Syllabus

Course Description: An introduction to the literature, history, religion and society of Ancient Israel.  Our primary access to that data will be through the literature of the Old Testament: its form, content, historical development and interpretation.

Textbooks:

            William R. Millar, Priesthood in Ancient Israel (St. Louis, MO: Chalice
Press, 2001)

            Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York: Harper
Collins, 1997)

            John C. Endres, William R. Millar, John Barclay Burns, eds., Chronicles and
Its Synoptic Parallels in Samuel, Kings, and Related Biblical Texts
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998)           

            Robert R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1980)

            Any translation of the Bible

Course Requirements:

1. Regular preparation for and participating in online discussion group.  Normally that is two postings per week relevant to the assigned reading.  One posting presenting your own thesis sentence for the reading and one posting responding to another’s thesis sentence (20% of final grade).

2. Four response papers as per syllabus (20% each of the final grade.  

Students with documented disabilities who may need accommodation, who have any emergency medical information an instructor should know, or who require special arrangements in the event of evacuation, should meet with the instructor as early as possible, no later than the first week of classes.

Learning Objectives:

1. To write and discuss intelligibly about the documentary hypothesis;

2. To differentiate between and apply insights from literary criticism, historical criticism, and social-science criticism to the interpretation of biblical texts;

3. To be introduced to the biblical histories, legal, prophetic, apocalyptic, and wisdom literature of Ancient Israel. 

Reading Assignments

UNIT ONE: THE HISTORIES: Priests and Kings

            There are two major extended histories in the Hebrew Bible: 1) the Deuteronomistic History which extends from Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings; and 2) the Chronicler’s History which extends from 1 and 2 Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah. A first edition of the Deuteronomistic History is usually dated to about 620 BCE, during the reign of Josiah; and the Chronicler’s History is usually dated after the building of the Second Temple, after 520 BCE, during the Persian period. 

            Our task is to discern the respective theological/philosophical perspective each historian brings to the writing and try to connect that writing to the social group that produced the history.

Primary texts for this unit:

            William R. Millar, Priesthood in Ancient Israel (St. Louis, MO: Chalice
Press, 2001)

            John C. Endres, William R. Millar, John Barclay Burns, eds., Chronicles and
Its Synoptic Parallels in Samuel, Kings, and Related Biblical Texts
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998)           

UNIT ONE: THE HISTORIES: Priests and Kings

UNIT TWO: THE LAW (TORAH)

            The beginning of modern critical study of the Bible began with the proposal of the documentary hypothesis put forward at the end of the nineteenth century by Julius Wellhausen with important revisions such as that proposed by Jultin Noth.  Our task for this unit is to examine that hypothesis and its implication for the interpretation of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).

Primary text for this unit:

            Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York: Harper
Collins, 1997)

UNIT THREE: THE PROPHETS

            Our task in this unit is to examine the role of the prophet in Ancient Israelite Society.  Were there different kinds of prophets and what social groups were shaped by their teachings?  We will be looking at what some scholars have called Ephraimite Prophets and Judean Prophets.  We will also examine briefly the connection between prophecy, apocalyptic and wisdom literature.

Primary text for this unit:

            Robert R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1980)