Online Resources/Studies on Prophets

This is a link to the webportal of Prof. R. W. Kleins with numerous links to free online resources on the Old Testament, Ancient Near East, History of Ancient Israel and Prophet. Click on R. W. Kleins.

Baal and Jesus

The Judean Desert

Here's a reflection I wrote last year for the first Sunday of Lent on the First Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness where I read the text in the background of Baal worship. Click The First Temptation: Bread.

Baal

Ba'al with raised arm, 14th-12th century BC,
found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), Louvre
Photograb: wikipedia

This article presents Baal in the Ugaritic texts which would give us a good background to understand the Baal polemics in Hosea 2. Click on this "Baalism in Canaanite Religion andIts Relation to Selected Old Testament Texts" Greg Herrick Th.M., Ph.D.

Assyrian Dominance (745-640 B.C.)

Tiglath-Pileser III — stela from the walls of his palace
(British Museum, London)

Photograb: wikipedia

This article relates the rise of the Assyrian Empire, its military campaigns that led to the fall of the Northern Kingdom. Read the article to give you a background of the politics and power struggles in the Eighth Century B.C. The northern prophets Amos and Hosea and the southern prophets Isaiah and Micah exercised their prophetic ministry in this period.

Click on this to go to the article: Assyrian Dominance (745 BC-640 BC) by Dennis Bratcher.

Jerusalem

"We are people of the Book," says the late Prof. Ezri Uval in a fitting setting,
he library of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem.
By "we" he means Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
A teacher at Hebrew Union College and Hebrew University,
he also teaches Hebrew language and culture to Biblicum students.
Prof. Ezri Uval died in 1999

Please click on this for my reflection on my stay in Jerusalem in1996-1997. Note the centrality of Zion (see Isaiah 2:3) as we discussed in class.

Hosea

To supplement the limited hours of class lecture on Hosea, please visit the following online introductory materials:

1. Powerpoint presentation by Professor Ralph W. Klein of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Please click on HOSEA (lecture 2005)

2. Hosea by Barry L. Bandstra

3. What Should I Read on Hosea? by James T. Dennison, Jr. (1997).