Book of Habakkuk

From TheAlmightyGuru
Revision as of 13:37, 19 October 2018 by TheAlmightyGuru (talk | contribs) (→‎Bad)
Jump to: navigation, search

The Book of Habakkuk, often called simply, Habakkuk, is an ancient Jewish writing written in Biblical Hebrew and canonized into the Minor Prophets section of the Nevi'im while Christians place it in their Old Testament. The text is a dialogue between Habakkuk and Jehovah followed by a song of prayer.

Authorship and Dating

The book opens by saying the following oracle was "received" by Habakkuk (1:1), and chapter 3 starts saying the song of prayer is Habakkuk's (3:1). There are no other mentions of Habakkuk in any other contemporary writings, and no descriptions of him of any kind. Of course, that didn't stop Jews and Christians from ascribing all sorts of attributes and motives to him later.

Scholars suggest that the song of prayer is not part of the original work (see Content), which would mean that Habakkuk's name doesn't appear anywhere in the actual text. This causes me to wonder if the dialogue and song of prayer were anonymous works which were later attributed to Habakkuk.

The only historical event that is hinted at in the text is the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians which historians date to 586 BCE. In Jewish tradition, Habakkuk is a prophet, so they must believe the work was written before the events in the text, they suggest circa 600 BCE. To rational people, the book must have been written after the event, so nothing earlier than 586 BCE. No manuscripts

Content

Habakkuk poses two questions to Jehovah, Jehovah ignores the questions and gives semi-related replies. The third chapter is a prayer in song form where Habakkuk remembers the good old days when Jehovah helped the Hebrews slaughter their enemies.

The oldest surviving manuscript of Habakkuk comes from quotes in a commentary found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Interestingly, the third chapter is not included. This, and the fact that the third chapter is a completely different writing style, has caused scholars to question if the third chapter was part of the original work at all. Chapter three is included in the oldest Septuagint, but it is probably written after the commentary. Some scholars argue that the Qumran sect removed the third chapter because it didn't fit their theology, but this seems unlikely to me because chapter three seems like the same sort of stuff found all over the other Jewish books the Qumran kept.

Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted by Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians and again in the Epistle to the Ephesians (which is attributed to Paul, but might not have been written by him) and a third time in the Epistle to the Hebrews which is attributed to Paul, but probably wasn't written by him.

Status

I have several translations of this book from various bibles, and have read the NIV translation.

Review

Good

  • Nothing.

Bad

  • The whole book seems to be pro-authoritarianism. The passages in 1:10 and 1:14 describe it as a bad thing to not have someone ruling over you.
  • The majority of the dialogue is just a list of bad behaviors.
  • Habakkuk's song of prayer in 3:2 doesn't fit with the dialogue. In the dialogue, he complains that Jehovah doesn't intervene to stop all the evil in the world, but he opens his prayer with, "Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord."
  • In 1:9, the Biblical Hebrew word "פָּנִים [paniym]" is used which doesn't have a known meaning. Some translations just leave the word out altogether like the Contemporary English Version, while others have offered up a host of variations:
    • "Their hordes advance," New International Version
    • "their faces shall sup up," King James Version
    • "all their faces forward," English Standard Version
    • "everyone is terrified," Good News Translation

Ugly

  • Habakkuk's first question is, "why do you allow terrible things to happen and not answer our prayers," to which Jehovah responds with, "I'm going to raise up the Chaldeans to do terrible things to everyone." This not only ignores the question, but is a horrific thing to do! Almost in response to Jehovah failing to answer, Habakkuk asks a second question which is essentially the same as the first, "If you can't tolerate wrong, why don't you stop evil people from killing good people?" Jehovah again ignores the question and instead says "you'll just have to be patient, bad things will eventually happen to bad people."
  • Jehovah is quite racist in 1:6 calling all Chaldeans "ruthless and impetuous people."
  • Habakkuk's "prayer" in 3:2-19 is just him bragging about all the people Jehovah has slaughtered.
  • The end of Habakkuk's prayer in chapter 3 is both depressing and gruesome. After describing the glory days when Jehovah was helping the Hebrews slaughtering all their enemies, he points out that Jehovah hasn't done anything for them in ages, and, though they're starving to death, he still loves Jehovah and looks forward to the day when he will come back and help them slaughter once more.

Links

Retrieved from "http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Habakkuk&oldid=15999"