RELIGION 145: Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

Most people have strong opinions about what the Bible says, what it means, and its place in public life, but few have read it. This class will spend the semester reading, and especially discussing, most of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament—henceforth, the Bible—you should call it what you wish!). The Bible is a complex compilation of material, reflecting a millennium of beliefs, desires, and norms from ancient Israel. In this course, we will begin to understand this diversity of material and the various approaches that have been taken toward it in the scholarly world. We will accomplish this by reading a significant portion of the Bible in English along with representative selections from secondary literature. The main focus of the course will be on the historical-critical or contextual approach: namely, on what the Bible meant in its original context.

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