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Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Acquire the skills to read and discuss the biblical text with
reasonable ease and comprehension.
2. Distinguish between the assumptions of traditional biblical
interpretation and the methodology and conclusions of modern biblical
criticism.
3. Distinguish between the assumptions and techniques of traditional
biblical exegesis and the theory and methodology of modern biblical
criticism.
4. Describe historical origins and redaction of biblical literature.
5. Distinguish the salient features of various biblical genres such as:
myth, saga, genealogy, legal code, poetry, prophecy.
6. Discern the major literary and religious themes and recount their
dynamic development.
7. Identify the major personalities, events and political geography
of Ancient Israel and become familiar with the unfolding story line
of the biblical narrative.
8. Discuss the biblical text as the classical literature
of an ancient culture, which has helped to shape the development of
the western world.
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1. Introduction to traditional understandings of the hebrew scripture.
2. Modern methods of biblical research.
a. Documentary Theory
b. Comparative near eastern literature
c. The theory of the original matriarchy, the nature of patriarchy
and its literary heritage
d. Midrash and biblical literary style compared with other narrative
styles
e. Contemporary historiographic and hermeneutic criticism
3. The Convenant - tracing its literary presence in the creation story.
a. The flood and Abraham
b. Abraham as ancestor of the Israelite Ishmaelite traditions
4. The Akedah
a. Its literary history, traditional interpretations
b. Its connections to the sacrificial cult
c. Its centrality in the history of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
5. Machpelah - the burial of Sarah and narratives concerning claim to the
land of Canaan.
6. The story of sodom and the code of hospitality.
7. The Jacob Tradition: Tribal history and legend.
8. The Rape of Dinah and the Levitical origins.
9. Judah and Tamar and the beginnings of the Judean Davidic traditions.
10. Joseph and the Northern Israelite traditions.
11. The Exodus Story
a. Testing the historical reality of the story
b. Testing the durability and thematic credibility of the story
c. Miracles, historiography and literary style
d. The nature of prophecy and Yahwist understanding
e. The evolutionary reality of the "Mosaic" traditions
12. The Book of Joshua: the Tribes of Yahweh and the period of the
Conquest/rebellion.
13. The Book of Judges
a. The period of the Settlement
b. Israel facing the external treat of Canaanite and
Philistine domination - Deborah as prophetess and military
leader
c. Israel facing the internal threat of assimilation and
and acculturation - the story of Samson and Delilah
14. The Monarchy:
a. the tradition from Samuel to Saul with emphasis on the literary
characteristics of these figures as they interact
b. the beginnings of prophetic criticism of the monarchy
c. the advent of David, his rise and reign
d. the accession of Solomon
e. the transformation of Israel from and agrarian, egalitarian,
tribal confederation to an urban, military aristocracy
15. The monarchies of David and Solomon.
16. The divided kingdoms and the rise of the literary prophets: (Elijah),
Hosea, Amos and Isaiah through the Assyrain invastion and the
destruction of Israel.
17. The nature and content of prophecy: Yahwist social criticism, the
Yahwist hermeneutic.
18. The Deuteronomists and the reform of Josiah.
19. The Babylonian Exile.
20. Yahwism vs. Zoroastrian dualism.
21. Isaiah and the coming of Cyrus and the Persian conquest.
22. Job.
23. Ezra, Nehemiah and the Restoration and the canonization of the Torah.
24. Yahwist Wisdom literature: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Lamentations and the Song of Solomon.
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READING THE OLD TESTAMENT, Barry L. Bandstra, 2nd Ed., Wadsworth, 1999.
ANCIENT ISRAEL. Ed. Herschel Shanks, 2nd Ed. Revised and expanded,
BAS: 1999.
ATLAS OF BIBLE LANDS by Hammond, revised ed., Hammond, 1990.
THE HEBREW BIBLE: A SOCIO-LITERARY INTRODUCTION by Norman K.
Gottwald Philidelphia: Fortress Press paperback, 2002.
