7/17/2019 Frigge Chpt 6 p 66-74

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The first part of chapter six covers the topic of the Torah/Pentateuch, the way the books

were shaped into what we have today, and a brief overview of the various stories and laws that

make up the books. Frigge first remind students that the Torah is viewed by both Judaism and

hristianity as the word of !od revealed in the historical events that shaped, not only the

 beginning of creation, but the nation of "srael as well. The chapter covers the idea that the Torah

was an amalgamation of four different, traditional compositions, and further that each of these

traditions was composed in various eras that differed from each other in both time and societal

situations# chapter six is used to briefly relate a concise account of what each of the sources was

aiming to remind the $ebrew people. %ne of the key components that struck me was the idea

that the four sources each revised the books of the Torah in order to serve the purposes that they

felt would be most beneficial to the $ebrew people of their society and age. There is a chart in

hapter six, on page seventy&three, where Frigge gives a succinct overview of the characteristics

that each of the four sources focused on for their editions of the Torah. This idea that each

revision was made to serve a different purpose for each era and place it was edited at, leaves me

with the 'uestion of how much or how little of the original text made it into what we have today(

)nother idea that struck me was when Frigge mentioned that some *iblical scholars believe the

Torah to be at the deepest core of what the %ld Testament truly is, while the rest of the books that

have been included should be viewed as observations and commentary. There are two 'uestions

that this idea raises# is this concept of the Torah being the heart of the %ld Testament true for both those of the Jewish and hristian faiths, and if not, why not( ) final crucial notion that "

found throughout chapter six deals with the theme of the covenants made between !od and his

chosen people# how each of the four sources found it vastly important to remind the people that a

covenant means that they must also live up to their end of the bargain, and when they don+t !od

will allow upheavals to interrupt their lives until they return to honoring their vows. The 'uestion

that arose for me concerning this is simply to ponder why we, as human beings, often need

something dramatic to occur in our lives in order for us to remember the necessity of living up to

the promises that we make, whether those promises be to !od or to others(