LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Book Summary 2
Submitted to Dr. Ashraf Basilious, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course
SEMI 510-D08 LUO
Old Testament Introduction
by
Jeremiah Barjona Lamb
August 10, 2014
Introduction
John H. Walton’s Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. The textbook is broken down in fourteen chapters and begins with a definition of terms. Those fourteen chapters consist of each having five sections with over twenty historical images. The author uses several contemporary studies as a big part of his research as well as reviews the ancient and Near Eastern and Israelite cognitive context.
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As the name implies, this is exactly what is covered in this new chapter. This chapter is still under the scope of the first part of the book titled Comparative Studies. Walton explains how the science of comparative studies has taken on two completely different faces. Critical scholarship generally pulls in the secular direction. The author then goes into discussing confessional scholarship. In most cases, confessional scholarship supports the theological side of the battle. Walton again goes back to the beginning of this great division, by describing how The Darwinian Theory was a primary factor for this great scholarly …show more content…
An example of this is on page 144. Every day worship your god, Sacrifice and Benediction are the proper accompaniment of incense. Present your free-will offering to your god. For this is proper toward the gods. Prayer, supplication, and prostration. Offer him daily, and you will get your reward. Then you will have full communion with your god. In your wisdom study the tablet. Reverence begets favor. Sacrifice prolongs life, and Prayer atones for guilt. In summary, the literature shows no set guidelines for the human to follow. Instead, the individual had to follow what they knew. The rituals they were taught and the outcomes of such pleas for mercy from the gods.
Part 4: Cosmos
The cosmos are defined as the heavens. It’s the stars, the moon, the sun, and everything out there in the universe that is not on the planet earth. In this fourth part of the book, Walton takes two chapters to talk about the importance of the cosmos to the civilizations of the Ancient Near Eastern worldview. Part 4 also shows us how to view the Cosmos. This is pretty much broken into two chapters-Cosmic Geography and Cosmology and Cosmogony. Cosmic Geography is regarded as how individuals see and shape the world around them.
Chapter 7: Cosmic