history encompasses more than the presentation of simple facts. Rather, historical memory in the Old Testament is viewed as being accompanied by interpretations by which the community sought the meaning of these recollections.Walter Rast, Tradition History and the Old Testament, pp. 29-30.
This means that for the Old Testament traditionists (those passing on the histories, orally or written), 1) history is not objective, but formative: that is, it creates a community; 2) historical meaning is not created by one historian working alone, but by the whole community to which the historical events "belong."
Do you think this is, or should be, true today? How is it characteristic of oral histories more than written histories?
Readings for Thursday: 2 Kings 1-4, Ruth(if you use this link, make sure you read the next two chapters as well), Hosea 1-2, Isaiah 42-43. We will be talking about form criticism and forms in the prophecy narratives. I have made the reading less so that you can read the poetic portions carefully. Read this article on wikipedia for more background on Isaiah.
1 comment:
I am for one definitely supportive of the idea that a community should be responsible for deciding what historical events mean, since that inevitably shapes the course of future events. Unfortunately, I do not believe that could work easily in today's world due to the majority of the US population having substandard education, and the fact that what we currently take as history has already been
toyed with to suit certain agendas.
There's a popular quote that really captures how important history is:
"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." - George Orwell
Obviously, people do not study history just because they want an extensive list of facts, but because they want to learn meanings that they can apply to present situations. Thus, leaving all that power in one hand, a historian, as opposed to everyone who will be affected, sort of cheats out the community. Again, great idea, but really hard to implement in this country at this time.
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