DESCRIPTION: The course focus is the Pentateuch (Genesis--Deuteronomy) and its interpretation in the context of the Church in mission. This means attention to the content of the Pentateuch itself, its historical-cultural context, questions of interpretive method, and questions of contemporary application.

COURSE OBJECTIVES/LEARNING OUTCOMES: The course is designed to help students acquire (1) tools necessary for an ongoing disciplined reading of the Pentateuch; (2) an understanding of and commitment to this reading; (3) an awareness of fundamental issues in the Pentateuch; (4) a sense of the contributions and limitations of various critical methods and of the challenge of reading and application in pre-modern, modern, and post-modern contexts.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: Our ministries both feed off and reveal who we believe God and human beings are, what we believe a good church or a good society might look like, etc. Scripture takes these beliefs to be at best a first approximation: we see through a glass, darkly. The Chilean Segundo Galilea puts it this way: "Knowledge of and conversion to the God of the Gospels is a lifelong task, for everyone. Spirituality is the gradual conversion to the God of Jesus." A disciplined reading of Scripture in the context of ministry is a part of this process of conversion.

COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions for lecture and discussion.

REQUIRED READING:

Briend, Jacques. El Pentateuco. Cuadernos bíblicos 13. Estella (Navarra): Editorial Verbo Divino, 1983.

de Wit, Hans. En la dispersión el texto es patria. San José: Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana. 2002.

Drane, John. Introducción al Antiguo Testamento. Barcelona: CLIE, 2004.

Malbran-Labat, Florence. Gilgamés. Documentos en torno a la Biblia 7. Estella (Navarra): Editorial Verbo Divino, 1983.

Seux, Marie-Joseph. Leyes del Antiguo Oriente. Documentos en torno a la Biblia 15. Estella (Navarra): Editorial Verbo Divino, 1982.

Seux, Marie-Joseph, et al. La creación del mundo y del hombre. Documentos en torno a la Biblia 6. Estella (Navarra): Editorial Verbo Divino, 1987.

Blenkinsopp, Joseph. El Pentateuco. Estella (Navarra): Editorial Verbo Divino, 1999.

Rad, Gerhard von. Teología del Antiguo Testamento, I: Teología de las tradiciones históricas de Israel. Biblioteca de estudios bíblicos 11. Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme, 1969.

1. Reading the Pentateuch and the other required reading (5%).

2. Participation in class discussion (15%).

3. Final exam (40%).

4. One 20-page paper (40%).