We will now focus our attention on the final book of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy. We will discover that, even as the book recounts what has come before for the sake of Israel poised to enter the promised land, it does so in a new setting, in an innovative literary format, and with distinctive emphases that speak to generations present and yet to come.

Deuteronomy consists of four collections of speeches given by Moses, set off by literary superscriptions. Scholars have determined that the book is organized in the form of an ancient international treaty. Following a historical prologue, the speeches reiterate and affirm Torah instruction, institute a covenant renewal that links blessings with covenant fidelity, and detail provisions for Israel after Moses’ death (recounted in the final chapter of the book). Deuteronomy is distinctive in the Pentateuch for its focus on the centralization of Israel’s religious cult at the place where Yahweh will cause his name to dwell, the great statement of faith known as the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), and the first explicit statements of monotheism in the Old Testament.

This chapter explores the role of drugs in understanding neurotransmitter systems and addressing behavioral problems. It begins by discussing drug administration methods such as oral, intravenous, and inhalation, explaining how these routes influence pharmacokinetics, including drug absorption and metabolism. Like Chapter 6, the chapter then covers several practical applications, including in depression, anxiety and trauma, eating behavior (obesity), addiction, cognitive enhancement, and sleep. These examples underscore the progress that neuroscience has made (e.g., psychiatric medication), the progress that it continues to make (e.g., in psychedelic medicine), and the ongoing need for research and technological innovation. Furthermore, each example illustrates the complex and often ambiguous relationship between neurotransmitters and behavior, where neurotransmitters can influence multiple behaviors, and behaviors can be influenced by multiple neurotransmitter systems.

This chapter sets the conceptual and methodological stage for the book by challenging conventional disciplinary boundaries in the history of philosophy. It argues for a broad understanding of philosophical inquiry that includes religion, literature, and lived practice. The chapter critiques the dominance of argument-based historiography, stemming from Descartes, Brucker, and the nineteenth-century research university model, which privileged metaphysics and epistemology over ethics and the art of living. It outlines a corrective vision that foregrounds genre, orality, and the performative dimensions of philosophy. Christianity is shown to be not only compatible with philosophy but also a key medium through which ancient philosophical ideas were preserved, transformed, and popularized. The chapter highlights neglected periods, especially late antiquity, and insists on the importance of reading ancient thinkers – Plato, Augustine, Paul – on their own terms and in their own genres. It advocates for a generous, contextually informed reading practice that sees philosophical ideas as part of a long conversation across centuries. Ultimately, this chapter positions the book as a work of retrieval that seeks to restore the breadth and spiritual seriousness of ancient and late ancient philosophical traditions.

All historiography or history writing is done with a purpose, and the purpose of Israel as expressed in the Old Testament was clearly religious and theological. The Israelites sought to record their relationship with God in the past – to relate their unique understanding of God, his universe, and his relationship to Israel. Additionally significant is the fact that Israel was among the first nations in the ancient world to write history.

This chapter will take us into the library of ancient Israel to get a better look at how the books of the Old Testament narrate history and how these books have been organized. Specifically, we will investigate the sources that appear to have been interwoven to create the so-called Primary History. These sources are characterized by their distinctive ways of referring to God and by their themes and literary techniques. We will observe that the Old Testament presents the Primary History in such a way as to provide a framework for understanding the historical contexts of all the rest of the Old Testament books.

In Extra Help you will see how easy it is to understand the subjunctive mood using the pattern we have followed so far for the verb. In Extra Material, we will think about the aspect of the subjunctive mood.

In this chapter, you meet no new grammatical principles, but the rules you have met will save you a great deal of effort. In the Extra Material, we’ll examine the significance of aspect in the ‘other moods’, beginning with general principles and how they apply to the infinitive.

Ancient Israel existed in real time and space. In time, we will recall that ancient Israel was preceded by thousands of years of world history, including, for example, the first writing of the Sumerians (third millennium bce), the Babylonian Empire, and the renowned history of ancient Egypt. In space, Israel was part of Syria–Palestine. Together with Egypt and Mesopotamia, Israel constituted a vast swath of arable land known as the “Fertile Crescent.” Syria–Palestine was thus a vital land bridge between three continents and, likewise, highly vulnerable to surrounding power struggles. The latter meant frequent invasions and domination by a succession of world empires.

The primary purpose of Israel’s story contained in the pages of the Old Testament is to explore its relationship with God. Yahweh initiated an intimate relationship with a man named Abraham, which was defined by a covenant and by promises of descendants and land. The ensuing history covers an era that left its own mark on world history, in no small part due to Israel’s legacy. The age between 800 and 200 bce(the Axial Age) witnessed the appearance of ethical religion and rational philosophy in human civilization. Israel gave the world the Old Testament and the concept of monotheism emerging in its pages.

Extra Help with the basics of the alphabet. Extra Material introduces us to the basics of accents.

Reinforcement and addiction are commonly attributed to dopamine and its release along the pathway from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens. This chapter traces the historical development of research linking dopamine to reinforcement, reward prediction error, and incentive salience. It then evaluates the evidence for and against the dopamine theory of addiction and discusses challenges in testing this theory in human studies. The chapter concludes with a speculative exploration of potential dopamine-based treatments for addiction.

Having examined the nature of Old Testament poetry, we will now explore two books by way of example. Proverbs and Job are unique in that they are most often identified as portions of the Old Testament’s wisdom traditions. Wisdom was a highly valued and enduring concept well attested across the ancient Near East. Here you will learn a general definition of the concept and learn why scholars disagree on whether there existed a distinct literary category, “Wisdom literature,” in the ancient world. Certain literary materials from Egypt’s wisdom traditions represent primarily “standard wisdom,” characterized by proverbial sayings. These aphorisms embody predictable patterns born of everyday life experience and observation. From Mesopotamia, we have wisdom traditions that are generally more speculative and less optimistic, and willing to wrestle with the difficult question of theodicy.

The Old Testament book of Proverbs is a collection of standard expressions of wisdom, presented as an educational curriculum and commonly based on the principle of retribution theology. The book of Job is a literary masterpiece representative of speculative wisdom. Although it displays a critique of retribution theology, Job’s message honors the tension between a loving God, a righteous individual, and retributive justice. In Israel’s wisdom traditions we will observe in particular a distinctive moral and ethical dimension that results from Israel’s relationship to Yahweh.

This chapter will lay some historical groundwork in preparation for our consideration of Old Testament books included in the Primary History. As we attempt to reconstruct Israel’s history, we will discover several challenges. The first is how best to relate the historical accounts in the biblical texts with the evidence of modern archaeology. One example, excavation at the ancient settlement of Jericho (featured in the conquest narrative of Joshua), will demonstrate the difficulty of the endeavor and the need for a balanced interpretive approach.

A second challenge is that of Old Testament chronology, which must be relative since we lack evidence for fixed dates prior to the seventh century bce. Only as we move through the Old Testament to later events can we confirm dates of biblical accounts with parallels in ancient Near Eastern sources. Finally, we will consider what we can know of Israel’s history of religious ideas. Although biblical texts were written and preserved by members of the “official” religion, we can detect the vestiges of “local” and “family” religion from earlier sources used to compile the Old Testament.

In previous chapters, we focused on the structure and content of the books in the Pentateuch. Here, we will explore the religion of Moses that emerges from these materials. Specifically, we will observe the way in which divine revelation developed from direct communication with individuals such as Abraham and Moses to mediated revelation through a written Torah and the priesthood. We will explore the significant concepts of holiness, covenant, and practical monotheism, particularly as compared to the religion of the ancestral narratives (Genesis) and that of surrounding ancient Near Eastern cultures.

It will be important that we consider the characteristics of Mosaic religion against the backdrop of the ancient Near East at a time when certain polytheistic cultures are known to have elevated a single deity above their other gods – known as a “theology of exaltation.” Furthermore, we will explore some possible influences and origins for the Yahwistic faith – the religion so foundational for the remaining Old Testament and whose roots belong to monotheistic religions down to the present.

This chapter studies bipartite classical correlations using mutual information and common information measures.

First and Second Samuel narrate Israel’s transition from a tribal confederation to a dynastic monarchy, beginning with the leadership of the prophet Samuel. Saul is anointed Israel’s first king, and although eventually rejected, his reign functions to define kingship under Yahweh, including submission to Torah and to the authority of Yahweh’s prophets. David becomes Israel’s second king and eventually the “ideal” for all kings in the Old Testament. We will also observe during David’s leadership an emerging understanding of Yahweh as “God of Israel.”

Since early Israel was a theocracy under Yahweh, we will explore the issues surrounding Israel’s need for and the legitimacy of a human king, the person and role of a suitable king, and finally, the importance of the prophet in assessing the king. Although Israel’s transition to statehood is somewhat difficult to reconstruct historically (ca. 1050–970 bce), we will examine evidence for similar transitions in other cultures. Archaeological evidence from Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer suggests the notion of a state and its correlating centralized administration.

With this chapter, we arrive at five final books in our Old Testament collection. They have been brought together in the Jewish canon as the “five scrolls,” related to each other by their use in the Jewish liturgical calendar.

Our survey will begin with the Song of Songs, a collection of Israel’s love poetry. We have numerous ancient parallels, but we will note in these the particular imagery drawn from everyday life in Syria–Palestine. Second, Ruth is an exquisite narrative about ordinary Israelites. Their uncommonness is on display in their exemplary characters and their genealogical connection to Israel’s beloved King David. A third book, Lamentations, is a collection of five poems presented in acrostic form. Recounting the tragedies incurred in Jerusalem’s destruction, the poetry nevertheless exhibits some of the Old Testament’s most glorious expressions of Yahweh’s mercy. Ecclesiastes, another unique poetry collection with ancient Near Eastern parallels, offers reflections on the human experience. Finally, we will examine Esther. God is never mentioned in the book of Esther, yet this story merited inclusion in the canon, and we will note its subtle but important contribution to Old Testament theology.