Fall 2016/Pasadena
OT517
Smoak
OT517: OLD TESTAMENT BOOK STUDY: 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 read the book carefully 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.
COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet twice weekly in two-hour sessions for lectures and discussions for a total of 40 hours of in-class instructional time. Students will also use Moodle as a part of the course.
REQUIRED READING: 1,000 pages of reading required.
Balentine, Samuel. Leviticus: Interpretation: A Commentary. Westminster John Knox, 2012. ISBN: 978-0664238803, Pub. Price $30.00 [220 pages].
Balentine, Samuel. The Torah’s Vision of Worship (Overtures to Biblical Theology). Fortress, 1999. ISBN: 978-0800631550, Pub. Price $29.00 [284 pages].
Watts, James W. Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus: From Sacrifice to Scripture. Cambridge
University Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-1107407954, Pub. Price $44.99 [278 pages].
Reading material posted on Moodle [200 pages]. See the following sampling:
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.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Class attendance (0%) [40 hours].
Reading assignments, class participation, and weekly forum posts (20%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1–5] [60 hours].
Two 1000-word reading responses on selected biblical texts (40%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2–4, 6-7] [20 hours].
3000-word exegetical paper (40%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1–7] [40 hours].
PREREQUISITES: BI500 or NE502; OT500 or OT501 or OT502.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Counts as a biblical elective for the 120 MDiv, 80 MAT, and 80 MATM Programs (Fall 2015). Meets the OTBK requirement for the MAT Program (Winter 2010).
FINAL EXAMINATION: None.