Winter 2019/Pasadena

OT865

Crouch

OT865: OLD TESTAMENT ETHICS (6 units: 385 hours). Carly L. Crouch.

DESCRIPTION: The course is a PhD seminar on the content of Old Testament ethics, on method in the study of Old Testament ethics, and on issues raised by setting the Old Testament in the context of Christian faith and vice versa. Topics for study may include migration, poverty, race and ethnicity, war, colonialism, gendered violence, family and reproduction, and the environment.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students who pass the course will have demonstrated that they have (1) gained an awareness of the ethical significance of different genres in the Old Testament; (2) attained a familiarity with scholarly approaches to the ethical interpretation of the Old Testament; (3) gained an ability to reason through ethical decisions in keeping with critical methods; (4) become familiar with the work of major scholars writing about ethics and the Old Testament; and (5) reflected on the relationships between the ethics of ancient Israel, Old Testament ethics, and New Testament ethics.

COURSE FORMAT: This class meets once per week for four-hour sessions for a total of 40 hours of classroom instruction for lecture and discussion, including reading of Old Testament texts in Hebrew. Professor Crouch will give presentations at the opening and closing classes. Classes in between will include discussion of the ethical implication of specific books in the Old Testament and student presentations on ethical issues in the Old Testament and on key secondary texts.

REQUIRED READING: 2,200 total pages required.

NRSV, TNIV, or CEB Bible [200 pp. assigned]

Bible software that includes the following components: an exhaustive Hebrew concordance, the text of the Hebrew Bible, Brown, F. with S.R. Driver & C.A. Briggs. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew English Lexicon. Hendrickson, 1996. Gesenius, W., E.F. Kautzsch, et al. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. Dover Publications, 2006. OR Joüon, P. - T. Muraoka. A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Parts 1, 2 & 3. Biblical Institute Press, 2006. Koehler, L. and W. Baumgartner. Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. 2 Volumes. Brill, 2002.

Elliger, K. and W. Rudolph. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Hendrickson, 2006. Compact edition: ISBN: 978-1598561630, Publisher’s price $69.95.

Barton, J. Ethics in Ancient Israel. Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0198785170. Publisher’s price: $27.95. [275 pp.]

Janzen, W. Old Testament Ethics. Westminster John Knox, 1994. ISBN: 978-0664254100. Publisher’s price: $30.00. [215 pp.]

Course reader [1,510 pp.; includes John Barton, M. Daniel Carroll R., Gregory Cuéllar, Herbert Marbury, Ahida Calderón Pilarski, Carol Reeder, Rodney Sadler, Suzanne Scholz, Richard Smith, Gordon Wenham, etc.]

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

2,200 pages of required reading. [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1-5]. [145 hours].
Four 2,000 word (20 minute) presentations to the class (10% each, 40% in total). [This assignment relates to learning outcomes #1-5]. [80 hours]
One 8,000-10,000 / 32-40 page word research paper on an issue in the study of Old Testament ethics, written in light of the assigned reading and the classes (60%). [This assignment relates to learning outcomes #1-5]. [120 hours]

PREREQUISITES: Admission into the ThM or PhD program.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Required course for those who elected the Hermeneutics track within the Old Testament PhD.

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.