The Israelites forged their identity as a people and sustained their common bonds through interaction and communication with YHWH. This course will examine the testimony of the Old Testament to this relational dynamic between YHWH, the people, and their leaders through the exegesis of representative texts from the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings.

Study of the elements of Old Testament Hebrew, with emphasis on reading comprehension with the aid of a dictionary. The study of grammar and its practical application in reading Old Testament texts.

This course forms the educational component for the study tour of the Holy Land. This course studies the lands which gave birth to the Bible, particularly Israel and Palestine. In addition to Istanbul, the Turkish sites include the cities mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Depending on the political climate, parts of Egypt, Sinai, or Jordan may be added. While the primary focus of the course is the historical and archaeological context for both the Old and New Testaments, the class also visits places held sacred by Christians as well as those revered by Jews and Muslims.

Survey of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Hebrew Bible, introducing the student to their content, the traditions of interpretation and the methods employed in their exegesis. Themes of creating, liberating, and covenanting are emphasized.

Survey of the writings of the prophets in the Old Testament with special attention given to the historical contexts of the biblical prophets and the language, genres, images, and theological content of various prophetic texts. Further consideration of the relevance of the prophetic message in contemporary church and society.

Introduction to the wisdom material of the Old Testament with special attention given to the historical background of the wisdom tradition, and the structure and content of the wisdom books (especially Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth, Sirach and Wisdom), the development of the OT wisdom tradition in later writings including the New Testament, and the relevance of the wisdom tradition to the present.

Study of the backbone of Jewish and Christian prayer for three thousand years. In addition to the exegesis of selected psalms, topics include: the formation of the Psalter, various translations, the spirituality of the psalms, and the use of the psalms in Christian prayer, especially the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours.

The Bible speaks of God from the beginning to the end. This applies to the Hebrew canon as well as the Christian Bible. God, however, is not a “topic” of the Bible. He is the ground that enables the Bible to be written.  Furthermore, the Bible does not speak of God “per se”, but of what God says, how God acts and how God is experienced. The concern of the biblical traditions is always with God in his relationship to the world and to humans and quite especially to Israel. How to grasp the fragility and the resilience of these relations? No one can know what God is really like. People can experience God in different ways, and they bring these experiences to expression. God’s action is experienced by people in a wide range of ways. The texts of the Old Testament speak of this. They bring these experiences to expression in their variety and also in their contradictoriness. So, talk of God in the biblical texts is anything but uniform. The Old Testament could in fact be regarded as an invitation to reimagine our life and our faith as an on-going dialogue in which all parties are variously summoned to risk and change. The course – apart from the study of selected Old Testament passages (Gen 1-3; Deut 32; Job 1-3; 42,1-6) – aims at helping students to learn how to read scholarly works critically.