Plan de orientación y mentoría para el grupo de estudiantes

The Old Testament writers like every other author had their interests and intentions. Their major interest and intention from most indications is theological; to show Yahweh as the ultimate initiator, and preserver of man in his socio-cultural, political, economic and religious environment. The Old Testament contains elements of history, literature and more so theology. The Pentateuch is also known as the Torah (law), which implies ‘teaching’, or

“instruction”, or ‘guidance’. It is a coinage of both late Latin Pentateuchs and Greek Pentatenkh’os which etymologically means ‘implement’ or ‘vessel’, and later ‘scrolls’ or ‘rolls’; hence the naming of the first five books of the Bible a coinage from Penta (‘Five’ scrolls, case, or volume) and Teuchos (vessel or container).

The rest of the scriptural texts are a continued expansion and explanation of the basic truth the Pentateuch theology. The books that comprise the Pentateuch are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is however, literary incoherent to tag the Pentateuch as just Torah (ה ָר ֹת) since most texts are poetic and narrative in style. For instance, the Book of Genesis where we have the Jacobean narratives, where there is no atom of law or commandment. So it is safer to see them as ‘scrolls’. The narratives contained are presented in various literary forms and styles to offer the reader the freedom to judge the rightness of the acts displayed by every character without a direct

command. Therefore to see the change of name in Genesis 32 as a command to change ones name does not capture the intention in its entirety.

The authors and editors of the Pentateuch seem to be all out to show how Yahweh out of nothing created the universe and out of his own volition chose Israel as a people through Abraham to restore back man after the fall. The writers are most often careful and meticulous in passing judgement. They most often state the points, set the stage and allow the reader the aspect of judging the rightness or wrongness of the act. This is obvious from the fall of man where despite their sin, Yahweh made animal skin cover for Adam and Eve instead of their self-made cover with leaves. It is also clear that of all the negative character treats demonstrated by the character of Jacob there was no direct condemnation, rather the mercy of Yahweh is seen radiating around him.

Harison (1992) said, “A careful study of the book of Genesis shows that over the centuries before Genesis was written various theological points of view were applied to the material, adapting it to meet the needs of the people of different generations and centuries” (p.1). He went ahead to observe that even those who deny the existence of God cannot deny that the Old Testament is all about God. This God was encountered by all the patriarchs as recorded in the Pentateuch which give a strong theological base for the significance of Jacobean aetiological narrative in Genesis 32.

It is clear that the Old Testament compilers and editors did their best to share some experiences of life which convinced them that God was a living reality. They made every effort to pass on to others their personal convictions.

They took time to express their individual and national response to divine activities and the socio-religious outcome of such interactions to man. Ugwueye (2004) elaborately stated that:

Often we find that strains of theological thoughts are being described as central to the Old Testament because they chime in best with a particular scholar’s own ideas of theological truth. The Bible remains the most authoritative mine of information for every reader to discover the variety of theologies in the Old Testament (p.32).

Though Ugwueye was addressing the issues of Old Testament focal view point, yet the overflow of analysis indicates that Old Testament contains variety of theologies. He concludes by remarking that each biblical Old Testament block of writing speaks for itself giving rise to individual theologies. Jensen (1978) said, “Whenever you have unanswered questions about Old Testament history, such as ‘why?’ rest confidently in the truth that God is Lord of all history, in whose will every event fulfils his perfect purpose” (p.43). Jensen goes on to see the Old Testament as mainly history, but a type of history he called ‘sacred’ or

‘redemptive’ history.

The Old Testament writers were mainly concerned with showing that all things come from and are sustained by the one Creator (Yahweh). Living stone (1979) said, “Though there are striking similarities between other ancient writings and the biblical stories of creation, of the fall of man, and of the flood, the biblical interest is the origin of the universe and basically theological”

(p.27). In the same vein, while trying to show that the Old Testament records were meant to interpret the vicissitude of Israel’s life in terms of divine purpose, to describe important socio-religious and cultural developments for theological lessons, Okwueze (2008) said, “Thus naturally, the writers of the Old Testament did not pay attention to historical events in their life that did not posses any vital religious significance’ (p.2).

The Pentateuch and Genesis 32 are not just literary piece but a deliberate aetiological attempt to explain the identity of Israel in culture, religion, location, and even economy which are carefully weaved together with theological stitches. For example, they tried to show that the patriarchs had names from Abraham to Jacob directly from the mouth of Yahweh including the name

‘Israel’ as God’s own people eponymous of the protagonist of Jacobean narratives in Genesis 32. Names of places like Bethel are also through this legendary but aetiological Jacobean narrative identified with divine influence.

Ralph (2003) said, “The story Israel’s ancient ancestors recounted in Genesis chapters 12 through 50 have the characteristics of legends. They contain the

series of betrothal and hospitality, of the origin of family tribes, but more importantly, God is revealed in these stories” (p.2).