The End of Jerusalem

Today Professor Cargill started out talking about the development of literacy and language in culture.  This is especially significant because as scholars, it is the landmark in which we know what concrete things occurred.  In other words, written text concretely demonstrates an occurrence; it provides us with evidence that things actually happened.  In the context of this class, there were letters and blessings that were written down, paralleling rules and prayers in the Hebrew Bible.  Now, this sparks some discussion, because scholars are forced to distinguish chronologically what happened first.  Did the letters come first to reflect the teachings of the Bible? Or did the Bible model what happened in the letters?  I believe that the adoption of writing just sanctified a tradition that was already there.  In other words, I feel that rules and prayers and such were passed through oral tradition before literacy was more common.  In addition, the emergence of literacy called for the rise of the Bible.  Consequently, the popularity of the Book rising causes a decline in the power of kings.

The latter part of the class was spent talking about the Babylonian exile.  During exile, there was complete destruction in Jerusalem and extreme economic devastation.  Professor Cargill emphasizes that there were three Babylonian exiles, the second one being most important.  It happened in 586 BCE, and was marked by the destruction of the Temple, the Exile of the elites, and the people's flight to Egypt.  However, the religious people in Jerusalem were left baffled after the exile, because they refused to believe that their Lord had broken His promise to David.  As said in the Bible, the Lord said that he would dwell in Jerusalem forever, and there shall be a king there forever. However, with the Babylonian exile, this is apparently impossible.  As a result, the people attempted to reconcile his "promise" by twisting the words for redefinition.  For example, in the Bible, during the pre-exile, the Temple was known as God's physical residence.  However, after the exile, scribes changed the words to the Temple was the dwelling place for God's name.  They switched the words in order to ensure that their Lord did not fail to fulfill His promise to them.  This concept, according to Professor Cargill, is cognitive dissonance, the uncomfortability when your beliefs conflict with reality, and you attempt to reconcile for the differences by redefining measures.