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Beginning Lessons for The Bible as Literature
You will visit the Blackboard site to to get each of your lessons. Make sure you follow the timeline and the outline provided there.
Here you will find supplemental information as well as mini-lectures on video clips that will teach you how to read the Bible as literature.
In the first video clip, I will introduce you to the world of Biblical literatuer as well as specific steps too take to complete a close reading of the text.
However, before you view this first video clip, I wanted top point our four main concepts (they may seem like simple concepts to some)
that you wil repeatedly run across in your reading of the Bible.
Concept 1: Time - The stories you will read in the Bible took place a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away. Well, no. Scratch that last part. But they did take place a long time ago.
The Old Testament (or as I prefer: the Original Testament) stories took place some 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. The New Testament contains stories from about 3 to 5 C.E. (2,000 years ago) to 100 CE or more.
Note the use of C.E. instead of A.D.? A.D. is Latin and stands for "in the year of our Lord." So, to remove the sectarian bias without redating the entire claenders (yes, calenders and dates are very influenced by religious ideas),
we have started using C.E. for Common Era instead of A.D. This makes even more sense when we look at the times BEFORE the Common Era; we refer to these times as B.C.E. which stands for Before the Common Era.
B.C. E. replaces B. C. (Before Christ) for the same reasons given above.
Frankly, I don't see the need to replace AD and BC with less sectarian letters. Shall we replace Monday (moon god worship), Teusday (Mar's god of war is Tyw's day), Wednesday (from Norse Supreme god Oden or "Wodn"), etc?
But you will find your textbook and many other historical sources have agreed on this change. This is considered to be goood academic practice and we shall follow it.
Concept 2: The People - When studying the Bible, centain people and tribes are mentioned. It seems important to know a few of commonly missused terms for the biblical people.
Understand that before Israel became a nation, the people were of "Hebrew" descent. Muslim Arabs trace their heritage to this same Hebrew origin. The term Israelite referes to the people of the Bible from the time
of Moses to the time of the Exile of the 6th Century B.C.E. when the 12 tribes were scattered. The term comes from the patriarch Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel after he "contended with God and prevailed." Israel (Jacab) had 12 sons who later became the 12 Tribes of Israel (you can read about the 12 tribes in the last few chapters of Genesis).
Judaism became the main descriptive name for the the faith with 2the only surviving tribe, Judah, came back together. The people of Judah were called Jews.
The term Israeli should not be used when refering to the biblical people; this refers to the modern people of the state of Israel.
Concept 3: The Land - Not all of the land of the Middle East (or of the Ancient Near East, to be more exact) is easy to inhabit. But there is an area that extends from the Egypt to Mesopotamia called the the Fertile Cresent that is desireable.
The term Fertile Crescent refers to the half-moon-shaped inhabitable area of the ancient Near East where civilizations thrived. This general area, in which Israel was located, became a place of much transportation and commerce. And where commerce flowed, so did religious ideas.
Perhaps one of the most significant concepts of the Jewish faith is that God has granted the Land to Abraham and his descendants (Isaac and then Jacob). What land? The land "that I will show you" was Canaan.
This encompasses the the entire area around the Jordan River to the Mediteranian Sea from Lebanon to the North to Egypt to the south. See Map.
Rarely did the Nation of Israel ever occupy to full territory, perhaps under the reign of David's son, Solomon.
The land was also called Palestine by the Romans. This comes from the Philistine peoples who also lived along the coast line of southern Canan. The Philistines were often an enemy of the Israel. The current group of Palestinians often claim equal rights to the land of Canaan.
But it is this Promised Land that is at the heart of many of the biblical stories that we will read. Today, the whole area is sometimes referred to as the "Holy Land" in recognition with its association with many faiths.
Concept 4: The Divine Name - There is little doubt that there has been more confusion and misunderstanding over the name of God than perhaps any other theological question in the name(s) of God. And understandably, in the name is the very character and essense of what God is like.
What is important at this point is not to end the discussion of the Divine Name, but simply to identify the most common names that you will encounter and give you a short explanation.
In the Original Testament, the most common word for God is Elohim. It is translated most commonly as "God." Yet, sometimes the personal name of God is used: YHWH. These four conssonants (called the tetragrammaton) is sometimes translated as Yahweh, which is a good translation, though seldom used. Instead, most English tranlastions translate it as, "the Lord," or better still as, "the LORD," in caps to signify the personal name of God.
Does Yahweh mean, "the Lord"? No. It means somethng like, "I am that I am." But, in Hebrew, the priest would NOT breathe the name of God out of respect, so when they came to the Divine Name in Hebrew (YHWH), they would read "the Lord" instead. That is called a Kethiv Quere, meaning "What is read vs. what is written." So they would see YHWH, but they would say, "Adonay," or Lord out of respect. In later times, the scribes would add "pointing" or vowels to the YHWH and they would use the vowels of "Adonay."
This would make the word look like, "Yahovah," or if we replace the "Y" with a "J" (which is perfectly acceptable) it becomes: Jahovah. But understand that the Hebrews would NEVER say it this way. They would SAY "Adonay," (the "Lord") and they would UNDERSTAND it to be Yahweh.
What does it matter? About the only thing to remember of all this is that Yahweh is the covenant name of God. It was given by God to Moses as a means of letting the people know about who he was. The NAME signifies the COVENANT (or promise) he had with His People. So, when you see "the LORD" in your English
translations, you should know that the covenant name of the God who made a promise to His people is being used. The reader should understand
that the close covenental relationship between this God and His people is being emphasized. (Other names of God will be explained later).
Next: Watch the first video and then do your first assignment in this class. It is a short reading of Genesis 1 - 3. We won't often split up a book like this.
The reason is that we want to empansize an entire book at a time. But there are some introductory points that are made at this point and it makes it easier when we go on to Jonah next.
So, watch the video and then complete the assignment from our Blackboard site. 
A Close Reading of the Text
A "close reading" of the text is important to doing literary analysis. In fact, it is crucial. It means paying especially close attention to what is printed on the page.
It is a much more subtle and complex process than what you might initially think (as today's video lesson will explain). Close reading means not only reading " understanding
the meanings of the text; it involves making yourself aware of all the nuances and connotations of the writing as it was designed and crafted. This includes a work's particular vocabulary,
sentence construction, and imagery, to the themes that are being dealt with, the way in which the story is being told, and the view of the world that it offers.
It involves almost everything from the smallest linguistic items to the largest issues of literary understanding and judgement. It can be daunting. But that is why we will start slowly and build.
Close reading can be seen as four separate areas of focus. The table below illustrates them:
| Linguistic - You pay especially close attention to the surface linguistic elements of the text - that is, to aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Be careful to notice things like figures of speech or other features of style.
Semantic - You take account at a deeper level of what the words mean - that is, what information they yield up, what meanings they denote and connote.
Structural - You note the possible relationships between words within the text - and this might include items from either the linguistic or semantic types of reading.
Comparison - You note the relationship of any elements of the text to things outside it. These might be other pieces of writing by the same author, or other writings of the same type by different writers within the same period.
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Close reading is not a skill which can be developed to a sophisticated extent overnight. It requires a lot of practice in the various linguistic and literary disciplines involved - and it requires that you do a lot of reading. The good news is that most people already possess the skills required.
The four types of reading also represent increasingly complex and sophisticated phases in our reading.
| Linguistic reading is largely descriptive. We are noting what is in the text and naming its parts for possible use in the next stage of reading.
Semantic reading is cognitive. That is, we need to understand what the words are telling us - both at a surface and maybe at an implicit level.
Structural reading is analytic. We must assess, examine, sift, and judge a large number of items from within the text in their relationships to each other.
Comparitive reading is interpretive. We offer judgements on the work in its general relationship to a large body of cultural material outside it.
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One of the first things you need to acquire for serious literary study is a knowledge of the vocabulary, the technical
language, indeed the jargon in which literature is discussed. You need to acquaint yourself with the technical vocabulary of the discipline and then go on to study how its parts work.
Jonah Assignment
After completing the Blackboard assigned readings, you will be ready to start your first full-length book: The Book of Jonah.
It is rich in details and full of literary art. As is usual with Biblical literature, look for repition of phrases and concepts to
help pick out important plot developments.
In today's Video Mini-Lesson, I will help you get started with some basic understanding of the first chapter of Jonah. Oh, I don't unwrap everything for you,
that would ruin the fun. But I wanted to give you a start so you could feel like you were understanding things and off to a good start. A map works wonders when you read through Jonah.
This is an Action Drama unfolding and you should know that "direction" of movement is often direction of emotional and spiritual focus as well.
Jonah Assignment Explained
After you submit your assignment in Blackboard, you will be sent a password via email (makes sure we have your correct email in Blackboard) so you can unlock
the next video mini-lesson on Jonah. My understanding is always growing and the reason for that is many of your insights catch literary clues that I failed to see.
There is always growth when studying literature!
Click on the Video link and you will get a user name and password box. Use your Blackboard login name for the username and use the password that you recieved in the email for your password.
To be continued....
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