Course Description

In this course, participants will explore the Hebrew Bible using historical critical methods and other tools of Biblical interpretation. Participants will learn the interpretive tool of Midrash (sanctified imagination) and apply Biblical insight to 21st century issues.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze Old Testament texts using interpretive tools such as historical criticism and womanist theology.
• Experiment with sanctified imagination to contrast the written text with what is not recorded but underlies the text.
• Relate Old Testament stories and themes to 21st century Christian experience.

Texts

Required

• Collins, John J. A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Third Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018.
• Gafney, Wilda C. Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Women of the Throne. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018
• A study Bible, preferably in the New Revised Standard Version or the Common English Bible version (Oxford University Press produces the “gold standard” edition of the NRSV study Bible)
• Salkin, Jeffrey K. “The Handmaid’s Tale re-spins Genesis. And that’s scary.” Religion News Service, 4 May, 2017. Web. https://religionnews.com/2017/05/04/handmaidstale-genesis-bible-judaism/18 August 2018

Recommended

• The Jewish Publication Society. Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures The New JPS Translation according to the Traditional Hebrew Text. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1985
• A good Bible dictionary such as the HarperCollins Dictionary of the Bible.