Fall 2019  |  CNES 3201 Section 001: The Bible: Context and Interpretation (18988)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Meets With:
CNES 1201 Section 001
JWST 1201 Section 001
JWST 3201 Section 001
RELS 1201 Section 001
RELS 3201 Section 001
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/03/2019 - 12/11/2019
Tue, Thu 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, East Bank
Nicholson Hall 275
Enrollment Status:
Open (15 of 18 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Introduction to the modern academic study of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible in the historical context of literature from ancient Mesopotamia. Read Babylonian Epic of Creation, Epic of Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Genesis, Exodus, Psalms. Stories of creation, law, epic conflict, and conquest. prereq: Knowledge of Hebrew not required
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?CNES3201+Fall2018
Class Description:

The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is a literary collection that modern Jewish and Christian traditions maintain as important, but these collections were initially produced by ancient Israelite scribes who composed and/or compiled the biblical texts at particular time periods in the ancient Near East (or the Levant). One purpose of this course is to get to know the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the world where it originated. To this end, this course will introduce the academic study of biblical texts, which demands critical analysis of the literature and an openness to reading the literature from the perspective of ancient Israelite writers (who lived in a world far different from today). We will attempt to "get behind" the overlay of meanings imposed by modern culture upon the Hebrew Bible and to read it on its own terms. The course will spend considerable time on the literary (and scribal) composition of biblical prose texts.

We will also spend some time on selected topics, where we will ask: What did the ancient Israelites think about x or y (see below). Further, we will explore some texts from ancient Mesopotamia and read them alongside and in dialogue with texts from ancient Israel, to look for similarities and differences and to discuss the ideas found in them and their literary artistry. We will work with the narratives of the creation of the world, the origin of life, and the great flood. We will deal with questions such as: What is the Bible? Who wrote the Bible? Is the biblical literature any different than the literature from the neighboring cultures? How does the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament portray God? How is creation portrayed in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and in the Mesopotamian myths? Why were humans created according to the different stories? How is history being told in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament? What does the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament say about sex and gender, purity, death and afterlife?

Our main goal is to attempt to understand the biblical texts the way the first readers of these texts might have understood them, but we will also address some re-interpretations in Jewish or Christian traditions. In other words, we will take a look at how some biblical texts and motives have been understood and used later, even today.

You will learn how to read texts closely, to think critically about the meaning of a text, and to differentiate between what the texts say and what later times have understood the texts to say.

This course fulfills the Liberal Education Requirement of Literature in that the course examines the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as ancient literature, asking questions about its language and meaning in its social and historical contexts.

Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/18988/1199
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
14 August 2019

ClassInfo Links - Fall 2019 Classical and Near Eastern Std Classes

To link directly to this ClassInfo page from your website or to save it as a bookmark, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=CNES&catalog_nbr=3201&term=1199
To see a URL-only list for use in the Faculty Center URL fields, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=CNES&catalog_nbr=3201&term=1199&url=1
To see this page output as XML, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=CNES&catalog_nbr=3201&term=1199&xml=1
To see this page output as JSON, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=CNES&catalog_nbr=3201&term=1199&json=1
To see this page output as CSV, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=CNES&catalog_nbr=3201&term=1199&csv=1
Schedule Viewer
8 am
9 am
10 am
11 am
12 pm
1 pm
2 pm
3 pm
4 pm
5 pm
6 pm
7 pm
8 pm
9 pm
10 pm
s
m
t
w
t
f
s
?
Class Title