if any, will there be a personal sway on the presentation of the information.
Upon entering this class, I have found things to be quite unbiased and presented very matter of factly. Personally, I am very interested in the material and therefore try to soak up as much information as I am able. Having only begun to read and discuss Genesis, I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount that I have already learned. Aside from learning many new facts about the Bible, and Old Testament Scriptures in specific, there have been numerous details that have worked themselves out to make sense to me, once put in the proper context of which they were written.
At the start of the class, I was under the impression that the Hebrew Scriptures were from one general source and that each book was written by a specific person. I do not suppose that I was ever taught that it all came from one place or time, but just assumed this, having not known any difference. Now, knowing that there were two specific sources contributing to Genesis (Yahwist and Elohist) it makes more sense why some things are repeated or don’t quite fit together. Also, knowing that the writers of Genesis were not intending to write it as a history book, or even as a specific book, makes a big difference. Since it is not this way, we cannot read it as a history book and expect to extract the full and exact meaning. It all must be kept in the correct context.
Already, I have seen the importance of making sure the Hebrew Scriptures are read in context, which not too confusingly, is the ancient Hebrew culture and time period. It was written about them, for them, and to help them understand where they came from and why many things were as they were. I believe these scriptures can still be useful to us today, as long as they are seen and understood as what they are and where they came from. To fully understand and appreciate the text, it has become apparent to me how important it is to have a grasp of the Hebrews' surroundings at the time they were writing. By reading creation and flood stories from surrounding areas of the same time period, I have been able to see that the stores told in the Bible are not all unique. Through becoming more familiar with the cultures of the surrounding peoples, it has helped to understand why the Hebrews viewed life, death, and many of the things about their world they way that they did.
It bemuses me how so many seminary graduates can go on to teach and preach, stating how much they have studied and therefore the extent of their knowledge, and yet in ‘the church’ to never hear many things that should seem obvious to anyone who has done much of any study. Spending a large portion of my life in a common Christian church, I have been blinded to many truths. However, relatively recently (within the past few years), I have begun doing some research on my own, wondering why there are so many things in the Bible not taught in churches, and so many things in churches not taught in the Bible. I have yet to find much of a solid answer for this question. This course, already, has been a great help in my studies by explaining what is being said and how to look at the information presented and not teaching Bible stories.
For me, there are many things yet to be learned from the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures and how they reflect on other portions of life. Each new bit of information helps me to see how the Bible and the people of that time came to be what they are, and how the events and lives of the Ancient Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews have contributed to this now famous literature.
