Lecture 8

We started this lecture talking more about the strong impact that literature had on non-scribe classes of people.  Different artifacts have been found that demonstrate how profound of an effect literature was having on the people.  One example would be the Mezad Hashavyahu Ostracon.  On this broken piece of pottery a working man wrote about how another man stole his clothes.  It is written in the bible that if a man borrows another man's clothes, then that man must return them before sundown.  Failure to do so would result in punishment of some kind.  Because we see this man complaining to Yahweh about this, we can hypothesize different things.  1) Literature was becoming very common amongst most people.  2) People at the time period were referencing the writings of the bible (or the opposite where the writers of the bible made reference to these already set laws of conduct.


Other artifacts displaying the impact of literature would be the Ketef Hinnom Torah Amulets which have a prayer written on them.  This prayer is the same that is seen in the bible.  As with the Mezad Hashavyahu Ostracon, we can hypothesize the same things regarding literature and references of people to the bible (or vice versa).  


We then talked about the fall of Jerusalem.  There were different events that were leading to the fall of the city. The first of which would be the development of the Babylonian empire, which was becoming very powerful.  The next would occur in 597 BCE where the Babylonians exiled King Jehoiachin and Ezekiel.  Then in 586 BCE we see the first fall of Jerusalem at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  We then spoke of the last days of Judah, as written in the bible with 2 different endings to the death of Josiah (more specifically 2 reasons as to why Josiah was killed).  


We then spoke about Jehoiachin and his people after exile, and how both biblical text and Babylonian records support that the nobles still received allowance of oil for their people.  Back in Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar had replaces Jehoiachin with Zedekiah.  Zedekiah, however, rebelled against Babylon too.  This rebellion pissed off Nebuchadnezzar, and so Babylon came and destroyed Jerusalem.  With this downfall of Jerusalem we see different stories such as Lamentations 1 and Psalms 79/137 having been written to reflect on the situation.  Furthermore, we discussed the theory of cognitive dissonance, which is the uncomfortable feeling someone has when he or she has two different ideas or beliefs that contradict each other, but this person still wants to hold on to them.  This feeling ran rampant with the people of Jerusalem after the fall of the city.  They were told by God that he would protect them forever, but that is not the case.  What can they think now?