Description
This course explores the relationship between the emergent Israelite faith in the early Iron Age (pre-monarchic period) and the cultural and literary contexts in which the new nation developed. Readings will focus on the archaic poetry, the earliest narrative sources in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and several major Canaanite texts (in translation). Comparative study will highlight points of both continuity and discontinuity between Canaanite and Hebrew views of the creation, structure, and rule over the cosmos, the place of theophany, the function and background of covenant, the rise of human institutions such as the priesthood and kingship, and the use of liturgy in worship.
Replaced OT23 in new curriculum 2018.