Ken Baker: Wisdom Christian College Student Forum

Next week’s test will carry 40% of the total module mark, so please make careful preparation. We will be working from the MT of Exodus 3: 1-22 and you will be expected to translate, and make grammatical, textual, and exegetical comments. Please email any queries ( and no, you are not permitted to bring Bibles into class!). 

Here’s some of the material from last week’s class to aid your preparation:

Exodus 3 9-22: Hebrew to English

Commentary notes on Exodus 3 

Remember: your exegesis should include grammatical points, any textual issues relating to the passage and word meanings where appropriate, as well as straightforward exegetical notes.

And don’t panic: it’s only 45 minutes. Enjoy!

A recent photo of dr-baker-in-his-study.jpg reminded me of the usefulness of internet research.

Here’s a few pointers.

Important websites (”meta-sites”) See the relevant links for Biblical Studies on the useful links pages. A particularly useful site for New Testament work is the New Testament Gateway. For Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, the iTankakh site, Ralph Klein’s OT Studies site, and the OT Gateway are particularly useful. Also helpful is The Text This Week (especially its Scripture Index). New Testament: Barry Smith’s textbook-like course pages You may find Barry Smith’s introductory course pages helpful; they are almost at a point where they would qualify as a substitute for an introductory textbook for NT studies. Old Testament / Hebrew Bible: Barry Bandstra’s textbook As pointed out in the module syllabus booklet, you may find Bandstra’s introductory textbook helpful: Bandstra’s website, which reproduces this book (Bandstra, B 1999. Reading the Old Testament. Rev. ed. Belmont: Wadsworth) is freely available at: http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/RTOT/RTOT.HTM Old Testament / Hebrew Bible Introduction There is a useful online ‘Introdution to the Old Testament course up with text / video / audio at the ‘Open Yale Courses’ website: http://open.yale.edu/courses/religious_studies/introduction-to-the-old-testament-hebrew-bible/home.html. It’s designed for a US-American college audience, so it’s pretty simple. Worthwhile listening to. You can get the 24 classes as text (transcript), audio (MP3), or various video file types. They are all free to download. Theology Today (journal) It is worth noting that this journal is accessible online; all but the most recent issues may be viewed at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu. Relevant to OT studies are, for example:

• Bird, P 1993. ‘Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh’. Theology Today 50:521-534. Online version at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1994/v50-4-article2.htm (accessed Feb. 20, 2002). - An article on the problem of reading creation ‘models’ in Gen 1 and Ps 8.
• Fredriksen, P 1995. What You See Is What You Get: Context and Content in Current Research on the Historical Jesus. Theology Today 52(1), 75-97. http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1995/v52-1-article6.htm
• Welker, M 1991. What is Creation? Re-reading Genesis 1 & 2. Theology Today 48:56-71. Online version at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1991/v48-1-article1.htm (accessed Feb. 20, 2002). - A theological appropriation of the classical creation texts.

Biblica (journal) Similarly, the journal Biblica is available online, though limited to issues from the past five or six years. Of interest may be an essay like:

• Bennema, C 2005. The Sword of the Messiah and the Concept of Liberation in the Fourth Gospel. Biblica 86(1), 35-58. www.bsw.org/?l=7186
• Spieckermann, H 2000. God’s Steadfast Love: Towards a New Conception of Old Testament Theology. Biblica 81:305-327. Online version at http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/bibl81/Comm06m.html (accessed Feb. 2, 2002).

Bulletin for Biblical Research Now online apart from the most recent volumes, at www.ibr-bbr.org/IBRBulletin/IBR_BBR_ByYearList.aspx. The server is often a little slow, but it’s worth persevering with.Religion Online See also many useful texts at this large site offering online versions of high-quality texts. For example:

• Knight, D A 1982. Old Testament Ethics. Christian Century Jan. 20, 55. Online version at www.religion-online.org (accessed July 27, 2002).
• Waetjen, H C 1998. The Origin of Jesus Christ: Matthew 1:1-25. Christian Century (May 20-27, 1998), 524-531. www.religion-online.org

Welcome to the Wisdom group. Here is a link to the schedule, (subject to approval) wisdom-maf.doc so that you can check the session titles. Today we looked at the powerpoint introduction-to-the-course.ppt and checked out the coursebook. Follow the hyperlinks to ourchase your copy from http://abebooks.co.uk or http://amazon.co.uk as you wish. Jean-Baptiste’s copy arrived the day after ordering, so I expect everyone kitted out by the next session.

As mentioned in class, the first task is to post on your blog TWENTY books on the Wisdom Tradition that you have discovered on the net. Free (funsize) Mars Bar to the first post.

Here’s some material to whet your appetite for remainder of the course:lecture-1-sermon.doc is a slightly devotional  approach to the subject; 1-what-is-wisdom.ppt is slightly more explanatory;  and, finally, an introduction to Proverbslecture-2-prov-intro.doc . Please read this material and post it on your own blogs under a Wisdom category if you wish

Now that the next semester is looming (!) and the holidays all but gone, I present a short book list for those intending to take the courses I am offering in February.

1. PENTATEUCH

This is a first year course: an over-all sketch study of the first five books of the Bible. The textbook is    Introduction to the Pentateuch by Roger Whybray which you can purchase quite cheaply at http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=whybray&bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&sortby=3&sts=t&tn=pentateuch&x=32&y=3. Check elsewhere on the site for further details of the Pentateuch course.

2. INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

This is another 1st year course, comprising a brief survey of the major emphases of Christian theology. The textbook is Introduction to Christian Doctrine by Millard Erickson and can be purchased at http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=millard&sortby=3&sts=t&tn=doctrine&x=0&y=0

3. REFORMATION HISTORY AND THEOLOGY

This is a 3rd year module, with a strong emphasis on the theology and church praxis of Calvin. It should be of particular interest to those who have studied PURITANISM. The textbook is Timothy George’s  Theology of the reformers  and this can be purchased at  http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=952827979&searchurl=an%3Dgeorge%26bi%3D0%26bx%3Doff%26ds%3D30%26sortby%3D3%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3Dreformers%26x%3D62%26y%3D11

4. WISDOM LITERATURE

This module covers a sometimes neglected area of OT research study. We will provide an overview of the major Biblical Wisdom books: Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, together with a selection of Psalms and some extra-Biblical texts in the Apocrypha and other ancient writings. The text-book is  William Brown, Character in crisis: A Fresh Approach to Wisdom Literature  which can be purchased quite cheaply at  http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=brown&bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&sortby=3&sts=t&tn=character+in+crisis&x=46&y=9

5. OT TEXTS: HABAKKUK

This is a more advanced option. We will be attempting a detailed exegesis of the entire text. Though we will be using an English translation, it will be helpful if you have done at least one module of elementary Hebrew. One of the best recent commentaries (in my opinion) is Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (New American Commentary) by Kenneth L. Barker and Waylon Bailey (Hardcover - Oct 1998). Click on the link for the Amazon option.

Here’s this week’s lecture on mission-in-the-pentateuch.ppt. Remember: I need to see your precis account of this appearing on your websites ASAP.

A few thoughts from today’s seminar: During the first week of June you must now ready yourself for a ninety minute examination comprised of the following:

10 Short Answers questions (20%)

5 paragraph questions (50 %) on major theological themes., such as:

The character of Moses, the Abrahamic Covenant, sacrifice, priesthood,

law, tabernacle, plagues of Egypt

1 essay question (30%): Examples of essay questions: The Theology of one of the books of the Pentateuch; The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch; The Character of God in the Pentateuch

Bibliography

There are numerous resources for the study of the Pentateuch today. Apart from printed materials, there are a lot of resources in video format, CD’s, DVD’s, and the most accessible are the ones in the internet. As a caution, resources can also be overwhelming. We will try to indicate links that are relevant for our course. For a good online introduction to the Old Testament, click on this site of B. L. BANDSTRA.

For your ongoing study, I suggest the following books:

1) JEAN-LOUIS SKA, Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch (Eisenbrauns, 2006). , A general summary of this book can be found in Jean-Louis Ska, “The Pentateuch”, in The International Bible Commentary, pp. 335-343.

2) A. E.CAMPBELL AND M. O’BRIEN, Sources of the Pentateuch: Texts, Introductions, Annotations (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993).

3) JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP, The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible (AB Reference Library; New York: Doubleday, 1992). For an introduction to this book you can read the review of J.-L. Ska in Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58 (1996), pp. 100-102. A summary of this book is also found in Joseph Blenkinsopp, “Introduction to the Pentateuch,” in The New Interpreters Bible Volume 1, pp. 305-318.

4) ANTHONY R. CERESKO, Introduction to the Old Testament: A Liberation Perspective (revised and expanded edition;
Quezon City: Claretians, 2001).

5) JOHN J. COLLINS, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible with CD-ROM (
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).

6) GORDON WENHAM, Exploring the Old Testament Volume I: The Pentateuch

 (London: SPCK, 2003).

Finally, here are a few links with this week’s seminar material in the Theology of Exodus. We considered exodus-as-drama.ppt. Here are the lecture notes: exodus.doc with a few extra ideas-for-exodus.doc. Hope that helps.

After more than a century of the dominance of this theory in Old Testament studies, today there is no longer a consensus among scholars on the reliability and soundness of the theory.

Some scholars propose to cancel out this theory for good, others continue to defend it, some modify it, while still others suggest alternative models.

To say that there are separate stories that come from J (Yahwist source), E (Elohist source), P (Priestly source), and D (Deuteronomic source) which formed the so-called Pentateuch after the Babylonian exile (around 538-334 BC), as students were taught in the past, should now be stated with extra caution, not taking for granted the present serious criticisms aimed at this theory.

For reader-friendly introduction to this problem, see Jean-Louis Ska, “The Pentateuch”, in The International Bible Commentary, pp. 335-343 (especially p. 340).

 A recent email suggested that I sketch out the territory for the forthcoming Pentateuch examination. So here goes:

Questions on the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the “documentary hypothesis” and the present state of scholarly analysis.

Questions on the character and flavour of each individual book: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

Questions on major themes: such as covenant, sacrifice, priesthood, sin, creation.

Hope that clarifies things a little. I will suggest further areas during the revision seminars mid-May and post additional material here such as the last two posts below.

For invaluable background reading please go to http://www.otgateway.com/pentateuch.htm for a wealth of material. Check out the whole site: it’s a whole library of generously donated resources on the Pentateuch and other OT subjects.

The Issue

The initial answer to the question above is that the Israelites came from Egypt. A group of descendants of Abraham escaped from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. They wandered for forty years through the wilderness; they crossed the Jordan River in the land of Canaan. After a series of wars against the natives of Canaan, they conquered all the Canaanite cities under the leadership of Joshua. The first half of the Book of Joshua recounts the total defeat of Canaan; the second half of the book describes the division of the land among the tribes of Israelites. The book ends with the whole of Israel coming together at Shechem for a covenant renewal ceremony. (more…)

A critical introduction to the first of the five books of the Bible, which we call “Pentateuch” or “Torah” in its Hebrew name, is fundamental to an objective understanding of Christian Revelation and Faith. It is the record of the foundational experiences of our ancestors in the faith (cf. Romans 4:11-12) and the spirituality of a people on its way to the ultimate city (see Exodus 15:17; Hebrews 13:14; John 14:1-10). It is for this reason that such study is offered at the beginning of a three year degree programme.

What does critical introduction imply? The emphasis here is the word “critical” which points to the use of the indespensable method in biblical interpretation, the so-called Historical-Critical Method.

“Historical” means that the main context for interpretation is the place and time in which the text was composed.

“Critical” does not mean looking for mistakes in the Bible. It is reading the text independently of our faith as Christians or the teachings of the Church in order to have an objective and unbiased appreciation and understanding of it.

As stated above, we study the text in a scholarly way in order to assist us to a sincere search for the truth of our faith. The bible that seriously studied could truly become the Sacred Scripture to the students.

The word “introduction” refers to the limit of our course. It is impossible to discuss the Pentateuch in detail. That is for higher studies in the future. What the course offers is an overview of its general structure and content, of issues on the Pentateuch from the point of view of scholars, and a study of selected texts that are not so easy to interpret.