The Hebrew Bible is a collection of documents from ancient Israel of widely varying types: histories of Israel, laws governing just conduct, rules for sacrifices to the God of Israel, the words of Hebrew prophets, books of poetry, an extended love song, and collections of wise sayings. It is the work of a number of authors who lived over the space of several centuries. Jews, Christians and Muslims all view these books as sacred texts, in some fashion inspired by God. (Though there are many views of what such inspiration consists in and how it takes place.) Christians have long called this collection of documents the "Old Testament" to distinguish it from the additional set of documents they also deem to be sacred and inspired which stem from the life, death and reported resurrection of Jesus of Narareth.
While the Hebrew Bible was not written as a single document, one may point out that it does have a central character: Yahweh, the God of Israel. (Who, according to the texts themselves, is also the creator of the whole universe.) Most of it is also concerned with Yahweh's relation to the Hebrew nation throughout its history. Much of it is thus a national history as well, though one can see traces of the multiple authorship in differing perspectives on in-house political and theological issues. The historical parts and even stories that might be more legend than history (say, some of the stories about King David) are also noteworthy in that they often portray their subjects in a realistic mix of good and bad deeds: few if any of the characters presented here are presented as examples of ideal conduct. (David, for example, although Israel's greatest hero, seduces Bathsheeba and then sends her husband, Uriah the Hittite off to the front lines tobe killed so he can marry her, and Yahweh strikes their first child dead as a result.)
The Hebrew Bible has a number of parts, which I shall briefly describe by style and content:
1) Genesis . Stories about ancient times: the creation of the world (Gen 1:1-2:4) , the origins of humanity (Gen 1:26-31, 2:4-25) , the sin of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Gen 3) , the first murder (Cain and Abel (Gen 4) ), the wickedness of early humanity and the Great Flood (Gen 7-9) , the beginnings of the people of Israel when Yahweh calls out Abram from Ur of the Chaldees and renames him Abraham (Gen 12-18) ; the lives of the "patriarchs" Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac's son Jacob who was called Israel, and Israel's twelve sons, whose descendents are the "twelve tribes of Israel", the story of Israel's son Joseph (Gen 37-45) , who is sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, rises to be the Pharaoh's right-hand man, and then saves his family by brining them into Egypt's territory of Goshen when there is a terrible famine in their own land. (Gen 46-47)
2) Exodus . How the Israelites eventually became slaves in Egypt (Ex 1:1-14), and how Yahweh called out one of their number, named Moses, to lead them out of slavery (Ex 2-14). The miraculous events by which God brought Israel out of Egypt (the several plagues (Ex 7-12), the parting of the Red Sea (Ex 14:10-31), the manna in the wilderness (Ex 16)). God gives the people a set of laws at Mt. Sinai (including the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1-20)) and forbids them to worship idols. God's intention is to lead them into the "Promised Land" -- the fertile country He had promised to their ancestor Abraham (Gen 12:1-3) -- but the people repeatedly fail to trust in God's promises (Ex 32; Numb 11, 16), and eventually he pronounces the judgement that no one from that generation will be permitted to enter the Promised Land (except for Joshua and Caleb, the only ones who held fast to the promise (Numb 13)), but they will be forced to live in the wilderness for forty years (Numb 14:1-26).
3) The Laws - (Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) These books contain a lengthier enumeration of laws governing moral conduct and the proper rituals for sacrifices to Yahweh, which are necessary for atonement from sin.
4) Joshua -- The story of the Israelites' campaign to take possession of the Promised Land under the command of Joshua. God orders them to completely clear out the idol-worshipping inhabitants of the land and occupy it themselves. Israel falls short of this order in a number of ways: some of the inhabitants are left alive (Josh 9, 13:13, 15:63, 16:10; Judg 1:29-2:5) and even more seriously, Israelites intermarry with them (Josh 23:11-13( and take up their idols (Josh 7:1,.Judg 2:11-15)
5) Judges -- Stories from the period of Israel's history after they had occupied Canaan and before they had established a king. Justice is administered by "judges" -- men and women reputed for wisdom, whom people go to in order to settle matters of dispute. Some of these judges were also prophets -- people to or through whom Yahweh was believed to speak directly. The line is frequently repeated, "In those days there was no king over Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes." It is unclear whether this is supposed to be a good or bad thing -- when Israel does insist on annointing a king, Yahweh is depicted as being decidedly unhappy about it, as it means that they are not willing for God to be Israel's sovereign.
6) Historical books (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles) These books report the events surrounding the first kings of Israel -- Saul, David and Solomon -- and their successors. The prophet Samuel (1Sam 3) is judge over Israel when the people decide that they want to have a king like the Philestines do (1Sam 8), and Saul is annointed king at God's instruction (1Sam 9:1-10:8). Saul is the kind of person a bronze age people might think they want for their king: he is big and strong (he stood "head and shoulders taller than any other man in Israel" 1Sam 9:2) and charismatic and leads them to some military victories. However, is is constitutionally unsuited to being king, and eventually begins to go mad (1Sam 16:14-23). While Saul is still king, God instructs Samuel to secretly annoint the shepherd boy David as king (1Sam 16:1-13). There are then a collection of stories about David entering Saul's service and winning favor, in part by killing the Philistine champion Goliath (1Sam 17), becoming Saul's armor-bearer and the best friend of his son Jonathan, Saul's growing jealously of David's accomplishments and popularity, and eventually Saul's attempts to kill David (1Sam 18:6-16). In the long run, Saul is killed in battle (1Sam 31) and David becomes king. It is under him that a kingdom really begins to grow in Israel (2Sam 8), with a capital city and a palace (though David is not allowed to realize his desire to build a permanent temple for Yahweh, which is accomplished by his son Solomon). David is a very popular figure -- the guerilla leader who becomes king. His main problems come from his own sons, several of whom conspire to kill him and appoint his oldest son Absolam as king in his place (2Sam 15-18). In the end, he bestows the kingdom upon his youngest son, Solomon, (1Kings 2) who becomes king over Israel's short-lived golden age, and he is renowned for his wisdom and for the prosperity of the kingdom under his rule (1Kings 3:10-14). (Though Solomon himself is not without his faults -- he takes hundreds of wives and concubines and allows those who are pagans to build alters to their gods, which angers Yahweh greatly. (1Kings 11)) The remaining kings are described in considerably less detail -- sometimes only indicating whether they were good or evil men, and whether they followed Yahweh or worshipped idols -- and indeed the most prominent characters in the later histories are not the kings but some influential prophets, Elijah (1Kings 17-19) and Elishah (2Kings 2), who speak on God's behalf in an attempt to turn Israel away from the worship of Baal. The most important historical events are the split of the kingdom, in which the tribe of Judah takes one king and the remaining tribes (collectively called Israel) take another, and Israel's eventual defeat by the Babylonians, which results in all of the important people of Israel being relocated to Babylon and foreigners relocated into Israel's land. The books of Ezra (Ezra 1) and Nehemiah (Neh 1) report the return of the exiles.
7) The Books of the Prophets -- There are a number of books either about other prophets or reporting their messages. (These are often divided into the "major prophets" (those with big books devoted to them): Isaiah (Is 1), Jeremiah (Jer 1), Ezekiel (Ezek 1) and Daniel (Dan 1)) and the "minor prophets" (whose books are shorter): Hosea (Hosea 1), Joel (Joel 1), Amos (Amos 1), Obidiah (Obid 1), Jonah (Jonah 1), Micah (Micah 1), Nahum (Nahum 1), Habakkuk (Habak 1), Zephaniah (Zeph 1), Haggai (Hag 1), Zechariah (Zech 1), and Malachi (Mal 1). These were written before, during and after the Babylonian exile. Prophets were believed to speak on behalf of Yahweh, by His inspiration. It is interesting that these books are largely critical of both the leadership and the social and religious practices of Israel in their own day, and are presented as God's attempts to call Israel back to right ways of living, and spelling out the consequences if they fail to do so (notably, sending them into exile for 70 years in Babylon!)
8) Poetical Books -- The last group of books do not narrate any histories at all. Job is a discussion between God and a righteous man who nonetheless suffers afflictions. It is generally believed to not be historical in its intent, but to be a literary exploration of the problem of evil. The Psalms (Ps 1) are a collection of poetry by various authors (though many of them are attributed to King David), expressing and reflecting on many aspects of human life. The themes of God as creator of the universe, and as one who saves and protects those who turn to Him, are particularly strong here, as is the expression of the psalmist's yearning for the presence of God. The Proverbs (Prov 1) and Ecclesiastes (Eccles 1) are both concerned with wisdom. The proverbs are short sayings that encapsulate bits of wisdom, while Ecclesiastes is more of an extended narrative of one man's search for wisdom and reflection on the vanities of human life. The Proverbs were traditionally attributed to King Solomon. The Song of Solomon (Song 1) is an erotic poem often thought to have an important mystical reading.
Major Themes for Moral Psychology
It is difficult to give too exact an identification of major themes in the Hebrew bible because it is a collection of documents of various kinds, written by multiple authors over the space of several centuries. However, I have tried to identify a small number of ideas that seem centrally important for anyone interested in looking to these books with an eye towards what they say about moral psychology. But the main thing one should note at the beginning is how little in the way of explicit psychology there is in these texts. The mindset here is both pious and moral, but it is also very concrete, practical, social and behavioral. There is little in the way of reports of the deep inner lives of the people who appear, and none of these documents are theoretical in nature. (In this way, this tradition is very different from that of classical Greek philosophy.)
Creation
According to the Genesis account, God created the universe from nothing, and created human beings "in the image of God". What exactly being created "in the image of God" means is a difficult matter of interpretation, but it surely means that we are something special. Genesis also states that God made Adam (the first human) into a living being by breathing the breath (or spirit, ruach) of life into him. (This idea will appear in the Theophan reading.)
The Fall
The story of the Garden of Eden is a tragedy. Humans have it good in the Garden, and the only thing they are told not to do is eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, Eve is beguiled by a character identified as "the serpent" (which later interpretations have often identified with Satan), by the ruse of saying that God has forbidden their eating it because He knows that if they eat of it, they will "become like God, knowing good and evil." Eve then eats what was forbidden (presumably out of an ambition to be like God?), and then persuades her husband Adam to do the same. They then feel shame and become aware of their nakedness and attempt to hide themselves from God. When asked why they are hiding, they eventually reveal what they have done in defensive and less than fully truthful terms (Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent). As a result, they are cast out of the Garden, to live on the Earth as we know it, where you have to work to produce food, and the ground bears thorns and thistles, and women experience pain in childbirth. (Recall that until very recently, childbirth was a very dangerous ordeal.) (Note that the story does not say what God would have done had Adam and Eve come forward and asked forgiveness; nor whether casting them out of the Garden is a punishment or a mercy or simply the natural effect of their actions.)
Regardless of whether this story was ever intended to report an historical event, it is highly symbolic of features of human reality as we know it. Although created in the image of God, and appointed as stewards of the Earth, we are also somehow fallen from grace in a way that involves human choice, but is not reversable through further choice. (We cannot simply choose to re-enter the Garden!) Many of the hardships of life (childbirth, toil, our vulnerability to the elements and need for clothing and shelter) and corruptions of human relationship (husbands ruling over their wives) are a result of this deep fact about our nature. The origins of this situation lie in a wilful act in which humans injure their relationship with God by disobedience. (And, the story seems to suggest, by trying to gain a forbidden kind of knowledge of good and evil, and by trying to be like God themselves.) The primal results of this primal breach are a sense of shame and fear that makes us hide from the presence of God.
Sin
The notion of "sin" is not mentioned in the Creation story, though the story is often described as the story of humanity's "original sin". There are several words in Hebrew translated as "sin", with distinctly different overtones. Two are of especial importance. The first literally means "falling short of the mark". It is an archery term, if you will, for failing to hit the target that you aimed at. "Sins" in this sense are shortcomings or imperfections we have when compared to an ideal standard. The second metaphor is a boundary metaphor, and is literally translated as "trespasses" in the King James Bible. Sins we commit against one another are in a sense violations of personal boundaries or propery boundaries, when I intrude upon what is your own (body, property, family, privileges, etc.) rather than mine. Sins can be committed both against God and against other human beings. It seems to be a frequent theme of the scriptures that everyone sins.
Atonement
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, individual sins can be "atoned for" -- absolved -- through sacrifice, generally animal sacrifice. (Lev 4:1-12) In this, the Hebrews' practices were very similar to those of some of their pagan neighbors, in that they killed animals and sent a "scapegoat" into the desert to die in place of humans who had sinned. The connection between the spilling of animal blood and the forgiveness of human guilt is hard for us moderns to see, but it was clearly a part of the beliefs of the ancient Hebrews that animal blood could turn away God's anger at human sin.
Ritual Purity
Many of the laws found in the Hebrew scriptures do not have to do so much with what we would consider moral matters (e.g., commiting murder, stealing, committing adultery) as with matters of ritual purity. The Hebrews thought of sins as defiling a person (making them ritually unclean) in a way that made them unsuitable to enter into the presence of God, or in many cases even to live within the settlement. But one could also become unclean by breaking a number of other kinds of laws whose moral connection is unclear, except of course that they are at least sins by dint of being the breaking of laws given by God. These include a number of dietary restrictions (not eating animals except those that have cloven hooves and chew the cud (cows and venison are OK, but not pork, bear, rabbit), (Lev 11:1-8) not eating blood (Lev 17:10-16), not cooking a calf in its mother's milk, not eating things from the sea that do not have scales and fins (lobster is out, I'm afraid) (Lev 11:9-12) . This list would eventually be expanded into the Kosher laws as we now know them. A woman was considered unclean during menstruation (Lev 15) and after childbirth (Lev 12). One became unclean by touching a dead body, or even by certain kinds of associations with non-Jews. Persons with certain diseases -- notably lepers -- were considered to be unclean. (Lev 13) Sacrifices were used to restore certain kinds of purity, though one also could not participate in many civic and religious duties while unclean. As a result, religious Jews were very concerned to maintain ritual purity.
Repentance
There is some indirect evidence that the sacrificial rites were abused by some as a kind of magic that could take away guilt automatically. However, several places in the Hebrew scriptures (Isa 58; Hosea 6:1-6; Amos 5:21-24) suggest that merely going through the motions of sacrifices does nothing for you if you do not really feel repentance, make restitution, and change your life. ( Hosea 10:12)
Righteousness
The good person is described variously in terms of being "blameless" (doing no wrong) and "righteous". The righteous person is literally one who does what is right, and this is perhaps the root meaning of the word. However, some passages [Ps 1,] also seem to suggest that the word 'righteous' indicates an underlying psychological state -- a kind of virtue, if you will -- that goes deeper than behavior. However, while righteousness is praised, connected with behavior, and recommended on the basis of its rewards, there is very little in the way of explicit psychology in the Hebrew scriptures. Righteousness has a large component of social justice in it as well, including showing hospitality to travelers, and taking care of the poor, the widow, and the orphan. [ Lev 19:15,23; Deut 24:13,27; Isa 11:4)
Holiness
Something that is "holy" is literally something that is set apart -- in particular, set apart from the corrupting influences of daily human life. In the first instance, God Himself is holy. But things set aside for use in temple worship are also called "holy" because they are dedicated to use in God's service (Exod 30:35) and so is the sabbath ( Exod 31:14.). Likewise a person whose life is set aside for God's service ( Lev 6:18,30) is called "holy unto the Lord."
Relationship
It is striking how much of the Hebrew scriptures can be assumed under the heading of God's relationship with us: with humanity as a whole, with Israel as a people, with individual men and women. The Eden story is about violating our relationship with God. After God destroys the world in the flood, he makes a covenant or agreement with Noah that he will never destroy the world again by flood. (He does not promise not to destroy it in any variety of other ways.) His relationship with Abraham is based on a covenant as well, that Abraham will have Yahweh as his god and will in turn be given large numbers of descendents and title to the land of Canaan. At Sinai, and again when Joshua is leading the people into the Promised Land, the people of Israel make a covenant with God to keep the laws. And in the Psalms and the prophets, God is continually lamenting the way Israel has wandered off. (In some cases, God is depicted as a shepherd whose sheep have gone astray [1Kings 22:17; Pss 23:1,5, 80:1,4; Jer 31:10,31] or as a husband whose wife has wandered off to commit adultery [Judg 2:14,17; Isa 1:8,21; Jer 2:20,34].) There seems to be an abiding theme here that God desires some sort of active relationship with human beings. Part of this relationship consists in the righteous action of human beings, but it goes beyond this as well.
God's Sovereignty
God is not only the creator of the world, but its sovereign. (Note the difference from the theology of the tribes around Israel, which thought of their gods as local beings attached to a specific location or object.) Humans were appointed as stewards over the earth and all that is on it, but not its owners. Likewise, offenses against the defenseless -- the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner -- are things that God avenges. And when Israel insists upon crowning a king, Yahweh tells the prophet Samuel that they have rejected Him as being their king. (A serious offense.)
Reward and Punishment
The Hebrew scriptures do not speak with anything like a unified voice as to what our rewards and punishments will be for righteousness and sin. There are many places that suggest the view that there is a direct connection between righteousness and being materially well-off: I.e., that material well-being, health, long life and numerous progeny are the rewards of a good life. (Whether the natural rewards or the divinely-bestowed rewards.) Yet there are also many passages that remark upon the obvious fact that often the wicked prosper and the righteous are oppressed. These are often linked with an appeal to God to be or to send a savior -- someone who will deliver them from their plight. Just how this savior is envisaged varied widely, though often it was imagined in the form of a powerful king in the mold of David who would rule justly. However, there are also suggestions that righteousness is its own reward, or that it produces internal psychological rewards, or that there is some kind of specifically spiritual reward such as "dwelling in the house of God".
The Spiritual World
God is clearly prior to the natural world, since He is its creator. God sometimes intervenes within the world of time and space in the form of miracles [Exod 1, 14Kings18], and messages in the way of manifestations of "the word of God" (presumably a voice that a prophet might hear). There are also several places [Gen 17:7; Numb 22:23; 1Kings 19:7] in which someone appears in human form and talks to a human being (e.g., Abraham and Sarah), in which it is unclear whether it is God Himself or an angel who appears. The word 'angel' and its Hebrew equivalent literally mean "messenger", and indeed these beings are generally bearing messages. However, there is no well-worked out metaphysics of the non-physical world apparant in these texts. Likewise, there is little evidence of a clear view of human immortality or the survival of death in these texts, though such ideas were present in Judaism in the first century BCE. (The Pharisees, for example, believed in a bodily resurrection of the dead, while the Saducees did not.)
Wisdom
Perhaps the closest the Hebrew Scriptures come to explicit moral psychology is in the wisdom writings, particularly the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
This is a small smattering of resources, quickly compiled, many of which point to other resources for working with Biblical texts.
http://www.chorus.cycor.ca/hahne/bible_home.html
Biblical research links: http://www.epas.utoronto.ca:8080/~hahne/scbibsub.htm
TLG: gopher://tlg.cwis.uci.edu/
Calvin bible gateway: http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?
Electronic NT manuscripts project: http://www.entmp.org/
Resource Pages for Bible Studies: http://www.hivolda.no/asf/kkf/rel-stud.html
Bible Browser: http://goon.stg.brown.edu/bible_browser/pbform.shtml
Guide to Bibles online: http://www.hivolda.no/asf/kkf/biblia01.html#bible
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