DESCRIPTION: This seminar is intended primarily for PhD and ThM students (who will register for both Fall and Winter sections, OT801A and OT801B), and is open to a very limited number of MDiv and MA students (OT588 in Fall only). It is designed to provide an overview of critical methodologies used in scholarly interpretation of the Old Testament. Primary attention will be given to diachronic methods that make appeal to the historical and social location in which texts were produced, investigating questions concerning text, literary sources, genres, tradition history, and redaction. We will also address synchronic approaches to texts as well as reader-oriented approaches. For each method addressed, we will assess briefly its historical development, a classical example of its application, its contributions, and proposals for change in the light of ongoing developments in the field.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this seminar will have demonstrated (1) an understanding of the development, terminology, and fundamental procedures of a variety of critical approaches to Old Testament interpretation; (2) an ability to apply these approaches with appropriate sample texts; and (3) an ability to discern the contributions and limitations of each approach within a versatile, coherent, and honest interpretive method.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: An introduction to methodology is fundamental to all academic work, providing an orientation to the history of one's discipline as well as to the language and problems of its current discourse. Pastoral ministry will be deepened in its appreciation for and critical use of scholarly resources from a sympathetic introduction to the questions that drive scholarship and the methods that have resulted.

COURSE FORMAT: This seminar will meet once a week, for eleven weeks, in three-hour sessions including both presentations and discussions.

REQUIRED READING:

Habel, Norman. Literary Criticism of the Old Testament. Fortress, 1971.

Haynes, Stephen R., and Steven L. McKenzie, eds. To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and their Applications. Rev. ed. Westminster John Knox, 1999.

Knight, Douglas A., et al. Methods of Biblical Interpretation. Abingdon, 2004.

McCarter, P. Kyle, Jr. Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible. Fortress, 1986.

Rast, Walter E. Tradition History and the Old Testament. Fortress, 1972.

Tucker, Gene M. Form Criticism of the Old Testament. Fortress, 1971.

Course reader, emphasizing both classic essays contributing to the development of diachronic models (Wellhausen, Gunkel, von Rad, Noth) and more recent offerings representing synchronic and reader-oriented approaches.

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. Basic Books, 1981.

Gunn, David M., and Danna Nolan Fewell. Narrative in the Hebrew Bible. Oxford, 1993.

Knight, D.A. and G.M. Tucker, eds. The Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters. Scholars Press, 1985.

Ska, Jean-Louis. Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch. Eisenbrauns, 2006.

Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 2nd rev. ed. Fortress, 2001.

[The OT801 course syllabus presented at the first session will specify the assignments to be submitted by CATS students, their weighting, and their distribution across Fall and Winter sections (A/B).]