We have already encountered prophets in the historical books. We will look now at four of the Old Testament’s writing prophets: Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. Eighth-century Israel witnessed increased accessibility to writing and an expanded role for the prophet. The recurrent phrase, “Thus says Yahweh” (messenger formula), epitomizes the primary role of the prophet as a messenger speaking on behalf of God.

Sources from Mari in the eighteenth century bceand others from seventh-century Assyria verify the antiquity of divination practices, of which prophecy is a type. Israel demonstrated opposition to certain divination practices, but its prophets consistently delivered messages from Yahweh, distinguished by their ethical and moral vision. Of the three basic types of Old Testament prophetic speech, prophecies are the most common and represent messages to an individual or corporate entity. Utterances are the confessions or prayers of the prophet to God, and narratives offer historical details corresponding to the prophet. Two important features will become evident as we explore the content of these books: covenant loyalty to Yahweh and the international extent of Yahweh’s authority.

The day was the most important legal unit, for it was linked most directly to actions. Surviving sources make the relationship between days and action appear much more straightforward than it actually was. Roman jurisprudence assigned days to clear classes which might then be associated with permissible or impermissible activities. But classes sometimes overlapped with others, producing situations when particular days possessed different assemblages of norms. Unique events affected the significance of particular dates, a practice close to calendrical divination. Concern for the accumulation of norms on particular dates also affected record-keeping. Inscriptions and literary sources from at least as early as the beginning of the second century reveal a practice of placing events on definite months and days, but exhibit no concern for identifying years.

Giving names to new things and concepts is an important part of the scientific process, as it establishes something as an object of study. Names can also reveal the conceptions and the intentions behind them. These conceptions can be very different compared to our modern views on the objects in question.

Is mind a proper topic of investigation in Aristotle’s science of nature? The question is surprisingly vexed. Although some evidence suggests that mind should be studied by natural philosophy as well as first philosophy (metaphysics), Parts of Animals I.1 (641a32−b23) presents a series of arguments often construed as decisive evidence that he excludes mind from natural philosophy. This chapter goes through the relevant text and argues that Aristotle presents three arguments to exclude mind from nature but all in the voice of an opponent. Then in a final argument (641b23−642a1) he responds directly to the third argument, with indirect implications for the second argument as well.

In the Extra Help, you will continue to learn how to tackle any Greek sentence as a ‘trunk with branches’. Extra Material introduces some of the different jobs that the Greek dative case can do.

In Extra Help you will extend the use of participles (from Chapter 7) with your grasp of how all adjectives decline (including Chapters 12 and 13). In the Extra Material you’ll think further about what Greek authors communicate when they choose to use a participle.

In addition to the Old Testament’s Primary History, we have a Chronistic History comprised of 1–2 Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah. The two histories contain some of the same materials. We will see that the Chronistic History, however, includes events of the postexilic community down to the late fifth century bce. With the Persian Empire as the background, we will note also a different perspective, characterized by different themes, stylistic devices, portions written in Aramaic, and particular emphases on the Davidic dynasty and Israel’s religious practices associated with Jerusalem.

Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah are sequenced differently in various canons, indicating independent collections, but we will see that they are linked literarily by the edict of King Cyrus. This historical event marked the return of Israelite exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, now part of the Persian province Yehud, and the subsequent restoration and rebuilding of a community. Indeed, these books are significant in the Old Testament for the way in which they confirm the postexilic community as the legitimate successor of preexilic Israel.

Chapter 5 turns its attention to the so-called New World, focusing on the flora and fauna of the Americas. The chapter begins with an overview of the relevant texts and examines the practical and conceptual challenges faced by European naturalists – particularly the difficulty of reconciling unfamiliar species with biblical accounts of creation and the flood. It then analyses the naming of American plants and animals in Latin texts, highlighting characteristic processes of lexical acculturation. Four case studies delve into specific challenges in depth: the sloth, which was assigned multiple names across European languages; the penguin, mistakenly identified as a European species; a mythical creature called Su, for which Conrad Gessner sought a more classical name; and ficus indicus, a term applied to at least three entirely different plants.

In this chapter we will move into the heart of the Pentateuch and explore narrative highlights from the books of Exodus and Numbers. The story begins in Egypt, where God’s people are enslaved. Yahweh reveals himself through a burning bush to Moses and instructs him to confront the pharaoh. Ten plagues challenge the Egyptian pantheon, but they also reveal the unique nature of Yahweh. He delivers his people and leads them into the desert wilderness, en route to the promised land. The journey is punctuated by episodes of Israelite rebellion, Yahweh’s responses, and tabernacle plans, but most importantly, by another covenant – Yahweh’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai.

We will observe that archaeology does not provide answers to many historical questions we might have regarding this ancient people and their wilderness sojourn, but it has brought to light Near Eastern political treaties remarkably similar to those of Israel. In striking contrast, no other nation perceived of its deity as a treaty partner. Yahweh, the all-sufficient covenant-making God, demanded a loyalty and exclusivity that marked the radically new idea of Israel’s monolatrous henotheism, and ultimately its concept of monotheism.

In Extra Help we discover Principal Parts and invite you to read an entire NT book: Philemon. In the Extra Material we will examine the significance of aspect in the imperative.