OT501
McAlpine
OT501: PENTATEUCH. Thomas H. McAlpine.
DESCRIPTION:
- This course focuses on the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy) and its
interpretation in the context of the Church in mission. This focus entails
attention to the content of the Pentateuch itself, to its historical-cultural
context, to questions of interpretive method, and to questions of contemporary
application. The course is designed to help students acquire tools necessary
for an ongoing disciplined reading of the Pentateuch: an understanding of and
commitment to this reading, and awareness of fundamental issues in the
Pentateuch, 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 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 contexts of ministry is part of this
process of conversion.
COURSE FORMAT:
- The course will meet for 2 2-hour sessions weekly for lecture and
discussion.
REQUIRED READING:
- Alter, R. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic
Books, 1981.
- Fowl, S. E. and L. G. Jones. Reading in Communion: Scripture and Ethics
in Christian Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.
- Hayes, J. H. and C. R. Holladay. Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner's
Handbook. Atlanta: John Knox, 1987.
- LaSor, W. S., Hubbard, D. A., and Bush, F. W. Old Testament Survey.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982. [Available also in Spanish as Panorama del
Antiguo Testamento. Nuevo Creación (Eerdmans).]
- McAlpine, T. Syllabus with selected readings. FTS, 1996.
- Pritchard, J. B. The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and
Pictures. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.
RECOMMENDED READING:
- Clines, D. J. A. The Theme of the Pentateuch. JSOTS 10.
Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1978.
- Fewell, D. N. and D. M. Gunn. Gender, Power, & Promise: The Subject
of the Bible's First Story. Nashville: Abingdon, 1993.
- Mann, T. The Book of the Torah. Atlanta: Knox, 1988.
ASSIGNMENTS:
- The assignments for the course include: (1) reading the Pentateuch
and the other required reading; (2) participation in class discussion; (3) a
midterm and a final exam (both combining "objective" and short-essay questions;
and (3) a 20-page exegetical paper.
PREREQUISITES:
- None.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM:
- Meets M.Div. core requirement in Old Testament "a" (OTA).
FINAL EXAMINATION:
- Yes.