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It’s late, and I’m tired, so I want to get through this academic write-up as quickly as I can!
1. Sara Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought, page 163:
…Chronicles cannot justify the destruction of the Temple as punishment for the sins of previous generations [which is what II Kings 23:25-26 says]…Neither Manasseh’s sinfulness nor the people’s cumulative transgressions brought about the Temple’s destruction. Only Zedekiah and his generation are responsible for the disaster that occurred in his time.
2. D.A. Russell, Criticism in Antiquity, pages 4- 5:
This disdain of the ordinary audience is known to Aristotle in the context not only of rhetoric but of poetry: it is the ‘inferiority of the spectators’ which makes them prefer happy endings in tragedy, though the principles of the art make it clear that these are really signs of inferior workmanship.
I don’t care what Aristotle says. I still enjoy a good, sappy Hallmark Channel movie!
3. R.P.C. Hanson, Allegory and Event, pages 13-14:
The Rabbis conceived of Israel’s redemption in the Messianic Age as foreshadowed in every detail by the redemption from Egypt as its type. As Israel was delivered in one night, so will Israel be delivered in one night in the Messianic times. The days of the Messiah would be forty years, as Israel was chastened forty years in the Wilderness (this from Rabbi Akiba). As Israel was fed with rich food in the wilderness, so will God feed them at the Last Time. As God took vengeance on the Egyptians at the Exodus, so will he take vengeance on Edom (Rome) at the Messianic time; he will bring upon them frogs, flies, all sorts of beasts, plague, scab, hail, locusts, darkness; and he will slay their firstborn. Though in Egypt Israel went out in haste, at the Messianic Deliverence she will not go out in haste nor flight, but God will go before her. As the first deliverer (Moses) revealed himself and then hid himself, so will the last deliverer, the Messiah. And the deliverer will lead them out of the land into the wilderness of Judah and cause them again to dwell in tents, and whoever believes in him will remain in life, but whoever does not will go to the nations of the world and they will kill him. At the end God will reveal himself to them and cause manna to come down for them. Just as Moses took his wife and sons and made them ride on an ass, so will the last deliverer come riding on an ass. As the first deliverer brought bread down from heaven, so will the last, and as the first caused water to spring forth, so will the last. Pharaoh’s daughter fostered him who was to bring vengeance on her father; so the King the Messiah who will bring vengeance on Edom (Rome) will dwell with them in the city (i.e. Rome). As God sent deliverance through two saviours (Moses and Aaron) to the tribes at the Exodus, so he will at the end (through Elijah and the Messiah).
A fitting quote for this Passover season! And several biblical passages come to mind: the comparison of Israel leaving exile with the Exodus in the Book of Isaiah; statements in Ezekiel and Hosea that Israel will have a wilderness experience; the similarity between Moses surviving the decree of a tyrant to kill baby boys, and Jesus surviving such a decree in Matthew 1-2; and the Book of Revelation’s similarity to the Exodus.
4. N. Fernandez Marcos, The Septuagint in Context, page 4.
Christianity’s ancient critics claimed that the Bible used barbaric language, and the church fathers responded to that in different ways. Some said that the Bible uses simple language so that everyone can understand it. But others tried to argue that the biblical language was actually quite sophisticated, purporting to see in the Bible the “rules of classical metrics” and “various stylistic devices.”
