Bible Division / Old Testament

Psalm 46 is one of the most cited psalms in Christian churches.  The image of God as a warrior who fights for us is robust and comforting.  However, this psalm raises two important questions and challenges for us today.  First, how are the three stanzas of Psalm 46 cohesively related?  Second, in a literal reading, Psalm 46 describes God as one who destroys our Earth (v.7b) and devastates arable lands, turning them into deserts (v.9).  Is God really one who destroys the Planet Earth?  How can we answer this ecological-hermeneutical question?  The Chaoskampf motif and an earthquake in 750 BCE can provide a missing key.

본 논문은 장로회신학대학교 (PUTS) 신학대학원 (M.Div.) 졸업논문으로 전국신학대학협의회에서 수상하는 구약분야 최우수 논문상을 받은 뒤 출판된 요약본입니다. This article in Korean is the published abridged version of my M.Div. thesis, which won the Best Thesis in the Old Testament Studies after two blind reviews. Ki-Min Bang, "A Study of Psalm 15 and Bible Translation," Logia Series 7 (2009), 7-32 (ISSN: 2092-6634)

This paper aims to address the importance of the Mediterranean setting for the study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. A region’s climatic pattern and geological conditions are important in the formation of its religion and history of longue durée (Fernand Braudel). Unfortunately, the twentieth-century western scholarship of the Hebrew Bible has ignored these natural elements in their study of the religious and historical texts, as Theodore Hiebert (1996/2007) has concluded. In this article, I demonstrate that the climatic and geological setting of the East Mediterranean, or the Levant, is crucial to interpreting the Hebrew Bible in multi-dimensions.
For this purpose, the paper discusses the following exemplary Mediterranean religions and Hebrew Bible passages that illustrate the usefulness of reading the Hebrew Bible in the context of a Mediterranean setting. (1) The Ba‘alu cycle and Demeter myth of Israel’s neighbors demonstrate that climatic patterns played important roles in myth-making in the Mediterranean regions. (2) The Föhn effect in Israel creates different environmental settings between the west and the east of the central hills. The Föhn wind causes the east parts to be arid and without rain. However, grasses grow, and flowers blossom in the wilderness of the rainy season thanks to rainfall flowing down from the central hills. Dramatic changes in the Judean wilderness landscape caused by flowing water (wadi) might have inspired some eschatological visionaries (Isaiah 35:6-7; 43:19-20). (3) The Fall feast or the feast of Booths played a central role in Israel’s religion. It was celebrated not only in memory of wilderness life (Leviticus 23:33-43) but also for the restoration of the rainy season in the Fall (Psalm 126). Jeroboam’s reform of the calendar (1 Kings 12:31-33) was understood as apostasy by the Deuteronomistic historian. However, it should have been understood as an insertion of a leap month to adjust to the difference between the lunar calendar (roughly 355 days) and the actual seasons based on the solar calendar (365 days). (4) The Book of Amos and Psalm 46 can be understood better in light of a tectonic earthquake (ca. 750 BCE). This earthquake of 7.8-8.2 magnitude probably occurred north of the kingdom of Israel, or today’s Lebanon (Austin-Franz-Frost 2000) and devastated many anti-Assyrian coalition countries. The epicenter’s location and estimated magnitude are very helpful when analyzing historical mysteries, such as the rapid decline of the northern kingdom after Jeroboam II’s most glorious period, or how the Assyrian king was able to conquer enemies through short Blitzkrieg, how weaker Judah survived longer than stronger Israel, and so on.
These case-studies above could motivate Hebrew Bible researchers to pay greater attention to the Eastern Mediterranean’s environmental and geographical setting.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a reading of Psalm 126 as a prayer of the Feast of Booths a fall festival in the ancient Near East, that petitions God for rain and an abundant harvest. Because the Feast of Booths takes place between the dry and rainy seasons, it is probable that the ancient Israelites offered this prayer on this holiday as a way of bidding for a smooth transition between the seasons.
    For the purpose, this paper (1) explores the history of the interpretation of Psalm 126, and offers a conventional translation and a reading of the Psalm, (2) discusses several characteristic features of the collection of the Songs of Ascent (Pss 120-134), (3) examines its association with pilgrimage and autumn, or the beginning of the rainy season. Finally, based on the preceding analysis, this paper attempts a reading of Psalm 126 as a song for the Feast of Booths liturgy.
    The collection of the Songs of Ascent has philological, formulaic, and thematic evidence for its designation as Pilgrim Songs composed during the Persian period, and some scholars find additional allusions to the Feast of Booths within the collection. The seasonal and climatic pattern of the Levant was vital to the agriculture and religion of the eastern Mediterranean region (e.g., the Demeter myth and the Ba’alu cycle). Psalm 126 offers a number of images that are related to the climatic and agricultural pattern of the region. These images include: the invocation of Negev wadi’s flowing waters (vs. 4), the farmers’ sowing seeds in expectation of an abundant harvest (vss. 5-6), and, less directly, God’s restoration of fortunes (or seasons) (vss. 1, 4) and the feast of joy and gladness (vss. 2-3) that recalls the observance of the Feast of Booths in Nehemiah 8, and so on.
    The reading suggested here has many advantages over the translations and readings that have previously been suggested. First, this reading explains the trajectory of the textual changes of Psalm 126 through time. Second, this reading can explain the complexity of the verbal usages in verses 1-4. Third, this reading enables the reader to understand how the Israelites used Biblical texts to engage in the climatic pattern of the ancient Israel.
(This journal article is a significantly revised version of my Master of Theological Studies (MTS) thesis, submitted to McCormick Theological Seminary in 2011.)