Destruction and Restoration

Instructions: Drawing on examples from the readings and lectures, answer 1 of the following 2 questions in at least 250 words. You should provide as many details and examples from the readings and lectures, including primary sources (i.e., passages from the Hebrew Bible), as possible in order to strengthen your answer. Spelling and grammar count. Be sure not to plagiarize because your answers will be submitted through Turnitin, which is plagiarism detection software. When taking material from Collins, be sure to cite him, especially when quoting him (but no long quotes). When citing passages in the Hebrew Bible, do so as follows: book, chapter, verse (e.g. Genesis 2, Gen. 2:3, etc.). You can email me if you questions about citations.

1. Discuss the significance of the imagery of women in 1-2 Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, prophetic literature, wisdom literature, and Lamentations. What are the different images of women in these texts? How are foreign women represented in 2 Kings and Ezra-Nehemiah? Describe the unfaithful, abused wife in prophetic literature and Lamentations. What is the covenantal language that accompanies such imagery (i.e., what is the new meaning of the covenant between God and Israel/Judah)? What is the image of the feminine in wisdom literature? Be sure to provide examples from the texts.
2. Discuss historical writing in Chronicles. Why is Chronicles an important historical document? What can we learn from it? Why have some scholars dismissed and designated Chronicles as rewritten bible, exegesis, or midrash? How does Chronicles transform the stories of David, Solomon, and Manasseh from Samuel-Kings? What are the ideological implications? What do these changes tell us about the limits and malleability of ancient Israelite historiography? What does it tell us about the ways in which Chronicles used its sources (i.e., Samuel-Kings)? Be sure to provide textual examples.

Part II: Long Answer (25 points)
Instructions: Drawing on examples from the readings and lectures, answer the following question in at least 500 words. You should provide as many details and examples from the readings and lectures, including primary sources (i.e., passages from the Hebrew Bible), as possible in order to strengthen your answer. Spelling and grammar count. Be sure not to plagiarize because your answers will be submitted through Turnitin, which is plagiarism detection software. When taking material from Collins, be sure to cite him, especially when quoting him (but no long quotes). When citing passages in the Hebrew Bible, do so as follows: book, chapter, verse (e.g. Genesis 2, Gen. 2:3, etc.). You can email me if you questions about citations.

1. Discuss the roles of destruction and restoration, exile and return in establishing collective identity in ancient Israel. How do 2 Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles, Lamentations, Psalm 137, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Second Isaiah represent destruction and restoration, exile and return? Which texts exhibit a strong exilic identity? In which texts is exile represented negatively? In which texts is exile represented positively? Which texts imagine or narrate an inclusive return and/or restoration (i.e., a big tent Israel)? Which ones imagine or narrate an exclusive return and/or restoration? What does the term Israel signify in these different texts (i.e., in both the inclusive and exclusive models)? How does Ezra-Nehemiah turn Judah into Israel? How do they draw off 2 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 24-25 in doing so? Be sure to provide examples from the texts.