Isaiah 42: 1-9

Of the Books of the Prophets, Isaiah is by far the most famous and influential outside of Judaism, not only because much of it is brilliantly written, but because it contains a series of poems about a mysterious figure known as the Suffering Servant. To Jews, this figure remains mysterious. The context has suggested to some readers that at least one of these poems may be about Cyrus, the leader of the Persians who conquered the Neobabylonian Empire and allowed those Jews who desired it to return to Jerusalem in 538 BCE. Jews have sometimes seen the Servant as a symbol of themselves. However, orthodox Jews do not identify the Servant with the Messiah, the promised future king who will restore and transform the ancient Kingdom of Israel and reign over the whole earth forever. Although Isaiah may have anticipated the coming of the Messiah with the end of the Babylonian captivity, Jewish belief came to view this figure as having yet to arrive. The Servant could not be the Messiah precisely because he is depicted as suffering. The Jewish Messiah is a triumphant military and political figure whose coming marks the end of the era of mortality: neither he nor his followers will ever die. Christian theology radically reworked this material to combine the two figures into one: a suffering Messiah who dies and is resurrected. Hence these lines are frequently applied to Jesus, as in George Frederick Handel’s famous oratorio “The Messiah.”

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; (1)
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
See the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them. (2)

New Revised Standard Version

(1) It is in this passage that the Servant’s suffering is alluded to. Although he brings justice, he is meek and submissive,. This attitude is described much more clearly in the third Song of the Suffering Servant (see Isaiah 50: 5-6) where he is struck and spat on.

(2) This insistence on the ability to foretell the future raises a highly controversial point. Conservative Christians insist that various passages in Isaiah, including this one, prove that the Bible must be divinely inspired, since they accurately predict various events, including the coming of Christ. Other scholars maintain that the book of Isaiah was compiled from the writings of various authors at different times, and that this passage was probably written while the liberation was underway, while overstating its consequences. The arguments on both sides are far too complex to detail here; but it is important to note that highly-developed bodies of argumentation exist on both sides and that each side tends to ignore or dismiss the arguments of the other.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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Psalm 19

It is highly appropriate that the psalms should have frequently been set to music in modern times, for they were originally songs which would have been sung by soloists or choruses, often to instrumental accompaniment. Very probably some were also accompanied by dancing. Though some seem like private meditations, many psalms seem to call for public performance. The collection which exists in the Hebrew Bible is a varied one, probably gathering together established favorites written over several centuries by different authors, some of whom are mentioned by name in the introductions. The most famous of these is the great musician-king David, who is not only said to be the author of many of the psalms, but to whom Jewish and Christian tradition alike attributes all of them, including those clearly labeled as being by others. Modern scholars have questioned whether, in fact any of the psalms can be traced to David. Whatever their origin, they reflect a common poetic heritage which made skillful use of parallelism: one line expresses an idea and the following line parallels it by expressing the same or a related idea in different wording. The effect is often majestic. Psalm 19 is typical of a number of psalms which share the Genesis creation story’s vision of a natural world providing witness of a powerful and loving creator. The first stanza explores the paradox that although nature cannot speak literally, it nevertheless testifies to God’s greatness. The second stanza focuses on one aspect of nature: the glorious sun, whose warmth penetrates everywhere, like God’s knowledge. The third stanza shifts from the natural world to one of Judaism s favorite themes: the greatness of the law. Far from being seen as a burden or a curse, it is compared to honey in the mouth. The next stanza refers to the main function of the law: to make clear to the believer what should be done to please God; but the author is concerned that he may inadvertently violate laws of which he is unaware, and asks to be protected from such errors. The closing stanza makes a fitting conclusion, and is frequently used in worship services.

Although Jews praise God through nature, he is not nature itself, as in many other religions. How does the first stanza make this clear?

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world. (1)
In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, (2)
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens
and its circuit to the end of them;
and nothing is hid from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure, (3)
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is your servant (4) warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can detect their errors?
Clear me from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from the insolent;
do not let them have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart (5)
be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 137

The history of the great royal period of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel is framed by two periods of exile and captivity: in Egypt, and in Babylon. The conquest of Samaria, the capitol of Israel by Assyria in 721 BCE and of Jerusalem, the capitol of Judah by the Neobabylonians in 587 were only the most striking events in a centuries-long process of repeated attacks and shifting alliances. Because the Covenant with God had been seen as promising an everlasting kingdom for his chosen people, Jewish prophets argued that the Covenant had been broken and vitiated by the failure of the Jews to remain faithful to its terms. The prophetic writings are filled with attacks on the Hebrew people, principally through worshipping other Gods. This psalm, either written in exile, or on the way home, takes a much more sympathetic tone as it portrays the Jews longing for their homeland and seething for revenge against their former neighbors, the Edomites, who had allied themselves with the Babylonians.

How do the Jews react when the Babylonians ask to be entertained by some of their exotic folk songs?

By the rivers of Babylon– (6)
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion (7)
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion!

How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy. (8)

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem s fall,
how they said, Tear it down!
Tear it down!
Down to its foundations!
O daughter of Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones

New Revised Standard Version and dash them against the rock! (9)

(1) I. e., to the farthest reaches of the world (in space) not the end of the world in time.
(2) Jewish weddings take place under a canopy, which is here compared to the nightly refuge of the sun, from which it rises triumphantly and joyously like a young man who has just been married.

(3) “The fear of the Lord” is a kind of respectful awe before his majesty and justice which is often praised in the Writings as the essence of wisdom.

enduring forever;

(4) The speaker, representing any worshipper.

(5) Note that the opening stanza portrays speech which is not literally uttered;,later the poet turns to sins which are unconscious and involuntary, and here the subject is thoughts which remain unspoken. Despite its varied themes, their is a strong unity running throughout the poem.

(6) Babylon was situated on the banks of the Euphrates.

(7) “Zion” is a poetic religious name for the mountain on which Jerusalem was built and where the great temple was erected by Solomon. It is often used to refer to the future re-establishment of the temple (torn down by the Babylonians) and later, to a kind of paradise on earth to be established during the Messianic age. In modern times Zionism has described the drive to reestablish a Jewish political state in Israel, ending the third great Jewish exile known as “The Diaspora” (the scattering).

(8) This stanza meditates on a paradox: singing about the fact that one refuses to sing about Jerusalem.

(9) This vindictive final stanza is often omitted in public recitations, but it has had its consequences. During the First Crusade, Christian knights are said to have slain Jewish and Muslim children while chanting these verses.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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Like other ancient cultures in the region, the Jews delighted in creating and reciting saying encapsulating their concepts of wisdom. Though some Hebrew proverbs are distinctively Jewish, others strongly resemble the sayings of their neighbors. Indeed, it has been argued that one collection in the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible (22:17-24:22) is a fairly straightforward adaptation of an Egyptian collection called The Wisdom of Amenemophis. Some proverbs are pious, others express a more worldly wisdom. They are among the most vivid and pointed of the works contained in the Writings.

What attitudes toward charity are expressed in these proverbs?

Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but one who turns a blind eye will get many a curse.

Better is open rebuke
than hidden love. (1)

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat;
and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;
for you will heap coals of fire on their heads, (2)
and the Lord will reward you.

Whoever blesses a neighbor with a loud voice,
rising early in the morning,
will be counted as cursing. (3)

New Revised Standard Version

(1) This lovely but seldom-quoted proverb seems to express a typically modern demand for the open expression of positive emotions. Rebuking someone is bad; but it is worse to love someone and not tell him or her.

(2) It has been suggested that carrying a pan of hot coals on the head was a form of penance for sin. The meaning of the proverb would then be that when you forgive those who have wronged young you will make them feel painfully guilty. The best revenge is no revenge. Compare this proverb with the attitude expressed toward enemies above, in Exodus 23:4-5.

(3) Clearly the speaker likes to sleep in!

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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The Shema expresses the essence of Judaism, that God must be loved and obeyed at all times. These words are inscibed on small scrolls contained in a box called a mezzuzah fastened to the doorpost of Jewish homes. The wearing of a small mezzuzah (usually a cylinder) around the neck on a chain is a modern adaptation of the ancient custom.

Why might the attitudes expressed in the Shema have led to the Jews having an unusually high literacy rate among the world’s people?

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

New Revised Standard Version

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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This is the central statement of faith for one of the holiest of holy days in Judaism, Passover. The Biblical account of the miraculous escape of the Hebrews from Egypt is contained in Exodus 1-15. The Lord wreaks havoc in Egypt, including killing all the Egyptian’s firstborn children; but the angel of death spares (passes over) the Hebrew children. This epic of liberation has appealed to many oppressed groups who have identified themselves with the Hebrews, notably African Americans.

What does the story explaining the Passover ritual say is the function of the statutes (laws) which God has given the Jews?

When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case.”

New Revised Standard Version

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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The Jewish Bible is divided into three parts: the Law (Torah), the Prophets, and a miscellaneous group of works known as the Writings, which correspond roughly to the Christian Old Testament. (The Catholic text contains passages and works not admitted into the Jewish Bible.) Of these three, the Law is in some ways the most important, for it is the law that defines for Jews what God expects of them and provides a means ensure win his favor and protection. The Law is viewed by pious Jews as a special blessing granted God’s chosen people to show them the path to virtue while other peoples languish in ignorant sin. Many people assume that the ethics of Judaism and Christianity are based primarily on the Ten Commandments, but in fact Jews are called to observe some six hundred commandments and Christians usually do not observe two of the ten, having rejected the Jewish Sabbath for the Lord s Day early in their history and freely violating the commandment against graven images by sculpting innumerable images of Christ as the divine savior. The first ten are set apart, and repeated, in the text, and are obviously considered as important; but in some ways the subsequent laws are more revealing. Almost all peoples have outlawed murder, theft, and adultery, however they defined them; but the other Jewish laws reflect the attitudes and customs of the people who followed them. An orthodox Jew is expected to observe strictly all of the laws (except, of course those relating to ritual sacrifice which were suspended after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE). Unlike in Christianity, belief is not the central issue–obedience is. The delivery of the law is depicted as the aftermath of generations of slavery in Egypt followed by forty years of wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.

What provision in the law might discourage many Hebrew slaves from seeking their freedom? What laws enforce respect for parents? In what ways are the laws on slaves different from those of Hammurabi’s Code? What does the law have to say about the proper treatment of enemies and aliens?

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. (1)

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (2) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. (3)

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work– you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. (4)

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (5)

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance and said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die. Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin. Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

The LORD said to Moses: Thus you shall say to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it. (6)

These are the ordinances that you shall set before them: When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. (7) If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s and he shall go out alone. But if the slave declares, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person, then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; (8)

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out (9) as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; (10) he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people since he has dealt unfairly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife. (11) And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money.

Whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death. If it was not premeditated, but came about by an act of God, then I will appoint for you a place to which the killer may flee. (12) But if someone willfully attacks and kills another by treachery, you shall take the killer from my altar for execution.

Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death.

Whoever kidnaps a person, whether that person has been sold or is still held in possession, shall be put to death.

Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death.

When individuals quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or fist so that the injured party, though not dead, is confined to bed, but recovers and walks around outside with the help of a staff, then the assailant shall be free of liability, except to pay for the loss of time, and to arrange for full recovery.

When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner s property.

When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (13)

When a slaveowner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth. . . .

When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. But if her father refuses to give her to him, he shall pay an amount equal to the bride-price for virgins.

You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live. (14)

Whoever lies with (15) an animal shall be put to death.

Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.(16)

If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. (17) If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.

You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people.

You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. (18)

You shall be people consecrated to me; therefore you shall not eat any meat that is mangled by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs. (19)

You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness. You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit. (20)

When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.

When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.

You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

New Revised Standard Version

(1) Although later Judaism insists that only one god exists, some scholars have argued that this wording reflects a time when Jews acknowledged the existence of other gods but forbade their worship.

(2) This has usually been broadly interpreted by orthodox Jews as a prohibition against all figurative art, establishing a pattern also followed by orthodox Muslims. Although at some periods Jews have decorated buildings and manuscripts with images from the Bible, their general avoidance of divine sculpture led to a historic misunderstanding when the Romans invaded the sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem and, finding it empty, announced to the world that the Jews were atheists. More strongly than circumcision, the rejection of idols set the Jews apart from the people who surrounded them.

(3) The desire to avoid misusing God’s name led eventually to the custom of not pronouncing it or spelling it out fully. Some English-speaking Jews even today follow this pattern by writing the deity s name as G*d.

(4) The Sabbath was a unique Jewish invention, which attracted some criticism from outsiders as an excuse for laziness, but most modern people are probably grateful to it as the ultimate origin of the custom of the weekend.

(5) Sometimes interpreted as prohibiting mere envy, this may have been more narrowly intended at those who would plot to seize what was not theirs.

(6) Steps might cause a parting of the front of the skirt which men wore.

(7) Following the pattern of six days of labor followed by a day of rest.

(8) A mark of enslavement, comparable to branding. and he shall serve him for life.

(9) Be freed.

(10) Bought back by her parents. It is assumed that she has been bought as a wife or concubine.

(11) Compare the prohibition in the Qur’an against treating multiple wives unequally.

(12) The concept of places of refuge or sanctuary was also held in ancient Greece, and to some extent in Medieval Europe. A fleeing criminal could take refuge at an altar or other sacred spot and demand protection from justice. Here the law provides an exception for what is now called involuntary manslaughter.

(13) Note that the death of a fetus is treated as much less serious than lasting injury to the mother. The “eye for an eye” pattern used here and elsewhere was moderated later in Jewish practice by allowing money fines to substitute for mutilation; but in various periods both Christians and Muslims have also used the severing of members as punishment.

(14) Used as the classic justification for witch-burning by Christians.

(15) I. e., has intercourse with. Many of the laws prohibit various sexual activities.

(16) This unequivocal demand for mercy and hospitality to foreigners is repeated elsewhere in the Jewish Bible, and becomes a hallmark of the prophetic era.

(17) This prohibition against charging interest to coreligionists was also maintained by the Medieval Catholic Church; but the capital necessary for trade was provided by all owing Jews, who could not charge each other interest, to be lenders to Christians. Christians maneuvered Jews into this position and made it impossible for the moneylenders to enforce repayment in court (despite the fantasy depicted in Shakespeare s Merchant of Venice). They then bitterly reproached them for their greed. One of the crucial foundation stones for modern capitalism was laid when Protestants accepted the legitimacy of interest.

(18) To the Hebrews, this dedication of the first-born to God (as priests) reflected the tradition that their first-born had been spared when God killed those of the Egyptians. Christian theologians later saw in it an anticipation of the sacrificial offering of Jesus as God s son in the crucifixion.

(19) Muslims are also prohibited from eating carrion.

(20) This passage spells out in more detail what is meant by the commandment against bearing false witness.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

(Genesis 16:1-3, 15-16, 17, 21:1-2)

When the Jews tried to explain that the Land of Israel was theirs by divine right though they acknowledged that their ancestors had not originated there, they pointed to the promise made to Abraham (originally from the Neobabylonian city of Ur). Although the modern Zionist movement was largely non-religious, the idea of the “promised land” has had a powerful influence in creating and maintaining the modern state of Israel. Ironically, this same story also tells of the origin of another people, the offspring of Ishmael, whom Muslims identify as the Arabs. Both religions therefore trace their origins back to Abraham, and both hold the land of Israel sacred, though neither accepts the other’s claims. Like Isaac, several major figures in Jewish tradition are younger brothers or outsiders who eventually triumph through virtue, wit, or skill–Jacob, Joseph, and David, for instance. This pattern reflects the self-image of a people who view themselves as survivors who needed the special intervention of God to triumph. Note the emphasis on a high reproduction rate, desirable in most ancient cultures, for only a minority of children survived infancy.

What effect on the story does the extreme age of Sarai and Abram have?

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her. “And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. . . .

Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty;” walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” (1)

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised; and all the men of his house, slaves born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him. . . .

The LORD dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me. ” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. . . .

New Revised Standard Version

(1) Circumcision was widely practiced in the ancient Middle East and in Egypt, but contact with people who did not follow the custom in later times made the Jews highly self-conscious of their distinctiveness. Note that in Jewish tradition the covenant (agreement) is “everlasting,” not superseded by a “new covenant” as in Christianity. The whole body of the Jewish law comes to be incorporated into this covenant.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Azfar Hussain, Douglas Hughes, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

The mythologies of all the world’s people are designed to answer such questions as “Who are we as a people?” “How did we originate?” and Why do we die?”Created by Jews, adopted by Christians, the following creation stories have had an exceptionally long and complex history which can hardly be explored in this volume’s necessarily brief notes. It was about a century and a half ago that scholars first noted that Genesis seemed to contain two distinct creation stories, using different names for the creator (translated here as “God” and “the Lord”), with different emphases (physical vs. moral issues), and even a different order of creation (plants before humans, plants after humans). Scholars whose religious faith does not require them to believe otherwise have since generally agreed that the grand but starkly simple poetic opening of Genesis was the product of a much later period than the story of what traditionally is called “the Fall.” The first narrative states themes typical of mature Judaism: the creator is the sole ruler of the univese, and even in the process of creation he has provided the foundation for the Jewish sabbath. Although it rejects the typical polytheism of Mesopotomian creation stories like the Enuma Elish, it shares certain features with them: land emerging out of an original watery chaos and waters above and beneath the earth. Although the universe is not created by God dividing up a goddess like Tiamat, other passages in the Hebrew Bible suggest that the metaphor of the slaying of a primordial sea-serpent named Leviathan lurked in Hebrew thought about creation, to be linked in some passages with the miraculous division of waters which enabled the captives to leave Egypt. Note how this account is deeply embedded in the use of language: speech calls the world into being, and speech blesses it. The concept of the divine word of God was to be a central concept of Judaism, later adopted by both Christianity and Islam.

Why do you suppose plants were so important that they are depicted as being created even before the sun? What kind of plants does the narrative particularly focus on?

The Creation

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.(1) Then God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. (2) And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, (3) and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights-the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night-and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, (4) according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (5) God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” (6) And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Creation and Fall

If the first creation story answers the question “Where did we come from?” the second focuses on other questions, such as “Why do we have to die?” “Why must we work?” and “Why are women subordinate to men?”

What evidence can you find to support the theory that women’s subordination to men is the result of an inherited curse? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is often confused with the tree of life; can you distinguish between their apparent functions? In what way is the end of this story similar to the theme of the Epic of Gilgamesh?
In the day that the Lord God (7) made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up-for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground-then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (8)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, -“You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (9)
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.”

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. (10) And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. (11)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. (12) He said to the woman, “Did God say, ïYou shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ïYou shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (13) So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. (14) Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life. (15)
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.” (16)

To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”

And to the man he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
ïYou shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”- therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

New Revised Standard Version

(1) Many modern interpreters see these waters as the same primordial watery chaos of other Middle Eastern creation myths; but traditionalists have usually asserted that the water is created out of the “void and darkness,” a belief known by its Latin name of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing).

(2) Rain seemed to provide to many ancient peoples evidence that a body of water existed above the sky.

(3) Even the heavenly bodies are seen as serving human needs, by providing the basis for a calendar.

(4) A wide variety of scholarly opinion has been expressed about this use of the plural in God’s speech, unique to Genesis. Some think it reflects an earlier polytheism (an argument rejected by most scholars because of the otherwise insistent monotheism of the narrative), as an exalted “royal” use of the pronoun (but no other examples are known from this culture), as addressing the angels (previously unmentioned in the story ), or even–in the Middle Ages–as the members of the Trinity speaking among themselves (a fanciful interpretation flatly rejected by Jews as incorporating a uniquely Christian belief). No general agreement exists on this question.

(5) Some scholars maintain that God must be thought of here as having a human form; others argue that the resemblance is purely spiritual in nature. Contemporary feminists have pointed out that both sexes are created in God’s image.

(6) The idea of absolute dominion over an abundantly productive earth must have been highly appealing to people struggling to scratch a living from the soil of ancient Israel, prey to attacks by wild animals. The image of the earth as a rich garden would have indeed seemed a paradise lost. Some interpret this passage as idealizing vegetarianism.

(7) Up to this point the original Hebrew text has called God Elohim; but in the subsequent passages, he is given the title now usually translated as Yahweh. Because this latter name was considered too sacred to utter in later Jewish tradition, various substitutes were devised. Here “Lord ” capitalized indicates occurances of the sacred name.

(8) The naming of the Tigris and Euphates as rivers flowing from Eden locates the original Paradise somewhere in Mesopotamia, which is also the region to which the Hebrews traced their ancestry.

(9) The paradox that this prophecy is not fulfilled literally has led to many ingenious explanations, including the one dominant for centuries in Christianity: that by eating the fruit Adam and Eve fall from the state of divine grace into the death-like state of sin.

(10) Patriachal interpretrations of this story stress that the woman is a secondary creation, brought into being to serve the man; but some feminists have argued that the texts stresses the unity of the two.

(11) Jews shunned nudity far more than most of their neighbors, but seemed to view the sense of shame as a curse.

(12) Later interpretations, both Jewish and Christian, identify the serpent with Satan, but the latter is a figure whom many scholars believe to have been introduced into Judaism at a comparatively late date.

(13 ) Again, the fact that the serpent’s prophecy comes true while God’s does not has led to much speculation. Whatever interpretation is followed, guilt and shame are the result of the Fall. Traditional Christianity gave the incident a sexual interpretation, often arguing that eroticism itself was a shameful by-product, whereas Jews seldom accepted this view. The doctrine of an inherited curse called “original sin” is also alien to mainstream Judaism, but is the main focus of Christian commentary on this passage.

(14) The kind of fruit is not specified. It was often identified as a fig in the early Middle Ages; but an irresistable pun eventually settled the matter for Christians: malum in Latin meant both “apple” and “evil.”

(15) Presumably snakes originally had legs like other animals, but lost them because of this curse.

(16) Christian artists made much use of this passage to create images of the Virgin Mary crushing a serpent beneath her heel.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:
Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

Jewish civilization has made its impact felt throughout the world not through monumental building, political supremacy, or the visual arts, but through its religious thought as expressed in the Bible. The Bible is not so much a book as a library of books, a collection of writings which evolved over many centuries and did not become completely fixed in its classic form until the first century CE. The core of the Hebrew Bible is the Torah, the first five books which define who the Jews are through story and law. One group, the Samaritans, accepted only these seven books as their Bible. The classic collection of works written in Hebrew (the ancient language of the Jews) was accepted as divine scripture not only by Jews but by early Christians , though few Christians could read Hebrew and preferred to read and quote Greek translations which contained some passages and several whole books lacking in the Hebrew text. Thus, from a very early date, the meaning of the word “Bible” differed between the two groups. The early church eventually gathered an additional number of Christian Greek-language writings and added them to the Hebrew Bible to create what is known as the “New Testament.” The Hebrew Bible (with its older Greek additions) became known to Christians as “The Old Testament,” and the latter was argued to have been completed, perfected, and to some extent superseded by the new writings. Faithful Jews refused to accept the view of their scriptures, of course. The process of redefinition was repeated when Islam pronounced the Bible incomplete and its existing texts flawed, and presented the Qur’an as the definitive religious scripture. Finally, during the Protestant reformation, many churches rejected the Greek additions to the Old Testament. Thus the word “Bible” has meant many things to many people. In order to avoid expressing a bias, in this reader the neutral terms “Hebrew Bible” and “Christian Scriptures” will be used respectively to label the orthodox Jewish Bible and the New Testament.

A word on terminology. The words “Hebrew” and “Jew” may seem to be used interchangeably in the following notes, but in fact the people known as the Hebrews do not properly become known as Jews until the dominant tribe known as Judah is reestablished in the land of Judah (later called Judaea by the Romans) after the Babylonian Exile in 539 BCE. The Hebrew language fell out of common use some time after that period, being replaced by Aramaic: but the Biblical texts continued to be studied by pious men in their original language in Judaea. It was Jews living abroad in the Hellenistic world who first translated the text into Greek, incidentally providing access to these writings for the early Christians.

Christians, Muslims, and others have used these texts for many different purposes, but our aim here is to concentrate on their meaning for the people who first created them and whose sacred texts they continue to be: the Jews.

The translation used here is the New Revised Standard Version a translation made primarily for Christians but which tries to give an unbiased presentation of the Hebrew text.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

Application for permission is not necessary for up to 500 verses as long as no book is reprinted in its entirety and as long as NRSV text does not constitute more than 50% of the total content. In this case, please use this credit line: “Bible selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”