Summer 2020/Online

OT517

Smoak

OT517: LEVITICUS (ENGLISH BOOK) (4 Units: 160 Hours). Jeremy D. Smoak.

DESCRIPTION: This course is a study of the English text of the book of Leviticus. The course will familiarize students with the book’s overall literary structure, literary development, and the major themes of the book, including worship, sin, sacrifice, and holiness. The course involves reading Leviticus section-by-section and studying in more detail a chapter or two from each section with the aid of commentaries. The course will also examine how postcolonial approaches may aid an understanding of the book’s theology in the context of the Persian period. Development of exegetical skills will arise from a focus upon the literary and theological characteristics of the book. The class will explore the book’s role in the church’s ongoing theological reflection.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Having successfully completed this course, students will have demonstrated that they (1)have readthe bookcarefully and are familiar with its contents and themes;(2) can interpret passages within it in their own right and in their socio-historical, literary, and canonical contexts; (3) have identified central issues in the critical study of it; (4) can articulate its primary theological and ethical concerns; (5) can use English-based tools for interpreting it;(6) can recognize hermeneutical issues arising from the diverse contexts of contemporary readers;and (7) can interpret it faithfully and creatively in the context of their congregation, of the contemporary world and of their own lives.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAMS LEARNING OUTCOMES: Through focused study of a particular biblical book or topic, students acquire deeper mastery of the interpretation of the Bible, taking into account its ancient and contemporary contexts, which is consistent with the SOT PLO “Students will have demonstrated competence in the practice of biblical interpretation for faithful use of Scripture in their own lives and ministries”(MDiv, MAT, MATM).

COURSE FORMAT: This course will be conducted online on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.

REQUIRED READING: 1,000 pages of reading required.

Balentine, Samuel. Leviticus: Interpretation: A Commentary. Louisville: Westminster

John Knox, 2012. [220 pages]. ISBN: 978-0664238803, $30.00.

Balentine, Samuel. The Torah’s Vision of Worship (Overtures to Biblical Theology). Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999. [284 pages]. ISBN: 978-0800631550, $29.00.

Watts, James W. Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus: From Sacrifice to Scripture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. [278 pages]. ISBN: 978-1107407954, $47.99.

Reading material posted in Canvas [200 pages]. See the following sampling:

Rhyder, J. “Space and Memory in the Book of Leviticus,” in Scripture and Social Discourse: Social-Scientific Perspectives on Early Jewish and Christian Writings (eds. T. Klutz, C. Strine, and J.M.Keady; London/New York: T&T Clark, 2018), 83–98.

Brett, M., “Natives and Immigrants in the Social Imagination of the Holiness School,” in Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period (eds. E. Ben Zvi and D. Edelman; London: T & T Clark, 2014), 89–104.

Moore, S.D. and Segovia, F.F., “Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: Beginnings, Trajectories,Intersections,” in Postcolonial Biblical Criticism: Interdisciplinary Intersections (London: T & T Clark, 2014), 1–22.

Eshkenazi, T. “Leviticus,” in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (ed. T.C. Eshkenazi and A.L. Weiss; New York: URJ Press, 2008), selected excerpts.

Schwartz, “B. “The Bearing of Sin in Priestly Literature,” in Pomegranates and Golden Bells (FS Jacob Milgrom; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1995), 3–21.